Have you noticed a shift recently?
People are living on the road, travelling more, and chasing their very best nomadic life.
With all that moving around, no matter how much of a dedicated yoga or Pilates practitioner you may be, keeping your exercise routine is hard.
It’s not as simple as “taking your practice with you”, right? With the right traveling yoga mat – it could be!
In this post, you’ll find out why your exercise routine gets left behind and what you need to do to motivate your practice.
Why Do You Always Lose Your Exercise Routine?
There is a simple psychology. We’ll try our best to boil it down.
Habits are formed by cues: with your practice, that could be having a beautiful patterned Pilates mat around the house, being free at the same time every day – even waking up in the same bed!
Your habits are maintained by little things that trigger a reaction. Like a notification on your phone, when you receive that trigger, your brain notifies you it’s time for the habit to take place. This is how routines are formed, and also why bad habits get so sticky.
Travelling often removes all of those signs from your daily life; namely that you’re in a different environment. So, healthy habits become very difficult to maintain, but also, the bad habits that you keep at home miraculously disappear the moment you’re on holiday!
No – you’re not imagining it.
Why Having a Traveling Yoga Mat is the Solution
To make it relatable, if you keep cookies in your cupboard, you’re probably going to eat them.
But if you don’t have cookies? – It’s unlikely you’ll think about it.
To use this psychological trick to your advantage, having a traveling yoga mat with you while you’re on the road will help you to keep your exercise routine, no matter where you are.
If you wanted to keep a meditation practice, keep a small cushion with you; if you want to enjoy your tea in the morning, keep it with you.
Even if you do these things every day, travelling often demands early wake up times, having reminders of your practice with you means that when you do have the right time and space, your habits will naturally come without you needing to force yourself too much.
What to Look For in Your New Travel Companion?
You might picture yourself lugging around a thick foam yoga mat strapped to your suitcase right now – and we’re here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way!
A traveling yoga mat can be
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Light in weight
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Foldable
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Still strong in grip
At Downward Frog, our traveling yoga mats come in at just 1.5 kg. We find this weight is just right, as it’s rarely a problem when packing.
When you’re on the road, you learn to adapt to your environment quickly. The more you travel, the more change you experience. So you want a mat that can adapt with you. Small hotel rooms? No problem, this is what foldable yoga mats are for. Fold your mat in half and still squeeze in a little practice!
We find that traveling yoga mats tend to get less grippy the more travel-friendly they become. At Downward Frog, all our mats are vegan suede that gets grippier as you sweat. It’s lightweight, soft on the skin, and great to practice on.
Why We Think Patterned Mats Amplify This Trick
When you have a mat you love, you want to use it. It’s that simple.
This is why we think having a patterned Pilates mat for travelling over your standard mat could be the psychology hack that really works for you.
The patterned mat that will catch your eye as you walk through the house and that looks good when you roll it out, doesn’t just become familiar, but you have a positive association with it! So when you’re on the road, your regular exercise habit becomes easier to maintain.
An extra benefit that we love: what’s a better conversation starter with like-minded people on the road than “I love your mat, where’d you get it?”
At Downward Frog, these are the kinds of things we have thought about over and over again.
Travel-Friendly Mat We Love at Downward Frog
At Downward Frog, our range of patterned traveling yoga mats that are great for Pilates too! With great grip tech and lightweight materials, you’ll be surprised how easy they are to fit into any bag.
Our mats are beautifully designed with vibrant colours and funky patterns that you’ll love – perfect for a practice that you can take with you, wherever you go.