8 Best Hot Yoga Mats in 2025 from Lululemon, Manduka

Holding asanas in a heated class can be tricky, especially when you’re dealing with clingy clothes and sweat stinging your eyes—which is why using the best mat for hot yoga is essential to keeping you stable and safe. The ideal pick will help you feel “zoned in on your practice to the point where you’re not focusing on your mat,” Erin Archibald, a registered yoga instructor formerly with CorePower Yoga in Denver, tells SELF.

But shopping for a mat that doesn’t slip or bunch up as you move and perspire isn’t as simple as grabbing the first option you find. To help you track down the right hot yoga mat for your practice, we spoke with instructors, trainers, and SELF staffers. Shop our firm, supportive, and highly grippy favorites below.

Our top picks

1. Best Overall: Lululemon The Mat 5mm, $98
2. Most Cushioned: Manduka Pro, $138
3. Grippiest: JadeYoga Harmony Mat, $92
4. Best Budget Pick: Gaiam Cork Yoga Exercise Mat, $32
5. Best for Heavy Sweaters: Manduka GRP Adapt Yoga Mat 5mm, $94
6. Best for Travel: Manduka eKO Superlite Travel Yoga Mat, $52
7. Most Durable: JadeYoga Elite S Mat, $130
8. Best for Alignment: Liforme Yoga Mat, $150

Shop the best hot yoga mats

Feel more confident in class with one of these expert-approved mats underneath your feet.

Best Overall: Lululemon The Mat 5mm

A favorite among many of the experts we spoke to, this 2022 SELF Home Fitness Award winner has a rubber base and a grippy top layer to keep you grounded. Plus, it’s sweat-absorbing: “I always feel very stable and rooted when I’m practicing on a Lulu mat,” says Archibald, who has been using hers for years.

If you alternate between vinyasa and hot yoga, you’ll love The Mat’s reversible design—you can choose to use the high-traction side or the more cushioned side, depending on the class you’re in. It’s even sturdy enough for other activities, like HIIT workouts, Sarah Larson Levey, a registered yoga instructor and cofounder of Y7 Studio in New York City, tells SELF. That makes it a great pick for yogis who want the most bang for their buck too.

Need a thinner surface for even more stability? There’s also a 3mm option available.

Most Cushioned: Manduka Pro

This SELF Home Fitness Award–winning mat comes in two sizes and is “very grippy, supportive, and stable,” Archibald says. The closed-cell construction seals out moisture and bacteria, making it easy to wipe down and disinfect.

Slightly thicker than Lululemon’s The Mat at six millimeters, the Manduka Pro is great for folks wanting extra cushioning for their joints. And if the slightly higher price point makes you hesitate, it could be worth the investment if you flow on a regular basis—the Manduka Pro comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Grippiest: JadeYoga Harmony Mat

While all of the mats on this list have good traction, the Harmony Mat has a unique texture that our experts confirm sets it apart from the pack. Described by Levey as “wonderful,” this natural rubber mat provides plenty of cushioning. Archibald finds it to be very grippy and incredibly supportive, and she likes the porous, sweat-absorbing surface. It provides a “grittier” feel compared to other mats, she says, which can increase the mat’s friction.

The one downside: It can be tricky to clean. “It’s definitely not something that you can just wipe down with a towel,” Levey says. To thoroughly sanitize it, she recommends using JadeYoga’s mat cleaner.

Best Budget Pick: Gaiam Cork Yoga Exercise Mat

“Cork is a natural and non-slip surface that responds even better when wet, which means you’re safe to sweat,” Talon Jacquelyn, a registered yoga teacher and meditation coach at Talon J Yoga, tells SELF. “It dries quickly too.”

This super lightweight, sub-$50 cork yoga mat from Gaiam is five millimeters thick with a base coated in thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), so it won’t shift around on the floor underneath you. One thing to note is that cork has a firmer feel than rubber, so if you prefer an ultra-cushy mat, this might not be the best option for you.

Best for Heavy Sweaters: Manduka GRP Adapt Yoga Mat 5mm

This high-quality Manduka mat wins points from Jacquelyn for being “extremely sturdy,” no matter how much you sweat. The material allows moisture to pass through the top layer of the mat to the foam interior, making it majorly absorbent. “On most yoga mats, my hands slip in a hot class. My Manduka mat has a great grip that helps me stay stable from downward facing dog to handstands and beyond,” Mallory Fox, MS, DHSc, a NASM-certified master trainer, tells SELF.

Sara Coughlin, SELF’s senior commerce writer, has and loves this yoga mat for sweaty sessions (“which,” she says, “for me, is most sessions”), especially ones that involve a lot of floor poses. It’s extremely well-padded for how sturdy and supportive it is, which helps her feel grounded yet comfy when she pushes up into wheel pose.

Best for Travel: Manduka eKO Superlite Travel Yoga Mat

Manduka’s ultra-thin travel mat will help you stretch out and recharge after cramped flights and drives. It folds down to a tidy rectangle, so you don’t have to wrestle a rolled-up mat into your duffel. “I cannot believe how easily this mat packs away,” Coughlin says. “I can slip it into pretty much any carry-on or weekender, and basically forget it’s there until I want to break it out for a hotel room flow.”