Backbends are exhilarating. They stimulate the nervous system, and can promote freer breathing. They are the perfect antidote to a sedentary life. Camel Pose (Ustrasana) is one of yoga’s more challenging backbends.

The Camel Pose (Ustrasana) we know today—as in the above photo—is not the same as it was in its early incarnation. While Camel Pose has been mentioned in yogic texts since as early as the 1700s, it more closely resembled Bow Pose (Dhanurasana) than the Ustrasana we know today. The traditional pose looked much like Dhanurasana, but instead of lifting the thighs off the ground, the thighs stayed grounded, the ankles crossed.

The first description of Camel Pose in its current form was by Sita Devi, author of Easy Yoga Postures for Women, in 1934. Still, the traditional version continued to proliferate in some circles until the 1960s, when the kneeling version became ubiquitous.

One thing most of us can agree on is that Ustrasana in its current form can be intense. That’s why it’s important to prepare the body before attempting to practice it.

Why Practice Camel Pose?

Like all backbends, Ustrasana relieves some of the problems that arise from too much sitting. When we sit habitually for long periods, our glutes lose strength as our hip flexors shorten. Bending forward over a desk or device can cause our shoulders to slump over time, giving way to forward head posture.

Practicing Camel Pose can help reverse all these issues. Here are some of the benefits:

• Stretches the entire front of the body, the ankles, thighs and groins, abdomen, chest and throat
• Lengthens the deep hip flexors (psoas)
• Strengthens back muscles
• Improves posture
• Stimulates the organs of the abdomen

Ustrasana Cautions

As with all yoga asanas, Camel Pose is not for everyone. Here are some contraindications for practicing the pose:

• Neck or low back injury
• High or low blood pressure
• Insomnia
• Migraine
• Second and third trimesters of pregnancy

How to Prepare for Camel Pose

As I mentioned above, preparation is important. Here’s how I suggest preparing for Camel Pose:

• Begin with a few relaxed Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskara) to warm up the body in general.
• Mobilize the thoracic spine. The thoracic spine (the segment of the spine that’s attached to the rib cage) is not capable of backbending. But you can create more mobility in that area by twisting and side bending. Try Talasana (Palm Tree Pose) for side bending. Any twist you choose can be helpful. Try adding some twists to your Sun Salutations. Revolved Lunge Pose (Parvrtta Anjaneyasana) can fit nicely into your Sun Salutations.
• Stretch the quadriceps and hip flexors. You can do this by practicing Lunge Poses (Anjaneyasana), or Half Hero’s Pose (Ardha Virasana).
• Stretch the shoulders and chest. Supported Fish Pose (Salamba Matsyasana) is a great way to ease your chest open to prepare for the pose.
• Dhanurasana (Bow Pose) is the same shape as Camel Pose, but with a different orientation to gravity, so it can be a helpful prep pose as well.

How to Practice Ustrasana

1. Gather your props: a Yoga Mat, two Yoga Blocks and a folded Yoga Blanket. The blocks and blanket are optional, but it’s good to have them handy just in case.
2. If you know that your knees are sensitive to pressure, place your folded blanket on your Yoga Mat. Otherwise, you can skip using the blanket.
3. Come to a kneeling position on your mat or blanket with the tops of your feet on the floor. Place a Yoga Block, at its highest height, on the outside of each foot. Make sure the blocks are on your mat, and not on your blanket if you’re using one.
4. Place your hands on your pelvic rim and press downward. Imagine your tailbone extending down toward the floor. At the same time, lift your chest, lengthening your back.
5. For some people, including myself, allowing the head to completely release back, as in the above photo, can cause dizziness or nausea. Feel free to keep the head more neutral, lengthening both the front and back of your neck. You can also move your chin toward your chest.
6. Without leaning your pelvis back—keep your pelvis over your knees—bend your lumbar spine back and reach for your blocks. Continue lifting your chest.
7. Press into your blocks to lift the chest even more. If this feels pretty easy, you can lower your blocks to their middle height. If this feels easy, you can reach for your heels.
8. Take 5 to 8 deep breaths. Then release the pose and sit on your heels or on one of your blocks, keeping the spine upright.
9. It can be helpful to repeat the pose one or two times more. Backbends often become more easeful with repetition.

Winding Down

You may feel tempted to go right into a forward bend after practicing Camel Pose. But it can be kinder to your back to ease into forward bending. Before forward bending, practice a twist, such as Revolved Belly Pose (Jathara Parivrttanasana). Then practice a few seated forward bends to lengthen out your back body and relax your nervous system.

I first learned Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) when I was studying ballet in grade school. It was one of my sisters’ and my favorite ballet warm-ups. We would sometimes “walk” around the yard in Upward Bow Pose for fun. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but we had a good time.

