Myprotein black yoga mat
- Thickness: 6mm
- Size: 183cm x 61cm
- Material: High density foam
- Why we love it
- Non-slip
- Easy to grip
- Bouncy
- Take note
- Only available in black
As someone who is relatively new to stretching, I am the first to admit that I can get distracted easily. Therefore, it’s important for me to have a yoga mat that doesn’t annoy me or give me something else to think about.
When I’m doing a downward dog, I don’t want to see wrinkles where the mat has moved out of its position on the floor. In child’s pose, I don’t feel relaxed if I can see the corners of my mat peeling upwards and looking untidy. And on the few occasions when I psyche myself up to do a headstand, I want to put my head onto the floor without worrying how much cushioning the mat offers. As soon as I got this out of the box, my key questions were how much support it offered and how it felt under my toes.
The support
As I unrolled the mat onto my floor and stepped onto it, I felt it was sturdier and thicker than other mats that I’d used previously – it sunk down onto the floor and stayed in place.
From the first use to the 15th use, the weight of this mat meant there was no rolling of corners or unsightly wrinkling. With a grooved design on the base, it didn’t move a millimetre from when I laid it down to when I picked it up. Even when I did a faster vinyasa flow and changed poses quite quickly, the mat stayed in place effortlessly. In the past, I’ve had mats that have squeaked or made funny suction sounds while I changed poses but this was silent – just the way I like it
The feel
Made from high-density foam, it has a decent softness that rubber or cork mats can’t provide. As I stepped onto it, I could feel my shoulders relaxing and dropping as my body knew it was time to wind down.
While it’s not as grippy as a cork yoga mat, the waved design on the surface provides a stable base. This was useful in both faster-paced flows when I needed to find my balance fast before moving to the next movement, and when doing gentle stretches, as it helped me to feel grounded and connected to the floor. If you’re not careful about cleaning it, the groves do gather dirt and moisture. But the thing that sets it apart from other rubber mats is that you don’t need a separate cleaning spray – I simply wipe it down with my regular multipurpose household cleaner (which smells like pomegranate, so I get a whiff of fruit every time I open it up, which was a great start to my stretching session).