Manduka Begin vs Lululemon The (Big) Mat 5mm: Which One Should You Buy?

The Begin is 68″ × 24″ and 2.5 pounds, the lightest and shortest mat Manduka makes. The Big Mat is 84″ × 28″ and 7.1 pounds, the largest thing Lululemon sells.

Sixteen inches of length, four of width, nearly three times the weight, and $66. This is less a question of which mat is better than of how much floor you have and what you want to do on it.

Room to move sideways, room to lie down at any height, and room for a second person or a dog to be on the mat without either of you adjusting. At seven feet long nobody is finishing savasana on the floorboards.

It also covers most of a small room’s usable floor, which cuts both ways. Rolled, it is a thick heavy cylinder that does not tuck behind a door, and clearing that much space before every session is a real daily cost in a flat.

Sixty-eight inches is four shorter than the common 72, and Manduka sells the Begin in one size. Above roughly five foot eight your heels or your head end up off it in savasana, and a long lunge puts your back foot on the floor.

If you like the Begin’s price bracket but need length, the Manduka X is 71 inches for $72. There is no bigger Begin at any price.

The Big Mat’s top layer is polyurethane over natural rubber, and it takes some moisture into the surface rather than leaving it as a film. GearLab measured the standard 71 inch version of that mat at 6.5 out of 10 dry and 4.5 wet, which is mid-pack rather than exceptional.

The Begin’s TPE is closed-cell and absorbs nothing at all, so once your palms are damp there is nowhere for the sweat to go. Dry, in a cool room, both are fine. For a genuinely sweaty practice, both want a towel.

GearLab gave the standard version of the Lululemon mat a perfect 10 for comfort and support, which comes from density rather than plushness. It does not deflect under a standing foot, and it protects a knee by not letting it reach the floor.

The Begin’s soft-touch TPE has more give and a little bounce. That is gentler under a kneecap and less stable in balance poses. Neither mat is thick; if you want padding, you want 6 mm or more from a different part of the market.

2.5 pounds against 7.1. The Begin goes anywhere, including in a suitcase. The Big Mat is a piece of equipment for one room, and anyone who has carried seven pounds of rubber a few blocks knows how that ends.

The alignment stripe on the Begin is a second travel-friendly touch for a new practitioner: it is printed help you carry with you rather than something you get from the class you are missing.

The Big Mat’s polyurethane top is a coating, and owners of the standard version commonly report flaking or peeling after a couple of years of heavy use. Harsh cleaners and soaking make it worse, so a damp cloth and a mild spray is the routine.

TPE dents and flakes on a similar or shorter schedule, and the Begin’s printed stripe fades over the same years. Lululemon’s Quality Promise carries no stated term and Manduka gives the Begin 30 day returns. Neither is a decade mat.

Lululemon sells the Big Mat through its own stores and website only, at $128, in black. No Amazon listing, no marketplace sellers, no sale to wait for.

The Begin is $62 in about ten colorways and you can check its current price at Amazon, where it discounts by colorway. If you want a Lululemon mat at a normal size, The Mat is 71″ × 26″ at $118.

The Big Mat pairs FSC certified natural rubber with a polyurethane top. The FSC mark covers how the rubber is sourced, which is a real certification rather than a badge, and it also means the mat does not suit anyone with a latex allergy.

The Begin is TPE made in Taiwan, with no latex and no PVC in it and no certification behind it. For a latex-sensitive household that settles this page before anything about size comes into it.

Smell follows the same split. Natural rubber has a strong first few weeks, which the polyurethane layer mutes considerably, and the Begin’s TPE is milder still. Either way, leave the mat unrolled somewhere ventilated before you judge it.

Buy the Begin if you are starting out, short on space, or carrying the mat to classes. Sixty-two dollars is the right amount to spend before you know whether the habit holds, and the alignment stripe gives you something to work against in the meantime.

Buy the Big Mat if you are tall, if you have a room to give it, or if you are tired of stepping off the edge in wide stances. It is a serious mat for a settled practice, and it costs twice as much for reasons that have more to do with size than with grip.