YOGO - On The Go!

A little known fact about me, is that until recently, I had only done Yoga one time, and that was randomly in Guatemala. So, when I agreed to join a few of my friends on a four day Yoga retreat, Wanderlust, in Canada, they assumed I came with some prior knowledge. Boy were they wrong!

The first thing I realized while packing is that I did not have a travel mat. My normal mat is thick, and in all honesty has received a little too much love from my cats. So, that was not going to cut it at Wanderlust or fit in my carry-on. I needed something small that I didn’t mind dragging with me all over a mountain, that was easy to fold up, stayed fairly clean, and wouldn’t have me moving around too much. This is harder to find than one might think. I looked into a lot of different mats and they all came with a list of complaints. Then I found Yogo, I figured a brand that self proclaimed to make the best travel mat ever made was worth exploring. It also helped that they said all the right buzzwords: compact, clean, and eco-friendly!

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Yogo really only makes one product, its travel mat. It comes in “ultralight” or long, which I only assume is less light due to it being longer. I got the ultralight in the pretty Plum-Flax color! It comes in three other colors: Charcoal-Cayenne, Forest-Flax, and Charcoal-Ocean.

The best and most important part of this mat is how compactable it is. It only weighs 2 lbs and folds up to about a foot wide and only a few inches thick. It is secured by straps that are already sewn on so no need for an extra bag or any drama of a floppy mat getting in the way. Because of this, the whole mat and straps can easily fit into or strap on top of a backpack. There was zero issue getting it into my carry on. With how easy Yogo is to transport, there is no excuse not to take your mat with you on vacation! Yoga on the beach everywhere!

So, I happily had a mat that I could fit into my bag! Next was to see how it handled four days of 7-9 hours of yoga/acrobatics.

I tried the Yogo on carpet, wood, grass, and sand! I did an array of different types of yoga, including acro yoga, RAD, meditation, connecting, massage, and dancing on my mat. Over all, my mat helped me stay clean and gave a nice barrier between me and whatever surface I was on. Because of how the mat folds up it protects the side you are using, keeping your surface as clean as possible.

The mat is made with a very sticky biodegradable natural tree rubber, which will help you stay on the mat, but I did find the mat did not always stick to the ground, even less so than the mats around me. I often had to reposition it so that it was laying flat. I might be a little more OCD about this as I’m use to thicker mats that do not move due to their weight. I may also be a little more aggressive than most people who do yoga, since I am trained in acrobatics instead of yoga. I also found that the rubber has a strong odor, which I’m hoping will dissipate, but has yet to.

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If you are looking for a mat that offers support, look elsewhere, but you can not have a thick mat that is so compactible.

I saw a lot of mats at Wanderlust this year, and I was proud to have my Yogo. It was smaller and more intelligently designed when it came to compactibility than any of the other mats there. It helped me learn a lot about yoga and the yoga community, as I shared it with many new and old friends. I may not be a yogi now, but I feel more grounded on my little purple mat.

Oh, and one more thing, with every mat you purchase, Yogo provides a food-bearing tree to a poor family in Africa or Latin America! How can you not love this company?