What Is The Best Multi-Use Fitness Flooring?

Fitness flooring comes in all shapes and sizes, but only a handful of flooring systems are suitable for multi-use areas of a gym.

Multi-use fitness areas can be home to treadmills, free weights up to 12kg, pull up racks, cable machines and yoga zones. The floor has to be able to withstand dropped weights and provide adequate safety for functional fitness.

Flooring rolls

Our first recommendation is flooring rolls. These are made from recycled rubber and range from 6mm to 12mm thick. This is a seamless flooring solution (no tripping hazard) – which is essential in fitness zones that are used for yoga, pilates and HIIT.

Flooring rolls feel springy underfoot and provide adequate protection for the subfloor where machines and treadmills are used. You can use thicker rolls (12mm) in areas where plates are used although you will also need underlay.

We recommend flooring rolls for studio flooring such as in aerobic studios, HIIT studios and martial arts studios because the surface is nice and grippy.

Flooring tiles

If your fitness zones allow heavy weights we recommend using rubber floor tiles. These are up to 40mm thick, so much thicker than flooring rolls. The benefit is increased vibration and sound absorption from impacts.

Floor tiles are not seamless, but they also do not present a tripping hazard because they fit tightly together. This makes them a safe choice. We recommend floor tiles if your gym users transfer weights around different gym areas.

The main use of rubber floor tiles is in free weight zones, but they are resistant enough to also be used in aerobic studios.

Which fitness flooring is best?

We generally recommend flooring rolls for aerobic and fitness studios and floor tiles for heavy lifting zones. However, these flooring systems can be used interchangeably, even if they offer different physical and feel characteristics.

Flooring rolls are thinner, but this provides better feel underfoot for HIIT, pilates, Zumba, TRX and other classes. Rubber floor tiles are thicker, so are less suited to classes, but are far superior at protecting the subfloor from damage.

Ultimately, both flooring systems have their place for multi-purpose fitness. We recommend choosing the option that makes working out as safe as possible.

If you have any questions or would like to talk about your next project, give us a call on (0)1706 260 220 for a chat.