Why Not Plywood

Hey guys, I am in the process of setting up a bare bones budget home gym. I recently picked up an olympic bar and 485lbs in weight at a garage sale for $98!
However , one of the things I was wondering about, why should I blow my hard earned dough on heavy exercise matting? At it’s cheapest, in my area, I could only find a 4x6 sheet for $50.
So I used plywood instead. there is a construction site going on in my development, and he has these big pieces of scrap plywood lying around. I asked the contractor for one, and he gave it to me for free. It works just fine at protecting the floor, and I find no slippage whatsoever. Just an idea for you guys on a budget who are trying to start a home gym.

Ergonomics? Possibly lifting 400 lb squats, deads etc might not be as nice on your feet? Clean Jerk and drop it from your chest or it slips, plywood is sturdy, but not even close to indesctuctable. Now what’d be classy is if you got some astroturf and hot glued it on. None of this super glue momba-jamba, hot glue gun it. It’d be the hotness.

But, I suppose plywood would work. Go nuts with it.

Mike -

I don’t know where you are looking for your matting at, but you can probably get it a lot cheaper by going to a feed store.

Horse-folk baby their horses by putting padding down in their horse’s stall. Guess what? It’s the same stuff that should go on the floor of a gym.