Best Quality Yoga Mats

Yoga is practiced to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. Various physical postures of yoga are used to alleviate health problems, especially those problems that materialize as a direct result of stress. Exercising yoga makes spine supple. Since physical exercise and postures are important parts of yoga practice, it is of utmost important to to use the best equipment on which to do yoga. Yoga mats are used by every men who practice it and utmost care should be taken while choosing or buying them from the market. While the best quality yoga mats can give positive results and improve overall health, as one expects from yoga, the poor quality mats on the other hand can generate some complex physical problems.

Yoga mats come in good prints these days

So, which are the best quality yoga mats? It is not always the most expensive mat out there that is good. Sometimes the one with lesser price but having all the desired features is the best. Given below are the features of a best quality yoga mat that you should consider before buying it,

• It should be wide and long enough so that you can practice all sorts of yogic postures, standing postures, bending postures, sleeping postures. Basically see if there is enough space available when you lie down on it even after your hands and feet are apart.
• The yoga mat should be thick enough, ideally more than 5 mm, so that your ankles, feet, and knees does not feel the ground underneath. At the same time it should be made of soft material like EVA foam so that you can feel comfortable while performing various exercise routines.
• It should be firm enough so that it doesn't slip. It is highly important that the mat doesn't skid underneath your feet while doing yoga. Ignoring this can cause a major damage to your body. Ideally you should choose a mat which has a padded rubber base. One can also choose the mat made from thermoplastic elastomer as it provides excellent grip due to slip resistant and textured pattern.
• The mat itself should be easy to carry. This is especially useful while traveling. See that it can be easily rolled up into a cylindrical shape. Also when you place it on the ground it should not rolled back automatically. This can be seriously frustrating and can cause you bit of stress which is exactly opposite of what we wanted from yoga.
• After some time of using them most mats tend to chip off. This causes wear and tear quickly and you don't get value for money. Always check the density of mat manufacturing material. It should be high enough so that chipping off does not get started quickly. Cushioning is also important.
• It should be easy to wash, dry and clean the mat. Some yoga mats are made of stuff from which things like oil stains don't get off easily. This does not provide good feel while doing exercise.
• If you smell bad odor when you open a new yoga mat at shop, don't buy the mat. Some people think that bad smell is normal and it will get away once the item is put into the sun. But most times the smell does not get away and in fact it tends to stink more and more as the time pass by. Some people develops problems like headache due to this. So avoid bad smelling yoga mats at all cost.
• If you live in cold regions choose the mat with woolen upper layer to keep you hot. The price is bit more as you would expect.

While the above mentioned points are very important the best way to select the yoga mat is to actually use it before buying it. There is a feel good factor about certain things. There is always a mat out there which feels just right when you use it for the first time. Just request a shopkeeper and try out couple of postures (asana's) like 'Surya Namaskar' and if everything goes well, just pick up that mat.

Also note that these days the fitness related items come in wide variety. For example there are printed yoga mats and of different colors and designs that one can easily choose the one matching the room flooring. This is not important bit but just in case you want it, it's available easily.

Best Quality Condom

A condom can prove to be an important device which can help to protect persons involved in sexual intercourse from catching a fatal disease like AIDS.  It can also play an important role in family planning by preventing unwanted pregnancy. In order to make sure that condom plays its role to perfection, utmost care should be taken while purchasing it. At all times an effort must be made to find and use the best quality condom.

condom when rolled up
(picture from wikipedia)

But how to decide which condom is best? There are so many companies in the market who manufacture condoms and all claim that their product is best.

Basically there are two types of condoms - latex condoms and female condoms. It doesn't matter which one is used, use you must, wearing condom is the only way of safeguarding oneself from getting infected by sexually transmitted infections. Sexual intercourse without a barrier of condom is known as unprotected sex. It is called so because it exposes and makes a person vulnerable to threat of getting infected by HIV. Condom basically acts like a protective shield. It is also popular among couples as an effective contraceptive.

The most important thing which defines a best quality condom is the material which is used to make it.  Ideally the material of condom should be such that it lasts long and makes the user extra safe for longer period of time. At the same time it should not interfere with pleasure one gets during the sexual act.

The materials used commonly in making condoms are latex, polyurethane, polyisoprene, or lamb intestine. Nitrile is used in making female condoms.

The price of condom is mostly dependent on which quality of the material is used in its making. It can also depend upon the brand, and size, in some cases.

A good quality condom should ideally -

• Fit well on erected penis (in case of a male),
• Should have high elasticity and stretch easily without wear and tear,
• Should not get damaged by lubricants and oils (buts most condoms do get affected),
• Must have quality packing so that they don't get damaged while opening the packet,
• Must not cause allergy to the user. Many latex condoms are known to cause allergy,
• Must be properly dotted to prevent slippage and breakage (two major causes of failure),
• The rubber ring, if present in condom, shouldn't be too tight,
• It should not diminish erotic sensation to a large extent (basically a user feel natural),
• It should have enough space to accommodate semen ejaculation and prevent it from spilling over,
• It must be designed so that it increases stimulation.

The latex condoms are the most elastic, hence stretchable, but they may not be at top of quality. The condoms made from Polyurethane can be considered better than latex in several ways. They tend not to get affected by heat, ultraviolet light, and lubricants. They are as effective as latex condoms. So they can be considered to be better. However the Polyurethane condoms can be rigid and hence can break or slip or change shape easily. They are more expensive than latex.

If you want to get best features of both latex and polyurethane condoms, and that too in an inexpensive way, you should go for Polyisoprene condoms. These are the best quality condoms.