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Anti-Fatigue Carpet Tiles: Why Are They So Great?
July 16, 2019
When it comes to choosing flooring, whether it's for your home, office, or even trade shows, comfort and safety are two common considerations. One type of flooring that is becoming increasingly popular because of the comfort and safety it offers is anti-fatigue carpet tiles. Anti-fatigue flooring has numerous benefits to offer and this article is going to explore a few of them.
Provides traction: When safety is a concern, it's important to choose flooring that won't result in accidents like slips and falls. Compared to other floorings, like concrete, anti-fatigue carpet can help prevent accidents. It doesn't move around once it's in place and it can provide traction when people are walking or standing on it. This makes this flooring ideal for large areas, like convention centers for trade shows.
Easy to install: It's no secret that flooring can be difficult to install. And once it's installed, it typically can't be moved around. Fortunately, that's not the case for anti-fatigue carpet tiles. This flooring, along with other flooring options like multi-purpose EVA and wood grain foam floor tiles, is easy to install and can be moved from room to room, or even to a different building, as needed. With that in mind, you can change the flooring as your needs change. So if you decide it would be better in a room with more foot traffic, it can simply be re-installed in another area.
Reduces pain: If you have to stand for a long time, standing on hard flooring can lead to back pain, foot pain, and even poor blood circulation. Anti-fatigue flooring can reduce the stress on joints and muscles, therefore lessening pain. The flexibility offered from these carpet tiles can make standing for a long time easy and pain-free. You'll feel less pressure in your feet, back, and joints -- this flooring can even help improve posture by allowing for a comfortable standing position instead of making you feel uncomfortable or creating a tendency to slouch.
With the carpet industry accounting for 51% of the U.S. flooring market, many people are investing in anti-fatigue and foam carpet tiles. This type of flooring has multiple benefits to offer and can be used in several environments.
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3 Uses for Foam Flooring in Schools
July 10, 2019
There are a lot of different rooms and areas within a school. Each room may serve a different need for students or staff, so rooms are often designed differently. One major decision schools have to make is choosing which flooring is going to go in each room. One common type of flooring used in schools is foam flooring, so this article is going to look at three different areas within a school foam flooring can be useful in.
In the Classroom
Classroom designs may vary depending on the age of students that will be in the classroom. In classrooms for younger students, foam floor mats or foam carpet tiles can be extremely beneficial. Younger students tend to sit or play on the floor frequently, and because of this, they need a soft, cushioned floor in the classroom. Foam flooring offers the softness needed and is easy to install and move around if needed. Flooring in classrooms for younger students should be easy to clean as well, and foam flooring certainly is.
In the Gym
Gyms, dance studios, and other recreational areas need flooring that is soft -- because kids playing on the floor in gyms, foam flooring can be a great option. It's soft enough so that if kids fall, they will have a cushioned surface to land on. This is especially important for activities like gymnastics or other types of tumbling. Foam carpet tiles can be assembled for certain activities and then easily taken down and put away if it is not needed.
In the Library
A school library is a place where students can go to work on homework, research, and even read leisurely. Because libraries are a place for concentration, it needs to be quiet. Fortunately, foam flooring is quiet when being walked on, unlike floorings like wood or laminate. Furthermore, foam floor tiles are comfortable enough for students to sit on if they are looking to read on the floor. Overall, foam flooring is perfect for any library or study area.
Flooring is as important as desks and other elements in schools. With floor covering sales growing by around 4.8% in 2017 alone, more and more schools and other facilities are exploring floor tile options. Foam flooring can be beneficial in numerous areas within a school, for both students and staff.
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Fun Uses for Wood Foam Floor Tiles
July 8, 2019
Wood foam floor tiles are beautiful, soft, and incredibly versatile!
While they look just like polished wood, they’re really foam squares that interlock with one another to securely cover an entire floor. They tend to be quite firm yet soft. With such style, and ease-of-use, you can imagine how many applications they can be used in.
The following are just a few of the many ways wood foam floor tiles can be used, for both their function and their appearance.
Home Gym Flooring
In 2018, Americans spent almost $4 billion on fitness equipment for their homes.
Since wood foam floor tiles can be found in so many different densities and surface textures, it’s easy to find flooring ideal for any kind of home gym.
Foam floor tiles are soft enough to provide cushioning for exercises performed on the floor. They are gentle on the skin so they won’t cause floor burns.
Best of all, their interlocking floor mat style makes them so easy to install that literally anyone can do it.
Kids Rooms Flooring
Most parents are concerned for the safety of their children, and for good reason. While kids should be active physically, they aren’t the best judges of what’s safe and what isn’t—even in their bedrooms, accidents can happen, causing bruised heads or even trips to the emergency room.