Later in life, as I began practicing yoga asana, it was fun to revisit Urdhva Dhanurasana as an adult. Due to my loosey-goosey ligaments, shallow hip sockets, bendy spine and the bony structure of my shoulder joints, it felt pretty effortless, and always exhilarating.

While Upward Bow Pose isn’t one of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika’s original poses, the pose, along with yoga’s many other backbends, provides balance for our mostly forward-bended lives. Think about it. Most of the things we do in our lives require that bend over things—keyboards, steering wheels, counter tops, etc. Backbending helps reverse that habit.

Benefits and Contraindications of Upward Bow Pose

In addition to providing a general sense of postural balance, Urdhva Dhanurasana yields many benefits. Here are a few:

• Strengthens the spinal extensors
• Strengthens the shoulders, arms and wrists
• Stretches the chest, shoulder joints, wrists, abdomen and hip flexors
• Increases energy by stimulating the thyroid and pituitary glands
• Increases breath capacity by expanding the chest

Practicing yoga also requires that we listen to our bodies’ needs. No matter how much we might want to practice Urdhva Dhanurasana, there are times when we shouldn’t. Those would include cases of:

• Injuries in the shoulders, neck, elbows, wrists, or spine
• Pregnancy: in the second and third trimesters, it’s best not to practice backbends.
• High blood pressure or heart conditions in general: The stimulating nature of the pose can raise blood pressure or stress the heart.
• Carpal tunnel or wrist tendonitis: The pose requires maximum wrist extension, which may exacerbate existing injuries.
• Glaucoma, detached retina

Urdhva Dhanurasana is Not for Everybody

Beyond the contraindications listed above, Urdhva Dhanurasana may or may not be accessible to your particular skeletal structure. Shoulder joints that are on the more stable side may restrict the ability to straighten your arms. Also, people with a more pronounced convex thoracic curve may find it more challenging to practice backbends.

Paul Grilley says “yoga is in the bones.” It would be worth your while, whether you’re a student or teacher, to check out this page that shows variations in the bones. There are a several photos of differently shaped scapulae and shoulder joints that can explain why some shoulders are more amenable to Urdhva Dhanurasana. The last photo of the scapula group is especially helpful in understanding why some people’s shoulder joints easily raise to vertical or beyond (allowing for the arms to straighten) and others fall short. In the latter case, the elbows will have to bend, making Urdhva Dhanurasana much less fun to practice.

The other thing is: nobody’s thoracic spine is designed to backbend. The thoracic spine can forward bend, rotate and bend laterally, but the way the facet joints come together restricts spinal extension. The spinal extension required for Upward Bow comes from the lumbar spine. And again, all our spines are formed differently. Some lumbar spines bend a lot before the spinous processes make contact with each other. For others, longer, thicker spinous processes will restrict the amount of movement.

How Can You Prepare for Urdhva Dhanurasana?

All that said, it doesn’t hurt to prepare the body for Urdhva Dhanurasana anyway. This is true even if your bony structure will not allow you to practice the classic pose. The prep poses that follow can help make any backbend feel more easeful. Also, the prep poses are great for countering the effects of lots of sitting and all the forward bending we do in our lives.

So, what needs to stretch and mobilize to facilitate Upward Bow?

• Quadriceps and hip flexors
• Wrists
• Abdomen, chest and shoulders

A Sequence for Working Up to Upward Bow Pose

There are lots of yoga poses you can practice that stretch all the necessary areas. Feel free to use this sequence as a guide, or explore designing your own sequence using the same principles.

1. Gather your props: a Yoga Mat, 2 Yoga Blocks.
2. Start in Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana). Move around in the pose to mobilize your various joints.
3. Practicing a few Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskara) will help you mobilize the joints overall. Make sure to include Crescent Lunge Pose (Anjaneyasana). This will begin the process of stretching your quads and hip flexors.
4. Half Hero’s Pose (Ardha Virasana): This is optional. This pose is not agreeable to everyone’s knees. So feel free to skip it and practice another round of Crescent Lunge.
5. Hand Yoga: Any or all of these stretches can help you prepare your wrists.
6. Supported Fish Pose (Salamba Matsyasana): Lying over your Yoga Blocks can help expand your chest, abdomen and shoulders.
7. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana): Bridge Pose stretches the chest, abdomen and hip flexors.
8. Upward Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana): Use the instructions in this link to guide you into the pose. Once I’ve prepared for Urdhva Dhanurasana, I like to practice it at least three times. By the third round, it usually feels much more free. If Urdhva Dhanurasana still feels incompatible with your body structure, practice a few more Bridge Poses.
9. Revolved Belly Pose (Jathara Parivrttanasana): A supine twist is a nice way to begin stretching your back in the opposite direction, one side at a time.
10. Hug both knees in toward your chest and roll around a bit to further release the spine.
11. Head-of-the-Knee Pose (Janu Sirsasana): This is one of the most effective forward bends for stretching the quadratus lumborum.
12. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)
13. Relaxation Pose (Savasana)

Worldwide heat waves are keeping people indoors and even claiming lives. Summer is the season when most of us love to enjoy outdoor activities. But health experts advise people to stay indoors during these days of extreme heat. The problem is, bodies want to move in the summer season. Fortunately, you can create a cooling yoga practice that you can do at home when the outdoors is not feeling hospitable.

