Pros:Protects floors, reduces noise, a must have for home gym equipment.
Cons:You may need to buy several to get adequate coverage.
The Bottom Line: If you have a home gym or are thinking about getting some equipment, get Bollinger's mats to protect your floors and reduce noise.
When ever we hit the gym I am always amazed at what some people do when they are lifting. They don't use the locking bars to keep weights secure, don't restack their weights when done and drop them on the floor without giving an ounce of care about what happens to the equipment. I swore that if I ever started to buy equipment for a home gym the first thing I would do would be to invest in quality mats for the floor. But why is it a necessity? Well, to be honest, it isn't. You could easily get some carpeting or rubber mats to cover the area but you will encounter some problems with them. Carpeting will get dirty and needs to be vacuumed and the thin rubber mats never last for more than a few months before the edges start to curl and that is a true hazard. Bollinger
Bollinger 36 x 78 Exercise Equipment Mat
If you are thinking about buying a recumbent bike or treadmill this is one of the best sizes to go with. Sure you might end up with some extra mat around it but in my opinion it's always better to have extra than to not have enough. If you are ordering this online it will come rolled up so you will have to unroll it and give it at least 24 hours to work out kinks or roll marks on it. I got really with my purchase of this; one of the gym owners was ordering extra mats for new bikes they purchased for spin classes and asked me if I wanted to add anything to the order. He told me not to worry about shipping fees because they were getting a freight rate for the whole order. I ended up getting this mat for $18.00 which is about half the price that it normally sells for. When it arrived and I saw how tightly it was rolled I thought that there was no way it would ever lay flat but after about a day it did.
This isn't a squishy mat meaning that when you walk on it that you feel a bounce from it, it is less than an inch thick with is just fine with me. The thicker a pad is the more chance it has of being unstable if you are putting large pieces on it. Anything that is thicker than an inch is generally used for a exercise, not exercise equipment. Since the only pieces of heavy equipment that I own is the treadmill and bike [still not sure if I am keeping that] I didn't need to buy a whole bunch of these. The treadmill already had a mat under it but now that I have had this one for a while I am seriously thinking about getting another one of these for under it. When I run on the treadmill with it elevated it does move a little bit and that is a pretty scary feeling. Getting one of these mats will eliminate that and give me a little peace of mind when I am running on it. There would be more than enough room around the sides of it to hop off it without losing my footing or twisting an ankle.
So why is this something that I highly recommend to anyone with any type of home equipment? It is easy to clean so if you lift with chalk you can mop it off in two minutes and be done. It stays securely on any type of floor without leaving any tack or residue behind [there is no adhesive on the bottom side of the mat]. You can use it under any type of equipment to deaden sound and protect floors. The corners never curl or lift from the floor so there's almost no tripping hazard involved with this. Like all other Bollinger products, it is well made and when you invest in it, you know it will give you years of service as long as you take care of it. The mat doesn't smell, that might sound like a funny thing to say but some mats have a heavy rubber smell to them that takes weeks to dissipate. Personally, I wouldn't want to do floor exercises or stretch on it, not when my trainers have been all over it ... not to mention sweat and other 'things'.
What This Isn't
Bollinger makes a lot of different exercise mats and equipment mats so you really need to read the descriptions of them closely or you will end up with the wrong product. This is the 36 x 78 mat but they also come in 36 x 48 and 36 x 60. They also make a printed exercise mat that is 68 x 25 that has various exercises on the top of it. Lastly, this shouldn't be confused with a yoga mat, it is made for protecting floors not to exercise on.
Price
Getting an accurate price on one of these is almost impossible. Online sites have these listed as selling for anywhere from $23.99 to $35.00 but when I started reading the descriptions they were all for other products, not this specific one. I don't have any of the other sized mats from Bollinger so I can't say how well they perform but the ones in this specific series should be just as impressive as the one that I own - from what I could tell the only difference between them is the size. If I ordered and paid for a 36 x 78 inch ones and received one that was smaller I would be more than ticked that is why it is so very important to read the descriptions of products before you order them. If you have any doubts, call them before you order to double check the size and price.
The Bottom Line
So far I am really impressed with how well this has worked out for my home gym. Since there is some extra space at the end of the mat I've been using that when I am doing low weight / high rep exercises. If I get a muscle cramp or lose control of the bar or weights I don't have to worry about it making a lot of noise or denting up the floor. This is a great alternative to having carpet on the floors and it is a complete breeze to clean up if you get sweat or chalk on it. We did have to reposition the bike a few weeks ago and within 24 hours the impressions from the frame of the bike that were in the mat were gone. If you are looking for a great mat to put equipment on or something to lift on, I highly suggest that you check this one out.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
http://www.epinions.com/review/Bollinger_Exercise_Equipment_Mat_36_x_78_EA_3678/content_239992606340?sb=1
