You can find gymnastics crash mats for sale that help teach skills on vault, floor, bars, and conditioning exercises. All mats range in thickness from 4″(light padding) to 8″(medium padding), and 12″(heavy padding). First you’ll need to determine the skill level you want to practice, then find what the mat’s thickness needs to be in order to support that skill level (more on this below).
We recommend using Incores Best Landing Mats for their variety of sizes that make it pretty convenient while maintaining a safe quality product OR the Tumbl Trak Pillow Pit because it can fold which makes it easy to move and it can attach to multiple mats.
Padding Strength
The varying degrees of support can be correlated to the thickness of the mat. So to find out what you need you’ll have to ask yourself:
“What skill level am I practicing?”
“What apparatus’ am I practicing on?”
Basic Padding
- This is best for low level skills and/or progressing into medium level skills on any of the following apparatus’: Beam, tumbling, high bar, parallel bars, uneven bars, and rings. Also it is best used for sticking high level skills, this is the closest gymnast will get before taking all safety equipment away altogether, so if you are attempting a higher skill level with this mat make sure you already know how to do it!
Medium Padding
- This option is able to provide the right amount of safety for low, medium, and high level skills that allow gymnast to get the hang of a skill. It can be used on the following apparatus’: Beam, vault, high bar, parallel bars, uneven bars and rings. Land on your feet when using this 8″ medium sized padding mat, although it can support a wide range of skill levels it is not the most ideal mat for ultimate reliability.
Heavy Padding
- Used for all skill levels, and is completely versatile with its usability. It is often used for complicated skills like double back-tucks, but more so to correct mistakes since there is so much foam within it. The mat is incredibly forgiving that allows a lot of room for error. It can be used on any apparatus.
Best Gymnastics Crash Mats For Sale
The following gymnastics landing mats for sale are products regularly used in actual gyms. While they can be used at home, it is most safe to have a spotter present unless the skill is familiar. You can see the grade of padding each product has below the name of the landing mat.
1. Tumbl Trak Folding Practice Mat
Medium
This mat easily coexists with an actual gym, which becomes pretty apparent the more details you read about it.
For starters, it has a non-skid material underneath the mat for zero slippage on hard surfaces. You’ll also notice the blue mesh material on the sides that’s there in order to put more than one of its kind together.
The mat is 4 feet in width and 8 feet in length, but can be folded and tightly closed by 2″ hook and loop Velcro fasteners to fold the mat over in half and make it a block for designated focused drills or for a height boost.
The 2″ nylon web straps make it incredibly convenient to move around. Not sure if you’ve ever had a mat that DOESN’T have straps, but boy is it a hassle!
Product Specs
- 18 oz. knife coated vinyl
- top quality dacron thread
- 2″ nylon web straps
- 2″ hook and loop Velcro
FOAM MATERIAL
- 8″ thick (4ft wide X 8ft long) foam 1.2lbs with 32ILD
All materials meet CPSIA standards. Made in the USA.
2. Tumbl Track Pit Pillow Soft Mat
This mat is one of the ‘fluffy’ denim mats, and it is designed to be placed on another foam mat for increased protection and absorption of impacts.
Much like the previous mat, it also has Velcro on every side so the mats can be stacked end-to-end, side-by-side, or vertically. It can either connected to similar Pit Pillow mats or other mats from different companies.
The smaller options you see in the picture are not supposed to be used on hard surfaces, but the bigger sizes are.
Medium and Premium padding options are available for the Pit Pillow to mimic the feeling of a mat on a loose foam pit to safely absorb any landing.
TIP: With this soft landing mat, the denim cover comes off and can be washed on gentle cycle in your washing machine.
Product Specs
- 11.5oz denim
- handle straps
- Velcro on all sides
FOAM MATERIAL
- 8″ thick (4ft wide X 6ft long)
- 12″ thick (6ft wide X 8ft long)
All materials meet CPSIA standards. Designed in USA. Made in the China.
3. Tumbl Track Junior Practice Mat
Basic
A four-inch-thick mat designed for young kids and low level skills, it can be used for tumbling or safety to protect young gymnasts from falls and impacts.
Like most options available, it has handles so it can be carried around and also has skid-proof material on the bottom, which keeps it from sliding out from under the children when they land, making it a foolproof safety tool for those just starting out.
TIP: This mat fits perfectly under the Tumbl Trak Junior PRO Bar in our gymnastics bars for sale list.
Product Specs
- 18 oz. knife coated vinyl
- Folds in half to a 3′ x 3′ x 8″ high block
- Secure webbed handles for mobility
- Sewn non-skid material on bottom
- Product is lead free
FOAM MATERIAL
- 3ft wide x 6ft long x 4in high
All materials meet CPSIA standards. Designed in USA. Made in the China.
4. Incstores Landing Mats
Medium/Preium
These landing mats are available in four different sizes that are designed for all skill levels not just limited to gymnastics though. Its shock absorption capabilities are incredibly valuable to a number of sports including cheer, wrestling, special needs, martial arts, and more.