Your cooling yoga practice doesn’t have to be just Restorative or Yin styles of yoga. While there are poses that are inherently heating, and those that are inherently cooling, you don’t have to limit your practice to the latter.

A Cooling Yoga Practice Starts with Intention

When I was in India studying with BKS and Geeta Iyengar, Geeta taught an entire class on how to practice asana to stay cool, no matter what poses you practiced. So, it’s not so much which poses you practice; it’s how you practice them that matters.

While it can be helpful to practice poses that are on the cooling side of the spectrum, what Geeta claimed is most important is that you approach your poses with a “cooling attitude.” As I’ve practiced this over the years, I’ve learned that there are several ways we can do this.

Inhabit Your Back Body

Settle back in your body. Quite often, when we practice asana, we’re pushing forward into our front bodies. Thirty-some years ago, I worked with Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten. At the time, they were advocating intentionally settling your core back into the back body. This eases strain in poses and promotes receptivity and free breathing. I’ve also found it to be a way to practice more active poses in a way that generates much less heat.

For example, in standing poses such as Virabhadrasana I and II (Warrior I and II) or Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), settle your organs back so that you feel “neutral” in your torso. Of course, neutral is not so easy to feel. Sensations are much more subtle in a neutral position. But, of course, you can always benefit from tuning into subtlety in your practice. Yoga’s not about extreme sensation; it’s about turning inward and exploring what’s not so obvious. When you’re feeling less sensation in your torso, you’re on the right track.

Find Neutral in Trikonasana for a Cooling Yoga Practice

We’ll explore what neutral feels like in Trikonasana. You might want to place your hand on a Yoga Block and practice with your torso higher than usual. This will give your body more movement options.

1. Stand on a Yoga Mat with your feet wide apart.
2. Place your Yoga Block on its tallest setting on the outside of your right foot.
3. Turn your right foot and leg outward 90 degrees, and turn your left foot, leg and pelvis inward 20 to 30 degrees. Do not try to “square your hips,” no matter how many times you’ve heard this instruction. Here’s why.
4. Extend your arms outward at shoulder level.
5. Ground your left foot and extend your torso out to the right, keeping your chest facing forward.
6. Place your right hand on your block.
7. Now push your back forward into your front body. Tune into your breathing and the general sense of your energy here.
8. Now imagine your organs releasing back into your back body. Notice your breathing and the general sense of your energy. How does this feel different from pushing into your front body? Feel free to switch back and forth several times to clarify any differences.
9. Relax here for 5 to 10 breaths.
10. Ground your left foot to help your torso lift back up to vertical. Turn your feet to parallel, bend your knees slightly and rest in Goddess Pose.
11. Rotate your legs to the left and repeat on the other side.

Chill Your Intention for a Cooling Yoga Practice

While finding neutral in your physical body can be immensely helpful in creating a cooling yoga practice, your intention is equally important. It’s immensely helpful to shift your intention from one of doing to one of being, which is one of the purposes of yoga practice in the first place. An attitude of pushing and striving is inherently heating. An attitude of openness and receptivity is inherently cooling. We can choose how to approach our practice. Here’s a short intention-setting practice.

1. Before you move into your asana practice, sit in a comfortable position—on a folded Yoga Blanket or Meditation Cushion. You can also lie back in Savasana (Relaxation Pose).
2. In either case, begin by imagining your organs settling back into your back body.
3. Set an intention to practice from this posture of settling back.
4. Now set an intention to inhabit your body with awareness throughout your practice. This intention can include a desire to remain open, to simply be in each pose rather than attempting to accomplish a goal.
5. Relax here for 5 to 10 minutes. Then take this sense of openness and awareness into your practice.

What’s great about these two approaches is that you don’t need to restrict your practice to certain cooling poses. You can use them with any pose. Remember that it’s not necessarily what poses we practice, but how we practice them, that determines whether we’re able to balance the excessive heat we’re experiencing this summer.

When I first began practicing yoga, I felt like a star. While I was a pretty fair sprinter and long jumper in high school, my body was simply too floppy for other sports. In yoga, my body was pretty immediately able to do all the “fancy,” flexibility-related poses—a real ego boost. For many years yoga practice geared toward increasing my flexibility was my North Star. Since then, I’ve realized that yoga for hypermobility is really about balancing all that bendiness with stability.

