Suggestion for equipment

kathryn

kathryn

Cathlete
I know I've made this suggestion before, but it's been a while, and I was inspired by the blog :"What is truly nice is you now have a direct line through us where you can communicate your equipment wishes and desires and eventually have many of them turned into reality."

What I'd love to see turned into reality is a plyometric platform that would be large enough to do not only jumps in place, but plyo lunges on. The only things I've seen like that are either rather small (like the "aerobic square" that Power Systems offers: http://www.power-systems.com/p-2345-aerobic-square.aspx ) or badly constructed (last year, I found one online that was something like 4 feet by 4 feet: I thought it would be great, until I got it and found that several of its components had come unglued in transit--the place I bought it from must have had a lot of trouble with it, because they refunded my entire cost and told me to keep it! I ended up donating it.)

Please find a way to bring a smaller version of your club's aerobic floor into our own homes, so we can all jump high and strong!


:)
 
A great suggestion! I second this request.

This should allow us to do higher impact activities on a joint-friendly surface. I've had to cut back on impact related workouts (which I love). I am using puzzle mats currently but I am not crazy about them (only slightly better than not using anything). I would love to have a club quality aerobic floor at home. :)
 
I used to have puzzlemats (1 inch thick) up until last week (there was too much friction leading to uncomfortable pivoting moves, little chips of rubber coming off and after 6 months of use I had to rearrange them because they flattened out). I bought the PaviGym aerobic flooring and put it on top of the puzzlemats and it works great! Although it's just .36 inch thick, it's very gentle on my joints and muscles.
It wasn't cheap but I'd been saving for the past 6 months... and it's almost as good as having a professional aerobic parquet flooring installed.

Chris.
:)
 
>Great idea, Kathryn!!!

ITA!

I bought puzzle mats but they just didn't work for me. I enjoy doing plyo workouts but my knees sometimes get achy so this equipment would be wonderful.

JJ
 
I would be interested in this as well. My house sits on a concrete slab which isn't conducive to plyometrics. I tried puzzle mats and they didn't work well for me. Also, I'd like something that is easy to store when not in use, and the puzzle mats are a bit of a pain, not to mention the rubber isn't good for pivot moves, etc.
 
The plyo boards that you mention have been around for a long time. I’m surprised though at how much they charge for them nowadays. The problem with selling a larger version of the plyo boards is a 4ft by 4ft board would take up a lot of floor space in a store. Retail stores nowadays are all about sales per square foot. It would be hard to convince a retailer to stock and carry something like a plyo board that would take up 16 sq ft and probably not be a big seller. Even at 4ft by 4ft the plyo board would still only be of limited value because its size would still be too small for a lot of Plyo moves. But still I wouldn’t rule this out as we all know Cathe loves to jump.

Still, I think a better alternative is just to build an aerobics floor if you have the space. It is really easy to make a floor like we use in our club and it doesn’t cost a lot either. All you need is some 4’ x8’ sheets of cabinet grade flexible plywood, some 2inch x 2 inch rubber foam blocks (you can purchase these from www.stagestep.com), wood screws and a hot glue gun or foam rubber contact spay glue. Just glue the foam blocks to the underside of the plywood sheets using a pattern from stagestep.com. Then place the sheets with the foam blocks on the concrete floor. Overlap the sheets of plywood with the foam blocks with more cabinet grade plywood going in a perpendicular direction to cover the seams on the bottom layer. For about $300 you can make a really nice 10 ft x 10 ft subfloor that your feet and knees will thank you for. You can cover the floor with carpet or vinyl.

But I realize this only works for people who have a fairly large floor area. So, I’m curious how many of you would be interested in a plyo board realizing you couldn’t use it for every plyo move you see in our workouts.
 
>The problem with selling a larger version of the
>plyo boards is a 4ft by 4ft board would take up a lot of floor
>space in a store. Retail stores nowadays are all about sales
>per square foot. It would be hard to convince a retailer to
>stock and carry something like a plyo board that would take up
>16 sq ft and probably not be a big seller. Even at 4ft by 4ft
>the plyo board would still only be of limited value because
>its size would still be too small for a lot of Plyo moves. But
>still I wouldn’t rule this out as we all know Cathe loves to
>jump.


Maybe something that could fold for storage (top surface touching)? (But that means the cushy pads on the bottom would be exposed and more apt to be damaged.)
Maybe something with removable pads?
Or maybe something that could be taken apart (in half), with it stored with the bottom portion together (in the middle of the 'sandwich') and the jumping surface facing outward? Maybe a 4' x 2.5' surface? That would make it 2' x 2.5' folded. (just brainstorming here!)


Would the 'subfloor' construction you suggested above be adaptable to us making our own moveable plyo boards rather than an actual immovable floor?
 
