Best Yoga Mats Recommended by a Yoga Teacher

Sharing the top yoga mats in different price points and for your different yoga needs.

As a yoga teacher, I have seen and practiced on quite a few yoga mats. Today I’m sharing my top picks for yoga mats based on what I use, whether you want to spend a lot or a little, and based on what your current yoga practice requires.

My favourite yoga mat:

Lululemon “The Mat” 5mm

Price: $108.00 CAN

Best for: all your yoga needs.

This yoga mat is definitely a higher price point, however, I have repurchased this mat after using my first one for about 10 years. That’s ten years of classes, both hot and regular temperature, as well as multiple mat cleanings. These mats hold up wel!! These two sided mats offer a smooth side and textured side, so you’re covered for both Hot and regular temperature yoga classes. I find the smooth rubber side provides enough grip while not allowing you to “stick”, but it would be too slippery in a hot class with all the sweat - which is where the textured side comes in. The 5mm thickness provides adequate cushioning for the joints and points of contact with the floor. I have a beautiful sage green coloured one with the marbled design and besides the functionality, it looks really pretty. The one downside is these mats are a bit heavier to cart around, so if you’re someone who bikes to classes with your mat on your back, this would likely feel cumbersome. Otherwise, for durability, use during classes, and overall appearance, I rate this a 10/10.

Image from Lululemon.com

If you’re looking for something similar with a lesser price tag, this mat from Amazon looks similar and has great reviews. (Here’s the Amazon link for US Residents!)

As an Amazon associate I earn commission on qualifying purchases.

My second favourite mat:

Giaim Premium print yoga mat (Links to Amazon Canada)

(Amazon link for US residents)

Price: $29.98 and up

Best for: all your yoga needs.

Image from Amazon.com

I bought three of these beautiful mats to offer as rentals for my students and ended up using them myself. I found the design so appealing and the texture and thickness was adequate, although compared to the Lululemon rubber mat, not as padded or structured. These mats were easy to roll, light to carry around and held up decently to multiple classes and cleans. This type of mat will defiitely start to show wear and tear sooner than the rubber mats above, but at a fraction of the cost, you can likely replace this one every year or two and not break the bank. For durability, use in class, and overall appearance, I rate this a 8/10.

Best yoga mat for “bad” knees

Amazon Basics 1/2 Inch extra thick exercise mat (Links to Amazon Canada)

(Amazon link for US Residents)

Price: $39.68 CAN

Best for: anyone with sensitive knees or knee concerns, or anyone who likes extra padding under their body when lying on the ground.

I personally haven’t used an extra thick mat, but for my multiple students who need extra padding under the knees or other pressure point areas, these mats are the way to go. The only issue can be with balance since the thickness and extra cushion can cause you to be a bit wobbly. I have recommended thick mats to many students and always receive positive feedback.

Image from Amazon.com

Finding the right mat can make all the difference in your yoga experience, so make sure you take the time to find the one that suits your needs the best.

Yoga Pose Tutorial: Half Pigeon

Half Pigeon Pose - some people love it, some people loathe it, but either way, it’s going to get those hips and glutes stretched out. If you need help or want to know how to do Pigeon pose, this post is for you. Be sure to check out the video to enjoy an entire practice meant to get your body ready for this pose and some great tips on moving in and out of it safely.

Half Pigeon Pose Tutorial:

Difficulty level: Beginner-Intermediate

Contraindications: knee concerns

Step 1: You can begin this pose from a table top position or downward dog. Some people prefer one over the other, so perhaps try both to see how they feel.

From table top, begin by bringing your right knee forward through your hands. The knee should come close to the right wrist. Once the knee is forward, you want to “kick out” the right foot, so it moves toward the left wrist. You should not be resting on the right shin here, but on the outside of the leg.

From Downward dog, begin by stretching your right leg up and back to a three legged dog. From here being the knee forward and through the hands and lower your legs to the mat. Once the knee is forward, you want to “kick out” the right foot, so it moves toward the left wrist. You should not be resting on the right shin here, but on the outside of the leg.

Step two: If you started from table top, slide and stretch the left leg back behind you as much as you can. You want this leg straight, with the knee and top of the foot down on the floor. Ensure the leg is not angled, but pointing straight behind you.

If you started from downward dog, your leg should already be straight, but you should continue to stretch it back and ensure it is not angled, and have the top of the foot on the mat.

