Don’t underestimate the power of quality surfaces

The right flooring benefits athletes, creates a weight room worth showing off

(Sponsored) When people think of strength training, what immediately comes to mind is the equipment and the racks of weights around the room. But, something often underestimated in those rooms is the flooring. 

Blair Prince, a former strength and conditioning coach at University of Oklahoma and the Dallas Cowboys, knows how important quality flooring is in a weight room. 

Prince is now a consultant with RFS Sports, a distributor for REGUPOL — maker of high-performance athletic flooring customized for programs and facilities of all types and sizes. What makes REGUPOL’s flooring stand out in the industry is the commitment to quality, sustainability and service. As the first company to recycle tires into rubber flooring, REGUPOL helps push the elements to provide the best results.

Prince admits he didn’t always realize how important quality flooring was. In fact, he said, it started as an afterthought and he’s learned, through experience, what to do — and what not to do.

“You put a crummy floor in a room, you gotta stand on it every day for eight to 10 hours,” he said. “You can always move equipment around, but that floor is important.”

In the projects Prince has worked on, he knew he wanted to work with companies he could count on, from quality to service. 

“The people at REGUPOL stand behind their product,” Prince said. “They come up with solutions.”

One such project was at a high school in Texas. The strength room was almost 20 years old with the wear and tear to show it. When they went in to look at the floor, they could see its age. Instead of doing a full demo of the existing floor, they sanded it down and used REGUPOL flooring on top of that, creating a fully branded, custom floor in the strength room. 

“In the case of this project, having to demo the whole floor, it would have added at least a week to the project and tremendous more expense,” Prince said. 

There are other ways you can work to improve the overall strength room, as well, such as pulling equipment out and putting it back together in different areas that work better for the athlete. Prince said it can make the room bigger simply by knowing the flow of the athletes through the room. 

Add to that the custom, branded flooring, and it’s a weight room worth showing off. 

“From a coach’s standpoint, you’re worried about your athletes. When it comes to administration, a lot of times the weight room is a front porch for their program,” Prince said. “Do donors, etc., know the thickness of the floor? No. But if it looks organized, looks good and looks fresh, there’s the funds for the next project. The bottom line is: you screw up the floor, every time the athletic director’s not showing it off.”

For programs considering updating and upgrading their flooring, Prince recommended making sure everyone is in the room who should be when the decisions are being made. While every program is different, those people include the facilities director, the athletic director, the strength coach and the other coaches. 

“The thing is, if you’re not talking to the strength coach or coach that’s on that surface,” he said, “you’ve got a pretty strong chance of making a mistake.” 

Getting input from those who will be using the floor will keep you from putting down a surface that “might as well be like standing on concrete,” Prince continued. 

REGUPOL offers a variety of flooring options in a variety of thicknesses so programs can find the right one for their specific use and needs. Plus, all of their products are GreenCircle Certified — a third-party certification for sustainable products and manufacturing. Affiliated with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the developers of the LEED building rating system, using REGUPOL products can earn LEED points for a trainer’s building design all while helping the environment.

Learn more about REGUPOL and the difference it can make for your facility at sports.regupol.com/us/

© 2022 REGUPOL

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