[quote=baozhen;22695]Hi! I am an industrial design student from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. I am doing some research on yoga mats and accessories. My project is to rethink about the yoga mat, how to improve it, if it even need to be improved.
I am interested in what you think about the yoga mat. What is good and bad about the products you use (what is working for you and what is not)? I want to understand how you interact with the products (how often you use it, how you use it, how do you feel after using it. Do you enjoy using the products? What are the benefits after using it?)
Please tell me a little about yourself. (age range, sex, any children? how long have you been doing yoga? how often do you do yoga? Why do you choose yoga over the other form of exercise?) I know that there are a lot of questions to answer, but please answer any of the above if you can.
Your help will very much help me with my project and my research process! Thank you!
Baozhen[/quote]
About myself:
I am 39, male, 1.83m and 95kg and no children, but is married, have been doing yoga for about 12 years now, do it 4 times a week, ie. the physical asanas. Yoga, becasue for me it is the best exercise for my mind, body and soul.
About my mats:
[B]One at the hall where I teach:[/B] it is the perfect length, 1.5m long, 1cm thick and about 1.2m wide. Very nice mat, it is fairly soft on a scale from 1 - 10 (one being very soft and 10 being hard and firm) I would rate it about a 6. It is made of a high density type of foam and can be easily maintained, ie. I can wash it when it gets dirty etc. On the negative side: I roll it up to store it at the hall and this tends to curl the one side too much so that it looks as if I am sitting in a sledge. Due to our high summer temperatures (33-40 degrees celcuis) I do tend to build a sweat and where my sweat falls on the mat it tends to get very slippery and I had an incident or two where I have slipped on those wet spots during a practice.
[B]My thin mat at home:[/B] This one I use when I can’t yoga outside due to the weather. It is 2m long, which is too long for me, 75mm think and 60cm wide. Actually I hate everything about this mat. Not wide enough, too long, too thin. It is made of a sort of compressed rubber, it is ribbed with small holes in it, apparently to breath. It is very hard, would rate it 9 on my scale. However, it has a good grip to it, it is a bit sticky which I love.
[B]Thick mat at home:[/B] This one I use for my outdoor yoga next to the swimming pool. 1.2m long, 2cm think only 40cm wide. I love the softness of this mat, but too narrow and too short. I love the softness would rate it 3 on my scale. It is made of a thik rubbery foam type of substance, have too sides to it, one not so sticky and the other side very sticky and I love this, it gives me a good grip on my mat.
If I can combine the best features of each mat above into one mat, then It would be the perfect mat for me.
Hope this helps you. Sorry for the metric, but this is what we know in SA, I am not familiar with inches etc.
