The floor is quite soft and has a lot of give with every step. Think of the floor as a sneaker soles. In a nutshell, I am squatting on a floor made of sneaker soles.
Is there anything I can do to remedy this problem? I was thinking I could just simply put a wooden plank or something on the floor.
I cannot move the squat rack
This is the only available gym in the area
Any advice? Thanks!
Complain to gym staff and bring it up as a potential safety concern and then explain why the soft floor makes it unsafe. Then complain some more.
FWIW, I’ve done the same to my gym staff after they recently moved the squat rack to an area with the following problems:
Soft rubber flooring
Lots of bumps in the floor because the carpet underneath the rubber flooring is all torn up
Wobbly rack because one small part of the rack rests on flooring that is slightly higher.
They just moved it there for some reason when it was in a perfectly fine place before. After complaining to four separate people, including the manager, it still sits in the same place. I’m going to complain every single day until they put it back. Eventually the hassle of dealing with my bitching will become greater than the hassle of simply moving it.
That’s unfortunate.
I would ask, question, complain, and in the meanwhile use a piece of plywood. The larger the better, but that needs to be balanced against portability and storage.
Many lumber stores will cut those down to whatever size you want, and/or will have discounted scrap pieces.
[quote]jpark841 wrote:
Is there anything I can do to remedy this problem? I was thinking I could just simply put a wooden plank or something on the floor.[/quote]
Any chance you could just deal with it? It’s not the perfect situation by any means, but it’s not unsquattable unless it’s like BOSU ball-squishy. You can still get work done.
My current gym has mirrors on every wall, like most gyms. One of the squat racks is positioned directly in front of a weird seam were two mirror panes meet at a funky angle and totally screw with your depth perception. Kinda like looking into two mirrors that are side by side, while one is 6 inches closer to you than the other. It’s not my favorite rack, but I use it if I have to. It’s not the end of the world and isn’t a workout-ruiner.
Anyhow, you can definitely complain to management, but I’m guessing they either won’t care much or won’t be able to make a change. Good quality commercial gym flooring can be expensive and a gigantic hassle to install (especially in an existing gym vs one without equipment in place), and they almost certainly won’t just move the rack/rearrange the floor layout to accommodate you or others, even if you can convince other folks to voice an opinion.
If anything, instead of a wooden plank why not put down two 45s and stand on those. It’d be a bit more practical than storing a slab of wood in the corner of the gym and hoping no one throws it out, or carrying a 2x4 into the gym every leg day. Unless you’re Jim Duggan, tough guy.
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]jpark841 wrote:
Is there anything I can do to remedy this problem? I was thinking I could just simply put a wooden plank or something on the floor.[/quote]
Any chance you could just deal with it? It’s not the perfect situation by any means, but it’s not unsquattable unless it’s like BOSU ball-squishy. You can still get work done.
[/quote]
I neglected to mention this option, and second the notion that you should still find a way to squat (which you are obviously doing). I set a rep PR of 380 for 8 in my gym’s squishy and lumpy-floored wobbling squat rack last night. I’ve been doing plenty of heavy work over the last three or four weeks that it has been in that crappy spot.
That’s still no reason to quit bitching to the gym staff about it, if you ask me. I like to unrack, step back and squat without worrying about setting my feet in a non-lumpy spot or getting mind-fucked by the unfamiliar surface.
Thanks everyone. I figured I would need to use a plank of wood. As for 45s, our gym has oddly shaped ones that would be worse than the floor itself. Now off to a hardwood store to find a suitable piece of wood and then the gym to complain and bitch until they get so annoyed that they fix it on the spot 
I will send an update on how the piece of plywood works afterwards if anyone has similar problems…if I remember
I would ask them to change it. If it’s ignored I would ask how much to exit my contract. If it was nothing or a reasonable amount, I’d thank them for their service and hand in my pass. If I couldn’I get out of it, I would kindly inform them that I am going to another gym once this term expires.
Unless the floor is actually made out of marshmallow or Tower of Pisa levels of slope to it I really cant see this being that much of an issue, yes its not perfect but you will just have to work round it. You can bring a bit of wood in with you but chances are they will chuck it out if you leave it there or you will spend more time messing about with it to get it “perfect” than you actually do using it.
I would find a way to just deal with it.