I avoided practicing strengthening poses for decades. They were just too hard. Part of the issue was structural. Hypermobile people’s joints don’t always correctly align. This makes the muscles have to work harder to keep us upright. This is complicated further by the fact that hypermobile people don’t always recruit the proper muscles in order to accomplish particular movements in the most efficient way.

Yoga for Hypermobility: Recruiting the Right Muscles

In her recent book, Yoga for Bendy People, author Libby Hinsley calls bendy people “expert compensators.” She writes, ”One of the superpowers of bendy people is they are expert compensators, meaning they can make movements happen using dysfunctional patterns of muscle recruitment and contraction.”

What this means is that hypermobile people often have trouble locating the correct muscles to accomplish a task. As a result, we tend to develop compensatory habits. Hinsley uses the example of Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana).

For many years, I would suffer hamstring cramps when I practiced Bridge. This is because my glutes, which are the primary hip extenders, weren’t doing their job. Instead, the hamstrings were my primary movers in the pose. While the hamstrings can support the glutes in the pose, taking on the primary responsibility for hip extension is not their forte. Overworking them caused the cramping.

Movement Dysfunction in Fierce Pose

Fierce Pose (Utkatasana aka “Chair Pose”) was another pose I powered through for years, not using my primary support muscles—gluteus maximus and medius. It’s not that my leg muscles weren’t participating; they were on fire. But despite all the effort I was investing in the pose, it still felt somewhat unstable.

In her book on yoga for hypermobility, Hinsley recounts struggles with Chair Pose as well. Suffering with chronic sacroiliac (SI) joint issues and back pain, she worked hard to strengthen her legs. It wasn’t until she began using a Yoga Strap in Utkatasana that she began to be able to practice the pose with much more ease. Pressing out against a Yoga Strap in the pose invites the glutes to the party, making the pose feel so much more stable and easeful. I’ve found it to be a tremendous help in my own practice.

The benefits of practicing Fierce Pose with a Yoga Strap are not limited to hypermobile people. Glute amnesia (aka “Dead Butt Syndrome”) is increasingly common because of our sedentary lifestyles. In glute amnesia, the glute muscles go dormant from lack of use. Utkatasana with a strap is just one of several poses that can help reawaken your glutes.

How to Practice Fierce Pose with a Yoga Strap

1. Gather your props: a Yoga Mat and a Yoga Strap.
2. Make a loop in your Yoga Strap.
3. Stand in Mountain Pose (Tadasana) with your feet hips-width apart. Place the strap around your legs just above your knees. Adjust the width of your loop so that when you press your legs into it your feet remain hips-width apart.
4. Place your hands on your pelvic rim, or place your arms in Garudasana (Eagle Arms), as in the photo. The arm position isn’t super important, because we’re focusing on the glutes and legs here, so do whatever is most comfortable.
5. Tilt your pelvis forward, sending your tailbone back so that your knees begin to bend. Continue this movement until your knees are in a 90- to 120-degree angle.
6. Plant your heels. There’s a tendency to shift weight forward into the balls of the feet in Utkatasana. Rooting your heels can help stabilize the pose.
7. Now press your legs strongly outward into the Yoga Strap. Then tune into your glutes, including your outer glutes. How does your pose feel overall? Does it feel more or less stable?
8. Stay for 5 to 10 deep breaths, then return to Tadasana.
9. Repeat if you like.

Back before COVID-19 upended our lives, many of us took travel for granted. It was just part of what so many of us did in the summer, during holidays, etc. After a year of staying put, we’re antsy to get out and enjoy the bigger world. Maybe you’re planning a road trip. If so, you might be able to get away with bringing all your usual yoga practice essentials. But if you choose to fly somewhere, you need to pack more judiciously. Bulky items take up precious space in our roller bags. All too often, our yoga mat has to stay at home. Enter the Tapas Travel Mat.

What is the Tapas Travel Mat?

Back in the ’90s, some traveling yogis requested that Hugger Mugger Yoga Products design a packable yoga mat for travel. So we got to work on a mat that could fit easily into the average suitcase. Our Travel Mat is a scant 1/16-inch thick. You can roll it up thin and cinch it onto a backpack or fold it to the size of a medium-sized sweater and place it in your bag.

Our Tapas Travel Mats are made from latex-free polymer environmental resin (PER) which has been extracted from biodegradable plant secretions to produce a plastic-like material. It contains no heavy metals or phthalates. Like all our Tapas Yoga Mats, the Travel Mat has a nonskid surface.

In addition to traveling with your travel mat, you can use it in your regular practice. Its nonskid surface keeps your Yoga Practice Rug or Yoga Towel in place for a safer, more secure practice. At just below two pounds, it’s lightweight and easy to transport to the studio and back.

Here are the specs:

• Thickness: 1/16″
• Weight: 1.4 lb.
• Dimensions: 24″ x 68″
• Price: $24.95

Whether you’re off for a yoga workshop, retreat or vacation, or going on a sightseeing tour, it’s nice to have a familiar friend along for the journey. The Tapas Travel Mat is a great companion to share your next adventure, and many more to come!

Here’s a post that outlines three regenerating yoga poses for road trips.

Before the late 1980s, there was no such thing as a yoga mat. The small but dedicated population who practiced yoga cobbled together an array of towels, blankets and foam pads for practice, but mostly we used whatever surface was available. Back then there were very few dedicated yoga studios. We practiced in church basements, YWCAs, gyms and school classrooms—where we had to move desks to clear a space. We practiced on linoleum, vinyl, concrete, wood, carpet—you name it.

It was rustic, to say the least. So when Angela Farmer discovered that the nonskid texture of European carpet underlay provided a safe, consistent surface for practice, we (the yoga community) were all over it. Sara Chambers, founder of Hugger Mugger Yoga Products, began importing these newfangled mats and pretty much everyone in the U.S. who practiced Iyengar-style yoga used them. They took a whole lot of the struggle out of standing poses and Downward Facing Dog in particular.

Because these mats were not really designed for yoga practice, after a few months of use, the spots where you place your feet in standing poses would begin to peel. In 1990, the peeling problem drove Sara to look for a better alternative. She found a USA-based company to develop a nonskid mat that would hold up to years of practice. The Tapas® Original Yoga Mat, the first-ever mat dedicated to yoga practice, was born. We’re proud to say that the same domestic company still makes our Tapas® and Tapas® Ultra Yoga mats.

So Many Yoga Mat Choices …

For a long time, choosing a mat was pretty simple. There were two basic styles, thin and thick, and only a small array of colors. But as the practice population has grown exponentially, so has our commitment to making mats designed to accommodate all kinds of practice and all kinds of people. We now have more than 60 choices!

For some of us our yoga mat becomes a refuge, even a friend, over time. How do you choose a mat that will become a treasured practice companion?

There are several factors that play into determining the perfect yoga mat for any individual: traction, thickness, eco-friendliness, price range and color/design. Here are some things to consider:

Traction

The grippiness of your mat determines how stable you will feel in your yoga practice. For many people, PVC-based mats, such as our Tapas® Original and Tapas® Ultra mats have the strongest sticking power. (If you’re concerned about practicing on PVC, it may be comforting to know that our PVC mats have never contained heavy metals or phthalates.)

When you first unwrap your PVC mat, you may notice that there’s an oily film on its surface that makes it slick. You can easily wash this off with a tiny bit of soap and water or some of our PureMat Mat and Gear Wash.

Your body chemistry can determine how well a mat works for you. People whose hands and feet are dry can use pretty much any mat, but if your hands and feet sweat, we’ve found that the Sattva Jute and Earth Elements mats work well. Placing a Yoga Towel on any of our mats can help absorb perspiration. My personal favorite for maximum stickiness is the Para Rubber Mat.

All our mats, except for the Cotton Yoga Rug, are intended to have nonskid surfaces.

Thickness

Some like it thick; some like it thin. Mat thickness is largely a personal preference, but the kind of yoga you practice can also be a determining factor. If you practice lots of standing and balance poses, you might want to veer toward a thinner mat because you will likely feel more stable and balanced with less padding. However, there’s something to be said for challenging your balance on a thicker mat as well, especially if you’re looking to improve your balance. If you practice more seated and supine poses, a thicker mat will provide more comfort for your bones. Thin mats are generally around 1/8 inch thick, and most thicker mats are 1/4 inch thick. Our Tapas® Travel Mats are super thin at 1/16 inch.

Options:

Thin Mats (1/8 inch or less): Tapas®, Tapas® Travel, Nature Collection, Sattva Jute, Cotton Yoga Rug, Yoga Towel

Thick Mats (more than 1/8 inch): Para Rubber, Para Rubber XL, Tapas® Ultra, Nature Collection Ultra, Earth Elements 5 mm, Gallery Collection Ultra Mat

Extra Cushy Mat: Ultimate Cushion Yoga Mat

Sustainability

Ahimsa (non-harming) is the cornerstone of the whole system of yoga. Because of this, many of us strive to live harmoniously with our Earth. But choosing your yoga mat with sustainability in mind is not quite as cut and dried as you might think.

If the thought of your yoga mat sitting unscathed in a landfill for centuries is not to your liking, you might want to veer away from PVC. All our mats, except for Tapas®, and Tapas® Ultra are made from sustainable materials. However, because these eco-friendly mats are designed to biodegrade, they will not last as long as non-biodegradable material.

If you choose a PVC mat, you probably won’t have to buy another one for a very long time, if at all. In my studio, we still use mats that were among the first batch of Tapas® Mats made in the early 1990s! That said, with proper care all Hugger Mugger mats are tested to be durable and suitable for long-term practice.