Step 3: Check on the hips. You want the hips to be level so the back body isn’t angled. This is where your yoga props will help. Tuck your yoga block (links to Amazon Canada) under the right hip to bring it up and more in line with the left hip if you are finding yourself leaning a lot to the right side (see video for demo on where to place the block). Note: you can use a yoga bolster (links to Amazon Canada) or folded blanket here as well, however my first choice is always the block as it provides the firm support to keep your body aligned.

Step 4: You can either keep your upper body lifted, come down on to elbows/forearms, or all the way down to rest the forehead on hands or a yoga block. Stay in whichever position you enjoy the most (or feel the best stretch in) for at least 5 breaths, but this pose is a good one to stay in for a full minute or more!

The video below from our YouTube page includes all the poses your body needs to warm up and prepare for this amazing pose. If you are all ready for your pigeon pose, jump ahead to 23 mins to get to the demo of it.

Enjoy! And As always, just do your best. Namaste

Pigeon pose tutorial

As an Amazon associate I earn with qualifying purchases.

Twin Mom Life: What’s a Twin Pregnancy Actually Like?

What this twin mom wants you to know (but doesn't have the time to tell you).

Since I’ve always shared pieces of my “real life” with you here in this blog - from quitting my job, to the brutal truths about being a yoga teacher - it only seemed fitting to write about my current reality, which is parenting twin babies and a toddler. It’s a wild ride I tell ya. Read along in this multi-part series as I delve into my experiences with twins from pregnancy until now, navigating my life as a #twinmom.

As a new mom of twins, I have found many aspects of this adventure surprising, including other people’s reactions and comments. Since I often leave an interaction thinking of all the things I wish I would have said, I’ve decided to share some of it here. It seems that there are a lot of misconceptions about being a parent of twins out there, and just a lot of things people can’t know or understand if they haven’t lived it. If you’re reading this as a new or expecting parent to twins - congrats! - maybe this series will help prepare you a tiny bit. If you’re reading this as someone who doesn’t have twins, maybe it’ll inform the way you respond to a twin parent in the future.

Read to the end to see what items helped me make it through my twin pregnancy with some level of comfort!

As many people are, I was totally shocked when I found out I was pregnant with identical twins. To be honest, I had been shocked I was pregnant at all. It was a three year journey, navigating fertility challenges and a miscarriage, to get pregnant with our son who was 16 months old, and we hadn't been "trying" for this pregnancy. Now it's very important to me, before we go any further, that you understand this - I believe any healthy baby born is, and should be treated as, a huge blessing and I am incredibly grateful for my children. This is and continues to be true as I share with you that this whole "twin mom" thing is incredibly difficult. It isn't simply matching onesies, but matching illness (you know what's worse than a sick baby - two sick babies), matching food allergies (think two babies having a delayed vomiting reaction to an allergen - at the same time), and matching meltdowns (there's quite a bit of crying when the math is simply against you in being able to meet everyones needs at once). 

The only thing that has surprised me as much as the initial "reveal", has been the responses I received from friends, family, and strangers when they learned about my pregnancy, or now, when I am out in the world with my children. On mulitiple occasions I have been caught completely off guard by people's comments and am continuously surprised at how novel the idea of twins is to people and how little is truly known about it (I learned a ton after finding out). So, let’s talk about a twin pregnancy, starting with this truth.

Twin Pregnancy can be stressful and scary.

One of the first and most common questions I get asked when I mention my twins is always "do twins run in your family?" followed by "are they identical?". However, when you come to find yourself pregnant with mulitiples you quickly learn that "fraternal" and "identical" is not the entire picture. You also learn that there are a lot of people who declare they are “jealous” or have always wanted twins. These people clearly have never been pregnant with two babies at once.

There are two types of twin or multiple pregnancies and they are categorized as dizygotic or monozygotic and each carries it's own risks. Fraternal twins are always dizygotic as they are the result of a person ovulating more than one egg and each of those egg's is fertilized. These types of pregnancys are referred to as dichorionic - diamniotic, meaning each embryo has it's own placenta and amniotic sac. Fraternal twins can “run in the family” but only on the mothers side. If your grandma or mom ovulated more than one egg, this is something you may also do, this the chance of twins being higher.

Identical twins are monozygotic as they occur when a single fertilized egg splits, resulting in identical twins. This process is completely random, as far as I understand, no family history required. Within this category there are two types of pregnancies - monochorionic-monoamniotic (mono-mono or mo-mo) which means the embryos share both a placenta and amniotic sac, and monochorionic- diamniotic (mono-di or mo-di), shared placenta, but their amniotic sac is divided by a thin membrane which means they have their own sacs. My pregnancy was mono-di, which I learned is the second highest risk out of the three.

