How to choose the best yoga mat The first step to keeping pain at bay in yoga is finding a mat. Lily Puckett FacebookTwitterEmail “Avoid pain” seems like an obvious rule for day-to-day life, but it’s often overlooked. “Push through the pain,” “fix the pain later,” “live with the pain” – these mantras are not only ineffective, they assure you that maybe pain is actually unavoidable. But while pain is always there, lurking, waiting, it doesn’t have to catch you at all. The first step to keeping it at bay in yoga is your foundation: a mat that works for you.