Our Verdict
The Woojer Mat is a spectacular, unique piece of tech. As most creatives will attest to, our world can be both wonderful and stressful to live in, so we look for ways to repair and maintain our bodies and minds. And for me and my very specific experience, the tactile, haptic and remarkably immersive Mat has been a fantastic addition to my wellbeing routine. It's not cheap, but if you can afford it, it could help a lot.
For
- Haptic motors are fantastic
- It's a physical and mental health tool all in one
- Same whole-body sound sensation as the Vest, only not terrifying
Against
- Fabric is quite warm
- Hoo boy that price tag
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The Woojer Mat comes from the same team of lunatics that brought you, and my bones, the Woojer Vest (I reviewed the Vest 4 earlier this year), so I hope they'll forgive me that when I saw headline claims like "Relax. Recharge. Renew." and "transformative relaxation and renewal at an affordable price", I was, let's say... dubious.
You see, the Vest 4 is amazing, but it also ingrained a firm belief in me that putting powerful haptic rumble motors all over your body is the polar opposite of "relaxing". So when they offered me a chance to test it, you can bet I jumped at the opportunity.
And then I got really, really ill.
How is that relevant?
Ah, you see. A year ago I was diagnosed with Long Covid, a condition stemming from a previous Covid infection that leads to periods of intense and extreme fatigue and exhaustion on top of general poorliness. A recurrence of those symptoms in February, paired with my clinical depression, led to me being off work for two spans of several weeks each through to May.
During this period, any exercise would exhaust me, a gentle 45-minute nature walk would lead to me having to sleep for hours on my return, and with the illness being so persistent, I felt mentally lower than I had in years on top of my physical malaise.
I couldn't work, I couldn't socialise and I worst of all, I couldn't enjoy what should be a wonderful life with my wife and effusive nine-year-old son.
During that time, I didn't touch any work materials, didn't check my emails and didn't open parcels sent to me with things to review.
But I decided to try the Woojer Mat. It was, after all, supposed to help your physical and mental wellbeing, and I needed help with precisely those two things.
So, erm, has it helped?
Rolling it out, it's quite a bit more substantial than your average yoga or exercise mat, and the soft fabric lends itself more to mattress-topper comparisons than pilates applications. Located within that fabric, at strategically placed intervals, are several haptic OSCI motors, like those in the Vest 4, with a USB connector and switches at one end to plug it into an audio or video source.
Everything about the Woojer Mat exudes quality and comfort. The material is comfortable to the touch and doesn't cause skin irritation, even when working up a bit of a sweat. I've used it for gentle home exercise and pilates, and the only thing I have to be conscious of is stepping on the rumble motors. It's not perfect as an exercise mat, but it does a good enough job.
Where it comes fully into its own is in sensory enhancement, either when meditating to ambient music, or watching a movie on my laptop in bed. I say laptop in bed, because even though I can plug it into my TV, lying on the floor looking up at the telly is a bit... well, weird.
You can customise the intensity of the haptic response, so if you're watching an action movie you can dial it all the way up and the motors will rumble mightily during car chases, shootouts or space battle scenes (the lobby scene in The Matrix is something else with this thing plugged in, y'all).
More pertinent to me, though, is the more gentle end of the spectrum, as I have used the Mat a few times a week to just try and relax my body and mind, plugging it into my phone for some restorative music, whether sleep playlists, lo-fi beats or meditation-friendly sounds. The result is a fuller immersion into mental restoration than I think I've ever managed before, due to the gently enveloping sense of the physical feedback.
Now, in the interest of full honesty and disclosure and medical liability, I'm not exclaiming any real clinical physiotherapy benefits will automagically bestow themselves on you by lying on this mat for 30 minutes a day. I'm simply sharing my raw experience of using it, and as someone who is a tactile person, who responds to physical feedback and stimuli in an emotional way, I found it helped me focus and dedicate myself to my own journey back from illness. A journey I'm still on, by the way, and in the case of my depression, a journey I'll be on for the rest of my life.
It's not a cure, but it helps me, and specifically me, because your mileage may and will vary, when it comes to my own coping and recovery methods and mechanisms.
Plus it's really cool.
Price
Now, the Woojer Mat is marketed as 'affordable', but like our species' foremost physicists have so often pointed out, reality is relative. Because this thing is being sold for a cool £952 / $999 on Woojer's site as I write this.
If you can afford it, though, and you relate to my experience as someone who responds similarly to me to physical stimuli, and IF this thing can be durable (it still looks and works as new for me, after a few months with it), it will be worth the considerable outlay.
So should I buy one?
I was dubious when I started using the Woojer Mat, but I have been converted fully. My case is a specific one, though, to be fair. If you are looking for an immersive, therapeutic way to aid your physical and mental maintenance, you could do a lot worse than checking out this unique piece of kit.
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out of 10
The Woojer Mat is a spectacular, unique piece of tech. As most creatives will attest to, our world can be both wonderful and stressful to live in, so we look for ways to repair and maintain our bodies and minds. And for me and my very specific experience, the tactile, haptic and remarkably immersive Mat has been a fantastic addition to my wellbeing routine. It's not cheap, but if you can afford it, it could help a lot.
