Customer Reviews

Manduka BlackMatPRO 85-Inch Yoga and Pilates Mat

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I obsessed about whether to purchase the regular size Manduka or the longer 85" model. I am only 5'9" tall and was told by almost everyone that unless you are 6' tall or over you don't need the longer mat. Besides, the longer model is "so" heavy. As usual, I went my own way and purchased the longer mat and am glad I did. I love the longer mat. First of all, when I am completely stretched out on my stomach, my entire body is on the mat, face, hands and feet--not on the floor. I like the balanced feeling of every part of me being on the mat. Also, when I do my various asanas, I can now start in different spots on the mat and therefore put less wear and tear on the same spots. Second, I am afraid I don't understand the "weight" issue? The 71 inch model weighs 6.5 pounds, this one weights 9 pounds. For me that's not much of a difference, especially since I am only carrying the mat from the parking lot to the yoga room, not backpacking across India. Most of the time the mat is at home anyway.

As far as the Manduka mat in general, I have used two other mats and this one provides a lot more support. I find it to be very dense and firm, with just enough tactile feeling. And, the mat does not move around on me. I really like that. My yoga teacher said this was the best mat around.I am glad I listened to her sage advice.

Joe Drew (Kent, Ohio)

$85 for a yoga mat? Like most of you, I had the same reaction, but it is one of the best investments I've ever made. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but the best always is -- and this mat is clearly the best. That's why your instructor uses one. You won't believe how much better your poses and jump-backs will be until you try it on this extremely supportive surface. It's well padded, but firm -- never squishy -- so your stability is excellent; and its surface relies on texture, not stickiness, to ensure superb grip, even when sweaty.

I also highly recommend the 85-inch length. I am not a tall person (at 5' 10", I am exactly average), but I love the extra length. I no longer ever find myself having to readjust a pose because I didn't start in exactly the right spot on the mat. It is a bit heavier (9 lbs.), but so what. It's exercise.

Now let me make a case for why this mat is actually a good value:

I have only been practicing yoga for a year (three 1-hour classes a week), and in that time I have purchased two mats for $30 each. One I've already worn out (material broke down from use) and the second one is on its way to wearing out. If I buy a third $30 mat I am now up to $90 in just over a year. The Manduka mat will last a lifetime and will make your practices better. And at $85, it's cheaper than any single club in my golf bag (and I carry 14 of those). So my opinion is: suck it up and spend the money. It only hurts for a minute and you'll forget all about it the first time you step onto this mat!

When I used lighter, less dense mats they would sometimes bunch up or move around during flowing vinyasa practice. If my toe caught the mat, the edge would flip over and require adjustment. Also, they did not cushion very well. In addition, lesser mats wore out quickly and had to be replaced. When doing poses like the side-arm balance, my foot would slip off the end of the regular length mat and I would fall out of the pose.

With the extra-long manduka mat, none of these issues is a problem. The mat is solid and dense, and stays put on the floor no matter what I do. It cushions really well, but because it is so dense it is no problem to balance or move on the mat (not mushy). I have used these mats intensively for several years and they still look great. Durability is outstanding, and they show no signs of wearing out. The extra length allows me to move with confidence, knowing I won't run out of room or slip off the mat. An additional benefit of the long mat is that it allows you to change your starting position on the mat somewhat, so that the small area worn by your feet is not the same every practice. In other words, you can spread the wear over a larger area to make it last even longer. The surface is plenty sticky for normal yoga, and if you do a hot yoga class or sweat a lot you will likely want to have a towel anyway. No complaints about stickiness.

As for weight, it seems that if you are big enough to need an extra-long mat you are probably strong enough to carry it around. It's not heavy, it's the best yoga mat I've ever used.

Depending who you are (and perhaps more appropriately, how much you sweat), this mat may be the best thing or the worst. On the plus side, this mat is the most durable and stable of any mat I have tried, and I have been doing yoga for many years. Also, the bigger version at 85 inches gives you more room to work than almost any other mat on the market. Once you scrub the mat down with soap and water after you first get it (see other reviews), this mat is also sticky WHEN DRY. However, if you sweat and get the mat wet at all, it becomes VERY slippery. This has really been a problem for more rigorous vinyasa flows. You can buy a sticky towel to put on top of the mat to stop the slipping, but buying a towel for another $45 is hard to stomach after paying almost $100 for this mat. If you sweat, I would highly recommend the Jade yoga mats instead. They remain sticky when wet, but are less durable than the Manduka. Namaste.

I'm 6'6" 225 lbs. and have been doing yoga for a few years. This mat is nice and long as well as a little wider and thicker than the standard mat. Yes it's heavier than a standard mat and I found it to be unpleasantly slippery at first, but I recommend it highly. If you ever find yourself stacking one mat on top of another to get the padding you need, or running out of room on your mat, then please buy this mat now and you will thank yourself later.

Pros: Longer, thicker, wider

Cons: A bit expensive (I think it's worth it), slippery at first (goes away after a few classes).

NOTE: You might want to periodically roll the mat from a different end to get rid of the teacher-tripping curl that develops over time.

A great mat even though it is on the slightly heavyish side. So what, it's not THAT heavy. Slippery at first, that goes away. Bravo to Manduka for making this long mat which keeps my face away from the studio floor and my feet still on the mat.

Update: I really like this mat. It is living up to my expectations and allowing me to practice with more confidence. Balance poses are not an issue as the mat is dense enough and not squishy.

