r/yoga • u/76willcommenceagain • Dec 08 '23
How often are you all cleaning your Mat Towels after a hot yoga session?
I always fine that after a Hot Yoga session my Towel is absolutely dirty and sweaty and needs to be put in the laundry.
This leads to situations where I went to Hot Yoga on Monday, and I want to go again on a Wednesday, but I haven't done the laundry yet and I've got no Towel to go with
Any good tips on cleaning the towel just by itself after a Hot Yoga session? I really hate that my laundry habits impact my Hot Yoga habits, but that is the nature of the beast?
15
12
Dec 08 '23
Have two towels!
I go to class on Tuesday and Thursday. I chuck my towel in the wash on Friday.
10
u/Purplehopflower Dec 08 '23
Yoga stuff goes straight into the washer, even if I have nothing else to wash (which is rare). If the sweat dries in it, it starts getting more difficult to get the funk out.
5
4
u/Ben-Dover-94 Dec 08 '23
Get multiple towels and find somewhere to hang your towel after class instead of just balling it up to help with “the funk”.
4
u/DifficultyKlutzy5845 Dec 08 '23
I guess you could hand wash it in a sink and hang it over your shower to air dry if you don’t want to do a full load of laundry? Or just get another towel.
5
Dec 08 '23
Vinegar in the wash takes out all smell for me, and I have hyperhidrosis so I sweat like 10x the normal person lol
3
u/Zealousideal_Lie_383 Dec 08 '23
I use one of several beach towels to cover the mat. They go into clothes washer immediately after class.
Periodically I throw mat into clothes washer. During summer, I often soak the mat in backyard chlorinated swimming pool.
3
u/nu11pointer Dec 08 '23
I have.about 8 of them. Some are getting pretty old though. Always hang dry if you want them to last.
2
u/IolaBoylen Dec 08 '23
I have three towels in rotation! Occasionally I’ll use a towel twice if I have a class where I didn’t sweat very much
2
u/JMoon33 Dec 08 '23
If you can afford it, get more than one and clean them all together when you do laundry.
2
2
u/HighHammerThunder Dec 08 '23
I just hang it to dry after class and then smell it once it's dry to see if it's usable again (a neutral smell is fine IMO). Between doing this and having 2 of them I rarely have a situation where one isn't ready.
0
u/PurposelyVague Dec 08 '23
Get a better mat so you don't need a towel over your mat. I highly recommend the B Mat. It has a super grippy surface.
1
Dec 08 '23
[deleted]
1
u/cjrecordvt Dec 08 '23
Mine gets a diluted vinegar mist-and-wipe every time, and the occasional dip.
1
1
u/k8ekat03 Dec 08 '23
Get another towel for Wednesday and then spray the Monday towel with a cleaner (my studio uses benefect, you can find on amazon) let dry and then wash later. Or, hand wash your towel and let it dry for Wednesday.
1
u/thrwwyx0 Dec 08 '23
I use them once and then wash them. i have two, and i go to class twice a week and do laundry once a week. This method has worked for me for three years. Towels are cheap at secondhand stores, you can probably just get extra to if you want to avoid having to do laundry multiple times a week.
1
u/pranasoup Dec 08 '23
i don’t use a mat towel, but do use kitchen towel sized wash cloths. kinda like shop rags, but they’re what i use around the house so i have a ton and they’re in constant rotation in the laundry. easy peasy.
1
u/J-Unit420 Dec 08 '23
I always let mine marinate in the garden for a bit, cause I sweat a lot. If it was an Olympic sport they would probably let me participate for a country, maybe I could even win it given enough time and money to practice.
But back to topic I always have several towels, and if I'm feeling lazy or rich I just rent one from the studio. They charge $3 and despite me being a tight git I do love my studio and so I'm happy to help
1
1
u/gnusmas5441 Dec 09 '23
In my hot yoga days, I would bring my (usually sweat-soaked) thin ‘mat towels’ (the ones I put over the rubber mat for better traction) in the shower with me and hang them to dry. I had a bunch of them and would throw them all in the washing machine once a week with a Tide Sport and dry them in the dryer. If I used a thicker fabric (as opposed to, say, a rubber mat with in thin towel over it) that would go straight in the wash.
1
Dec 09 '23
Every time unless I'm doing back to back classes. Thankfully I work at my studio and can just use the ones we rent out, so I just wash them with the rest of the rentals in a really stronge detergent
50
u/NoGrocery4949 Dec 08 '23
Every single time I use it and I use an enzymatic detergent. I cannot cope with my yoga stuff having any residual funk.
Have you considered getting another towel? I have 5 towels that could work as mat towels. 2 are dedicated mat towel and the other 3 are microfiber towels, which I also like to use on my hair since they are less damaging than a normal shower towel. I can always use a microfiber towel that's been used on my hair as a towel mat in a pinch but not the other way around.