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

The PRO Long is 85″ × 26″. The Big Mat is 84″ × 28″. They cover almost the same amount of floor in different proportions, one an inch longer and the other two inches wider.

The interesting differences are underneath. One is dense PVC built to outlast a decade of practice; the other is coated rubber built to handle sweat and double as a floor-training surface.

The standard Manduka PRO scored 91 out of 100, first of 19 mats, with perfect 10s for comfort and support and for materials, 9 dry grip and 7 wet, plus the award for a daily practice.

The standard Lululemon The Mat scored 81, also with a perfect 10 for comfort and support, but 7 for materials, 6.5 dry grip and 4.5 wet, and it took the award for mixed fitness routines. Both of the oversized mats on this page are those same mats in bigger cuts.

Lululemon’s polyurethane top absorbs some sweat rather than letting it film over, which sounds like it should win the wet column outright. GearLab measured it 4.5 out of 10 wet against the PRO’s 7, and 6.5 dry against the PRO’s 9.

The catch is timing. Those PRO numbers are for a broken-in mat, and a new one is slick for a few weeks. The Big Mat grips from the first unroll. So the coated mat wins the first month and loses every month after it.

The Big Mat is the wider one by two inches, and width is what most people notice: wide-legged forward folds, side angle poses, anywhere your hands land outside your shoulders. Twenty-eight inches is unusually generous.

The PRO Long is the longer one by an inch and is one of the longest mats anyone sells at 85 inches. On raw area the Big Mat is slightly ahead, 2,352 square inches to 2,210, which is close enough that the shape matters more than the total.

9.5 pounds against 7.1. Neither of these travels anywhere, and both are the kind of mat that lives unrolled in a room or gets driven to the studio.

The PRO’s mass is part of the point: it plants itself and never bunches mid-flow. The Big Mat is lighter by two and a half pounds, which at this end of the scale is the difference between awkward and very awkward.

Both earned a perfect 10 from GearLab for comfort and support in their standard sizes, which is worth pausing on: two mats with different materials and thicknesses landing at the same top mark. Both get there through density rather than softness.

The PRO’s extra millimeter shows in long kneeling holds. Neither is a plush mat, and if padding under your knees is the thing you are missing, both of these are the wrong direction.

Manduka’s guarantee works out to roughly ten years of regular use with one replacement, proof of purchase from an authorized seller required, and Amazon counts only when the mat is sold and shipped by Amazon. GearLab has found PRO mats still going after twenty years.

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 accelerate it. Lululemon’s Quality Promise carries no stated term at all.

The Big Mat is reversible, and the textured rubber underside is the reason GearLab gave the standard version its mixed fitness award. Flip it for anything that would grind a coated surface: floor weights, trainers, dragging a kettlebell over a corner.

The PRO has a dot-pattern grip underside meant for the floor rather than for practice. It handles other training fine, being near-indestructible PVC, but it is a yoga mat first and does not offer a second surface.

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

The PRO Long comes in around five colorways at $164 and does sell on Amazon, where it gets discounted. Buy it sold and shipped by Amazon if the guarantee is part of the reason you are paying that.

Buy the PRO Long if you want the higher-scoring mat and one purchase for the decade. It tested ten points better overall and, once broken in, better in both grip columns. The cost is $36, two and a half pounds, and a few slippery weeks at the start.

Buy the Big Mat if you want the two extra inches of width, grip from day one, or a surface that handles lifting as well as yoga. It is the easier mat to live with and the shorter-lived one. If 85 inches is not the point, the standard 71″ Mat at $118 is the cheaper way into the same surface.