Hello, friends!
As we have been doing more floor work in my classes lately, I wanted to give a quick shout out to the mat I use.
When we are on the floor, we really want to protect our spine, hips, and knees, but we want the surface to be firm enough that we can maintain good form, and not just melt into something too squishy like a mattress. In this case, a standard yoga mat is really too thin, in my opinion, and some of the thicker mats on the market really do not provide the support for things like our wrists if we are working in quadruped or a side plank variation, for example
I learned about the FitZone Mat at a gym where I taught and I liked it so much I looked up the company to buy my own for home use. I have zero affiliation with this company, I just love the mat. It is very dense, so while it provides plenty of cushion, it is also a stable surface, unlike some of the thicker mats on the market that are very squishy. The texture is nice and grippy. It never smelled like horrid chemicals (I am very sensitive to this kind of off-gassing), and it is commercial quality and takes all kinds of abuse and is holding up beautifully.
This mat would also be great for getting down on the floor with a kids/a baby, and things like that, in case you are looking for a good multipurpose shock absorbing, joint preserving (!) surface for when you aren't just standing on your hard floors.