This yoga towel is the best for Ashtanga and hot yoga. I use it with the Manduka 85" mat & the combination is the best. If you don't break a sweat, then don't bother. If you do, then you cannot live without this towel. Be sure to wash it, the dark towels bleed like crazy. This towel had little nubs on the bottom that make it stick to your mat. It's great. I don't think it's really that pricey considering I use it 3 times a week or more. Yogitoes Big Skidless Yoga Towel (Indigo)
I sweat a lot during even a moderate paced Vinyasa set, and this is a much better solution than keeping a hand towel nearby and interrupting yourself every few minutes to attempt to dry off the mat when it doesn't even really make it less slippery. I'd almost say that the more sweat you've got, the better this bad boy works.
A few tips, though:
1) Don't dry it with a dryer sheet since it makes it less absorbent and more slippery.
2) I let the towel hang off the front of my mat about a foot to allow about a foot of bare mat down where my feet are in downward dog. Since my feet don't typically get sweaty enough to slip, I find I have a better grip that way.
3) When starting a Yoga set, it helps to get your hands wet to start since the towel seems to be slipperier than a mat when dry.
I later bought the small towel that Yogitoes also makes which I now use even more often since it can just be placed near the top of your mat where your hands go. But, I like either depending on how hot the session gets.
I agree wholeheartedly with the other reviewers who use it in Bikram Yoga classes. The Yogitoes Big Skidless Yoga Towel is second to none in this capacity.
After using the Yogitoes skidless towel for a few months in my Bikram Yoga practice I was pretty happy with it. I bought 3 of them so I wouldn't have to do laundry after every class, and they have held up well to multiple washings. I did have to wash them several times to get the dye to stop bleeding. I have a large Jade Yoga mat and the towel was just about exactly the same size. It does not move around or bunch up like a regular towel. It is reasonably absorbant, but after 90 minutes of hot yoga I have sweatd buckets. For the last 30 minutes of class I am lying on a completely soaked towel that is puddling with moisture. It was reading a review for this product where I first heard about the hot yoga towel from eQua. Amazon sells the regular eQua towels, but I had to go elsewhere to get the hot yoga towels. The eQua towel is larger and thicker than the Yogitoes. It does not have the rubber nubs on the bottom, but I had no problem with the towel staying in place. It is more absorbant than the Yogitoes and I like not having to stick my face on a drenched towel. Both these towels are expensive. The eQua is generally about 10 dollars more, but I will be buying more of those than the yogitoes in the future.
First of all you must wash this several times SEPARATELY before putting it in the wash with your other clothes. The tag says to do so, but the colors were still bleeding after 3 washings.
I just measured my towel and it is 79", which is 6 inches shorter than my Manduka Black Mat Pro 85" mat. I learned if you don't want to slip off the end of you mat you need to make sure your towel hangs off the back of your mat. The Manduka is very slippery when soaked with sweat, but grippy when dry. The Yogitoes is the exact opposite, slippery when dry and grippy when wet. So you may need to put a few drops of water on your Yogitoes towel where your hands and feet go in down dog before you start your practice so you don't slip off your mat.
I am a very sweaty 6'3" male who does power yoga for 1.5-2 hrs 3-4 days a week. I've learned that I must immediately hang dry my towel in the sun or put it in the wash after a class. I was busy a couple of times after class and didn't wash it till later in the day and my towel developed a moldy type smell that was hard to get rid of, even after repeated washing in warm water. If you don't sweat that much you might not have that problem.
If you sweat as much as I do you could find that the yogitoes towel will become super saturated where you put your hands. Once your towel gets that wet it might move around a bit in down dog, or in lunge positions. For me that is usually toward the end of a class, but it could be a problem for you too if you sweat excessively like me. This is one of the reasons I wouldn't give a 5 star rating.
All that said I would recommend this product if you get sweaty during yoga and are sick of using a beach towel. I purchased the Indigo because it was a less expensive color.
These are great towels - they stay put pretty well during vinyasa (they have little rubbery dots on the bottom) and are pretty non-slip even when dry thanks to those little rubbery dots. They are light and easy to carry, and can be easily machine washed and dried. They hold well with use. A thicker cotton rug might be better for really hot sessions since the towel can become a little wet and clammy, but these towels are lighter, easier to transport, easier to wash and dry, and less slippery during the initial part of a practice session.
The larger size is essential for larger yogis - it lets you concentrate more on your practice and less on slipping off the edge of the towel in side arm balance or other poses.
I love my Yogitoes mat - it is very absorbent and actually seems much dryer than when I use a normal towel on my mat (I do Bikram yoga and so I sweat a lot), soft and comfortable to lie on. It is very slip resistant and nice and long, it extends 6 inches beyond my mat the long way on both ends, which is great for when you have to do a pose with a wide stance. I love it!
I sweat like no one else I've seen in class (Bikram and heated Vinyasa). This holds traction and soaks it up like nothing I've seen - on some particularly hard classes I squish walking on it by the end, yet can still practice on it.
Only gripe is that the big size only comes in blue. I'd like one of the other cool colors. - Hot Yoga - Skidless - Bikram - Yoga Mat'
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