Working out in the comfort of your own home is sometimes more convenient and it also gives you the freedom to work out anytime you want, so you can achieve that amazingly fit body without too much inconvenience with the best flooring for your home gym.
Home gyms are like no other room in your house – they need to be strong and resistant to damage, but also flexible enough to suit a variety of activities. Among the most important home gym requirements, you should always consider the most efficient flooring options. The floor is the most important piece in your home gym. It’s important to choose a floor that can protect both your joints and your subfloor from the demands of your fitness routine.
There is a wide variety of floor covering options available for your home gym. Often, picking out the right solution can seem like a difficult task. The right home gym floor can increase stability, reduce body impact, and boost plyometric power. It will also help keep your subfloor protected from scuffs, scratches, and cracks. The type of gym flooring you choose depends on a number of factors, from the type of workouts you engage in and various comfort levels. There are a number of flooring options to suit every active home gym inhabitant, from rubber to foam, as well as standard vinyl tiling. When choosing a surface, consider the space, the type of equipment you’ll need, and what exercises you’ll be performing.
Relatively inexpensive and just as easy to maintain, commercial carpet is a particularly appealing choice, while others prefer the softness and shock absorption of the aforementioned rubber and foam. All of the above materials come in a range of colors and textures, designed with durability and eye-appeal in mind.
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Best Flooring for Your Home Gym
Now to find a floor that is perfect for your workouts and looks great in your space considers the following options;
1. Rubber Gym Flooring
Rubber is the premier gym flooring option. While you have many choices when it comes to home gym flooring options, rubber is the most versatile, lending itself to just about any workout. It is also the most likely to protect your subfloor from the impact of heavy weights while you get swole.
Rubber flooring is strong, sturdy, and resilient, which makes it ideal for any type of exercise or equipment. Rubber gym flooring is available in tiles, rolls and mats. Each option has a wide range of thickness options to suit your needs. Although it may not always be the cheapest option, it does typically provide the best value. And you really can get a pretty darn affordable rubber gym floor for less than $30.
To make your space look sharp, you can choose between a wide variety of color and color fleck options. My gym uses the orange color fleck rolls to match their orange accent wall. You have lots of possibilities.
Rubber flooring can conveniently go right over a carpet and most other surfaces, so installation is quick and painless. Whether you choose tiles, rolls or mats, you can 100% install rubber flooring in your home gym without the help of an installation professional. Just make sure you have some swole friends to help if you choose rubber rolls because those bad boys get pretty heavy.
2. Foam Gym Flooring
Foam is the most comfortable, lightest (which makes it super portable) and affordable for floor-based workouts like yoga and pilates (or for your final resting place after death by burpees). Foam is great for bodyweight exercises and light workouts Excellent shock resistance makes foam great for workouts, but it lacks the support for heavyweights or equipment and can leave dents over time.
These are typically sold in interlocking tiles and mats. The tiles are most commonly referred to as soft tiles, foam tiles or puzzle lock tiles. As far as pricing goes, foam gym flooring is super affordable. If your tiles get dirty, just wipe them down with a damp cloth and they’ll look like new.
Foam tiles provide a safe surface for children, absorbing the shock of those learning-to-walk tumbles. Go ahead and make the most out of your space, using it as a home gym and play area.
Foam tiles are very sensitive to sharp ingredients you can easily puncture, cut or slice foam with sharp objects. That’s why we do not recommend walking on any type of foam flooring with high-heeled shoes.
3. Carpet Tile Gym Flooring
Carpet is the most popular floor-covering option in America. All-purpose, relatively inexpensive, comfortable to the touch, fairly easy to clean and maintain – carpet is an excellent home gym flooring solution. Carpet is also a favorite gym flooring option since it is a floor covering that the average home user completely understands and already knows how to take care of. Just like foam flooring, carpet tiles also provide a soft cushioned effect – making them ideal for body workouts.
Carpet provides good traction and stability for cardio workouts, and it will hold up against your weight training. It’s important to make sure you go with a commercially-rated carpet to ensure it can hold up to the abuse of your workouts. Regular cleaning is recommended to prevent bacteria and odors. One of the main drawbacks is that they will stretch over time.
Carpet is hit or miss with ease of installations. Interlocking and loose lay tile options can be done in a day, while broadloom carpets require a professional.
4. Turf Gym Flooring
Artificial turf is a great home gym flooring option for running, callisthenics, CrossFit and more. Turf floors allow you to transform your workout area into space where you can challenge yourself in various fun ways. From strength training and conditioning to yoga and stretching, you can reach your full potential in your workouts with a safe and resilient surface beneath you.
Gym turf is a durable and long-lasting option that is perfect for pulling or pushing sledges, completing your CrossFit WOD or performing HIIT workouts, here is our best pick of Turf Gym flooring from amazon for less than $35 per lock
While its sound-absorbing qualities make it perfect for weight lifting and high-intensity work, the softness of the artificial grass provides an inviting space for your yoga mat. Take advantage of the flat, cushioned surface for body-weight work and stretching.
If bad weather hits, take your workout inside while still getting the safety benefits of grass. Gym turf products make a great surface for speed and agility training because they’re made to absorb impact, helping to prevent athletic injuries.
While indoor sports turf is most common in commercial gyms, it’s also a great option for sharp and functional home gyms.
5. Vinyl Gym Floor Tiles
Vinyl is a practical choice for flooring because it can stand up to the abuse of a home gym yet still be comfortable and chic for a living space. It’s mold, mildew, and moisture resistant, making it perfect for basements. Vinyl can even handle harsh cleaning chemicals to wipe up all your blood, sweat, and tears. They are ultra-durable, specially designed to hold up to the weight of heavy vehicles. It’s especially great for a multi-use garage that you plan to use for both your vehicle and working out. Vinyl flooring is easy to clean. Just a mild soap and water cleaning solution will do the trick. They are made to withstand oil and other car chemicals so they do not stain or damage easily. Vinyl floor is durable and easy to install, vinyl floor tiles are mould-resistant.
6. Wood Flooring
Wood flooring can give your home gym a professional look and is suitable for almost any type of exercise. Wood is more shock absorbent and fitness-friendly. But it can scratch and splinter if weights are dropped too hard.
While wood can be really attractive, it is not ideal for floor-based workouts, it can also become slippery from excessive sweat. For those into aerobic exercise, kickboxing, or dancing like nobody’s watching, a wood floor can be a stunning addition to any workout space. Durable in nature, this makes wood suitable for heavy-duty equipment and it will promise years of reliable service with the proper maintenance.
Why You Need to Get flooring for your Home Gym
There are three significant challenges that the floor of a home gym needs to address:
- First, many items in the room will be heavy. This is most obvious with weights – whose very purpose is to be heavy – but most of the exercise machines you can buy aren’t exactly light themselves. The flooring you choose needs to be strong enough to hold up under the weight… and for that matter, so does the part of the house beneath it. You may end up needing to reinforce the bottom of your home, regardless of the kind of flooring you get.
- Next, fitness machines can cause heavy impacts when they’re moved around. The difference here is the suddenness of the impact, as opposed to the long-term pressure of weights. If a floor can handle holding things but breaks the first time you drop something, it’s not good enough.
- Finally, many home gyms also involve close surface contact. Yoga, stretching, and other activities on the floor mean it needs to be comfortable to sit on despite being resistant to long-term pressure and sudden impacts.