Is the Gaiam Reversible Travel Yoga mat the answer?

I work out hard. Not only that, but when I do exercise, I sweat profusely. What I’m getting at is that I’m very hard on my yoga mats. When I’m done, there is enough water left on the mat to make a splash if I dropped a dime on it.  I try to remember to wipe the sweat off as soon as possible, and I sometimes use a spray cleaner or hydrogen peroxide / water mixture to wipe it clean. I’ve also tried putting my mats in the washing machine and I’ve put them in the bathtub with water and bleach. 

But despite all of these efforts, I just can’t seem to keep a mat for more than a few months without destroying it. It isn’t destroyed physically, but it smells mildewy.

I thought I had solved the problem when I found the Gaiam Reversible Travel Yoga Mat. I was also thrilled that it solved another problem I was having. I have always found yoga mats to be ungainly and hard to carry around and store. This mat folded up into the size of a T shirt and folded out and became a nice, but very thin, yoga mat. And I could put it in the washing machine and hang it to dry. One side was sticky-mat material and the other side was a more textured, comfortable material.

All was good in my world for a couple of months. Then the backing started to get too sticky. It became harder and harder to unfold after storage for a day or two. It became a noisy, sticky affair to remove the mat from the floor after a workout. I attributed the increased stickiness to the type of detergent I used in the washing machine. I choose a detergent that doesn’t have harsh chemicals and rinsing agents, and so I feel like some of the detergents didn’t rinse properly. 

It got so bad that one day I was working out at a friends house and when I went to peel my mat off the floor, it had stuck so strongly that it left a sticky, blue residue on his carpet. I was horrified. I figured I had destroyed his carpet. If it had been my carpet, it would have been destroyed.  I’m thankful he knew how to deal with it: (Oxyclean in a spray bottle squirted on the carpet and then scrubbed with a thick brush.)

I contacted Gaiam and told them about my problems and they offered to replace the mat with a new one. 

But now I’m back to my original problem of how to use a yoga mat for my workouts and clean it up afterwards. I’ll keep the travel mat, but I don’t think it'll be the answer. 


I welcome any comments on this topic as I am really not sure what to do next. Keep in mind that I'm using the mat for more than simple yoga. I'm working out. It's like calisthenics or gymnastics. And I sweat a lot. I also like to travel and workout on the road, so I'm not into carrying big heavy, bulky things. Any suggestions are welcome.  Please leave a comment.   Thanks.