Manduka Yoga Mat Reviews: PRO vs. PROlite vs. eKO Superlite
/Let the battle begin! With this week’s Manduka yoga mat reviews: I talk about the PRO vs. PROlite vs. eKO Superlite.
I review each of these 3 mats' pros and cons, including all the considerations you need to think of before you invest in your next yoga mat. Most importantly: why you'd wanna get either the Manduka PRO, PROlite or eKO Superlite versus a cheap PVC mat.
No time to watch this 14 minute review? Read the transcript below!
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, and welcome back to my channel. In this video, I’m gonna review 3 different yoga mats, all by the same maker, Manduka, and which one you might consider investing in: the Manduka PRO, PROlite or eKO SuperLite.
I’ll explain which of these mats would be most suitable to use at home, in the studio and for travel. Stick around till the end coz you’ll also get a 10% discount on all Manduka products. Because I love and highly recommend them.
If we haven’t met yet, Hi! I’m Jaime Tan at Enlightened Spoon. On this channel you’ll get yoga and meditation tips and practices just like today’s, and other times you’ll get nutrition, fitness and lifestyle tips… all tools to help you stress less, yet accomplish more. So hit that Like button and consider subscribing if you want more like this.
You might find this previous bedtime yoga helpful to wind down if you’ve been having trouble falling asleep recently, or this home office chair yoga during Zoom calls to stretch and release during your work day. So save both these videos for when you need them!
OK let’s get down to it.
My Yoga Experience
If you’re brand new to yoga, or have been doing more home-yoga recently #pandemic, you might be thinking of finally buying your own yoga mat. I’ve been practising yoga for more than 20 years now, and teaching since 2008, so I’ve tried and tested lots of different mats across different yoga studios around the world, but I always come back to my trusty old Manduka mats and I’ll tell you why I love them so much.
Before Buying, Consider These:
The main thing to consider is how much use and abuse this mat is going to take? You want to think of:
1. How often do you practice:
Once or twice a week? 5-6 times a week?
2. What style of yoga do you practice:
A vigorous ashtanga or vinyasa flow or less vigorous like Iyengar or Yin?
3. How sweaty do you get?
How much of a puddle you’re going to make on your mat can determine how slippery that mat is gonna get and hence your overall user experience.
Why Cheap PVC Mats Are Not Good
If you’re just starting out, you might be tempted to buy a cheap mat - that $20 - $30 PVC mat, and that might last you a year or so… but at some point, that cheap PVC mat is gonna start crumbling and leaving little bits of flakes all over you. And then you’re left with all these holes shredding through your mat. You might have experienced this at some yoga studios with older mats. Not very nice.
Not to mention how environmentally unsustainable it is to keep buying a new mat every other year or so. You might as well pay the money to invest in a solid mat, and you’ll never have to buy a new mat in your life again. Unless you’re me, and you find every excuse to buy yet another Manduka mat.
Why You Should Consider Manduka Mats
But this is essentially the premise of the Manduka PRO series mats, with lifetime guarantees. When I first started yoga 20 years ago, I had one of those cheap PVC mats, but then I started a 5-6 day a week ashtanga Mysore-style practice - which is very vigorous, lots of jumping back and jumping through… or in my case or especially when you’re starting out… shuffling back and shuffling through, so the mat starts to take a beating with all of that friction.
So I switched to the Manduka, they called it the “Rolls Royce of yoga mats” back in the day because of its solid construction, and I’ve never looked back. My yoga practice has evolved from practising and teaching ashtanga yoga to vinyasa, hot, yin and yoga nidra. They’re all varied styles, but essentially I need a durable mat, with thick enough cushioning, and because I get ultra-sweaty when I practice, it needs to be able to hold up without me slipping and sliding all over the mat.
Because I travel a lot too, either for my advertising producing job on shoots (well back in the day when we were traveling) or to yoga and meditation retreats, I sometimes also need a light and versatile mat. So you’ll see why there’s some method to my madness of why I own so many Manduka mats.
