Everyone does it at some point or another: you’re practicing yoga on your mat and you find yourself slipping. You’re thinking, “Why does this always happen to me?”
Yoga is an incredible workout that completely reshapes your body and aligns your mind, but sometimes you get a little too excited by your instructor’s hands and end up slipping off your yoga mat in the middle of class! What are some of the best yoga tips to avoid slipping?
Yoga can be a tough practice to master. Learning how to balance your body is tough enough, but it can be even more difficult when you can’t keep your limbs in place. If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while and you’re still having issues keeping your limbs in place, there are a few things you can do. The problem of carpet slippage is a real and difficult problem for some to solve.
Sometimes hands and feet slip on the yoga mat due to poor technique. This can easily be improved with our free 30 day yoga trial. In our daily classes you will learn the right movements to not slip on the mat. Sometimes the slipperiness is due to the device or surface of the activity. Here are some ideas on how to fix a mistake in your yoga practice.
Table of Contents
First, let’s talk about alignment and technique.
When practicing yoga, it is important to be aware of the contact with the earth. If the palms of the hands and feet are flat, there is a danger of slipping. If you pay attention to advanced yogis, you will notice that their hands are usually not quite level with the floor. A cover or coating is applied.
This makes sense for several reasons: It relieves your wrists, but in this case it provides a firmer contact with the ground. To do this, spread your fingers as far apart as possible. Glue the fleshy parts of the arm to the ground.
This means that the knuckle of the index finger (bottom, base of the proximal phalanx), the fleshy area under the thumb and the corresponding areas of the little finger exert the greatest pressure on the palm. Then press your fingertips against the floor and allow the center of your palm to rise slightly off the floor, bending your fingers slightly.
In this way the arm becomes a small tent or bowl. This helps considerably to maintain regular contact with the ground.
The same concept applies to the feet. Spread your toes to keep your feet still. Make sure the edges of the big toe and the little toe touch the ground, especially the ball of the foot and the side edges of the heel. Then hold up the arch of your foot. This strengthens the foot arch and makes it stable.
Experiment with your carpet.
Sometimes, however, smooth hands and feet cannot be explained by technology alone.
In some cases, poor partner selection may be the reason.
Depending on how much you sweat, you may need a towel or another yoga mat to prevent slipping. Mat cloths can be very effective for those who sweat excessively or do hot yoga. These are thin microfiber towels with handles on the bottom that fit perfectly on your yoga mat.
For those who don’t sweat that much, a PVC mat is generally preferable. For more unruly hands, a rubber mat is a good option to keep you on the training floor. Some mats are designed to make you sweat and stick to them.
Check the alignment, then the surfaces. Figure out why you’re slipping so you can get grounded on your mat and better anchor yourself in your yoga practice. As a beginner yogi, my mat slips often, and I am always afraid of making a faceplant. I try my best to not land on my hands, but I never know if I am going to manage to keep things under control. What are some tips I can follow to improve?