They are filled with polyethylene foam and are mold resistant, it may sound a little gross but gymnastics landing mats for sale often accumulate a lot of sweat. That’s just the nature of the mat though and it makes them completely durable for every gymnastic event you’ll need them for.
And one more thing…you guessed it!
It has handles.
Product Specs
- 18 oz. vinyl fabric
- Does not fold in half
- Secure handles for mobility
- Mildew and mold resistant
FOAM MATERIAL
- 4ft wide x 8ft long x 8in high
- 4ft wide x 8ft long x 12in high
- 5ft wide x 10ft long x 8in high
- 5ft wide x 10ft long x 12in high
5. Z-Athletic Open Cell Mat
Basic/Medium/Premium
It can either be used by itself as a landing mat for sale or with any other apparatus as long as you’re performing low skill levels. Its open cell foam core is good for comfortable landings of basic conditioning and is not meant for deep impact absorption if unfolded.
The high quality open cell foam, which provides softer support, landing mat for sale reaches 49″ X 29″ X 13″ when completely folded, which can be used for beginner, intermediate, and complicated skills. Keep in mind less area of the ground is covered the more you fold it. It covers the MOST amount of ground for basic padding of low skill levels.
Either ends have a hoop and loop enclosure to connect more than one gymnastics crash mat for sale. This feature allows multiple mats to be connected for a variety of skills to be practiced for heavy usage. The fact that is mildew and puncture resistant makes its lifetime expectancy much longer than other mats in its price range.
Product Specs
- 18 oz. vinyl
- Open cell foam for a soft landing
- Secure handles for mobility
- Mildew and puncture resistant
- Folds into thirds for easy transportation, storage, and transportation
- Hook and loop connections on either ends
FOAM MATERIAL
- Folded: 4ft wide x 7ft long x 4in high
- Unfolded: 49in wide x 29in long x 13in high
Types of Mats and Their Purpose
These gymnastics crash mats for sale allow for skills that are applicable for beginners and advanced athletes alike, and also provide protection and can be used both professionally and personally with no worry about safety.
Firm Padding
‘Firm mats’ allows for tumble routines and dismounts that can give a flat landing surface for both feet with the same safety of a foam pit without an uneven and potentially unstable surface. Purpose of this is to come as close to resembling a floor as possible while reducing the risk of injury. Gymnastics landing mats for sale like this are highly valued in and outside the gym.
Soft Padding
In addition, ‘Soft mats’ offer the same protection as a normal mat while also being covered in denim, allowing for a softer landing for drills that require landing on backs, sides, or stomachs when vaults or bars are used. This type of padding is important to have when being introduced to a skill or when you’re first learning it.
They are also used in foam pits and can even be stacked on top of one another or even other mats for additional protection.
Folded Mats
Most mats also offer folded variants, allowing you to fold them on top of one another for to double the thickness while reducing the landing space.
Regardless of whether or not you use these mats personally or professionally, it’s important to understand what you will be using them for and what type of stress you will be putting them through. Detailed here are some of the mats you could use, but if you don’t find one here, various stores and services sell crash mats for sale for all uses.
Keeping it clean
In order to keep your crash mat safe when you aren’t carrying it from place to place or letting it protect you from falls and other injuries, some care and common sense is needed in order to keep the mat as durable as possible for as long as possible.
Mold and mildew from sweat is a pretty common problem for mats that aren’t cleaned often. Although, most materials used in gymnastics have material that are resistant to this or they make it very easy to wipe off thoroughly.
Most mats can have spills or scuffs simply wiped away with a damp washcloth, wet wipe. or a spray bottle of disinfectant and a paper towel. Some covers for the mats are even machine washable and dry-able, or if not they can be cleaned by hand and air dried.
Which ones go where?
Almost every need can be fulfilled by crash mats for sale in a gym, from smaller ones for being under bars and beams, to larger options that cover pits and wide areas for tumbling and practice.
So regardless of your profession in the gymnastics industry, you can always find the right safety mat to keep yourself safe and your floors covered.
For use at home, if you are practicing your acrobatic skills, the terms gymnastic and tumbling mats are interchangeable in most stores and online marketplaces, but both mats are filled with foam and are anywhere between 4″-12″thick for secure landings. These mats are mostly used for providing protection for falls practice floor skills like somersaults but not to provide protection from falls. Most home mats can be around 25 to 100 dollars, but if you need a mat for a gym it is slightly more expensive and a higher quality that range around 350-500 dollars.
Other gymnastics crash mats for sale, such as landing mats and floor exercise mats, are only for use in gyms and must be a regulated size and cushion falls and injuries. These mats include beam pads which are wrapped around a balance beam to give gymnasts more room to work with and additional traction when dealing with the beam.
Conclusion
As you can see, every mat has basic principles that are almost always the same. They often use handles, fold up for easy storage and are often made to deal with high impacts and protect the gymnasts from falls. However, you will still need to figure out how big your room is, what you are using the mat for, and the thickness you will need to do your activity safely.
For all types of crash mats for sale, safety needs to be considered with every purchase in order to ensure it can handle your height, weight, and the activity you are doing. Still, go out and have fun with gymnastics crash mats and know your gymnasts are safe as they tumble and flip to new heights.