Best Yoga Mat Thickness for Your Body & Yoga Style
We gave our yogis one job:
Test yoga mats and describe how thickness matters.
While gear will never be the be-all end-all of a fulfilling yoga practice, it can certainly make a difference in our comfort, performance, and safety during our practice. In yoga, our mat is our foundation. This foundation can either help or hinder our balance, stability and joint health, so it is important to choose the right yoga mat. In this age with so many available options, it’s worth the time and investment to find a mat that suits your individual body and practice.
For Athletic Yogis
The standard thickness for a yoga mat is around 4-5mm (about ⅛”). This thickness is ideal for the average, active, flowing practice. This gives the active yogi a decent cushion that’s easy on the joints, but still provides a firm floor for stability. These mats are ideal for intermediate to advanced yogis practicing athletic styles of yoga, such as Vinyasa or Bikram. We recommend the It is important to consider your goals when shopping for a yoga mat. (4.2mm) or the Gaiam Athletic (5mm) in this range.
Mats in the 1-5mm range hit the sweet spot for balancing challenges like Warrior III or any pose in handstand. Having a soft place to land is important, but the more a mat gives, the harder it is to balance. We don’t want our mat to be too soft; holding a handstand on a tempurpedic mattress might prove more challenging than, say, a hardwood floor.
These standard mats are not the best for travel, but they’re not the worst either. Depending on the material they can be pretty lightweight, like the Jade Harmony weighing in at 4.5lbs. The thickness makes it a bit bulky, but if you have the space it won’t weigh you down.
Recommendations:
Gaiam Athletic 5mm
2nd Wind Cork 5mm
Jade Harmony 4.8mm
Liforme 4.2mm
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For Bad Knees
While a 4mm mat might be suitable for the average yogi, some may benefit from having some extra cushion supporting their practice. Yoga is often sought after as a low-impact exercise alternative; for some, the main motivation for practicing yoga is to protect their backs or knees and manage pain. For those with vulnerable joints, there is a wide selection of thick or extra-thick mats from 6mm and up.
Thickness is an important factor, but it is also important to consider a mat’s material; if a yoga mat is made of steel, it’s not going to matter how thick it is. The material and thickness will determine how spongey a yoga mat feels, or how much it yields to pressure. Yoga mats made from PVC material, like our 2022 top rated mat BalanceFrom GoYoga, tend to have the most “give.” Jute mats are on the harder side of the spectrum, so you should avoid these (or skip pigeon pose) if you have bad knees or are nursing other injuries.
Recommendations:
BalanceFrom GoYoga 6.35mm
Manduka PRO 6mm
TOPLUS 6mm
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For Slow Movers
Comfort is highly prioritized in certain styles of yoga. For example when we practice Yin Yoga, we are sitting in poses for minutes at a time as opposed to flowing through the many poses of Vinyasa. In these less active forms of yoga like Kundalini or Yin Yoga, we can get away with using an extra thick 10-12mm mat.
An extra thick mat, like the 12.7mm REEHUT Extra, provides an extremely plush cushion for our practice. This can help us to reach the meditative state we’re working towards, and if a mat can increase our comfort, then it can also help to deepen our state of relaxation. These plush mats are soft on our joints and great for our Savasana.
Recommendations:
REEHUT Extra 12.7mm
Aurorae 6.35mm
For the Traveling Yogi
For the backpacking, through-hiking, or jet-setting yogi, thick yoga mats might not be worth the weight or real estate. Many yoga-wear companies are producing travel-friendly yoga mats around the 1.5mm mark on the thinnest end of the spectrum. A couple that we recommend in this range are the YoGo Ultralight Travel (1.5mm) and the Jade Yoga Voyager (1.5mm).
While these mats are ultrathin, you don’t always necessarily have to sacrifice comfort. For example, we reviewed the Yoga Design Lab Commuter mat, a mere 1.55mm, that scored a 4.9/5 on our comfort scale thanks to its microfiber layer.
Recommendations:
Yoga Design Lab Commuter 1.55mm
YoGo Ultralight Travel 1.5mm
Jade Yoga Voyager 1.5mm
While we could technically say that there is a “standard” thickness that is “best” for a yoga mat, it really comes down to what our individual practice and bodies need. With such a surplus of choices, we really don’t have to sacrifice comfort, performance or convenience. Our gear exists solely to support our practice, so it is worth finding the perfect match.
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Frequently asked questions
The average yoga mat is in the 4-5mm range. These mats provide stability for challenging poses while still providing a decent amount of cushion. Mats that are thicker or thinner than these are typically meant for specific purposes like travel, or more static forms of yoga.
A yoga mat can definitely be too thick, especially in the more athletic forms of yoga. Your hands and feet should feel like they are on solid ground during your practice, using spongier mats only when necessary for pain management or for less involved styles of yoga. If your mat has too much give, you’ll end up sacrificing stability.
You can’t really go wrong in the 2-6mm range, but every yogi has different preferences and different needs. If you practice Vinyasa or Bikram, like to travel with your practice, or enjoy advanced balancing challenges, a thin mat is the way to go. On the other end of the spectrum, if you struggle with joint pain and/or enjoy more meditative forms of yoga, a thicker mat wouldn’t hurt.
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