The risks and complications in mulitiple pregnancies occur for both mom and babies. Besides things like Twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) which you are monitored closely for in a monochorionic pregnancy, you are also at high risk for gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and preeclampsia, and preterm labour. Twins are more likely to be born premature and even if they go to "full term" which I was told would be 37 weeks with a mono-di pregnancy, twins generally have lower birth weights. Pre-Mature birth can lead to a wide variety of complications and medical concerns depending on the gestation a baby is born. So, as I was quickly being educated on all of these risks and complications and reading up on what to expect from a NICU stay for babies born from 32 weeks on, not to mention how terrible I felt (the nausea just hangs on way longer than the first trimester), I found myself overwhelmed, stressed, and scared. I was worried for my babies, myself, my future, the future of my family - did you know the divorce rate of parents of mulitiples is higher than average? Every time someone would tell me how envious they were of me I felt so confused. It didn’t feel like a situation that someone should be wishing for.

I ended up having a pretty uneventful pregnancy as far as twin pregnancy goes, but I still landed in the hospital at 28 weeks with a preterm labor scare and ended up going into labor at 34 weeks 5 days. I was monitored every 2 weeks, until about 31 weeks when they had some concerns over the size of the babies and fluid levels, so for the last few weeks of my pregnancy I went in twice a week for extra checks. My babies were born 4lbs 6 oz and 5lbs 1 oz via c section and stayed in the NICU for 9 and 10 days. It was terrifying, physically and emotionally exhausting, and I will forever be changed by the experience. My heart goes out to parents with kiddos in the NICU for longer stays.

So, my twin pregnancy ended with two amazing and healthy little boys with the exact same genetic make up. It still feels miraculous to be honest. That pregnancy felt like one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life. I was stretched to my limits - physically and emotionally. Giving birth was the end of one journey and the beginning of another one. But more about that next time.

If you or someone you know if experiencing a twin pregnancy, here is a list of my “must haves” for navigating it.

Note: as an amazon associate I earn on qualifying purchases.

Maternity Seat Belt Clip - this was amazing. Keeps the belt off your belly so you and babies are safe. Also so much more comfortable and amazing for post c-section car rides.

Belly Support band - my back and pelvis pain was pretty bad and a good belt helped relieve some of the pain.

Ginger gravol - again.. the nausea

Lululemon Align Leggings - my belly got pretty big and these stayed comfy AND didn’t stretch out so I still wear them now and they are amazing.

If you have questions feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer!

How Much Should you Charge for a Yoga Class?

How much do you charge per yoga class or private client?

How do you come up with the amount when someone requests services from you? Does it feel uncomfortable coming up with a price point for new clients or increasing pricing for long term ones? One thing I see over and over on the yoga teacher Facebook groups or forums I look at, are teachers asking what they should charge for classes, and based on the responses I have seen from fellow teachers, there isn’t a clear answer out there. Here’s the thing - pricing a service is a bit trickier than pricing a product. If you were selling a product you could look at the cost of manufacturing, shipping, markup for profit, and confidently come up with the sale price. With a service, you don’t have some of those tangible things to base your fee off of, so sometimes it can be confusing or uncomfortable labeling your offering with a price. I am constantly seeing teachers undervaluing their services, and to be honest, I undervalued my services for years to my ultimate detriment. I ended up teaching way too many classes a week to bring in my desired income, which led to absolute burnout - all because I was undervaluing (ie: undercharging) my services. If you can relate to this, it’s ok. You can turn it around. Once I figured out how to confidently price my services I increased my fee’s for new and current clients, and didn’t have one contract cancel (and this was during and post pandemic). Here is the biggest piece of advice I can offer that helped me re-think the way I priced my yoga services: price your services based on what you put into them, NOT what the client receives. This can be a big shift in perspective, so, what does that look like?

Lets say you are contacted by a new client who is looking to bring yoga to their employees during lunch hour twice a month. They will say “how much do you charge for a one hour class”. You may think “what is a price that I can offer that the client will feel is fair for one hour of service?” When you think of it that way, $50.00 for an hour of work for example, seems like a great rate - but here is the thing, you are not only working for one hour to provide this service. The client receives a one hour yoga class, but you need to shift the perspective to what is required of you to provide that class.

When you are deciding on your fees per yoga class keep the following in mind:

Total Time Commitment:

Travel time - especially if the location is going to require you to travel for more than half an hour each way. You could potentially be travelling more time than teaching which is pretty inconvenient, but because of the nature of yoga classes, very possible.