Eco-Friendly Options:

Rubber: Para Rubber, Para Rubber XL,

PER: Tapas® Travel, Nature Collection, Nature Collection Ultra, Gallery Collection Ultra

Jute/PER: Sattva Jute

TPE: Earth Elements 5mm

Cotton: Cotton Yoga Rug

PVC: Tapas®, Tapas® Ultra

Price

Most of us want to get the most value for our money. Investing in quality, even though it might cost a bit more at the outset, is always a good policy. It’s true that you can buy cheaper mats at big box stores, but most of these mats are neither sticky nor durable. The adage, “You get what you pay for,” is absolutely true. In the long run, buying a mat that you will be able to practice with for years to come is far more economical—and more sustainable—than going for the cheapest possible mat, struggling with its slickness and continually having to replace it.

Quality has always been our highest priority. Even our least expensive mats, our Tapas® and Tapas® Travel, Gallery Collection and Nature Collection mats, will give you many years of practice time. While the biodegradable mats live shorter lives than the PVC ones, with proper care, they still will last years. If you plan make yoga a part of your life, it’s worth it to invest in a high-quality mat.

$40 and under: Tapas® Original, Tapas® Travel

$41 to $60: Tapas® Original 74 in., Tapas® Original 80 in., Tapas® Ultra, Tapas® Ultra 74 in., Tapas® Ultra 80 in., Nature Collection, Nature Collection Ultra, Gallery Collection Ultra, Sattva Jute, Yoga Towel, Cotton Yoga Rug

Over $60: Para Rubber, Para Rubber XL, Earth Elements 5 mm, Ultimate Cushion Yoga Mat

Color/Design

Practical considerations aside, some of us just love to practice on a mat that looks great. If you spend much time at all practicing sun salutations, you’re going to be looking right at your mat a whole lot of the time. Why not be inspired by the color and design?

We all have our color preferences, and there are many, many solid colors to choose from, some bright and warm, others cool and relaxing. Many people love the look of our striated Para Rubber, Para Rubber XL, Nature Collection, and Nature Collection Ultra mats. We developed these mats in the 1990s, and they’ve been a very popular choice ever since. After receiving requests for printed mats, we developed our Gallery Collection. These beautiful mats feature hand-drawn designs by local Salt Lake City artists. Our designs are specially conceived so as not to interfere with practice, leaving the sticky mat surface exposed where you need the most traction.

Options: Para Rubber, Para Rubber XL, Nature Collection, Nature Collection Ultra, Gallery Collection, Gallery Collection Ultra Mat

Need a Longer Yoga Mat?

For taller yogis, these five mats come in longer lengths:

• Tapas® Original
• Tapas® Ultra
• Earth Elements
• Para Rubber
• Ultimate Cushion

Visit our Yoga Mats page to look at your choices.

Specific Yoga Mat Information

Visit these posts to learn more detailed information about our yoga mats:

• Para Rubber Mat
• Earth Elements Mat
• Sattva Jute Mat
• Tapas® Travel Mat

Hugger Mugger’s Para Rubber Yoga Mats are favorites among committed yogis and teachers. Part of our sustainable line of yoga mats, the Para Rubber Yoga Mat is thick, durable, and exceptionally grippy. This mat will help you take your practice to the next level.

Rubber is sustainable in several ways: it comes from natural rubber trees and it’s very durable and long lasting. Native to South America, rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) are tapped for their latex, the source material for all natural rubber products. While more than half the rubber used in manufacturing today is synthetic—from petroleum sources—Hugger Mugger uses only natural, tree-sourced, Malaysian rubber in our mats.

Our Para Rubber Yoga Mats come in four rich, earthy colors: Storm, River, Alpine, and Lotus. These mats are grippy on both sides, making them extremely stable. And for taller yogis, there’s the Para Rubber Mat XL—at four inches wider and eight inches longer than our standard-sized mat, it will give you plenty of room to stretch.

How Rubber Got its Name

Rubber’s name comes from one of its early uses—as an eraser. When latex first arrived in England in 1770, Joseph Priestley observed that it was great for rubbing pencil marks from paper. In other words, the new material was the perfect rubber. Friction is what makes rubber the ideal material for an eraser. It’s also the quality that makes it a great grippy yoga mat. Plus, rubber is sturdy and flexible, and provides excellent cushioning.

Caring for Your Para Rubber Yoga Mat

Rubber is a sturdy material. Otherwise, we wouldn’t use it for tires. But unlike tires, the Para Rubber Yoga Mat has a cushy feel. Your yoga mat won’t be hitting the road for 50,000 miles, so we use a more flexible rubber that is much more comfy to practice on. The Para Rubber Yoga Mat is 1/4-inch thick, giving it extra cushioning and insulating power.

