Many people practice yoga to feel more at peace, relaxed, rejuvenated and of course healthy. Unfortunately, your yoga mat may be working against you. Shared and communal yoga mats found at most yoga studios are filled with germs and bacteria that get passed from one yoga participant to another.

It is common courtesy at most gyms to spray down and clean off exercise equipment between uses, however exercise and yoga mats are often overlooked in this practice. The health risk of using an unsanitized yoga mat is great. Since yoga is done barefoot there is an increased risk of catching athletes’ foot or planter’s warts.

Your feet are not the only body part that comes into contact with your yoga mat, your arms, back and any other bare part of skin are likely to come into contact with your yoga mat during a yoga session. This means you can easily catch any skin disease or rash that the previous user of your yoga mat may have been infected with.

Using a shared yoga mat also means an increased health risk of catching the cold and flu germs. A sick yoga participant’s face comes into close contact with their yoga mat which easily spreads the cold and flu bugs to the yoga mat. The next person to use that mat will be exposed to their germs and has an increased risk of sickness, especially if yoga mat cleaner was not used between yoga sessions.

Cleaning the yoga mats between uses can help reduce the health risk of spreading the germs and bacteria from person to person. However, in order to effectively sanitize the yoga mats they must be cleaned with a strong chemical solution and must be wet enough to stay moist for over thirty seconds. Using yoga mat cleaner can help sanitize the yoga mats between uses but yoga mat cleaner can often be expensive and hard to use.

Since the cost of cleaning all the mats between yoga sessions is high, many yoga studios and gyms forgo the process in favor of daily or weekly cleanings. This means that if the studio has multiple classes during the day the yoga mats are remaining unsanitized. Some studios leave the cleaning between yoga sessions up to the users of the mats. Unfortunately, many people either neglect to clean the maps or clean them ineffectively.

The best way to protect yourself from the unwanted spread of germs and bacteria during yoga is to buy your own personal yoga mat. Having your own personal yoga mat means you will not be coming into intimate contact with another person’s germs and bacteria during your yoga session. The purchase of your own yoga mat can also save you money over the long run since many yoga studios charge yoga mat rental fees. Buying yoga mat cleaner can also be expensive and not as effective as using your own yoga mat.

Sunshineyoga.com offers a variety of personal yoga mats and cleaners that can help reduce the health risk of contracting a disease during your next yoga session.