gear

DCOY Giveaway: The Yoga Mat Tie–A Simple, Yet Brilliant Solution to Sloppy Yoga Mats

February 19, 2013 by #DailyCupofYoga 37 Comments

The simplicity of yoga is one of its most beautiful and appealing aspects. Not a lot of equipment required, right?…

Well, a yoga mat isn’t necessarily even an absolute necessity, but I think most of us would admit yoga isn’t nearly as pleasant without a little sticky mat under our feet and hands. Everything else is pretty much gravy in my book…and boy do I love gravy The picture above…definitely me.

So yeah, despite having a ton of yoga gear, a constant pet-peeve of mine has always been when I finish my yoga practice, roll up my mat, and put it in the closet somehow it always seems to find a way to unroll itself. Luckily, the “Yoga Mat Tie” provides a simple, yet brilliant solution to one of these tough to deal with first-world yoga conundrums–the sloppy yoga mat… I’ve been using Yoga Mat Ties for a couple of months and they’re awesome!

For our giveaway this week we’re excited to partner with the nice folks out of Boulder, Colorado, who handmake each and every Yoga Mat Tie.

To enter:
1. Head on over to Twitter and follow @TheYogaMatTie (you’re probably already following us), AND
2. Leave a comment about your yoga accessory philosophy.

I’m already a self-confessed gravy/gear man, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on bolsters, blocks, blankets, and belts. Regardless of whether you’re a gear junkie or not, once you try the Yoga Mat Tie I think you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

We’ll pick a winner at random this weekend. Good luck and namaste!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Sarah (comment link), the lucky winner of a Yoga Mat Tie. Many thanks to everyone for your awesome comments and playing along!

Tagged With: contest, giveaway, product review, yoga gear, yoga mat tie Filed Under: gear, giveaway, product review, yoga

Review: SIGG Active Top Water Bottle

January 17, 2013 by #DailyCupofYoga Leave a Comment

sigg_new_active_top.mov YouTube

SIGG Active Top Water Bottle 5/5 stars.

Most yogis tend to find themselves on a never ending quest to find an environmentally-friendly water bottle that’s stylish, easy to use, doesn’t leak all over, and is simple to clean. It’s tough to find that whole combination in a single water bottle, but I think I’ve finally found it in the SIGG Active Top water bottle. I’ve used it everyday for the past few weeks and it surpasses all expectations.

The Active Top bottle comes equipped with a rotary slide valve control system, implemented for the first time on a SIGG bottle, which combines an easy to use Open, Close, Air and Clean functions that help dictate what mode you want to be in. If you’ve ever tried putting a fizzy drink in a water bottle you know you’re asking for trouble, but with the Active Top bottle the rotary slide valve system opens a small aperture to release pressure from drinks, avoiding disasters all over your lap, or my personal favorite, all over the inside of my backpack. By turning the valve to the “Air” mode for a nano-second and then to “Open,” you have seamless suction and flow even with carbonated or effervescent beverages.

And since the bottle has an internal straw system, you can sip away all day without even picking up the bottle. What I especially love about the bottle though is that it’s super simple to take apart and clean. I don’t know about you, but I get a bit worried when I can’t clean all the parts of my water bottle, or I’ve taken it apart and can’t figure out how to put all of the little pieces back together. The Active Top bottle, however, has few components making it quick and easy to dismantle and reassemble. In the convenient “Clean” mode, the top pops right off ensuring safe and hygienic cleaning. In the “Close” position, the bottle is virtually leakproof–never had a problem unless I had a fizzy drink and forget to turn the lid to Close before throwing it in my backpack. It’s hard to blame user error on the water bottle, so I won’t knock it for one minor incident…

I take the the Active Top with me everywhere now–it’s extremely light weight, durable and completely BPA and phthalate free. Plus, it’s completely recyclable at the end of it’s long life due to its aluminum composition. If you’re on the lookout for a new water bottle you won’t go wrong with the SIGG Active Top, which is available for retail in most Whole Foods locations, on SIGG’s website, or at Amazon.com. Priced between $22.99 and $28.99 in a variety of sizes, you can learn more about the Active Top in the video below and at http://newactivetop.sigg.com/.

Tagged With: review, sigg, water bottle Filed Under: gear, product review, yoga

For the love of lululemon…

May 14, 2012 by #DailyCupofYoga 11 Comments

…in case you were wondering what to do with all your lululemon bags…

If anyone’s listening from lululemon, I’m incredibly frustrated that you don’t deliver to overseas military addresses. What’s up with that? Would it really be so hard to use the U.S. postal system?
We need our lulu too!

[UPDATE #1: I'd love to say lululemon fixed the shipping issue immediately--they did not--but I can say they did contact me immediately to let me know my concern was passed along to the shipping team. Hopefully I'll have a happy update #2 in the near future!]

Source: luluaddict.blogspot.jp via Daily Cup of Yoga on Pinterest

Tagged With: lululemon, recycling, yoga gear Filed Under: gear, yoga

A Trip Down lululemon Lane

March 11, 2012 by #DailyCupofYoga 2 Comments

Believe it or not, I went to an actual lululemon store for the very first time yesterday. As the kind sales-folks at the Seattle Pacific Place store can attest, I probably tried on every piece of guys clothes they had in the store..twice. It was a little embarrassing and I’m not sure I’ve ever spent that much time in a dressing room, but I had a lot of time to burn, and I sure as heck wasn’t walking out of there with clothes that didn’t fit perfectly. Trust me though, time to burn in a lululemon store can be a dangerous thing. It’s not hard to find clothes that fit perfectly…

A few impressions after my first visit:

First impression–the place was busy, packed with men and women, young and old, rifling through clothes racks and stacks of yoga pants. Maybe it was a normal Saturday afternoon in downtown Seattle or maybe Seattle-ites just love posh fitness gear.

Second impression–shopping at lululemon can be a real psychological experiment…at least it was for me. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you kinda need to know what your shopping priorities are, otherwise you may end up eating ramen for the rest of the month. I walked out with six items and I’m sure the price I paid for the men’s Presta pants has some symbolical yogic meaning… Not sure why, but the price tag for nearly everything ends with an eight.

Third impression–as I walked around the store I kicked myself for not buying lululemon stock when the thought first crossed my mind a few months ago… Since late December 2011, I’ve watched lululemon’s stock rise from $46 to an all-time high of $72 on March 8, 2012. Not too shabby for a yoga/running clothes company. That’s what I call “run-da-li-ni rising!”

To be honest, until recently I hadn’t given much thought to yoga clothes. Running clothes–yes; yoga clothes–not so much. The beauty of practicing yoga at home is that even underwear seems to work just fine, or at least it did until I got my hands on a few lululemon samples. Of course you can also practice yoga in Levi’s, but until you discover the sweet bliss of four-way stretch and luon fabric you don’t know what you’re missing out on.

I won’t exaggerate and say I could never live without lululemon, but I will say that until a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead wearing a pair of capri-style yoga pants out in public…and let’s just say a couple days ago I proudly stood in line at the ATM (on a military base no less) for twenty minutes in a pair of lululemon down dawg 3/4 length pants (aka “manpris“).