All rubber mats have a slight, but harmless, odor like the smell of new tires. The smell fades over time, and you can help it along by wiping your mat down with our PureMat Mat & Gear Wash in Lemon Tea Tree or Lavender. Make sure you use a fabric towel or clean cloth—no paper towels. Paper towels will disintegrate when you rub the mat with them and you’ll end up picking little paper towel crumbs off your mat. Plus, fabric towels are reusable.

With proper care your Para Rubber Yoga Mat can support you for many years of yoga practice.

If You Have Latex Allergies

Some people are sensitive to latex. Since all natural rubber products are made from latex, people with latex allergies should not practice on rubber yoga mats. Symptoms of a latex allergy can include mild itching or redness, sneezing or coughing, and in more serious cases, anaphylactic reactions. You can visit Mayo Clinic‘s website for more information.

If you have a latex allergy but are interested in using a sustainable yoga mat, we have lots of great alternatives to rubber. Check out these eco-friendly mats:

PER: Nature Collection, Nature Collection Ultra, Gallery Collection Ultra, Tapas® Travel

Jute/PER: Sattva Jute Mat

Biodegradable TPE: Earth Elements 5mm

Most yoga mats are made to last a very long time. I have Tapas® Original Yoga Mats at my studio that are 20 years old and still in good shape. If you take good care of your yoga mat, you can enjoy a long-term relationship with it.

But what if you want to upgrade? Maybe you’d like to try a different type of mat. Or maybe your mat is still functional, but looking a bit worn. While some mats, such as Earth Elements, will biodegrade in a landfill, most mats won’t. They’re built to last, after all.

The good news is you don’t have to toss your old yoga mat. There are many ways to reuse your yoga mat. Here are a few ideas:

7 Ways to Reuse Your Old Yoga Mat

1. The first nonskid mats that came into wide use in the late 1980s were cut from carpet underlay imported from Europe. Hugger Mugger designed the very first made-for-yoga sticky mats—Tapas® Original Yoga Mats—in 1991 to replicate the carpet underlay’s grippy qualities, but with the added bonus of being much more durable and long lasting. There’s no reason that you can’t reuse your yoga mat to secure your throw rugs. As a cat owner, I regularly come home to throw rugs that have been rearranged during some heavy feline play. Just cut your old yoga mat to fit under your throw rugs and you don’t have to worry about you or your four-leggeds sliding around on them.
2. Speaking of four-legged friends, going to the vet is stressful enough without our friends sliding around in their carriers en route. Cut a sticky mat to fit in the bottom of your companion’s carrier to help them feel more safe and secure as you transport them to the vet. If you don’t have a cat or dog, consider donating your mat to an animal shelter.
3. Yoga mats, especially the thinner ones, make great shelf liners. They keep things from sliding around and can prevent possible chipping of your delicate glassware. Of course, you’ll want to give your mat a good, thorough washing before you put your dishes on them.
4. Cut your old yoga mat into a placemat for your furry friend’s feeding station. The grippy surface will keep your pet’s dishes in place.
5. Yoga mats make great grip pads to open jars. Cut a circle out of your old mat and you’ll still have plenty of mat left to use for something else.
6. Do you live in a drafty house? Cut your yoga mat into strips and wedge it into the cracks at the base of doors and windows.
7. Spread a mat out in the trunk of your car to prevent groceries from sliding around.

What are your favorite ways to reuse your yoga mat?

There was a time when yogis in America practiced on bare floors and bath towels. If you were lucky, your yoga class took place on a hardwood floor, one with a finish that had at least a modicum of friction. Reality was, most of us ended up sliding around on linoleum, wood, concrete or carpet.

Standing poses and Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose) were an exercise in frustration. No matter how much we might have wanted to open our hearts, expand into the light, etc., we were always holding back, trying to keep from ending up in a heap on the floor.

Hugger Mugger to the Rescue

The first nonskid mats were introduced to the Iyengar Yoga world by Angela Farmer in the mid to late ‘80s. These mats were cut from European carpet underlay. They were a godsend to those of us who’d been struggling against slick floors. Before long these unattractive but functional institutional-green mats were in every class and workshop I attended around the country. But because these mats were not made to withstand human body chemistry and lots of movement, their surface began peeling under our hands and feet within a few months.

That’s when Sara Chambers, founder of Hugger Mugger Yoga Products, decided to develop a sturdier, stickier yoga mat. In 1990, she worked with a U.S.-based company to develop the Tapas® Mat, the first-ever nonskid mat designed specifically for yoga. The same U.S. company still makes our Tapas® Original and Tapas® Ultra yoga mats. All the other mats on the market today are based on Sara’s original design for a yoga mat that could provide a stable, sticky surface.

Most yoga mats on the market are made from PVC. On the upside, PVC is incredibly durable. I still have a few Tapas® Original Mats from the first batch Hugger Mugger sold in 1990, and they haven’t peeled or worn through. On the downside, most PVC is a petroleum-based product. Some PVC mats on the market contain toxic heavy metals and phthalates. Hugger Mugger’s Tapas® Mats have never contained these substances.

Eco-friendliness is not simple. The balance for each yogi is to decide whether buying biodegradable, sustainable mats is more or less eco-friendly than buying a mat that you may never have to replace. This, of course, is a question that each of us answers for ourselves. It is why Hugger Mugger continues to offer many options. Sustainable options include mats made from PER (Polymer Environmental Resin), TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer), natural rubber, jute and PER, and a combination of vegetable oil- and petroleum-based PVC.

Any mat will last longer if it is cared for. Depending on what mats are made from, the care can be quite different. Here’s a list of all our mats:

PVC-based mats: Tapas® Original Yoga Mat, Tapas® Ultra Yoga Mat

PER-based mats: Tapas® Travel, Nature Collection, Nature Collection Ultra, Gallery Collection Ultra

Natural rubber mats:  Para Rubber, Para Rubber XL

TPE mats:  Earth Elements 5 mm Mat

Natural fiber mat:  Sattva Jute Yoga Mat

Fabric mats: The Yoga Towel and Cotton Yoga Rug

Here’s a post that details how to choose the best yoga mat for your practice.

Imagine practicing Downward Facing Dog Pose or Warrior II on a mat where your hands and feet are at the very ends of your yoga mat. Or imagine a Savasana where your lower legs and feet are off your mat—and maybe even in someone else’s mat space.

Most yoga mats come in one standard size—24″ by 68″. You don’t have to be all that tall to end up spilling off the ends of a yoga mat that’s less than six feet long. While the standard mat size easily accommodates the majority of yoga practitioners, lots of taller people practice too. Having a longer and/or wider mat helps a taller person maintain an expansive practice, and allows them to define their practice space.

Ever since Hugger Mugger’s beginnings in 1986, we’ve made it a priority to accommodate the diverse body types of people who practice. Even before we developed the Tapas® Mat and Tapas® Ultra Mat in 1990, we custom cut our yoga mats to give taller yogis the space they need. Our Tapas® Mats, developed and manufactured by a U.S. company, have always been available in longer lengths. Since then, we’ve developed four more mats that provide the space taller yogis need for practice.

Yoga Mats for Tall People

Here’s a list of Hugger Mugger yoga mats that fit taller bodies—male and female:

1. Para Rubber XL Yoga Mat: At 78 inches x 28 inches, the Para Rubber XL is our roomiest yoga mat. Made from durable, sustainable, renewable, non-Amazon natural rubber, this mat is super grippy and will support your practice for many years. These mats give plenty of cushioning and are super sturdy. This mat is a favorite among teachers. If you have a latex allergy though, try one of the options below instead.
2. Tapas® Original Yoga Mat: Developed in 1990, these are the first made-for-yoga mats ever produced. These mats are still made by the same U.S. company that originally developed them. The Tapas® Original comes in a standard length, and in addition, is available in two longer lengths: 74 inches and 80 inches. Our Tapas® mats are grippy, long-lasting and have no heavy metals or phthalates. These mats are lightweight and easy to carry from your home to the studio.
3. Tapas® Ultra Yoga Mat: The Tapas® Ultra Mat is 1/4-inch thick to provide extra cushioning. It’s made by the same U.S.-based company as our Tapas® Original Yoga Mats. The Ultra comes in standard, 74-inch and 80-inch lengths. Like the Tapas® Original Mats, the Ultra Yoga Mats are grippy, long-lasting and have no heavy metals or phthalates. Even though they are thicker and more cushy, these mats are very lightweight.
4. Earth Elements Yoga Mat: The Earth Elements Yoga Mat comes in a 72-inch length, giving a bit more space than standard mats. Made from biodegradable, non-toxic TPE (thermoplastic elastomer), these were some of the first sustainable yoga mats ever made. The Earth Elements mats is a cushiony 5mm thick. These mats have a dry-sticky feel and are super lightweight.

2 More Tall-Friendly Yoga Props

Once you’ve found your perfect-sized mat, you may find that some of the standard-sized props don’t quite fit. Here are two more suggestions for props that fit taller yogis:

1. Big Yoga Block: Most yoga blocks are 4 inches x 9-inches x 6 inches. Big Blue Yoga Blocks are 5 inches x 12 inches x 6.75 inches. These blocks are incredibly stable, which is especially noticeable when you use them in their tallest dimension in standing poses.
2. 10-Foot Yoga Strap: For most people the standard 6-foot or 8-foot straps are plenty long. But for taller people, and for certain poses that require partner work, 10-foot straps are way more useful. These straps are made from the same ultra-strong cotton webbing as our other straps. You can choose between a metal D-ring buckle, a plastic Cinch buckle or a Quick-Release buckle.