Best yoga mat

Focus on your practice with a yoga mat that feels comfortable and keeps your connection to the floor. These are the top choices.

Heathyoga yoga mat
(Image credit: Heathyoga)

Whether you practise at home or like to take your own along to the studio, a good yoga mat is a must-have. Yoga mats come in a variety of thicknesses, and different materials and some have special features you might find useful. What you pick could depend on the floor you’re going to roll it out on, and whether you want to feel an extra connection to the floor. You’ll find designs to suit all situations and levels of experience in our round-up.

Best overall

Proworks yoga mat

(Image credit: Proworks)

Proworks yoga mat

Easy to carry

This mat is ideal if you like plenty of cushioning, or are going to use it on a hard floor. At 1 centimetre (cm) thick, it should prove durable, too. It’s made from NBR foam that’s free of phthalates. It comes with a strap, making it easy to take to class.

Best colours

TOPLUS yoga mat

(Image credit: TOPLUS)

TOPLUS yoga mat

Works on wood or tiles

This yoga mat comes in a choice of nine great shades. It has a double layer design with a finely textured surface for slip resistance on top, and a dot texture to create grip on the floor below. At just 1 kilogram (kg), it’s light when you’re carrying it along to class.

Best for high intensity

Yogamatters Sticky yoga mat

(Image credit: Yogamatters)

Yogamatters Sticky yoga mat

Wash in the machine

Like hot yoga, or work up a sweat when you’re practising? This sticky yoga mat will help stop hands and feet sliding. It’s 0.45cm thick, offering a great cushion for knees and hands but letting you feel the floor in balance poses.  

Best value

FitBeast yoga mat

(Image credit: FitBeast)

FitBeast yoga mat

Tear-resistant material

At 0.6cm thick, this mat will keep joints comfortable. It’s double-sided with a leaf-shaped design on the top that feels soft and resists slips. Underneath, the ripple pattern will grip surfaces such as tiles, a wooden floor, or grass. The low cost might appeal if you’re just starting and need to discover if you like yoga.

Best for beginners

Heathyoga yoga mat

(Image credit: Heathyoga)

Heathyoga yoga mat

Extra wide

If you’re just starting out on your yoga journey, or practising at home and missing the feedback of a teacher, check out this yoga mat. It features alignment lines to help you get in the right position, and at 65cm in width, it provides generous space. It can be cleaned with a mild soap or detergent, and it’s odour free.

Bottom line

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Yoga can help you stretch, strengthen, and relieve stress, and requires little equipment aside from a good yoga mat to get started. The Proworks yoga mat offers great cushioning as well as durability. It’s ideal if you’re going to take a mat to class as well as practice at home because it comes with a carrying strap.

Beginners might opt for the Heathyoga yoga mat. The mat’s marked to assist you in achieving the proper alignment for the postures.

Sarah Warwick
Freelance Editor

Sarah is a freelance journalist and editor writing for websites, national newspapers, and magazines. She’s spent most of her journalistic career specialising in homes – long enough to see fridges become smart, decorating fashions embrace both minimalism and maximalism, and interiors that blur the indoor/outdoor link become a must-have. She loves testing the latest home appliances, revealing the trends in furnishings and fittings for every room, and investigating the benefits, costs and practicalities of home improvement. It's no big surprise that she likes to put what she writes about into practice, and is a serial house revamper. For Realhomes.com, Sarah reviews coffee machines and vacuum cleaners, taking them through their paces at home to give us an honest, real life review and comparison of every model.