Part of the beauty of yoga is that so little gear is required. Yoga originated in ancientIndia and early practitioners were almost universally Hindu renunciants for whom earthly possessions were a burden, not a luxury. Their only possessions were a drinking gourdand a hand woven mat that served as a blanket or mattress for sleeping and a yoga mat for their daily practice of yoga asanas. Times have changed, but yoga has not. Not much gear is needed to practice yoga today, just as was the case in ancient India. What little gear isneeded can be divided into two categories – essential and optional.Aside from comfortable, flexible apparel, essential yoga gear consists of one of the twothings ancient yogis possessed – a
. Today’s yoga mats are quite a bit moresophisticated than those that were available a thousand years ago, but their function is basically the same: to provide a buffer between your body and the ground. Many yoga poses are done on the floor. That poses problems that only a good yoga mat can provide asolution to.Pain is the principle problem that a yoga mat solves. Take Sarvangasana, the shoulder stand, for example. This yoga pose requires you to put the entire weight of your body onyour shoulder blades, your neck and the back of the head. Without the padding of a yogamat, the shoulder stand can be so painful that it makes holding the position very difficultand distracting. With the yoga mat, you are able to focus your mind and perfect your technique.The list of optional yoga gear is quite a bit longer than the essentials list. Yoga has become so popular that people of all ages and levels of fitness are practicing it today.Some feel they need yoga gear to help them stretch their limits and others need optionalgear to address the limits imposed by age or injury. A variety of products such as
yogabolsters
and
yoga blocks
are available that can be valuable aids in a yoga workout. Other optional gear, like inflatable yoga balls, while not strictly traditional, are fantastic aids tothe kind of flexible fitness that is yoga’s hallmark and can be considered part of one’syoga gear.If there is one item of yoga gear that straddles the space between “essential” and“optional,” it would be
yoga socks
with non-stick soles. Most people would agree thatyoga is best done barefooted, but many yoga studios and gyms that conduct yoga classeshave highly polished floors. A good pair of non-stick yoga socks that keep your feet stuck to the floor when practicing standing positions are as essential as the yoga mat on polished floors, both for safety’s sake and for the proper execution of the poses.Perhaps the best advice for beginners is to attend your first class before you buy your yoga gear. If you can, borrow a yoga mat from a friend for your first lesson or two. Not
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