Prep time - how much time are you going to spend sequencing your class, making playlists, cleaning props etc. Don’t forget that all of this is part of the job you are being paid to do.

Time spent before and after the class - will you be required to keep track of students arrival or do any clean up of a space after? Most teachers spend time at the very least interacting with students before and after the class, and all of this adds up.

Back End or bookkeeping work - if you are required to do invoicing or any other type of back end work, it should be factored in.

Once you factor all of this in you will likely find the one hour class works out to a few hours of your time per week. Our time is our most valuable commodity, so ensure your fees reflect how much you value yours.

Your Experience and Expertise:

It’s important that you factor in the level of experience you bring to your classes when arriving at a price for your service. If you are a teacher with years of experience and training under your belt, you bring an immense amount of value to your students. Clients are likely coming to you because of your experience, perhaps over a newer teacher, so ensure your pricing reflects that. If you are a newer teacher you may start out charging a slightly lower fee if you are focused on building that experience up, however it’s still important not to undercharge because you’re new. As a new teacher it can be helpful to find a standard fee for classes that still pays you fairly, but leaves you the space to increase it as you continue to grow as a teacher. If you are a teacher with specialized trainings that clients are looking for, this is another value add. Clients won’t be scared off by a higher price point as long as they feel the fee reflects the value they receive. If you feel confident in your offerings, your knowledge, passion, and expertise, then you should feel confident charging appropriately for them.

So, once you look at what your total time commitment is and what you uniquely bring to the classes you are being asked to teach, you can see that we are calculating fees for much more than simply an hour of yoga. I hope when you shift your perspective to see your work from this side, you can feel confident in setting fee’s that feel appropriate for clients and will support your financial needs.

I’ll leave you with this final thought. It’s ok to meet your financial goals while doing work you love, that helps people. Don’t get sucked into the idea that “just helping people is rewarding enough”. You still have bills to pay, and if you are struggling to make ends meet, you will be less able to show up as your best self and provide the value to students they deserve.

If you have questions or need a pep talk before increasing your fee’s, please feel free to comment here, message me on Instagram, or send me an email!

A Reintroduction

Well, hello old friends. It feels a bit like coming home writing in this space again and I couldn’t be happier about it. I find myself totally shocked every time I look at this blog and realize it’s been around for 7 years. When I first started blogging I was in the process of leaving my “9-5” to pursue my entrepreneurial dream. I sit here now and tell you that it all worked out. That girl who wondered if she’d ever have students fill up her classes, or if she’d ever make enough money “just teaching yoga”, well if I could go back in time, I’d be able to let her know it would all be ok. I made my full time income, taught way too many classes, sold out many sessions, and eventually had to start saying no and subcontract out excess work. My business survived the pandemic (I hadn’t imagined teaching students through my computer when I first envisioned this journey!). And now? Well I currently write this with two squirming babies beside me while we wait for our two year old to wake up. Not quite the ending I had thought of when I started this journey, to be honest.

It’s funny, when I started this blog it was because I wanted to bring traffic to my site to promote my classes, build a community, and share my knowledge, thoughts and experience with everyone. I have returned to this blog with many of the same intentions. Now that I’ve paused my career to focus on my family for the next couple years, I miss the community I built while teaching. I find myself with lots of experiences I want to share and have a lot more advice for others based on the experience I’ve had as a small business owner. So here we are. Let me reintroduce myself. I’m Sandra. A certified yoga teacher of 10 years and owner of Your Best Yoga, which is currently on pause because in 2022 I was given the surprise of my life when I found out I was pregnant with twins. So now I am a mom of 3 boys under 3, which is actually busier than it sounds, and I spend more time these days changing diapers than I ever thought possible. I love being a mom and I also have been craving a creative outlet to connect with other adults so that I don’t lose my mind (you feel me?).

So what can you expect in this space? There may be some yoga tutorials and content, but there will also be my opinion and perspective on motherhood as I navigate being a #twinmom and mom of 3 under 3, as that’s what my day to day consists of lately. You can also expect some helpful content on the business side of the yoga world. I started creating and gathering some really good content and advice for future yogi-prenuers when I was pregnant, but I greatly underestimated how little energy I’d have with two newborns and a toddler, so I’ve been sitting on it all this time. Now is the time to get it out there!

So stay tuned! I’d love to connect with you! Leave me a comment here or follow me on Instagram. I would like to commit to a regular posting schedule but I’m not making promises I can’t keep at the moment. I will as always, just do my best.

Sandra