So your better half is a yogi! The ancient practice is good for the mind and body, improving concentration, balance, endurance, flexibility, and muscle tone. But for the uninitiated it can be confusing. What is a good gift for a yoga practitioner? All of the contraptions seem so odd… Here’s a little help.

Plus: You Said It: The Best Gifts You’ve Ever Received from a Significant Other

A Yoga Mat

You can spend as little as $10 and as much as $150 on a yoga mat. My fancy yoga studio uses Jade mats, and they’re the perfect combination of lightweight, durable, and plush, and come in many colors. They last for about 9 months in the studio, where they’re used multiple times a day by many sweaty people. Getting partner his own mat will be more sanitary and it should last for 2-3 years of even daily use before it becomes worn.

Yoga Clothing

I almost always recommend against buying yoga clothing for anyone. Unless you know that your significant other loves a specific style of some top or short, and that they want more of them, there is so much that could go wrong. Sizing, style, color… it’s best to not get involved. But a gift card to either their favorite brand or store or a nicer store that would normally be too expensive is always good. My favorite
fancy yoga brands are Lululemon and Zobha.

Plus: What to Get: The Person You’re Casually Dating

A Good Water Bottle

Yoga can be a very intense form of exercise, so a water bottle is a must-have. I love a classic Nalgene for its big loop (making it easy to carry) and its wide mouth (for easy cleaning and drinking). And at only $10, it’s the price of 5-10 bottles of water – a good purchase for both the environment and your wallet.

Fancy Bag

Going to yoga can mean lugging around a bunch of stuff: clothes, mat, block, strap, towel, water bottle, and who knows what else. It can be hard to fit a yoga mat in a bag that isn’t specifically designed for it, even if it’s large, which is why I often recommend a special yoga bag. This one can be either big or very big (depending if you use the strap or not) and has room for both a mat and a purse, as well as anything else you’d need.

Plus: 8 Smart, Unexpected Gifts for Your Foodie Girlfriend or Boyfriend

Yoga Accessories

While doing yoga, many people use odd props. If your significant other does use them, it’d be nice for them to have their own instead of using the ones that the studio provides. The basic accessories are a strap (to help stretch), a block (to “bring the floor closer”), a mat strap (to keep a yoga mat rolled up), and a mat towel (to keep your yoga mat dry when in an especially sweaty class).

Yoga Books

As yoga is as much about the mind as it is the body (many would say more about the mind than the body), books can be a good way to expand one’s practice. I asked my favorite yoga instructors what books that they recommend, and the the books that kept being mentioned were The Bhagavad Gita, Man’s Eternal Quest and The Yoga Sutras. While I do yoga more as an exercise than anything else, thinking about yoga in different ways by reading yoga books helps me work harder at my practice.

Marcia Bunda lives in New York City. She has been obsessively chronicling the goings on in her life on her Tumblr for four years and for some reason people are still reading her. 

Filed Under: