
How Thick Should Gym Flooring Be?
How Thick Should Gym Flooring Be? People are increasingly taking advantage of the opportunity to have a home gym. A home gym gives you freedom
People are increasingly taking advantage of the opportunity to have a home gym. A home gym gives you freedom and flexibility in terms of how you work out, it’s private, your entire family can enjoy it, and it becomes an amenity. You’re also saving time and making it easier for yourself to complete your workouts every day. With that in mind, some considerations are important in the design process. One question people tend to have is how thick gym flooring should be.
We’ll talk more about choosing flooring and, once you do, the appropriate thickness for your needs.
First, how do you choose the right gym flooring? Maybe you’re setting up your workout space in an existing basement, converting a garage, or you might have a spare bedroom that will become a gym.
You’re probably wondering why you can’t just leave the existing flooring as-is. For example, why not leave the concrete flooring in a basement, garage, carpet, or hardwood in another room?
There are some good reasons against this and in favor of specialized flooring.
One of the first considerations is safety. You need flooring that will be easy on your joints and back, comfortable, and have some grip. You don’t want to slip or trip, and you don’t want heavy machinery to move around on potentially slippery floors.
Another consideration?
Durability.
Your gym floors will inherently take a lot of wear and tear. From plyometric and body weight moves to dropping weights and other equipment, the flooring must be made to maintain its integrity no matter what.
Something that’s also a key consideration is soundproofing. Home gyms can be noisy, and you want a material that will absorb not only shock to protect your joints, but also sounds so that everyone in the house isn’t affected by noisy workouts or equipment.
With all that in mind, rubber flooring is the best choice for most homeowners with home gyms.
If you opt for rubber flooring, it will give you the functionality and aesthetic appeal you’d typically see in a professional gym. Rubber flooring is the go-to-for workout spaces of all sizes because it’s:
There are three broad rubber flooring categories, and each can work well as your home gym flooring.
These include:
Now, back to the original question—how thick should home gym flooring be?
This decision depends on how you’ll use the space primarily. For example, the thickness of gym flooring where you will mostly do cardio might vary from a space where weightlifting is your focus.
If your home gym is entirely indoors, you could opt for a thickness of anywhere from ¼ to ½ inch.
If you’re creating an outdoor workout space, you need something thicker. You would need at least 2-3 inches of thickness, if not more.
For weight training specifically, you need a dense, durable floor that will provide a lot of stability. You have to consider that your weights will be dropped on the floor quite a bit, and you want a thickness that will withstand that.
If you lift heavy, ½ inch is a good thickness for your gym floor, and you could realistically drop weights over 100 pounds onto a floor of that thickness without worrying you’ve damaged the subfloor. If you do a lot of Crossfit workouts, ½ inches is usually considered the standard thickness for flooring too.
Anything thicker is typically more suited to professional and commercial uses. For example, the flooring might be an inch thick in facilities where professional or college athletes work out.
Plyometrics can include jumps, jumping jacks, and similar explosive movements, which are great for cardiovascular training. If you do plyometrics, your gym flooring could range from 6 mm to 1 inch in thickness, and at least ½ inch is ideal. If you have enough thickness in your rubber flooring, you’ll be better able to protect your joints and get more out of your workouts.
If you’re doing low-impact cardio or workouts like yoga or Pilates, you might not need as much thickness as you do for other workouts. You could have flooring that ranges from 3/8 inch to 8 mm.
When asking what the best thickness for gym flooring at home is, you want to think carefully about how you’ll use the space.
You also want to consider how your needs could change over time. For example, maybe you start out doing light cardio and yoga, but you’re interested in weight training as you advance in your workouts. Rather than changing your flooring to suit your new interests and workout routines, you might want to err on the side of thicker flooring from the start because it will be more multi-purpose and versatile.
If you have questions about choosing flooring for a home gym or are ready to start your project, Dalton Flooring Center can help. The above details on the thickness of gym flooring are also a broad set of recommendations, but our expert team can help you choose the perfect flooring for your specific needs for a fully customized home gym. Contact us today.
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