Manduka Equa Towel Review

It's no secret that I sweat big time during my ashtanga practice. Perhaps it was a secret but it no longer. When I realized how sweaty my morning Mysore practice can get I went out and bought a yogitoes towel to absorb my sweat droplets and to keep my yoga mat from turning into a slip 'n slide.

I originally went with the yogitoes towel because I was convinced in the power of the little silicone-esque dots on the bottom that would hold it in place. For some time I was content with my purchase. When I purchased my manduka mat however, that's when I first began to notice the limitations of my sweat absorbing, slip reducing towel. The mat outsized the towel by several centimeters along the perimeter. In and of itself this wasn't terrible but it was something that I noticed and felt each time I placed my hands down on my mat. Despite its slight shortcomings I wasn't in the market to replace my existing towel.

That was until I saw the manduka equa towel on sale. I ordered two figuring that a sweaty girl like me could always do with extra towels around. When the towel first arrived I was very pleased that it didn't come with the "wash two times before using" instruction. I don't know about you but when I get something new I want to use it immediately. I brought it to the shala the following day and fell instantly in love. It covered the entire surface of my mat and felt as smooth as silk. It didn't bunch up or move at all during the duration of my practice. A few days later I was forced to use my old yogitoes mat because my equa towel was being laundered and the first thing that struck me was how un-smooth it felt due to the grippy bits on the bottom and I was instantly put off.

And there you have it going forward I will make sure that I don't ever have to practice without my equa towel again.

Practice Report: well there really is no practice to report on. My intercostal myalgia neuralgia isn't completely healed and I think forcing myself to practice last week did more harm than good and that got me thinking of ahimsa or doing no harm. If one cannot practice ahimsa with oneself how can one even image applying such a practice to others. For now i'm seeking acupuncture treatments and staying out of the shala until I am 100% pain free. I may attempt a modified version of my practice at home when things improve slightly but the shala means bad news because I always want to give it my all when I'm there not some half assed version of my practice.


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Slowly slowly

Tuesday's practice was very good. So good that I was even able to incorporate some jump backs into the routine and I felt strong pretty strong doing them putting more weight into the arms. I didn't attempt to bind in marichyasana d for fear of grave results. JB came over to offer an assist but I had to shake my head and decline the offer. I also had to take it easy in the last 3-4 poses of primary because rolling up from a reclined position was still a little painful. I was positively vibrating after yesterday's class and my colleagues even commented on my pre-coffee chipper mood.

Today's practice went similarly well and I'm feeling even less pain than the previous days. Today I have a feeling of lingering muscle soreness as opposed to a stabbing pain. Jump backs and jump throughs were back on the menu but I backed off as soon as I felt any odd sensations on the right side. I bound for the first time in almost 2 weeks in marichyasana d it wasn't very easy but there was no pain. I'd say that's the litmus test for this injury.

I got a soft adjustment in kurmasana to push my head and shoulders closer to the floor. In supta kurmasana JB wrangled my hands together and got me into a pretty firm bind but unfortunately there was no crossing of the feet so I didn't get to feel like a tightly packed burrito. However, to exit the pose I managed a fairly elegant jump back from bakasana into chatarunga. The key for me for this transition is to really have the arms high up on the legs and when that happens almost anything is possible.

The last several poses were still a little painful and challenging but more manageable than yesterday. Work continues on my hang backs however the ground doesn't feel like it's getting any closer and my knees seem too stubborn to bend. Perhaps I'll write them a letter. Assisted back bending with JB was fantastic as I was actually able to see my heels in the pose for the first time. At first I thought they were JBs heels but then I realized that I was seeing four sets of feet and one of them was brown so they had to be mine! I used my new Manduka Equa towel and I think that may have had something to do with it because my hands were much less slippery than usual. I'll write a full review on the towel in the next couple of days.

My, my, my, my, manduka

I had been considering buying a Manduka Pro mat for quite some time especially since most of the advanced ashtangis in my class practice on them. I figured that my practice could use all the help that it could get and what better way to quickly progress than by emulating all of the start students?

So after wavering quite a bit and growing increasingly disgusted by the mats provided by the studio I finally bit the bullet and bought the Manduka Pro mat. Normally the mat only comes in black and while black is a great color and goes with everything I didn't want to purchase a black yoga mat. So when I saw the limited edition Black Beauty model on the Manduka website I impulsively purchased it.

I had to wait a long week before it arrived from California and the color was just as beautiful I had imagined. Today was the first day that I was able to practice with it and that mat is unlike any other that I have ever stepped foot on. Unfortunately, it does need some time to break-in because at some points during practice today it felt more like a slip-n-slide than a yoga mat but I'm confident that with continued use I will fall more and more in love with it.

Oh, the other unfortunate thing is that while the mat itself is amazing it didn't drastically improve my practice by any means as I still struggled through the usual culprits. I did however, manage to get a pretty tight hand bind in supta kurmasana for the first time ever with the help of one of the assistants. Coincidence?