What To Put On Your Home Gym Floor – The Basement Warrior

When planning out your home work out space, you might be asking yourself “Do I need floor mats for my home gym?” Having the right floor mats should definately be considered and as well as being on top of your list to help you save money and headaches in the long run.

Having the right floor mats for your home gym that meets all your needs when working out, would not only protect your flooring and equipment but as well as your joints and body from any high intensity work out routine. Choosing the right Floor mats for your home gym would depend on the type of work outs you often do. Through my research i found that this process will help in finding the right floor mat you would need.

What is your workout routine?

First thing to consider is the types of work outs you will be doing in your home gym and how intensive it could become.

With Excercise routines that do not require you to do much heavy lifting or bouncing around your home gym. You would likely be able to get by with very inexpensive foam mats.

Although foam mats are a quick and easy solution. It does come with its own shortcomings. Depending on your existing flooring already, the foam tiles may shift and come apart easily after a few uses. Also because they are thin, absorbing impact and noise reduction is not ideal with foam mats.

Workouts that generally do not consist of any heavy weights or intense cardio. Opting for the interlocking foam mats should be plenty enough. However, as you expand your gym and introduce more work out routines and equipment, you would need to consider upgrading to a type of rubber mats.

Now if you’re planning on a more complete gym with heavy weights and HIIT type workouts. Rubber mats would be the clear option. Rubber mats come in a tile and rolled up format. Each with their own pros and cons. But first lets decide on how thick you would need it to be.

How thick should your rubber mats be?

Choosing the right rubber mat for the length and thickness, will help save you time and money in the long run. Not to mention the protection it brings from the wear and tear to your floors and body.

So how do you find the right rubber mats for your home gym?

From what i have found, the average thickness most buyers make for their home gym are 1/4” to 1/2” thickness. Within that thickness range, it is compatible with most common home gym setups.

When building your home gym, you’re likely going to have some type of heavy equipment or weights. If you already know you want gym equipment such as ellipticals, treadmills etc. Or you mostly use weights 75 pounds and under than 1/4″ thickness would be enough to protect your flooring and withstand the weight of the machines.

However, if you’re looking to build a full gym with heavier weights that are 100 pounds or more with multiple equipment. Padding on your floor would be needed to protect against the grind of consistent workouts.

Often big drops (of weights) whether intentional or accidental, could cause extreme damage to your existing floor with out proper protection.

Not to mention the accumulative total weight from all the accessories. If this sounds more like something you will be getting into then ideally you will be looking at 1/2″ – 1” thickness of rubber mats.

Having the right thickness also absorbs and “deadens” the sound of clanging iron.

So now that you figured out your thickness, what types of mats are there?

Types of Rubber Mats

Rubber Stall Mats (Horse Stall Mats)

Rubber stall mats also known as Horse stall mats are designed for horse stalls. Many home gym enthusiasts have grown to love this option more because of the value you get for your dollar. Horse Stall mats are made of recycled rubber and because of the nature of their intended use, they generally are thicker (about 3/4”). A common complaint regarding these is that they have generally thick rubber smell.

Tiled Rubber Mats

This option is great for ease of installation. A gym that is modest in size would really benefit from this option, Cutting and installing pieces to fit your gym floor would be easier this way as you only have to deal with pieces of tiles. Options of interlocked tiles would also be great as you can complete the gym as if it were just a puzzle.

Rolled Rubber Mats

Rolled rubber mats is perfect for a larger gym. Cover the floor would be more simple then installing rubber tile piece by piece. And generally you could get the exact or close enough cut to fill the space you need. Also, because they are longer pieces, you can expect your work out floor to be more stable and not as shifty if you were to use tiles.

Something to remember is that these mats are rubber! The larger amount you purchase increases the amount of weight and price. Be sure to have a strategy mapped out before transporting the mats from the store to your home gym.

Conclusion

Its not about if you need floor mats for your gym or not, its which type would suit your needs best. Having the best mats will in turn give you a better experience as well as less issues down the road.