To curb this problem (and look amazing in the process), wood foam floor tiles are ideal for use in children’s bedrooms and playrooms. Instead of worrying every time your kids rough-house or get into a scuffle, you can trust that the soft flooring will at least help keep them safe, even if it doesn’t help keep them calm.
Basement Flooring
Basements environments can be unforgiving, especially when they’re unfinished basements. From walls to floors to ceilings, even the best of them tend to be hard, cold, and unfriendly.
Wood foam floor tiles can dramatically soften up a basement’s feel—and its appearance. They provide the same insulation and cushioning that thick carpet offers, without absorbing moisture or being easily stained. If they get drenched in a downpour while the sump pump mysteriously stops working, all you have to do is lay them outside and they’ll dry out quickly.
Trade Show Booths
With their fatigue-reducing qualities, wood foam floor tiles are a popular choice for padding the floors of trade show booths. Manufacturers offer a near-limitless variety of wood grain patterns, styles, and thicknesses which make it easy to create a stylish booth that fits the rest of your decor.
In addition to their comfort and appearance, they’re incredibly lightweight and portable, making transportation a breeze. They’re the ideal choice for exhibit professionals on the go.
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Safely Practicing Gymnastics at Home
June 20, 2019
As a sport, gymnastics has been around for over 2,000 years. In the beginning, gymnastics was a broad term used by the Greeks to encompass a variety of physical exercises in a competitive setting. For example, boxing, running, and wrestling were originally included in a group with gymnasts. Eventually, many of these other disciplines were filtered out, and gymnastics became a more pure form of what people practice today.
Of the four events in today's gymnastics for woman (Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Routine) only tumbling and a form of vaulting were done originally. Tumbling has roots in places like ancient China, Crete, and Egypt. It wasn't until the late 1700s that Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths modernized gymnastics into something that would be recognized as such today. Eventually, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn came along and further developed modern gymnastics, incorporating the parallel bars into gymnastics feats. And in 1896 the first truly open international Olympic gymnastics event occurred, one that started the tradition of gymnastics that we have today.
Since that time, competitive gymnastics is an incredible sport and includes gymnastics tumbling mats, gymnastics cheese mats (or gymnastics wedges), and a plethora of other pieces of training equipment. While it can be daunting to understand what the best types of gymnastics tumbling mats or other equipment are for home use or gym use, there are some things you can do to ensure safe gymnastics practice while at home.
Practicing Gymnastics Safely at Home
Though it isn't necessary for all types of home training, a gymnastics tumbling mat is usually recommended for students who want to train at home. Gymnastics tumbling mats are recommended for a few reasons, first is of course for safety. Having a mat will help cushion falls and help gymnasts practice in an environment similar to how they are learning at the gym. In addition to safety, the biggest advantage is consistency. When gymnasts learn moves in a training facility, they are on gymnastics tumbling mats and tracks and other equipment. Being able to practice on similar equipment at home will give the same consistent feel to a gymnast.
However even if a gymnast doesn't have a gymnastics tumbling mat to use at home, there are still plenty of exercises that can be done at home to help improve gymnastic skills.
Sprinting:
Getting better at sprinting will help both with the vault and the floor routine of a gymnast. Sprints are an excellent exercise to practice because they can be done almost anywhere and only require a good pair of running shoes. In addition, sprints help improve the cardiovascular health of a gymnast, which helps with overall fitness and endurance.
Pull-ups:
Being a gymnast requires upper and lower body strength, endurance, and power. Pull up bars can usually be purchased for $20 or $30 and fit in almost any doorway. Having the ability to both hang from a pull up bar and perform pull ups can help a gymnast prepare for the parallel and uneven bars, and the increase in arm strength will also help with beam and vaulting.
Handstands and Variations:
Being able to do handstands is an important part gymnastics at any level. Being able to perform handstands and maintain excellent form is very important. The great thing about handstands is that they are even easier to practice than sprints! All you need is a little bit of space and an even surface to practice on. Gymnasts that are brand new can even practice handstands against a wall to help build strength in the arms and shoulders. No gymnastics tumbling mats necessary for this one!
Splits and Other Flexibility Exercises: Just like handstands, performing the splits and other flexibility exercises requires no equipment and only a small amount of space. Being flexible is important to increase the ability of a gymnast and to keep gymnasts injury free.
Regardless of what your goals are as a gymnast, having some home equipment can help you break into that next level. However if you don't currently have access to home equipment, be creative and work with what you have. Consistent practice of the five activities mentioned above can help improve your gymnastics skills immensely and maximize the time you put in at the gym.
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