From the category archives:

product review

Manduka eQua Towel Provides Amazing Non-slip Yoga Surface

March 19, 2010

I ran three miles on the treadmill this morning and then jumped on the yoga mat for some oh so nice cool down poses. Usually when I run I sweat buckets, then by the time I unroll my yoga mat I’m dripping puddles on my mat and slipping around like an ice skater. It’s kind of gross…and dangerous at times. Not so today, though. While I really do like my Black Mat, the truth is when I start sweating a lot it gets a bit slippery. Maybe I just haven’t worn it in well enough yet. Anyhow, I think I’ve finally found the perfect combination.

After reading the reviews about the Yogitoes Skidless Premium Mat and the Manduka eQua Towel, I decided to give the eQua Towel a try (I bought the long towel). Although I’m still trying to avoid making unnecessary, life-complicating purchases, I decided that investment in a new yoga towel might slip into an exception to the rule somehow, especially since I’ve been getting tired of feeling my hands and feet sliding out from underneath me while I’m bent over backwards in wheel pose. Let me just say that in the few days I’ve practiced on it I’m extremely impressed with the new-found non-slip surface the eQua Towel provides when the sweat really gets dripping. I practiced wheel pose the other day without a hint of slippage. The towel doesn’t slip, your hands don’t slip, everything stays where it’s supposed to. It’s awesome! Just that little extra reassurance that my hands felt on the towel made a huge difference in how I practiced the pose.

While the Yogitoes Skidless may be a great towel as well, I can certainly vouch for the eQua Towel as a great addition to your yoga practice. Drop any questions you have about the towel in the comments and I’ll answer whatever I can based on my experience.

Namaste!

Tagged as: equa yoga towel, manduka, review, yoga mat, yogitoes

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Ashtanga Yoga First Series by David Swenson

June 29, 2009

I happily surfed my way into David Swenson’s Ashtanga Yoga First Series video on YouTube the other day. The whole thing! I enjoy reading and practicing with Swenson’s Ashtanga Yoga book, — it’s one of my favorite yoga books of all time — but have never had a chance to preview his yoga videos.

I haven’t watched the entire film yet, but so far I have a very favorable impression of both the video and Swenson as an instructor. That’s pretty much what I expected based on his book. Nothing flashy, but Swenson is very easy to listen to and his knowledge and wisdom of yoga seems to just kind float out of his mouth in a humble, yet authoritative way.

If you enjoy this first clip of instruction on breathing and bandhas, check out the rest of the video here in one convenient location.

Tagged as: ashtanga, david swenson, first series, product review, video, yoga

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Yoga Journal: My Secret Guilty Pleasure

June 21, 2009

Yoga Journal is my secret guilty pleasure of sorts. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the high school locker room dude in me, but I still get uptight about people knowing that I read and enjoy a magazine that 1) is about yoga (which is still weird to a lot of people I hang out with), 2) caters heavily to women, and 3) regularly has a pink or purple cover. Much less for reason 1 than reasons 2 and 3, I read YJ at home and take Runner’s World to work just to keep up pretenses….

But behind closed doors, YJ and I have been tight for almost eight years now. Up until last year when I decided to declutter my office, I had every issue since 2001. Last year, at the prompting of my lovely wife, I went back through every single page of every issue and cut out all the articles I wanted to keep and organized them in a binder. Definitely a good project, but tearing out pages of an old friend was both disturbing and painful. I couldn’t say how many editor’s and redesigns we’ve been through, but I can say that I’ve pretty much read every article in the last eight years, and plan on reading every article for the next eight.

Even though YJ and I have basically been together as long as I’ve been married, I’ve never really cheated on her I guess you could say with any other yoga magazines. Unlike in my actual marriage where there’s a “don’t look, don’t touch” policy, I have on occasion looked and briefly touched other yoga publications on the racks at Barnes and Noble. I have never, however, walked out of the store with a copy in my hand. That would surely be cheating. It’s never really been a temptation until the other day when I was meandering through one of the PX’s (Post Exchange for the non-military oriented) at the base I live at in Iraq (yes, I am now living in hell, or at least it feels that way sometimes:) and was shocked to see copies of both Fit Yoga and Yoga + Joyful Living nestled in between your standard Muscle & Fitness type magazines that you’d expect to find on a military base. Now, my question is, if I were to cheat, which one should I pick?

Tagged as: product review, yoga, yoga journal

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Sticky Yoga Mats Avoid Sticky Recession

May 28, 2009

Although lots of people have cut back on luxury item purchases recently, apparently luxury yoga mat sales have never been stronger. A Time magazine article reports that Manduka, the undisputed Porsche/Ferrari/Cadillac/[insert your favorite luxury car] of yoga mats, has seen its sales rise 55% in the first quarter of 2009. A slightly odd trend when apparently moola is in short supply.

So, how do you explain the numbers? One smart sounding marketing professor explained, “With hedonic consumption, at some point you’re going to feel quite a bit of guilt,” but “[i]f the luxury item has some kind of functional value, you’re not going to feel that guilt.” I certainly can’t disagree with that assessment, especially when yoga makes you feel so good. I also think the rise in sales simply has to do with the ever-growing number of people trying out yoga, wearing out their first yoga mat, and then deciding to upgrade. Honestly, is there ever a bad time to buy a yoga mat?

I definitely love my Black Mat Pro (I mean everyone’s buying one so I had to get one too). I just wish it wasn’t so heavy or I would have lugged it out to the lovely desert. Currently I’m searching for anything that resembles a mat, luxury or otherwise. I certainly wouldn’t mind the Manduka Prolite, but I have to draw the luxury line somewhere, so basically I’m considering using an old pink blanket a previous occupant left in my room as a yoga mat. You do what you have to do.