Thanks for the instructions on building an aerobics floor! We have been leaning towards puzzle mats but I like this idea much better. Our fitness area is in our basement and is fairly large. But I think this way would be quite a bit cheaper. :)
 
Yes, you could make your own plyo boards with the same method I mentioned for the floor. The foam blocks are really the most expensive part. Companies that sell them mark them up a tremendous amount.
When we built our club we went direct to a mat manufacturer and purchased the foam blocks for about 12 cents each, but we also purchased about 15,000 of them. You will not be able to get that price from a company like Stage Step, but they still won’t cost very much. You can easily build your own plyo board pretty cheaply and it shouldn’t take you much time or work to do.
 
Puzzle mats are better than concrete, but they don't have the same energy return as a subfloor on rubber foam blocks. Energy return is the #1 thing you want when designing an aerobics floor. A floor like I mentioned above is probably 10 times better than puzzle mats. They really don’t cost a lot, it just takes a little knowhow and a little elbow grease.
 
Thank you so much for this building an aerobic floor info.

I will be doing one in the near future.

Thanks again,

Janie



The idea is to die young as late as possible.
 
Chris, f/u re: aerobics floor

>The plyo boards that you mention have been around for a long
>time. I’m surprised though at how much they charge for them
>nowadays. The problem with selling a larger version of the
>plyo boards is a 4ft by 4ft board would take up a lot of floor
>space in a store. Retail stores nowadays are all about sales
>per square foot. It would be hard to convince a retailer to
>stock and carry something like a plyo board that would take up
>16 sq ft and probably not be a big seller. Even at 4ft by 4ft
>the plyo board would still only be of limited value because
>its size would still be too small for a lot of Plyo moves. But
>still I wouldn’t rule this out as we all know Cathe loves to
>jump.
>
>Still, I think a better alternative is just to build an
>aerobics floor if you have the space. It is really easy to
>make a floor like we use in our club and it doesn’t cost a lot
>either. All you need is some 4’ x8’ sheets of cabinet grade
>flexible plywood, some 2inch x 2 inch rubber foam blocks (you
>can purchase these from www.stagestep.com), wood screws and a
>hot glue gun or foam rubber contact spay glue. Just glue the
>foam blocks to the underside of the plywood sheets using a
>pattern from stagestep.com. Then place the sheets with the
>foam blocks on the concrete floor. Overlap the sheets of
>plywood with the foam blocks with more cabinet grade plywood
>going in a perpendicular direction to cover the seams on the
>bottom layer. For about $300 you can make a really nice 10 ft
>x 10 ft subfloor that your feet and knees will thank you for.
>You can cover the floor with carpet or vinyl.
>
>But I realize this only works for people who have a fairly
>large floor area. So, I’m curious how many of you would be
>interested in a plyo board realizing you couldn’t use it for
>every plyo move you see in our workouts.
>


Chris, can I ask a couple of follow-up questions?

First, how did you "finish" the floor in your gym? Is it polyurethaned??

Also, in my workout room we have industrial low-pile carpeting with a heavy pad over standard floorboards. Instead of considering taking all of that up, could I (without being crazy ;-)) just have my husband build a partial floor big enough for me to do my step, etc.?

http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sport/sport-smiley-003.gif Kathy S. http://planetsmilies.net/sport-smiley-5536.gif
 
RE: Chris, f/u re: aerobics floor

Yes, you could just build a platform and put it over your existing flooring. Make sure to keep the platform at least ¼ inch away from any wall. I would just cover the platform with thin carpeting (do NOT use any padding) or vinyl.

For a professional application in a club you skim coat the plywood surface with a plastic resin that hides all of the screw holes and seams. I don’t recommend doing this as you really will not see a very big difference in a home application. The skim coat also decreases the “energy return” of the floor. So, I strongly advise not doing this. We cover our subfloors with a synthetic wood vinyl made for sports applications. Carpet will work just as well and is much cheaper. Just make sure it is not to thick.

There are two ways to build a subfloor. One uses 2 x4’s and one layer of plywood. The best method doesn’t use any 2 x 4’s, just two layers of plywood and foam blocks.
 
>
>But I realize this only works for people who have a fairly
>large floor area. So, I’m curious how many of you would be
>interested in a plyo board realizing you couldn’t use it for
>every plyo move you see in our workouts.
>
I would be interested in one.


beth6395

"You didn't pause your dvd and go make popcorn did ya"
-Cathe Friedrich

http://www.picturetrail.com/juicyfruities2002
 
>Still, I think a better alternative is just to build an
>aerobics floor if you have the space. It is really easy to
>make a floor like we use in our club and it doesn’t cost a lot
>either. All you need is some 4’ x8’ sheets of cabinet grade
>flexible plywood, some 2inch x 2 inch rubber foam blocks (you
>can purchase these from www.stagestep.com), wood screws and a
>hot glue gun or foam rubber contact spay glue.
>
>
>
Does anybody have a direct link to these "foam blocks"? I have checked the Statestep web site and cannot find them.

Thanks,

Rhonda
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top