What Size Yoga Strap Do I Need?

The short answer

Buy an eight-foot strap. It is the length that works for the widest range of heights and the widest range of uses, and the extra two feet over a six-foot strap cost almost nothing. If you are under about five foot six and know you only want the strap for seated hamstring work, six feet is tidier and easier to store. If you are over six foot, or you want to use the strap for shoulder work behind the back, ten feet is the length that stops being a compromise.

The mistake worth avoiding is buying six feet because it is the one in the shop. A strap that is too short for a pose does not make the pose harder, it makes it impossible, because you cannot reach the end of it in the first place.

Length by height

Strap length scales with arm span and leg length rather than height exactly, but height is a good enough proxy and it is the number you already know.

Under about five foot four. Six feet is comfortable and will not leave a long tail trailing across the mat. Eight feet still works and the surplus is simply folded.

Five foot four to six foot. Eight feet. This is the bulk of the market and the reason eight feet is the most commonly sold length.

Over six foot. Eight feet works for leg poses and runs short for anything that loops behind the back with both hands. Ten feet if you have a choice.

If you are between two lengths, go longer. Surplus strap is a minor annoyance; a short strap is a prop you stop using.

The three lengths

Width is the other published number and it matters less than people expect. Most straps are around one and a half inches wide, which is wide enough not to dig into a hand or a foot arch. Narrower webbing is harsher under tension and is usually a sign of a cheaper weave.

Length by what you use it for

If you know why you are buying the strap, that is a better guide than your height.

Hamstrings, seated and supine. The most common use by far: loop the strap around a foot and hold both ends. Six feet is enough for most people here, which is why short straps feel adequate right up until you try something else.

Shoulders and chest. Holding the strap wide behind the back, or walking the hands closer over weeks, eats length quickly. This is where six feet runs out first and where eight feet earns its keep.

Bound poses and binds you cannot reach yet. A strap stands in for clasped hands, and it needs enough length to cross the body twice. Eight feet minimum, ten if you are tall.

Holding a pose rather than deepening it. Looping the strap to make a fixed circle — around the feet in a reclined bound angle, say — needs length plus a buckle that holds under load. See the buckle section below, because this is the one use where the hardware decides whether the strap works.

Carrying a mat. A strap will do it, badly. Any length works and none of them works well, because webbing without a cinch slips. A proper sling is the better answer, and it is covered in the strap roundup.

Buckles and loops

There are three hardware styles and they are not interchangeable.

D-ring. Two metal rings. Infinitely adjustable, holds well under steady tension, and genuinely fiddly to thread the first few times. This is the default and the right default.

Cinch or plastic buckle. Faster to adjust and more likely to creep under load. Fine for propping, less good for anything where the loop has to stay exactly where you set it.

Multi-loop stretch strap. A webbing ladder of sewn loops rather than a single band. Not adjustable at all, and excellent for progressive stretching because you simply move a hand or a foot one loop further. A different tool rather than a worse one, and the better buy if physiotherapy-style stretching is what you actually have in mind.

Cotton versus nylon barely matters. Cotton has a softer hand and more grip on skin; nylon is slicker and dries faster. Both are strong enough that the webbing is never the failure point.