~ Gravity : Power : Yoga ~

Archive for the ‘Product Reviews’ Category

A few weeks back I get a phone call from my wife who was driving to work listening to the radio. She tells me about this album she heard about on NPR and that we have to get it. Most of these calls don’t pan out to be anything that I can’t live without, especially when it comes to dropping 12 of my hard earned bucks.

Playing for Change however is quite the opposite. With each listen I am awe struck at the beauty of the voices and performances, and dumbfounded at the technological feat required to make this happen. It’s simply amazing. So not only did I plunk down my hard earned dollars, but I can recommend that anybody that reads a blog about yoga and life would be just as happy as I am with it. I’m even planning on giving it to friends as gifts for the rest of the year (hope that didn’t spoil anybody’s surprise!).

Check out one of the video’s Here

Being relatively new to meditation I had often seen Mala beads used but didn’t know exactly what they were for or how to use them properly. As I find myself more and more drawn to meditation as a way to handle the stresses in life, I find myself not just carrying my Mala with me, but relating to them as an extension of my practice. A constant reminder of why I meditate, and how I hope to bring the peaceful calmness to every situation I encounter during the day. I searched many sites and actually ordered several Mala from different online vendors to see which ones I like the best. For me the decision was easy, I found a set that quickly became My Favorite Mala from an online company called Health and Yoga.com. The price was right, the quality was fantastic, and the customer service was the best! I went with the ebony ones, but try one to your own liking. I hope that you find them as useful as I have.

As I searched for other yoga books to read, I realize there are a lot of people doing the same… So to add my .02 worth… I decided to put up a few that I’ve come to love reading, and re-reading, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

My all time “Top Book recommendation” is: Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

I also have really dug reading: The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice

And I have to include my all time favorite picture book (If you can find an old hard cover copy it is truly a great coffee table book): Yoga (Yoga Journal Books)

A few weeks back I was in Santa Monica visiting friends, I had the fantastic opportunity to go practice with my “mexico crew” and see the new studio where some of my favorite teachers are teaching Home Simply Yoga.  I had been thinking about a second mat to keep in the home Yoga studio and had been seriously considering one of the eco friendlyManduka Eko mats.  

I was quite happy to see that the studio had this new eco friendly mat to practice on and evaluate.   I was NOT however happy with the outcome.  During my practice I couldn’t get the smell and taste of rubber out of my mouth, eyes, and nose.  To the point that the corner of my eyes felt like they were burning due to the rubber allergy.

So for my money, I would not buy anything but the original Maduka black mat!!  There is no substitute, and it’s eco friendly because you will never need another mat!

I’ve tried many, and my favorite is still the Yogitoes Skidless.

There really is no comparison in the mat towel department.  It’s smaller than a towel, more sweat absorbent than having nothing, and it doesn’t stretch like the Maduka eQua posted in my previous post.

There really is nothing bad to say about this, just make sure you drop a dab of water on either end to get your practice started and you’ll love what you have.

So I’m a sweaty dude, no questions about it.  When I do Yoga, I sweat, end of story.  

In an effort to find the perfect product for my sweaty self, I tried out the Manduka brand hand towels featured here

What I found was an interesting product. The smaller hand towel was PERFECT for what I needed, wiping sweat off my face and body + a small towel to put at the front of my mat when my hands started to get wet.

Based on my purchase of the small towel I decided I’d spend the $40 and buy the big version that covers the entire mat.  As I promised in my review section, I have to be completely honest.  The big version was almost useless.  It is far too slippery to be on the mat (wet or dry) and has too much stretch in it to be useful.  To make make myself feel better about not using this $40 version of the towel I decided to see if my tailor could cut it into smaller hand towel size portions.  YEA!  4 days and $10 later I now have 4 hand towels that work fantastic and realized that I should buy the big versions and just have them cut up from now on.  $20 each for hand towels or $50 for 4!  You do the math!

So for all you sweaty folks out there, get out and buy yourself the Manduka eQua hand towel and get back to rockin your Yoga!