These Home Gym Flooring Options Turn Your Garage, Basement, or Living Room Into a Workout Haven

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These days, the average cost of a gym membership can range anywhere from $40 to over $100. Accordingly, a well-suited home gym lets you eliminate pesky monthly fees and save money in the long run—but heavy workout equipment can cause undue wear and tear on your floors, and fast.

Home gym flooring is essential if you plan on using any kind of heavy weight training equipment or cardio machines, especially if you have hardwood or vinyl floors. In addition to protecting your floors, home gym flooring—typically interlocking foam tiles or a large, cushioned mat—allows you to do stretch and do yoga, too.

Whether you're covering a whole room or just a corner, we rounded up the best home gym flooring options in a range of sizes, colors, and styles, so it’s easy to find the perfect one to suit your needs.

The Best Home Gym Flooring

What to Consider

When it comes to selecting the right home gym flooring for your needs, you typically have three primary considerations: space, type, and material.

Space

When choosing your gym flooring, you should always take the time to accurately measure your space—don’t just eyeball it—so you don’t end up spending money on extra pieces you don’t need. Luckily, all flooring options clearly state the dimensions of each piece, as well as the total square footage they cover. Just multiply the length and width of your space to get your specific square footage.

If you have pillars or other irregular elements breaking up the room, be sure to measure and account for these as well. With most floor mat segments you can build around them or cut a few pieces with a utility knife to fit perfectly.

Type

While interlocking tiles are a bit easier for customizing your space, they’ll take a decent amount of time to deconstruct if you plan on removing the flooring regularly. Single-piece mats, on the other hand, are simple to roll up and store away, but they’re usually more expensive than tiles, and large ones can be very heavy. They also don’t work very well with irregularly shaped rooms or rooms with lots of obstacles.

Material

You should also think about what you’re going to be using the flooring for when considering materials. If you plan on dropping heavy barbells or kettlebells on it, make sure to go with a heavy-duty option designed to spring back under heavy weights. If you primarily intend on doing yoga or workouts on the ground, make sure the flooring is comfortable enough to roll around on. All of the gym flooring options we recommend are easy to clean off with cleaning solution for when your workouts get sweaty.

How We Selected

As dedicated gym rats—and that includes home gyms as well—we’ve used both interlocking flooring tiles and large mats extensively, and this hands- (and knees-) on experience has been instrumental in helping us select only the best flooring options for your home fitness setup. We also researched online review sites and combed through user reviews to ensure that we included the most popular options, making sure to exclude low-quality picks that don't stand up over time. Since buyers have different needs, we did our best to include a wide range of sizes, thicknesses, and durability.

Extra Thick Puzzle Exercise Mat

The one-inch thickness of these ProsourceFit tiles is ideal for anyone looking for a little extra cushion, especially when working out on the ground. This thickness also provides a good amount of durability, and means these tiles can withstand heavy weights and lots of foot traffic. The textured surface prevents accidental slipping, and the water-resistant material is easy to clean, too.

These tiles are available in blue and gray, and come in a range of sizes. They are on the expensive side at nearly $2 per square foot, so keep that in mind if you’re on a tight budget, but you likely won't have to replace these for years.

Puzzle Exercise Mat

If you’re on a tight budget but still want a durable and easy-to-assemble gym mat, this ProsourceFit puzzle exercise mat could be just what you’re looking for.

This low-cost flooring comes in three colors—black, gray, and the blue pictured here—and its non-skid tiles are perfect for maintaining a good grip while stretching or doing yoga. The half-inch of material provides a comfortable amount of cushion while still providing a solid foundation for free weights. The included edge pieces allow you to customize the shape and size while maintaining a neat and clean look.

Premium Large Exercise Mat

This MRO mat may be expensive, but for those who want the versatility and convenience of a single mat, the extra cost is worth it. With 72 square feet to play with, this mat is large enough for two people to use at once, and its triple-layer design makes it both durable and comfortable.

However, if you're looking for a mat that can easily roll up for storage after every workout, keep in mind that this product weighs about 44 pounds, so it's not quite as simple as putting away a standard yoga mat.

Premium Soft Wood Print Foam Flooring Tiles

Looking for flooring tiles with a bit more style than the ones at your local gym? These IncStores flooring tiles are available in a wide range of natural wood patterns and colors, providing a warm, homey look and feel to any space. Plus, this set includes a soft case for storage if you decide to remove them.

At nearly three dollars per square foot, these tiles are considerably more expensive than most options, but if you like the style and durability they offer, it's worth the investment.

Rubber Mat Flooring for Home Gyms

If you plan on placing benches and heavy weight racks on your floor—and durability is your priority—these heavy-duty DWC mats are a great choice. They’re designed to stand up to the traffic of a busy weight-training gym, making them ideal for a home CrossFit setup.

This six-piece set includes 6-by-4-foot mats constructed of recycled rubber tires. The mats can be customized to fit your space and are easily trimmed and shaped with a box cutter. These mats are expensive, but the protection that they offer—to your existing flooring and to your equipment—is well worth the price.

Multipurpose Floor Tiles for the Gym

They’re not durable enough for heavy-duty use, but these foam tiles are a great choice for those who just need a floor covering. Since they come in 17 different colors, they're easy to match to a kids' playroom, as well.

These tiles are easy to assemble, include necessary edge pieces to guarantee a smooth perimeter, and are easily cleaned with soap and water. We Sell Mats recommends securing these mats to the floor with tape if you plan to use them as a workout surface, so keep that in mind during installation.

Exercise Equipment Mats

If you only need to cushion the feet on your heavy equipment, like an exercise bike, rowing machine, or weight bench, these small tiles are a convenient and cost-effective option. They don't take up any more space than you actually need, and are designed to absorb and reduce vibration, making them perfect for apartment-dwellers and early morning exercisers.

Since you only need a few, these are much more affordable than larger tiles and mats. Just make sure to count the feet on your machines to make sure you’ll have enough. (Pelotons have six feet, for instance.)

Impact Tiles

These tiles don't offer the spongey, cushioned feel of all-foam tiles, but if your top priority is a rugged, heavy-duty material, they're a great pick.

Available in four colors, these tiles are topped with a layer of stiff rubber, making them ideal for supporting both free weights and yoga, foam-rolling, and martial arts. It’s worth noting that the rugged construction of these tiles makes them much more difficult to trim than other options—you'll probably need a power saw to cut them down to size.

PRO Yoga Mat for Working Out at Home

If you’re looking for a soft, non-slick place to do yoga and other floor workouts, all you need is a yoga mat. The Pro mat from Manduka is the best there is, consistently ranking among the mats most used by certified yoga trainers.

The quality is all around great, offering the perfect cushioning to grip ratio, and it comes in six pleasant color options. Our deputy editor, Zoë Hannah, has used the Manduka Pro mat for her own yoga practice, and says the mix of cushion and grip is ideal for yogis of any experience level.

Double-Sided Floor Mat Tape

If you find that you frequently end up having to realign and reconnect your floor matting, this tape solves your problem. Unlike Duct tape, which falls apart quickly as it simply isn’t made for constant movement, Meister’s extra-wide floor mat tape is specifically designed to keep floor mats from separating and moving around.

Double-sided so that it not only links mats, but also helps anchor them to the floor, this is an easy, affordable solution to an annoying problem. No matter which home gym flooring you pick, this tape is a good investment to go along with it.

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