Future Fitness: Glow Yoga Mat

When it comes to fitness I’m no Jessica Ennis but I do like to keep an eye on the old waistline. I am proud to say that I am a card carrying member of an actual gym, one with running machines and step machines and ripped guys who only hang out exclusively in the weights area.

I convinced myself, when handing over the hefty London-price joining fee, that I would legitimately work out at least three times a week and be Britney Spears in her hey-day buff in no time. But it wasn’t to be so now I’m £30 a month down and I still look like post hey-day Britney in grubby sweats but with no intention of doing any exercise.

I went for a while, the intention was there but I got busy, and I got lazy and I discovered Grey’s Anatomy (I’m now on season 5 of 10 – thanks for asking).  As much as I love watching the tumultuous love lives of sexy young surgeons, the several hours that I’ve lied prostrate on my sofa haven’t exactly helped to shift those extra pounds I picked up from Christmas (2005).

So when I heard about Glow the interactive yoga mat that uses automated instructions to help you learn yoga poses and routines I was instantly sold (what can I say, I love a gimmick).

The mat, which was conceived by a group of (sexy?) young mechanical engineering students at MIT, was designed as part of a project related to the theme of ‘Be Well’.

Whilst brainstorming ideas the team landed upon the idea of Yoga and creating a mat that featured some more technical features. Glow, which looks just like a normal yoga mat is anything but normal; it provides visual and audio instructions and feeds this information back to the user. Using your computer you can specify your body proportions and make the program even more personalised.

Yogis watch a video of a trained instructor on their computer and can then choose to either learn poses in sequence or concentrate on individual poses that need more work. The LEDs within the matt light up to show them where to place themselves and pressure sensors monitor weight distribution.

The mat highlights where to place your hands and where to shift your weight to, so it’s literally idiot proof and the best thing is you can practice your moves in front of Grey’s Anatomy and kill two birds with one stone. 

The guys over at MIT have filled a patent for the technology and received a huge amount of really good feedback but it might be a little while yet until we can get our hands on one.