I have written many posts about my bumpy yoga journey. A few have been on yoga mats: Are Yoga Mats Really Necessary?, My New Folding Mat From Hell, and a reposting of someone else’s post: Very Funny Yoga Mat for Sale Ad on Craigslist, but I have never really made a serious investment in a mat. It was just something I needed, and most of the classes I have taken were at a health club that provided the mat. For the rest of the classes, I used my wife’s cheap mat, which she used for Step classes, and a portable folding mat, which I rarely used because it was so thin it killed my knees (see My New Folding Mat from Hell link above.
The owner of the studio where I currently attend classes heard me bitching about the cheap mat I was using and sold me a Manduka eKO Yoga Mat. It’s either 4 or 5 mm, and it’s either $96 or $114, depending on which one I have. I let the owner pick this mat out for me. I didn’t have an opinion on yoga mats, only that I wanted one thicker than 2 mm and sticky. I was tired of all the slippery mats I had been using since I started practicing. This was especially a problem when I sweat.
The Manduka eKO sticky mat was and still is a luxury, and I am happy I made the purchase. What I didn’t expect was how expensive that portion of my practice would become: this absent-minded yogi would forget his mat an alarming number of times — leaving it in the garage and only noticing its absence when I was peddling my bike nearly halfway to the studio.
How can I forget something that is supposed to be strapped to my back? Good question! Perhaps it’s my concentration on the podcasts I listen to, riding to and from the studio. If I drove a car, I would keep it in the back seat or trunk, but I don’t drive, and on days that I didn’t practice yoga, I would ride my bike somewhere else, leaving my mat behind, then failing to remember to put my mat on or in front of my bike where I couldn’t forget it.
Conveniently, my studio always has an extra mat waiting for me when I forget mine, which is way too often. My studio is nice, and I love the teachers, but it nickels-and-dimes me whenever it can: dropping a class too late, setting expiration dates on paid-for yoga class packages, and charging $5 to rent a mat. Considering how often I forget my mat, that last one adds up.
Is there anything I don’t like about my specific math? Not really. I never liked slipping around on the mats I used at the health club where I first learned yoga. The only thing I don’t like about sticky mats is when teachers move the class from a low posture to a Pigeon Preparation posture, I can’t slide my lower leg into position. What’s worse, ever since I joined this studio, none of the teachers have had their classes transition from a higher pose, say, Downward Facing Dog, into Pigeon. I can at least swing my bent leg into position from a higher pose. Instead, most of the time we are in some prone position, so sliding my leg under my torso across the sticky surface is out of the question.
That’s it, that’s the only thing about my sticky Manduka eKO I don’t like. That and shelling out a whole Benji for a mat I keep forgetting. I don’t keep books on my smaller charges, which is good; who knows how many additional Benji’s I’ve forked out because my sticky mat doesn’t stick to this absent-minded fool’s body 24/7.
BURGER SCOOT 
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