Why is it important to have a Workout Mat if you exercise at the home gym?
Over the past year, home workouts have become commonplace for us because of the covid19 pandemic. A Workout Mat is essential for home exercise for several reasons.
- Floor level: Placing equipment on a carpet is much quieter than on the floor.
- Hygiene: The Workout mat is easy to clean and disinfect. It is much nicer when it is only yours.
- Safety: When exercising on parquet or linoleum, you risk slipping. This can lead to injury or damage to furniture, household appliances.
- Comfort: Such a thing simply softens and makes many exercises more comfortable. These include, for example, plank, crunches, or hyperextension.
What thickness, length, and width should be ideal?
Workout mats vary in length, thickness, hardness and are suitable for different types of training. Choose your inventory based on personal goals and preferences.
Workout mats are versatile, thicker, and softer, which is good for recumbent exercises. As a rule, such rugs tend to stretch, that is, increase in size during exercise – for example, planks. Thickness from 10 to 15 mm is quite optimal for fitness.
Yoga mats should be significantly thinner for the practitioner to feel supported, and have little or no stretch. Almost all yoga mats are reinforced, that is, they have a mesh frame or textile core inside. It prevents things from stretching and also increases strength and durability.
The thickness varies from 3 to 6 mm. The thinner, the more stable, but harder. Therefore, it is necessary to select equipment based on your experience and the level of comfort to which you are accustomed.
Pilate’s mats are thicker than yoga mats – from 15 to 19 mm. Their backside should fit snugly to the floor and not slip. The upper one, on the other hand, should allow you to slide – this is important for the correct performance of the exercises.
Be sure to check the mat for “stickiness” before buying
Firstly, it should not slide on the floor, no matter how actively you move on it. This is the key to your safety during intense training or yoga practice. Secondly, your hands should not slip on the mat. Usually, a good mat has two different sides: one for grip on the floor and one for grip on your hands.
Ideally, the mat should be symmetrical, without rounded corners – a regular rectangle.
The optimal length of the mat is your height plus 10-15 cm, although for more intense workouts and practices a mat with a length of 220 cm is more suitable.
Some practitioners use special additional towels that are placed on top of the fitness mat: this way the hands slip less and the mat gets less dirty. However, if you are ready to buy a rug with antibacterial impregnation or wash it regularly, you have nothing to fear.
Individual characteristics
When choosing an individual workout mat for home gym you need to take into account its size. We have decided on the thickness, but the width is usually standard. Therefore, we are interested in length. The practitioner must fit on the mat, being in the supine position. This applies to yoga equipment since the person is barefoot on it.
Workout mats can be shorter because we work out with athletic shoes and putting our feet on the mat is not meant to be hygienic.
If you are engaged in different types of training, but there is no opportunity to purchase several options for equipment, I suggest taking something in between. The length should be such that you fit completely on the mat, and the thickness should be from 8 to 10 mm. And try to take a thing with a low degree of deformation.
The desire to save money is not always good
Travel mats are usually the cheapest in online stores. But they are not suitable for active pursuits. The quality of the material is low, often the coating changes its texture as if it is crumbling. They are also badly affected by being under the sun.
It is better to get one good travel mat that is easy to care for and will last a very long time than buying a new tourism rug every year.
Consider if you will be traveling with a rug. If so, then special, lightweight options will suit you – such, for example, are often labeled as Travel Mat.