Urdhva Dhanurasana. Photo by Becky KP
Ashtanga yoga and other vigorous styles of yoga result in you sweating a lot. Some of this personal liquid lands on your mat during your practice.
Wiping your yoga mat after each practice session with a diluted solution of vinegar and water is a good way to keep your mat clean and remove this personal liquid that has fallen on it.
However over time, despite your best efforts to keep your mat clean there will be a gradual build up of residue in your mat and this will begin to smell. Eventually this smell will have to be eliminated and there are two ways to accomplish this: a through washing of the mat or buy a new mat.
You can safely wash most yoga mats in your clothes washer. The black yoga mats which are made of rubber should not be put in the washer. They appear to not get stinky over time anyway.
A story first
One of our members used her companion’s yoga mat for a practice. She asked if she could use one of our rental mats after she completed her first sun salute. The mat she had brought with her was too stinky for her to use.
I told her to wash the mat in the clothes washer and that should take care of the smell. I did not give her the full details that are below.
She washed the mat and came back with the now clean mat for her next practice. She asked to use a rental mat again after the she completed her first sun salute. The mat was still too wet.
She came back the next week with the now completely dry yoga mat and there was no smell and there was no excess water. Life is good.
After her experience with cleaning her yoga mat, I thought it would be useful to provide the full yoga mat cleaning process here.
Washing your mat
Use a regular setting on your clothes washer and regular laundry soap. Do not put any clothes in with the mat. You do not want to get lint from the clothes on the mat and you do not want to get dye or bits of yoga mat in your clothes.
Do not put the mat in the dryer. A melted yoga mat will be no good for your yoga practice nor for your dryer.
Get the wash water out of the mat. Lay the yoga mat out flat on the floor. Place a large bath towel the length of the mat. Roll the mat and the towel into a tight tube. Walk all over the rolled up mat. This will squeeze the water in the mat to the towel.
Repeat. Replace the bath towel, which should have a lot of water in it, with a fresh bath towel, and repeat the rolling up and walking all over the mat step above. Keep repeating this step until the bath towel is no longer wet.
Hang to dry. Once you have removed all the water that you can with the bath towel, the next step is to hang the mat up to finish drying. You have many choices here: Use a clothes line, the back of a chair, or a door. You have lots of places you can hang the mat. It needs to dry for about 2-3 days to be sure that it finishes drying.
Check it out. Now that your yoga mat has completely dried, we come to the ultimate test. Its time to do a practice with your freshly cleaned yoga mat. Your nose will tell you if the smell is gone especially when you do a sun salute.
It still smells
If your yoga mat still smells after doing the deep cleaning described above then it is time to invest in a new mat. If you have had the mat long enough that it has started to smell then perhaps you deserve a new mat.
Of course we have some yoga mats available at the studio that you could buy to replace your stinky one.
Cleaning Alternatives
What techniques have you used to clean your yoga mat?
