The Tadasana Tote by Athleta has a side pocket for easy yoga-mat storage.

One of the things we love about yoga is that it doesn’t require much gear. You need comfortable clothes and a mat — and maybe water and a towel. Props, such as mats, straps and blocks, are usually available at the studio.

After 3,000 years of evolution, the discipline would seem to have little   room for improvement, but we think the following are three accessories that might very well make your practice a happier one.

• The YogaForce A-Line Mat ($79) started out as a specialty item in 2005, but is now available on YogaForce’s new website. The mat, endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine and Andrew Weil, M.D., was created by yoga instructor Annie Appleby after she was injured in two car crashes. “I was overcompensating and inadvertently doing my practice to baby my injuries rather than to improve them,” she says. She designed the mat with special lines to help with alignment during poses, as well as an A-line tapered design to better fit the contours of the body. While the lines improved our foot alignment during warrior pose, our knees appreciated the mat’s cushioned thickness during camel pose. We also love the attached carrying straps that allow for easy roll-up and transport, as well as the small pocket for essentials such as keys and phone. Celebs who use the mat include Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow and Linda Evangelista. Its design attracted attention and comments — from fellow yogis in class to someone in line at the bakery where we stopped for a (small) post-yoga cookie.
• We recently received the Tadasana Tote by Athleta ($129) as a gift and love its spacious interior with ample room for a change of clothes and shoes, as well as water bottles, towels and other items. The interior pockets are great for storing our phone and wallet, plus the side slot to carry a rolled-up yoga mat means we don’t need a separate mat bag. And the eye-catching brocade makes this bag a lovely accessory.
• The only thing worse than hearing our own sweat drip onto our yoga mat during a 105-degree Bikram yoga class is hearing the sweat of the person behind us falling upon our mat. Sometimes, the towels provided at hot yoga studios aren’t large enough to cover all of the mat, and that’s where Manduka’s eQua Hot Yoga Towel ($55) comes in. While Manduka has a yoga towel ($40) for any practice to prevent slipping on your asana, the eQua towel is made of extra-absorbent microfiber to soak up sweat and is available in pink, olive and aqua blue.

We love these accessories that allow us to focus less on where to put our keys during class (or if a neighbor is making a sweat puddle) and more on our poses. Are there any yoga accessories that help with your practice?

Tags: Alternative medicine, exercise, health, Human behavior, Indian philosophy, Mat, Meditation, Mind-body interventions, yoga, Yoga as exercise or alternative medicine