Update II: It's been about a year since I bought this mat. I practice 4 or more times a week and it's a vigorous Vinyassa practice. Not one mark on this mat, it's as pristine as the day I bought it. Others in my class have shredded their mats but this one looks and feels brand new. I am very hard on my mats and honestly, this one is so well made, there isn't any wear at all! The only gripe, and it's a tiny one, is that the Manduka label is coming off, now I won't be able to remember which end is which. I went through a Nike mat in 2 months. This was money well spent, I am very happy with this mat.

The 85" mat is probably best for 2 different situations: if you are tall like me (6'3") and you don't mind carrying some hefty extra weight around to class, or if you want to do yoga at home (or wherever) and you don't need to ever move this mat. It is heavy (like 10 lbs) because it is so dense - but that is a good thing! It is a solid mat in the sense that when you twist your feet your mat doesn't bunch up like thinner mats. It also gives you great padding for the hard floors. It is obscenely long - which gives you room to stretch out, and also has an additional advantage of giving you some extra space in a crowded studio - call me selfish but that's a nice bonus. It is very sticky unless you are really sweating, but at that point you would probably have a towel. I use this on carpet and hard floors and it works great in both cases. Yes, this mat is expensive, but didn't you just spend $100 on those shoes with the little shox on the back? You should consider your yoga mat just as important - and buy yourself the best!

I have been on the "Holy Grail", shall we say, of finding the perfect yoga mat. What is the perfect yoga mat, you ask? Well, in my perfect yoga mat world, my dream mat would be longer so you are always on the mat. It would have more height to it, so I don't have to fold mat over for knees. It wouldn't smell like a tire factory. IT WOULD BE SUPER STICKY so I didn't feel like I was practicing yoga on Crisco.

I have been through several models ranging from the "beginner" rental-like mats at the studio, and through a couple of Gaiams-which were the mid-priced models. My BIG problem is slippage-I sweat like a horse and can't find anything "sticky" enough. I read the reviews on Amazon, asked around the studio, and formulated my own conclusion to go ahead and order this one.

This mat is deeeeluxe. LOVE the length-one is always somewhere on this mat. Love the extra padding-no doubling up the mat on itself for knee issues. AND LOVE THE FACT that this mat has no odor.
Now for the stickiness/grip review: I didn't, and I should have, immediately scrubbed the mat with a mild soap, hosed it off, and let it air dry PRIOR to going to a very intense class! Yikes, I thought I was on ice. I fixed that by grabbing a rental mat from the studio, placed it over the Manduka, and had a really nice, sticky practice.
SO there is the rub- when you get the mat delivered, take some time to wash the face side (the mat has two sides. The floor side has rows of small circles or dots on it. The upside has the Manduka label on it, and looks more like a cross-hatching pattern) with some kind of soap. I went home and washed mine with liquid dishwashing detergent-I would have used Dr. Bronner's, but I was out. I did this with a washcloth and a soft brush. Then I hosed it off, and let it dry in the sun. It was primo sticky after that.
Why didn't I give it a full five stars? While I am fit enough to haul it around, this baby's weight is quite substantial. I am still sort of having this love/hate relationship with it-it seems to be sticky when I don't quite need it, and still a bit slippy when I need the traction. I have just learned that I need to bring a towel (rough, old hotel-style=awesome! NO laundry softener!) with me because, like I wrote, I sweat like a horse, and no mat is going to stand up to my specific physical issues or quirks. I have no regrets about the purchase of this mat, and glad I did.

For anyone tired of slipping around while in downdog, this is the mat you want. The thickness took some time to get used to because with thinner mats there is slippage that you can to your advantage such as when moving into cobra, and with the manduka you have to force yourself forward thus getting a better sweat because your not cheating anymore. Which you won't realize is cheating until you do cobra on this mat. The price intially may be a litte off setting, but it is sooooooooooo worth the price. I wish I had bought this mat sooner. I recommend the 85 inch to have room to move, I use the whole mat and I'm short. Do buy a sling or case since the mat weighs about ten pounds and it has to be rolled very tightly.

In many ways this is a nice yoga mat. It is built from a sturdy rubber. You can tell it won't disintegrate over time like most of my mats have. It has a nice weight and thickness providing good cushioning from any hard floor without being too spongy or floaty.

But my main reason for buying this mat was to reduce or eliminate slippage due to sweat. I generally do a pretty hardcore yoga session for about 1.5 hours and produce a decent amount of sweat. My hands and feet get sweaty and sweat drips off my torso onto the mat. My cheapo Target yoga mat is decent. It has a porous foam base to it and the sweat gets absorbed away from the surface.

The Manduka is clearly a closed pore rubber. There's no where for the sweat to go. It sits on top of the mat. And thus, no surprise, it's incredibly slippery. Ice skating rink slippery. I simply cannot hold moves and I have almost slipped and fallen as I was prepping for the starts of moves. It's a complete non-starter. Clearly others have run into this problem (just check out the 1 and 2 star reviews) but you also see it in some of the 5 star reviews if you look closely. One lady who gave the mat 5 stars admitted it was slippery but rationalized that it would make the yoga workout that much better.

But what really annoys me about this mat is the 'break-in' instructions. The mat, once shipped, needs to be cleaned of a film on the mat. The company has some instructions on their site and other people have commented on various techniques they've used. I followed the company's instruction. FIVE times. To no avail. But I have to ask. When I'm spending over $100 on a piece of rubber, why on earth am i, a Manduka mat novice, being asked to perform what obviously seems like a hit or miss break-in procedure of the mat? Why isn't the company doing this? The mat presumably lasts forever so what special property does this film have? It makes no sense. The company even sells a cleaning fluid. How about you just clean your mat before sending it to your customers. Doesn't that make sense?

At any rate. This is going back.