Why you need a mat for your Peloton
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When buying a Peloton Bike or Treadmill, people generally wonder whether it is essential to buy a mat for it. Indeed, Peloton proposed different packages when ordering fitness equipment, which can include a training mat. Should you go for it and buy it?
In the article below, I will review the reasons you need a mat for your Peloton equipment and describe to you the options available. Buying a Peloton mat is a solution but quite expensive. Let’s see other solutions.
Do you need a mat for your Peloton bike?
A mat is recommended under your Peloton bike to protect the floor from sweat, protect the floor underneath the bike and protect the floor from your cleats (unless you use your Peloton with regular shoes). A mat will also dampen the sound from your bike, and in the case of hardwood floors reduce the vibrations.
Like a home trainer, it is possible for your Peloton bike to generate vibrations through the floor while riding. Compared to a home trainer, a Peloton bike is much heavier and won’t move as much. Vibrations are only a problem on hardwood floors. These vibrations can be propagated to other rooms, which can be very annoying to your family members and/or neighbors. I have written an article on the topic for home trainers: “how to reduce turbo trainer vibrations?“
Do you need a mat for your Peloton treadmill?
It is recommended to have a mat under your Peloton treadmill to protect the floor. Treadmills are heavy and combined with the repetitive impact of you running on them, they can indent your floor surface, even tear vinyl flooring. A mat will also prevent scratch marks from slipping or sliding.
When is it essential to have a mat for your Peloton?
On hardwood floors, please consider it mandatory to have a mat between the floor and the training device. Hardwood is easily damaged. Since it is made of different floorboards, your device will apply weight on different boards, which can be less stable than other types of flooring and generate vibrations noises.
Using a mat to dampen the vibration and even the surface is really essential in this case.
Can you put your Peloton on the 2nd floor?
Using a Peloton on the second floor is possible. It’s not that noisy but depending on which type of flooring you have, the Peloton can generate some vibrations and be loud to the floors below. It is entirely possible to reduce this effect by adding at least a training mat below the device.
Generally, a training mat is sufficient to reduce the annoyance to the floors below. If not sufficient, you can combine a mix of mats to reduce the noise.
Did you know you can use your membership on two bikes? Learn more here:
Using a Peloton membership with two bikes
What type of mat should you use under your Peloton?
A dedicated indoor cycling mat, a rubber mat, or a foam mat can be used under your Peloton. These types of mats all provide good results to give support to your equipment, prevent flooring damage, keep sweat from going onto your floor, and reduce noise and vibration.
Should you use the official Peloton mat?
Peloton training mat is the official mat for Peloton equipment. It is a good one that is dimensioned to fit your equipment (36″ x 72″) but it can be a bit costly ($59).
There are other training mats available online like the ones developed by turbo trainers brands but these are generally as expensive as the Peloton mat. A cheaper option is to buy this training mat on Amazon (36” x 78”) which only costs $30. For this price, you still get a mat that does the job. It may be punctured easily but at least it get punctured instead of your floor.
Can you use a foam or rubber mat under your Peloton?
It is a good option to use a foam or a rubber mat under your Peloton. These are the types of mat generally found in commercial gyms to protect the floor from equipment.
Rubber mats are commonly used in commercial gyms, as they are great heavy-duty mats that absorb vibrations, protect the floor from damages, and do not get damaged easily. They are much harder than foam tiles which means that your Peloton won’t sink into those.
Rubber mats are much more expensive than foam ones. They come in thicknesses between 1/4 and 1/2 inches.
Foam mats or tiles are generally found in home gyms. They’re not meant for heavy-duty which is why it is not the preferred option in commercial gyms. But foam mats are easy to find and cheap.
Foam tiles are the most common foam mats you can find. They are easy to use: usually, they are cut to allow interlocking each tile together and have a strong bonding between all tiles. Foam is a very flexible and shock absorbent material. It is perfect to absorb the vibrations, the thicker the better.
Foam tiles generally vary between 5/8 inch and 1.5 inch in thickness, which is much thicker than exercise or yoga mats and better for vibrations. The foam material is soft, so with time, it will take an imprint of the contact points of your Peloton, and with time it will reduce its vibration-damping capabilities.
Can you use a yoga mat under your Peloton?
Yoga mats can be used under your Peloton but are not ideal. First, they are long but very narrow, generally narrower than the width of a Peloton. Also, they are quite thin and won’t absorb many vibrations. It will only take care of the sweat and prevent the floor from getting indented or scratched.
Yoga mats are generally not rigid enough and will get damaged quickly by your fitness equipment. They are not the best solution.
Can you put your Peloton on a rug?
It is not recommended to put your Peloton on a rug. You will be sweating a lot when training and the sweat will fall onto your rug. It is difficult to wash a rug and this means the rug will get smelly and dampened. It will struggle to dry between your training sessions and could damage the floor underneath by keeping the moisture.
Another interesting Peloton read:
Cast your Peloton to TV: The ultimate guide!
Which mat I recommend
Now that you understand the importance of a mat. What do I recommend?
The best solution is clearly rubber mats, but they are really expensive. They are meant for professionals.
If you do have sufficient money, I guess the one from Peloton itself is the way to go.
Otherwise, this mat from Amazon seems similar in my eyes to the one from Peloton but at a cheaper price. Some users complain about it being punctured after a short period of time. But I believe this is to expect with this kind of mat.
One option I like for the price is foam tiles like these ones. It’s cheaper (< $25) and usually more durable than many indoor cycling mats. They do have a “drawback” though since they are not as firm as other mats. As such, a Peloton bike may rock back and forth with it. It’s not that disturbing in my opinion. For a Peloton treadmill, you shouldn’t have this problem.
Foam tiles usually come by six. For a Peloton Bike, you will need only two of them, whereas the Peloton Treadmill will require six of them.
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