My ND just about choked when I first started seeing her for adrenal fatigue and she discovered that kickboxing had been my recent exercise of choice.  The kickboxing had been kicking my butt – and no wonder.  It uses far too much energy for someone with adrenal fatigue.  She recommended something gentler, like Hatha yoga.

My Favorite Workouts

I’m clueless when it comes to exercise, and I’m not going to the gym (little people at home, you know), so DVD’s are my go-to tool (along with the Wii).  I discovered a favorite in Sara Ivanhoe’s 20 Minute Yoga Makeover.  This set of DVD’s is only 20 minutes long per workout, which I can fit into my day.  And Sara’s cueing is clear, pleasant, and encouraging but not annoyingly sappy.  Later, I needed to find something to use during pregnancy, and discovered another favorite in Amira’s Belly Dance and Yoga For Pregnancy.  (Her Bellydance 101 is excellent too, if you’re not expecting.)

But…

The problem is, our living room (where the DVD player is) is not carpeted.  It’s just stick-on tiles over concrete.  That gets hard on tailbones!  If I use a towel or something, it slides around.  I’ve been using a regular yoga mat, and it’s an improvement, but I stick to it, so I have trouble sliding from one position into another.  Then I discovered the Synergy Yoga Mat from Aurorae Yoga.

Aurorae Synergy Yoga Mat

This thing is brilliant!  It was originally designed, I think, for those doing hot yoga.  (I can’t wrap my head around hot yoga.  It sounds miserable to me!)  It combines a yoga mat and a towel, and I think it is just perfect for those of us doing any sort of floor exercises on a less-than-ideal surface.

The top surface feels just like a low-pile towel.  So you don’t stick to it.  (In fact, Aurorae recommends that if you’re not doing something like hot yoga, you might want to spritz it with water so you don’t slide too much.  I haven’t had any trouble with sliding, though.)  But the bottom is normal yoga mat material, so it doesn’t slip around!

It’s not as thick as my regular yoga mat, but it seems to provide sufficient padding, even on my hard floor.  (If you really need extra padding, I bet you could put it on top of another yoga mat.  That’s probably not really recommended, but because both mats are sort of “rubbery,” I don’t think they’d slip.)  And it’s long.  I’m 5’1″ and I can easily lie out flat on it, with room to spare.  So even if you’re tall, you should have plenty of room for a downward-facing dog or other “longer” poses.  Unfortunately, I can’t take a picture of myself doing yoga, so I can’t show you what it looks like in use. 🙁

My one concern before the mat arrived was washing.  If it’s towel-like, you can’t just wipe it off like you would a regular yoga mat, but the rubbery part wouldn’t be able to go in the wash, right?  Wrong!  The mat can go in the wash.  (You just can’t dry it in the dryer.  It needs to be allowed to air-dry.)

I definitely recommend this if you do any sort of exercise on the floor: yoga, Pilates, push-ups – whatever.

(Aurorae offers yoga mats in illuminating colors, a focal point icon and extra long in length. Aurorae offers the best reviewed yoga mats, accessories & props online. You can browse their yoga mats, yoga bags, yoga accessories and yoga props at these links, and find them on Facebook and Twitter.)

Disclosure: Aurorae provided me with a mat to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.