The first place you will find an exercise equipment mat being used is a fitness club or gym. You may have seen the mats and wondered what their purpose was. Does that treadmill really need a soft surface to sit on? The purpose of the mat is not really to help the machinery in any way, but to benefit its users and the floor.
There is a lot of heavy equipment and exercise machinery that could do a lot of damage to floors if there was no layer of protection between those and the floor. This is why the machines and equipment are placed on top of exercise equipment mats. In addition to under equipment, mats are place near weight training equipment. These mats protect the floor from dings, and scuffs. When the mat is in place the floor won’t suffer damage if a weight lifter loses control of the dumbbells he is using and they crash to the floor. They are also designed not to stain the surface it is place on.
They also help absorb vibration and thus noise. In addition to being helpful in fitness club setting, this can be a benefit at home. The noise your exercising makes doesn’t have to disturb the rest of your family.
If the equipment is on a carpeted surface, the mat serves as a barrier to make sure carpet fibers and other debris don’t get into the parts of the equipment. In addition to serving the equipment, the mat also provides shock absorption for the exerciser.
These exercise equipment floor mats can’t be dinky. If they were they would just fall apart after very little use. They are sturdy, and generally made of PVC or closed cell foam. Although sturdy, the mats are pretty thin around 1/8-1/4 inches thick. A good mat should also be slip resistant.
Because they are used for various types of machinery and equipment an exercise equipment mat can be found in a range of sizes. The size should be appropriate for the apparatus it is used. Or, you could use a larger mat and place several pieces of equipment on it.
There are many different mats to choose from. A Nordictrack exercise equipment floor mat is one example of a mat you could purchase for use at home. Nordicktrack has two available mats, that both measure 3×6 feet. One is clear and the other is gray and made of vinyl. Some users have found the clear mat has an unpleasant smell when newly purchased. Either will cost you around thirty dollars. Be sure that if you do buy a mat it will properly fit under the equipment you are using it.
Maybe you own treadmill, exercise bike or elliptical. Whatever exercise gear you own, you would also benefit from using an exercise equipment mat.
