How Thick should Rubber Gym Mats be?

Rubber Flooring is the most popular surface for commercial gyms. This is due to several reasons including durability, affordability and the insulation properties that rubber brings to a gym. Rubber also tends to deaden sound and feels much warmer to stand on than harder surfaces. And once you’ve decided that you would like to use rubber for your flooring and you know if you want rolled or tiled rubber, it is time to determine the rubber flooring thickness you need for your facility where in NICE BACKYARD offers different sizes and thickness of Rubber Mats and help you install and supply it just for you.
 
Most commercial gyms do fine with 15mm rubber flooring. This works as good quality flooring and protects the concrete against occasional dropped dumbbells. For CrossFit workouts involving regularly dropping the barbell in free-wall when doing cleans or snatches, 20mmrubber will best protect the concrete floor, you will need this kind of protection whether you are dropping 90kg or 227kg. Even with rubber flooring, it isn’t unusual for CrossFit affiliates to peek under the mats and see that the regular workouts by their members have done a bit pulverizing the concrete. You can also take an extra measure to protect the floor by using economy bumper plates instead of the harder competition bumper plates. Economy bumpers have more bounce to them, making for a softer blow even when it’s the relatively dead-blow bounce like most are, whereas the competition bumpers transfer more energy into the floor with a dead-blow that’s closer to what iron plates would be. But to totally solve the problem you can use extra layers of rubber or get a lifting platform, which typically has one or two layers of plywood and rubber on top.
 
For without concrete floors, like wood or vinyl subfloor or particularly on a residential building. You can do 20mm. Over the carpet, its best to lay down some 20mm plywood and make sure that its flat then lay the rubber on top. With commercial low-pile carpet you could lay the rubber directly on top of the carpet since its already hard and won’t mess with the stability of your footing. Plush carpet might help protect the floor a little on its own, but not that well, and you’ll be dripping sweat all over it that takes a good steam of cleaning to remove it. You better not plan on dropping your barbell when doing cleans and it is possible to do them without drops if you are careful and perfect your form, just until you deal with weights near you max. For snatches, you must plan on the occasional drop both in front of and behind you, so it’s a bad idea to do snatches at all when you’ve got this kind of floor.
 
Here are the common thicknesses available in Rubber Gym Mats:
6mm Rubber Mats:

• Great for areas where heavy equipment such as treadmills or elliptical machines will be used. It will do great job of protecting both the machinery and your floor from being scratched. It is also very durable enough to withstand dropped weights. This thickness most often finds rubber flooring as a rubber mat roll.

8mm Rubber Mats:

• From a performance standpoint, the difference of 8mm thick rubber mats for gym use is negligible. Either 8mm rubber is great for weight rooms where weights between 23-34kg will be used on regular basis.

15mm Rubber Mats:

• This is adequate for facilities where weights over 45kg will be used but not deliberately dropped on a regular basis.

20mm Rubber Mats:

• This is generally reserved for areas where power lifting will be done.

25mm Rubber Mats:

• This will generally have some sort of support structure on the underside, which will offer more cushion and/or sound absorption.