Gym flooring with cork floor

Cork Flooring in an Exercise Room

In the new construction of large fitness centres, cork floating flooring is the ideal surface. A cork floating floor has an integrated underlayment of soft, flexible cork built into each interlocking plank. Unlike tile, wood parquet, or any other hard surface, cork has an intrinsic resilience and a capacity to compress and flex which provides comfort and safety in an exercise room.

Peter Wong, a certified personal fitness trainer, agrees. "Cork tile and plank floors offer the firm, smooth surface support that's necessary for exercise, and at the same time they will flex and absorb shock. No other material is as satisfactory."

Cork exercise floors can provide important thermal and respiratory benefits as well. "Tiles, concrete and industrial carpet over concrete offer no resilience, and can be uncomfortable and potentially unhealthy,” states Peter. “Cork is a pure material. It doesn't off-gas or shed microfibers and it doesn't store mites and particulates which become airborne during impact while you're ventilating deeply [like] directly above carpeting."

Particularly with rehabilitation clients, older clients or for younger patrons who train hard, carpets can be a serious problem in the exercise room. Peter says, "When people install exercise equipment in a room which is carpeted like the rest of their house, it is both inconvenient and hazardous. Industrial and indoor/outdoor carpets - which a lot of people mistakenly install for exercise - provide no protection against the concrete surface underneath. There is no flex, and no forgiveness. And they accumulate dirt and particulates."

"On the other hand," Peter goes on to say, "good residential carpets are too soft, there is no stability, even with a good shoe. The foot can pronate (roll outward) or supinate (roll inward), and you'll use your ankle or knee to compensate when the floor isn't where you expect."

Peter believes carpets can be an inconvenience in the home gym as well. "I have a number of clients, who've put exercise machines in carpeted rooms and the machines have sunk down into the carpet. You can't get the attachments and inserts into the [machines] at floor level. For example, the piece that needs to slide in for seated rows [that] has to be removed for leg extensions, just won't go in or out if the machine isn't level with the surface of the floor."

The problem with hard flooring surfaces is more obvious. "You need a floor that will flex and absorb shock, not transmit it back into your body. That's self-evident,” cautions Peter. “And from a practical standpoint, you don't want to crack a tile or chip the chrome off your dumbbells. On ceramic tile you have to set them down like they're eggshells."

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