The Best Exercise Mats For Your Home Workouts

Couple exercise at home with exercise mats in front of them
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Exercise mats serve two main purposes: to protect you from your floor and to protect your floor from you. No one likes to lie down on a cold, hard floor for their training, and any heavy weights you use can easily damage the floor if you don’t put a protective barrier in place. It’s also wise to put a mat down under home cardio machines because these can move mid-workout and leave scratches.

You can opt for a cheap, lightweight exercise mat if you’re just using it to try out the best bodyweight exercises, while more substantial options are best if you’re using free weights or putting a cardio machine on it. The latter option will set you back a bit more, but just think about how much you’ve saved on replacement flooring the next time your heaviest dumbbells clatter to the floor after a drop set.

The Best Exercise Mats

Adidas Training Mat rolled up with strap

(Image credit: Adidas)

Adidas Training Mat

Best personal gym mat

Specifications

RRP: $34.98 / £31.99
Size: 72in x 24in / 183cm x 61cm
Thickness: 10mm

Reasons to buy

+
Built-in strap
+
Padded enough for weights

Reasons to avoid

-
Not very wide

At 10mm thick, this mat is both comfortable and padded enough to use with light weights. However, its relatively slender 24in width means you have to be careful where you put those weights down. Its ridged underside should provide some extra grip on polished floors, and we like that it comes with a handy carry strap to sling over your shoulder.


Nyamba 100 basic exercise mat

(Image credit: Decathlon)

Nyamba 100 Basic Exercise Mat

Best budget exercise mat

Specifications

RRP: $6.99
Size: 55in x 20in / 140cm x 51cm
Thicknesss: 6.5mm

Reasons to buy

+
Great value
+
Rolls up easily
+
Grips floor well

Reasons to avoid

-
Not large enough for yoga

If you’re looking for the cheapest mat that will get the job done, this is it. The Nyamba mat is not large, with a surface area of just 55.1in x 19.7in, so it isn’t a great option for yoga but it does provide an adequately soft surface for strength workouts. It’s 6.5mm thick and rolls up into a tight bundle that’s easy to store – one benefit of the shorter length – and it has a striped underside that provides secure grip.

In the UK, this mat is called the Domyos XS Pilates floor mat and costs £2.99.


Les Mills MBX Mat

(Image credit: Les Mills)

Les Mills MBX Mat

Best exercise mat for HIIT

Specifications

RRP: $99 / £79
Size: 70.86in x 24.01in / 180cm x 61cm
Thickness: 5mm

Reasons to buy

+
Versatile design
+
Anti-slip surface for HIIT
+
Eyelets for hanging

Reasons to avoid

-
Not the cheapest

There isn’t too much room for clever design innovations with exercise mats, but the team at Les Mills have managed it here. The MBX mat has two different surfaces, with the red side designed to help you grip with bare feet during yoga sessions and the grey side built for high-intensity workouts done in shoes. So you can smash out your HIIT workout, then flip the mat for some recovery yoga. 


Liforme Original Yoga Mat

(Image credit: Unknown)

Liforme Original Yoga Mat

Best yoga mat

Specifications

RRP: $140 / £110
Size: 72.8in x 26.8in / 185cm x 68cm
Thickness: 4.2mm

Reasons to buy

+
Good grip
+
Alignment markings
+
Carry bag included

Reasons to avoid

-
Not cheap

It’s certainly not cheap (you can find more wallet-friendly options in our yoga mat round-up) but the Liforme yoga mat has a few outstanding features that might make it worth the outlay for keen practitioners. The first is the reliable grip it offers even when wet, so you shouldn’t slip during your poses no matter how much sweat hits it, and it has an alignment system printed on the mat that will help to ensure you’re in the right position. It’s also a notably spacious mat, which is handy for taller people.


NordicTrack Equipment Mat

(Image credit: NordicTrack)

NordicTrack Equipment Mat

Best mat for cardio machines

Specifications

RRP: $49 / £69
Size: 72in x 36in / 200cm x 100cm
Thickness: 4.7mm

Reasons to buy

+
Durable
+
Large enough for most machines

Reasons to avoid

-
Not the thickest
-
Not large enough to catch all sweat

This hardy PVC mat is wide enough to accommodate treadmills, exercise bikes and rowers, as well as weight benches or dumbbell racks. It will provide some scuff protection for your floor but it’s not the thickest mat, so it doesn’t completely dampen the sound of the machine from the floors beneath you. However, the thinner design is useful if you like to keep your equipment out of sight, because it’s easy to roll up and store away. The main quibble we have with this design is that it’s relatively small for something that slots under a machine – a larger mat would catch more perspiration. 

Nick Harris-Fry
Senior writer

Nick Harris-Fry is a journalist who has been covering health and fitness since 2015. Nick is an avid runner, covering 70-110km a week, which gives him ample opportunity to test a wide range of running shoes and running gear. He is also the chief tester for fitness trackers and running watches, treadmills and exercise bikes, and workout headphones.