How to Choose a Yoga Mat

The short answer

Choose on sweat first, knees second, length third, and weight last. Sweat decides the material, because only natural rubber, polyurethane and cork keep working when your palms are wet. Knees decide the thickness. Height decides the length. Weight only matters if the mat leaves the house.

If you want to skip the thinking entirely: a 6 mm PVC mat such as the Gaiam Premium is the right first mat for most people in most rooms, and you will learn more from three months on it than from three weeks of research. The beginner roundup is the shortlist version of this page.

1. How much do you sweat?

This is the first question because it is the only one where getting it wrong makes the mat unusable rather than merely imperfect. A mat that goes slick under wet palms will send your hands sliding forward in downward dog, and no amount of technique fixes it.

Three honest answers, and what each one points at:

• Barely, and the room is cool. Any mat material works. Buy on thickness and price. PVC and TPE are both fine.
• Noticeably, in a normal room. You want natural rubber or cork. Both grip damp skin; smooth PVC does not. Cork versus rubber settles which.
• Heavily, or the class is heated. You want a polyurethane top layer, or any mat plus a skidless towel. This is the one case where the cheap accessory genuinely competes with the expensive mat — see the hot yoga roundup.

A warning about a very common disappointment: dense premium PVC mats are slippery when new, for one to three weeks, and this surprises people who just spent real money. That is break-in, not a fault, but it is worth knowing before rather than after.

2. How do your knees feel?

Thickness is a trade, not an upgrade. More padding is kinder to knees, shins and elbows, and it makes standing balances harder because the surface moves under your foot. The band you want depends on which of those two you notice more.

Two things that matter more than the number itself. First, density beats thickness: a dense 6 mm mat is more comfortable to kneel on than a soft 10 mm one, because the soft one keeps compressing until your kneecap reaches the floor anyway. Second, a knee pad solves kneeling without costing you stability, which is frequently the smarter purchase. Both arguments are expanded in the thickness guide.

Your floor is part of this question. Carpet does some of the cushioning for you, so a thinner mat is fine and a thick one gets unstable — carpet changes the answer. Wood and tile do none of it, which is why hard floors have their own picks.

3. How tall are you?

The standard mat is 68 inches long and 24 inches wide, and it was not chosen for you. If you are much above average height, your heels hang off the end in savasana and your hands run off the top in a long downward dog. The fix is a 71, 72, 80 or 85 inch mat, and the number of mats offering those lengths is small.

Width is the quieter problem. 24 inches is tight for broad shoulders and for wide-stance standing poses, and 26 to 28 inch mats exist for exactly that. The cost is a fatter roll to store and carry. The size guide lists which models come long and wide, because this is the one specification you cannot work around with technique.

4. Do you carry it?

Answer this last, because it only overrides the others if the answer is yes. A mat that stays in one room can be as heavy as you like, and weight is actively useful there: heavy mats lie flat immediately and do not creep on smooth floors.

A mat that goes to a studio twice a week is a different object. Dense 6 mm mats are heavy, and the gap between a heavy mat and a light one is the gap between going and not going. That is the entire reasoning behind the PRO versus PROlite decision, and for a mat that folds into a suitcase you want a dedicated travel mat rather than a compromise on your main one.