Gym: which floors to choose?
The choice of floor for gym it depends first of all on the intended use of it: a large dance room requires very different characteristics from those that should be sought in a room dedicated to cardiofitness.
When there are areas for weight lifting, crossfit equipment or functional training machines, it is essential to know how to choose a floor capable of supporting great weights and resist the shock. If what you are designing is an environment suitable for hosting group fitness, yoga or pilates activities, however, the priority will be to have surfaces antislip, high-performance and can also be used barefoot.
Which floor to choose for the gym
In addition to the needs of the individual disciplines, other factors must also be considered to choose the right flooring for the gym, starting with the ease of maintenance.
Among the most used materials for i gym floors are elegant timeless coverings but also more practical solutions and within everyone's reach:
- Wood: a great classic, perfect for light activities and authorized by CONI for all disciplines involving gymnastics;
- PVC: it is by far the most used material. The most appreciated characteristics of PVC are theelasticity, the property antislip and ease of maintenance and cleaning;
- plywood: Can be found in public and home gyms. It guarantees a good absorption shock resistance ensuring long life;
- rubber: widely used in engine rooms and weight areas, rubber can withstand the impact of very heavy loads and provides good cushioning, which is why it is also an excellent solution for free body activities;
- linoleum: it is one of the most resistant and versatile materials. It is suitable for school gyms, rooms where athletics are practiced and also environments that host weights, tools and balancers.
Home gym: which floor to choose
If you are planning a home gym, you can evaluate alternatives that are more in line with domestic use and with the aesthetic result you wish to obtain.
One of the most popular choices for home gyms is the cement: not very suitable for competitive gyms, concrete is instead a very suitable material for hosting one modern fitness room, elegant and functional. In fact, there are special ones rubber mats which can be positioned to protect the floor only in the areas subjected to the most intense stimuli, leaving them exposed the beauty of raw concrete in the rest of the room.
If treated properly, even the bare concrete of the garage it can transform into an excellent gym floor: you have to make sure that it can resist black marks left behind by tyres, shoes and sports equipment and which is easy to keep in order. To do this, all you need is a single product: P-OH7, an anti-dust protector for concrete which guarantees ease of maintenance and good mechanical strength (also essential in areas covered by rubber mats).
Another very popular solution for home gyms is the wooden floor, perfect if you want to use the gym room for activities such as yoga, dance or aerobics. The pleasantness of the environment is guaranteed, but you have to be careful protect the parquet, involving the use of rubber mats in correspondence with the heaviest equipment and treating the floor with products capable of protecting it from black spots and marks. Forwood it is a special paint for parquet which maintains the natural appearance of the wood guaranteeing an effective anti-stain action and high water vapor permeability, very important in closed environments or where you sweat a lot.
How to clean the gym floor?
Regardless of the material chosen for the floor, cleaning the gym can only start fromdust elimination, especially in the case of small or poorly ventilated rooms: the accumulation of dust in the room where you train and breathe deeply is anything but healthy, and risks making the experience in the gym truly tiring.
For washing of surfaces it is best to rely on products that are not aggressive and possibly capable of preventing the formation of mold, bacteria and pathogenic germs – particularly if what you have in front of you is a rubber floor, which could tend to accumulate humidity.
Mistral, sanitizing detergent based on raw materials vegetable origin, is the perfect ally for the daily and weekly cleaning of the gym floor: it is suitable for all washable surfaces - including wood, laminates, linoleum and PVC - and does not leave residues, allowing us to experience the gym in complete safety, even barefoot.
