How to choose a yoga mat

Thickness: start from what you do on the mat

A thin mat keeps your feet close to the floor. That is what you want in a balance pose, where you feel the ground through the sole of your foot and correct before you tip. A thick mat puts foam between the floor and whatever is on it, and that is what you want when the thing on it is your knee, your hip or your spine.

Our mats come in four steps. The table puts each one beside the kind of session it suits and the mats you can get it in.

If you do both kinds of session, decide by the floor. On carpet a 6 or 8 mm TPE mat already sits on a soft base. On tile or concrete, the 10 or 15 mm foam mat makes kneeling bearable, and you can step onto the floor itself for a balance pose.

Width: measure your stance, not your height

Every mat we make is 72 inches long. The width is either 24 inches, the size most people picture, or 32 inches. The difference shows in a wide plank or a side stretch: on 24 inches your hands or elbows end up on the floor beside the mat, on 32 they stay on it.

A wider mat costs you floor space and a bigger roll. Lay a tape measure on the spot where you practice. If you have about 3 feet across to spare, a 32-inch mat fits with room to step off the side.

Material: TPE or NBR foam

Thermoplastic elastomer, or TPE, is a firm foam that springs back quickly. Our TPE mats are textured on both sides, so the underside grips the floor and the top grips your hands. They are the lighter choice: our 24-inch two-tone mat weighs 2.6 lb at 6 mm and 3.1 lb at 8 mm.

Nitrile butadiene rubber foam, or NBR, is softer and comes thicker, 10 or 15 mm in our range. It is the one for floor work. New NBR foam smells of itself, so unroll it and let it air out for 2 to 3 days before you use it, as its product notes say.

Alignment marks: useful when you practice alone

Two of our 32-inch mats have lines printed on top: one with alignment marks and one with a mandala in the middle. They give your hands and feet the same place to land every time, which helps most when no teacher is there to correct you.

Before your first session

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the NIH, describes yoga as generally safe for healthy people when it is done properly with a qualified instructor. Injuries still happen, most often sprains and strains of the knee or the lower leg, and learning alone without supervision has been linked to more of them. If you are new, the same page suggests leaving out headstands, shoulder stands, the lotus position and forceful breathing for now.

If you are pregnant, older, or living with an injury or a health condition, NCCIH says to talk with your health care provider and your instructor first: some poses may need to change or wait. For how much to move overall, the CDC puts the adult target at 150 minutes of moderate activity a week plus muscle-strengthening work on 2 or more days.

Every mat in the Gruper selection is 72 inches long and ships with a strap and a bag. Compare them side by side on the yoga mats shelf, or go straight to the 32-inch mats.