DIY Yoga Board For Carpet Practice

I love our new house. We’re in a small, friendly neighborhood, a little removed from the busier suburbs that are closer to D.C. We have a front porch that we can sit on to watch the sun set and we also have a great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

What we do not have, however, is a gym less than 25 minutes away. This was a downside that I readily accepted, but a downside, nonetheless. I had grown very accustomed to my barre studio being less than 10 minutes from my house and having a neighborhood gym at my disposal.

I can’t give up that easily…

I would have loved to accept this fate, hang up my running shoes, and never have to exercise again. In that version of reality, the sky is entirely made of rainbows, beloved pets never die, you can eat whatever you want and never gain weight, and most importantly to me, I don’t live with chronic pain.

The reality I live in has a blue sky, pigs don’t fly, and I certainly can’t eat whatever I without gaining weight. Given that, I knew I needed a solution for not having a nearby gym. Since starting to track things that make my Fibromyalgia symptoms feel better or worse, I’d noticed that regular exercise was one of the most effective ways to have more good days than bad days, so I needed to maintain a workout schedule as best as I could. Running outside year round is no longer a thing that I willingly put myself through. Our winters are frigid, and our autumns & and springs are pretty rainy.

Decisions, Decisions

I had to think very carefully about what type of exercising I could realistically do at home. It had to be something I could sustain. We had a small area of our basement that was going to be designated as the workout space, so I knew the space I was working with. Eventually I settled on purchasing an inexpensive stationary bike for spinning workouts. I also resolved to begin doing more yoga. Both those types of exercise were low impact and I knew those activities would bring me joy (well, I’d feel joyful after the workout, at least).

There was one problem with doing yoga in that space, though. Our basement has very thick, soft carpet. (First world problems, I know.) That carpet would make it harder for me to balance when I was doing yoga. Since balance is key, I needed some sort of board I could lay on top of the carpet, and then I could lay my yoga mat on top of that.

I was on a pretty tight budget, but if you’re not in the mood to DIY, this Lifeboard is basically what I made, except mine doesn’t fold up. Most of the money was going toward the bike. After research and much consideration, I finally landed back on the first idea I’d thought of. I was simply going to use a plywood board, and cover one side so that I wouldn’t get splinters. I even came across this awesome video of a DIY yoga board that was basically what I was picturing! I followed her directions for parts of the project, and it came out pretty well! If you’re interested in how to build a DIY yoga board like this, I’ve included the materials I used and the directions below. Enjoy!

Materials I used

1) ¼ inch birch plywood, size 4’x8’ cut down to 3’x7’ (Home Depot cut it for free)

2) Self Stick Vinyl flooring – I went with the Taupe Oak color  by TrafficMASTER (I bought a case that covers 36 sq ft and only used about half of the case)

3) extra strong, permanent glue (I used this)

4) Sanding block (I used this)

5) Razor blade, just in case you need to trim pieces off at the end – I wound up not needing it.

6) Rags or paper towels to clean up any messy glue overflow

Directions

1) Sand the edges and corners of the board enough that you won’t risk splinters if you need to grab the edge to move the board.

2) Lay a drop cloth down to protect your floor (if you need to. I made this in my basement so I wanted to protect my carpet).

3) Before starting to glue/stick the floor planks to the board, lay out the boards while the backing is still on it, to get the placement of the boards the way you’d like, and to make sure they fit nicely.

4) Check that the plywood is free of dust or debris that might prevent the vinyl planks from adhering to the plywood. Clean as necessary.

5) Begin laying the boards by peeling of the backing, running a strip of glue on the board where you’re going to lay the plank, and then lay the plank in place. Press the board down to help the plank and plywood adhere to each other. The glue is necessary because the glue on the planks wasn’t strong enough to stick to the rough board. They’re made more for sticking to something smoother and less porous than the rough plywood.

6) Continue laying the glue and planks until you are finished covering the plywood.

7) Trim any planks as necessary and wipe off any excess glue.

8) This is an optional step – place heavy items on top of the board for at least 6 hours to help everything adhere and seal to with each other. I conveniently still had lots of moving boxes full of candles for my business so I piled them on top and let it sit overnight.

9) Remove boxes and enjoy! Namaste!