Most New Year’s resolutions include something about getting fit or getting healthier. If you are going to take your exercise regiment to the floor this year, you need the right flooring. Flooring can impact exercising, and exercising can impact your floors. Here are 10 tips to help you achieve your goals.
Floor exercises can range from yoga and Pilates to weight training to good old- fashioned cardio. You don’t need a fancy gym membership or expensive equipment, just take off your shoes, pull out a mat, and start to feel the burn. But you also want to take good care of your new floors. Picking the right floor for your exercise routing is important.
All About Plank…Flooring
Plank is a muscle building exercise that comes from yoga and Plates, but it has been adopted by hard-core exercise boot camps. It makes your muscles work. And if you are going to be down on the floor a lot doing plank, then the best flooring for you is luxury vinyl planks.
Building muscle is all about sweating. It is also about weights. High-end luxury vinyl flooring is thick, durable, and it can take the sweat that a muscle building routine will offer. These floors also offer insulation from the chill of winter and the heat of summer.
Like luxury vinyl floors, laminate floors offer some insulation from weather that makes floors cold to the touch. Cold floors are no fun when you are holding an exercise for a minute to build your core muscles. But where luxury vinyl doesn’t mind getting moist, laminate doesn’t like lots of moisture. So no Bikram yoga if you put these floors in your home.
Ready to get that exercise program started? Then lie facedown with your legs extended behind you and your elbows bent so they are directly under your shoulders while clasping your hands. Your feet should be hip-width apart, and your elbows should be shoulder-width apart. Put your weight on your tucked toes, contract your abs, then lift your body so your forearms remain on the ground. Doing the exercise correctly means you should be in a straight line from head to heels with your back straight. Start by holding the position 30 seconds, and then slowly build up to two minutes or more.
Carpeting for the Heart of Your Home Exercise Program
Your living room is the heart of your home. Did you know that you can also work on making your heart healthy in that space? You can with a simple cardio routine. First make sure that you have lots of cushion to insure that your feet and knees are insulated against things like shin splints, a runner’s nightmare.
Invest in a thick custom area rug or wall-to-wall carpeting to offer a soft place to bounce as you partake in one of the best cardio exercises you know. I’m sure you remember them from grade school. That is jumping jacks.
The website PopSugar suggests adding cross jacks into your spring routine in their article, “The Best Cardio Exercises You Can Do in Your Living Room.”
Heat Up Your Routine in a Tiled Sunroom
While porcelain tile is great for sunrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and mudrooms, it is not the best thing to have underfoot when starting a winter yoga practice. Tile, while waterproof, beautiful, and stylish, is quite chilly as temperatures plunge.
If you want to soak up what sun you can during the winter months in your sunroom, then invest in a Ditra Heat system to run under the tile. It can be pre-programmed to warm up just before you head out to do your sun salutations. Learn more about this radiant heating system by checking out the blog, “Keeping Your Footsies Warm This Winter.”
For wisdom about making the most our of your yoga routine, read “Learn How to Do the Sun Salutation Sequence.”
Pick a Well Rounded Program
Thirty minutes of exercise five times a week can make a real difference in your strength, endurance, and general health. Make you’re your floor routine contains a combination of these three forms of exercise.
Begin slow, but remain steady as you build exercise into your routine. Research shows that if you can push yourself to do something for 21 days it will become a habit. Your body will crave the exercise and keep you moving forward towards your goal of a healthier you.
Start With a Perfect Floor
Put in a floor that will be comfortable for you and your family as you begin your exercise program, so it will give you inspiration all year long. For more information about flooring types, see our previous blog called “Top 10 New Flooring Questions”!
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