Over here we have the PRO and PROlite mats - which are basically the same material, but it’s a different thickness in the mat. I’m not gonna get into the technicalities of what it’s made of and how environmentally friendly it is - you can head on over to their website for all of that info. I’m just interested in the user experience.
PRO Mat: Pros (haha)
I like this because of its thickness - 6mm thick! When we talk about cushioning, we tend to think of it as a bouncy feel. But with a yoga practice, you don’t actually want a lot of bounce in your mat as that will make standing poses a lot more difficult. This is why Pilates mats are not good for yoga. They’ve got way more cushioning which you’ll need for Pilates core floor work, but they’re terrible for a yoga practice.
For yoga, you actually need a solid feel in the surface beneath you, but the floor’s too hard, so you actually need a firm solid base, that’s also got a slight cushion to it. It’s one of those things that’s difficult to put into words, but once you step on a Manduka Pro mat, you’ll get it. Like… Ohhhhhh. It’s 6mm thick, but Solid, firm yet kinda cushioned at the same time.
It’s also got an amazing grip to it. In downward dog, your hands and feet simply stay in place. With some of the cheaper mats, you end up constantly having to slide the hands or feet back to where they should be, and that distraction takes you out of that moment in your practice.
I get really sweaty in my practice, but I haven’t found this to affect the grip. I know some other sweaty yogis where this isn’t the case, so this might vary from person to person. I practice with a yoga mat towel at times - and I’ll do another review on Manduka’s Equa mat towels in my next video so stick around for that, but the towel’s really there to - sounds gross - but if I’m honest… soak up the sweat. I don’t get a good grip with a towel on the mat, but some other people do, and love it. So try what works for you.
With any new mat, you’ll need to wash it with soap and water to remove the slippery film in the manufacturing process, so do that with your new Manduka. It could help to make it less slippery when you first use it.
Oh and that’s the other thing that I love about this mat too - it’s a closed-cell mat, which basically means it doesn’t absorb any water when you wash it, and dries a lot faster. Most of the cheaper PVC mats are open-cell mats, and basically they act like a giant sponge and it’s ultra gross coz when you wash them, you end up squeezing out tons and tons of soap and water and wondering when it’s gonna stop. And if you think about it from a hygiene point-of-view when you’re sweating all over the mat and if it’s open-cell and absorbs all that sweat over time… then yuck, that’s super gross.
PRO Mat: Cons
Basically - there are 2 main cons: it’s heavy and it’s expensive.
It’s about 3.5 kilograms, or 7.5 pounds in weight. This mama is HEAVY AF. And not something you wanna be lugging around town or traveling with. If you’re only planning on a home yoga practice, without moving the mat anywhere, then this is perfect. This is what I use at home.
It’s the most expensive mat in the Manduka line-up, but it’s also their flagship original mat. I’ve honestly had this one for more than a decade and look how fresh and new it still looks. Plus - there’s a lifetime guarantee, so it kinda pays for itself over your lifetime. There used to be a cloth sticker logo in the corner when they used to do those, but that’s fallen off over time.
If you’re interested and cost is a consideration, you can use my my promo code ENLIGHTENEDSPOON for a 10% discount on the Manduka site. I think it might only be UK and EU for now - but hey if you’re in the US do me a favour and let me know if this code also works on the US site. Manduka USA - sort me and my American followers out!
PROlite: Pros
All of the pros for the Pro mat are the same on the PROlite. Frankly, the only difference is the thickness. This one is 4.5mm thick vs. 6mm thick on the Pro… which also means this one is much lighter at around 1.8 kilograms or 4 pounds in weight.
Does the marginal difference in thickness affect performance? In all honesty, not really. This is my go to “work horse” yoga mat. I bring it to the studio with me, I take it traveling… and even though at 1.8 kilos it’s not the lightest mat, but it’s a lot more travel-friendly than the Pro is. I often fold it in a quarter so I can pack it flat in a carry-on, and it works just fine.
