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Sponsored: Flooring: The foundation of every fitness experience
Every gym design project should be designed from the floor up, says Physical Company’s James Anderson. He tells HCM why
The right choice of flooring can make a workout more enjoyable, more impactful, not to mention safer and better for the body,” says James Anderson, sales and marketing director at Physical Company.
“Gone are the days when gym flooring would be an afterthought – a case of installing carpet tiles across the majority of the fitness space, with some basic free weight tiles in a dumbbell area. Nowadays, flooring is the foundation on which you build your fitness experiences – it underpins and plays an active role in the entire workout.
“With specialist flooring now available for every type of activity, it’s no overstatement to say your flooring choices are as integral to the member experience as the fitness equipment you install,” says Anderson, “It’s why we encourage every one of our customers to design their fitness spaces from the ground up.”
Packing a punch
“The flooring is an integral element to the overall aesthetics of a space. It can offer clear lines, impactful designs, great colour options, and will support your gym’s overall brand statement,” he says.
“You’re also looking for it to hold up to the traffic a commercial gym floor is subjected to, which is why every one of our flooring solutions is thoroughly stress-tested.
“That includes our market-leading Turfgrass solutions – artificial turf, including the hugely popular Customgrass sprint tracks – that brings an outdoor training experience to the gym floor.
“We can collaborate with Turfgrass to create customised turf tracks in just 4-6 weeks. You provide us with your logo, your slogan, your colour scheme; Physical Company’s in-house design team then creates an eye-catching design to suit the training requirements and the brand.
“It’s a great way to create instant impact on your gym floor. It’s also incredibly robust, thanks to a method of stitching branding and markings into the turf at the point of manufacture,” says Anderson. “It means the markings and logos are integral to the product, rather than being painted on, or cut and glued in as separate elements, as can be the case with some other products.
“The result is a single piece of flooring that looks great, is extremely durable and withstands constant heavy use – so it’s no surprise it’s become a go-to for operators across the sector, from énergie Fitness and GLL, to boutique-turned-franchise The Shredquarters and personal training brand Six3nine.”
The basics, covered
“Easy to clean, comfortable, long-lasting, versatile, non-slip, safe – all of our flooring solutions tick these boxes as standard. We also place a big focus on vibration and sound absorption, making our products ideal for free weight areas and high-impact aerobics studios alike.”
“It’s not just about having high-quality flooring, either,” Anderson observes. “It’s about having the correct type of high-quality flooring for the activity. Too soft or hard, for example, and you’ll negatively impact the training experience; it may even cause injury to exercisers’ joints, or lead to damage of the equipment or sub-floor.
“That’s why we offer an unparalleled range of options to ensure every area of your facility has precisely the solution it needs. From free weight flooring to artificial turf, functional training flooring to shock pads and far more besides, our products span a variety of materials, dimensions and thicknesses to ensure we can meet your needs, whatever floor space you’re looking at.
“Ecore Athletic is another of our highly-valued partners. Its products are second-to-none, its warranties impressive and its eco-agenda embedded in every product,” he says.
Best sellers
“I’ll name-check a few top-sellers, starting with Bounce 2,” says Anderson. “This beautiful flooring looks like real wood, but acts like rubber, absorbing impact and being quiet underfoot, making it perfect for mixed-used studio areas, while being durable enough for cardio equipment and light weights.
“Performance Rally flooring is ideal for functional areas, with a wear layer that’s fusion-bonded to a shock-absorbing base layer. It’s engineered to cushion the impact force related to aggressive functional training, providing the user with a performance improving, body-protecting training surface.
“Also in high demand is the Performance dB (SmashTile) – designed for areas where extreme durability and ultimate sound and shock absorption are required – and Performance UltraTile, a rubber floor tile with a patented ultra-high-density wear layer on a moulded base – ideal for moderate to extreme weight training. With their range of colours, and shock- and sound-absorbing qualities, both are popular solutions for free weight areas.
“Quite simply, whether you choose products from our carefully selected partners or our high-quality Physical range, we guarantee a world-class solution to literally underpin your fitness offering.
“We believe you will not find a better gym flooring portfolio anywhere on the market.”
"With specialist flooring now available for every type of activity, it’s no overstatement to say your flooring choices are as integral to the member experience as the fitness equipment you install" – James Anderson
