When it comes to choosing a floor covering for your commercial, personal or home gym, you can’t beat rubber matting. Let’s take a look at this fantastic, versatile material and what makes rubber matting the gym floor of choice.
Table of Contents
How Is Rubber Matting Used?
Rubber Matting Forms
Rubber Matting Types
Rubber Matting Benefits
Where can you use Rubber Matting?
Summary
What Is Rubber Matting?
Rubber matting at its most simple is a rubber floor covering designed to give the best levels of grip, support and cushioning for high impact activities. By definition this makes rubber matting the perfect choice for most gyms and sports halls.
Rubber matting comes in many forms, constructions and styles. You need to know what activities will be performed on your gym floor to determine what type of rubber matting is right for your application.
In this guide we will look at the most common uses of rubber matting, the different forms and styles of rubber flooring and the benefits of rubber matting for any fitness space.
How Is Rubber Matting Used?
Rubber matting is used to serve several purposes in gyms and sports halls. Rubber matting protects the underlying floor of the facility, provides comfort and safety for gym users and reduces the noise or vibration that may affect neighbouring buildings.
Floor Protection
Gym equipment is heavy and has sharp edges and abrasive surfaces. Rubber matting protects the underlying floor from being gouged, scuffed or cracked from use or accidental drops.
Comfort & Safety
High intensity workouts and sports training puts the human body under pressure. Rubber matting provides a safe and comfortable surface that reduces the impact on joints and provides a non-slip surface for sure footing during exercise.
Repetitive exercise on hard surfaces like hardwood, concrete or linoleum tile can cause joint damage over time. Rubber matting not only provides a comfortable surface to exercise on, it also prevents injuries and accidents. Rubber matting with its naturally textured surface provides grip for high impact aerobic activities and prevents fatigue and injury by reducing the impact during high intensity workouts.
It also keeps gym equipment in place so you don’t get injured from slipping or unstable machines.
Sound & Vibration Reduction
Gyms are noisy places. There’s the clanging and crashing of heavy metal weights being dropped onto the weight rack or floor. There’s the chatter of voices, shouting and the music for dance routines and fitness classes blasting at full volume. All these noises can be a disturbance to neighbouring businesses or for those trying to do something different in the same space.
Rubber matting is a great sound and vibration dampener so gym users can focus on their workout without worrying about disturbing others. In multi-use facilities soundproof rubber matting allows a full weight room to operate next to a dance or fitness class space without one activity disturbing the other.
Rubber Matting Forms
Rubber matting comes in many forms for many uses. For example rubber matting can be purchased in large rolls for underlayment or as flooring for gyms and industrial areas.
Rubber matting rolls are best for areas with a lot of square footage to cover, facilities that need maximum soundproofing and cushioning and facilities looking for the most economical and effective flooring solution. Rolled rubber matting is great for covering large areas but may not be thick enough for high impact activities or heavy equipment as it comes in less dense options.
Individual rubber mats come in various sizes and thicknesses so you can choose the right rubber matting for your application. Because rubber mats can be laid on top of most solid floor surfaces you can buy only what you need for your specific activity. Individual rubber mats are good for applications that require thick or heavy duty matting in a localised area. You can place individual mats under equipment or in a weight lifting area. Rubber mats are the most versatile and often the most protective of the rubber flooring options.
Click-together interlocking rubber matting tiles are great for multi-use fitness facilities. These tiles come with connection pieces or have a jigsaw profile that slot together. They provide extra stability and makes installation much easier and faster to do.
Rubber Matting Types
Here are a few of the most common ones:
1. Interlocking Tiles
These are the most popular because they offer many benefits. They are easy to install and can be done by anyone with basic DIY skills. They come in many styles from dynamic self-locking gym tiles and outdoor gym tiles with locking pins to puzzle tiles that are pre-cut to slot together by pushing into place.
2. Rubber Gym Rolls
Rolled rubber is another popular option and is used in commercial gyms and other fitness facilities. This type of matting comes in various thicknesses so you can choose the one that suits your needs. It’s also very easy to install as you just roll it out onto the floor.
One of the biggest benefits of gym rubber flooring rolls is that it’s very durable and can take a lot of punishment. It’s also slip resistant so great for areas with high moisture. Likewise, rubber roll matting is a low maintenance material requiring very little cleaning or upkeep.
Customer Insight:
“we chose rolled rubber flooring for our large basement gym. It was easy enough to sheet the floor with minimal cutting. I love the look of the installed flooring and can’t recommend it high enough”
3. Rubber Flooring Tiles
Rubber flooring tiles are a popular choice for gyms as they offer many of the same benefits as rolled rubber.
Rubber flooring tiles are very durable and slip resistant plus they come in very thick options designed for heavy weightlifting and olympic lifting. The best thing about gym mats is that they come in a variety of thicknesses so you can choose the best density to suit your activity.
4. Foam Tiles
Foam tiles are a popular choice for MMA Studios, Boxing Gyms and Playrooms as they offer a soft, cushioned surface. They are also very easy to install and can be done by anyone with basic DIY skills.
Cushioned foam tiles come in many colours and thicknesses to suit the level of density and cushioning needed for example, a thicker, high density foam mat is needed for MMA training and boxing. These types of sports require high impact protection with excellent foothold and foam matting delivers this support.
Rubber Matting Benefits
When looking for new flooring material, you need to consider all the benefits each option offers. For example, rubber matting is great for commercial and industrial applications because it has many benefits that other materials can’t match. Here are a few of the advantages of rubber matting:
- Durability: Rubber is a very durable material that can take a lot of punishment. Great for high traffic areas where flooring will get a lot of abuse.
- Slip Resistance: Rubber has natural slip resistance so great for areas with high footfall. This can help prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace.
- Sound Absorption: Rubber is a great sound absorber so good for many applications. For example, rubber flooring can reduce noise in gyms, warehouse spaces and industrial settings.
- Easy to Maintain: Rubber matting is easy to clean and maintain so saves time and money longterm.
- Cost Efficient: Rubber matting is a very cost effective flooring option compared to alternative floor materials.
Where can you use Rubber Matting?
Summary
Your gym floor is one of the most important parts of your facility. It has to take a lot of punishment and provide a safe and comfortable surface for your members.
Rubber matting is one of the best floor options for gym's and fitness facilities because of it's resilience and ability to withstand high levels of impact while protecting the user from injury. It is also an excellent choice for other applications such as industrial buildings and play areas because of it's natural slip resistance and low maintenance.
From versatility to impressive durability, it is clear why rubber matting is the go-to option for fitness environments as well as spaces that require additional protection and high comfort.
Explore our wide choice of rubber matting for Home Gym Flooring and commercial applications.