I have to say the extra 1.5mm on the other Pro mat does give it just that little bit more of a luxe feel… and in yin yoga poses where you have to hold poses for a long time, it’s a lot easier on the knees. With this ProLite, I find I sometimes have to fold the mat over for some extra knee support (I have dodgy knees).
The other pro with BOTH the Pro and PROlite is the huge range of colours you get. This is why I have 2 Pro mats and 2 ProLites even though I don’t need so many mats. Once upon a time I loved the red, but then I moved into a blue phase. So… colour!
PROlite: Cons
Can’t really think of any… it might still be slightly too heavy or too expensive for some people - but I’ve got one more mat for your consideration if weight is the issue. And if cost is the issue, then hey, use my 10% promo code. Like it? Then like this video!
What are you thinking so far - the Pro? The PROlite? Tell me in the comments below which of these 2 you’re thinking of and why? But wait there’s one more!
eKO SuperLite: Pros
I wouldn’t really call this one a mat. It’s more of a “skin”. It’s 1mm thin - so this is both its pro and its con.
If the PROlite is still too heavy for you at 1.8 kilograms, then this Eko SuperLite at 900 grams or 2 pounds is mega light. It’s easy to fold even smaller to pack lighter when you’re traveling. But to be honest, I would find this really uncomfortable to practice on, on its own.
How I use this is on the days where I don’t feel like lugging a huge yoga mat around town with me or even when I’m traveling and wanna reduce my carry-on weight even more, I chuck this eKO SuperLite in my bag and if I end up at a yoga studio, I can use one of their rental mats and place this as a skin on top of it.
I dunno about you, but studio mats really gross me out. I mean especially in this current climate when you just have no idea who else has been sweating and breathing all over it. Having a physical barrier between the icky rental mat and my bare feet makes me feel a lot more comfortable.
The other pro is that it’s made of all natural rubber - so it’s environmentally friendly.
eKO SuperLite: Cons
Similarly this is also its con. If you’re traveling and you only bring this with you and you’re not going to a yoga studio with rental mats, it might not make for a super comfortable practice, especially if your joints need a little bit more cushion and support. It’s basically you and the floor - that 1mm of rubber isn’t really doing much except for a bit of grip, maybe.
One of the other cons is also that it’s all natural rubber, which means it doesn’t actually last. As you can see here - this mat is wearing out already, and I don’t even use this one all that much.
Manduka also makes this eKO series of natural rubber mats in thicker versions the eKO and eKOLite. Kinda like the natural rubber versions of the Pro and ProLite… I had an eKOLite once upon a time, but it disintegrated with heavy use with a 5-6 day ashtanga Mysore practice at the time, so it’s really not a mat I’d recommend.
I love the Pro series, not such a fan of the eKO series, and only love the eKO SuperLite for a very specific reason: This SuperLite is great for less frequent, less vigorous use, for when you need a good skin on top of a studio rental mat.
Final Thoughts:
If you’re only looking to buy ONE mat, and it needs to be versatile and mobile, I’d get the PROlite.
If you’re never looking to leave the house for your yoga practice, then the Pro is a great deluxe feel that you’ll be happy practicing on at home, forever.
If you want to supplement either of these choices with a thin skin for an even more mobile travel mat, then I’d throw in the eKo SuperLite as an addition too.
Use My 10% Manduka Promo Code!
Get all of these mats with a 10% discount with my promo code ENLIGHTENEDSPOON on eu.manduka.com - I help you with a sweet deal, Manduka gives me back a little sweet deal. So we both get the sweet deals and build a stronger practice while we’re at it. WIN-WIN! Go on and hit that like button if you like them sweet deals.
Stay tuned for my next video where I’ll talk about yoga mat towels and which one might be right for you. Subscribe to this channel to find out why you might need a yoga mat towel!
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like, and check out my other videos for more nutrition, fitness and lifestyle tips on how to flow through your busy life with more grace, ease and flow, and I’ll see you in the next one!
Need More Help?
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