Hope you all are doing well and staying safe during these difficult times. I am currently in the works of setting up a home gym. I plan on powerlifting in my apartment building and I live on the 9th floor. May sound a bit wild, but living in NYC and with family of older age, and bunch of other factors pertaining to new guidelines that will come out as gyms start to reopen, I just want to train with a peace of mind.
Regarding with flooring, I plan on buying horse stall mats to set up to place under my SML (https://www.roguefitness.com/sml-1-r…te-squat-stand). I am very limited to the space I have in my bedroom, so I may even have to cut some of the mat if I see it’s taking up too much room after I place it under the rack. What I’m really trying to figure out is deadlifting on the mats. 1. Do you recommend stacking two horse stall mats on top of each other (glued) for both steel calibrated plates and my feet in order to reduce the noise and impact? I feel regardless of using 1 or stacking 2 , I’m going to have to drop the bar gently to reduce the impact of the plates hitting the floor since I live in the upper levels, so I think I’d suffice with just one, but if you have any other thoughts on using two, I’d appreciate hearing it.1. Do you recommend anything else for platforming (plywood, etc)? Or am I ok with just horse stall mats so as long as I’m not slamming anything onto the ground.
I’m sure this has been asked numerous times. Sorry for asking again, just haven’t seen one that was similar to my living conditions, so maybe my case is different?
Thank you all! Stay safe and well!
Horse stall mats aren’t going to cut it, unfortunately. If you can get some gymnastics or climbing crash pads, that’d be your best bet for pulling. Outside of that, the horsestall mats work well for a platform I think you can order them in different sizes from Tractor Supply co. so you won’t have to cut them.
I put 4x6 3/4 thick horse stall mats down in my garage and as Dr Feigenbaum mentioned, they aren’t going to reduce noise much. I got them to reduce wear and tear on my plates while deadlifting…and also because I have a golf simulator in the same area in my garage and the stall mats deaden the ball after it drops from he impact screen.
One thing to note, stall mats have a very strong order for a period of time. You can’t wash it off. If you put them in your living quarters it’s going to smell like you are living in a tire store for a couple/few months.
You mentioned this setup is in your bedroom. You might want to re-think the horse stall mat idea – they can have a pretty strong rubber smell for quite a while after installation. I set up a platform in my basement using some plywood and a stall mat, and had to ventilate the whole house pretty well for a few months afterwards. It would have been awful to try to sleep in the same room. Some people have managed to get mats that have sat outside for a long time and are just about done off-gassing, but I think it still might be a bit much in a bedroom.
@chief_sarcasm_officer@VonMeister@Jordan_Feigenbaum Thanks for the heads up. Didn’t even think about that. The purpose of the mats was to prevent scratching the floor in my apartment. Do you think a large yoga mat would suffice to prevent scratching and damaging on the floor from the rack and bench?
@Bak2ThaBasix - Platform is gonna take up way too much room, lol.
If that’s the case, I’m 100% going to need crash pads. I’ve checked several sites, outside Rogue but it looks like Rogue may be my best bet cus it takes the least amount of space against others. I’m also going to need something that matches the height of crash pads to stand on, and all I can think of are DC Blocks. Any alternatives? I’m open to hearing other underground sites that may offer better deals, cus it’d be a bit painful spending that much over crash pads and DC blocks. Thanks everyone for the input.
I think you can order them in different sizes from Tractor Supply co. so you won’t have to cut them.