Reduce noise for my home workouts

NotReallyNorthern

Hey there!
I moved house a few months ago and love the property, it's great. However, my neighbours (to whom my house is attached) are very noise sensitive. Whilst I can barely hear them, one of them works nights, so sleeps during the day.

I try to be a very considerate neighbour, I avoid talking loudly, or slamming doors. I do my workouts downstairs, where the floor is laminate on concrete, I use a yoga mat. My neighbours in the past have mentioned in passing that they can hear me exercise, but today I did get a complaint from them. I apologised and was understanding, it was very civil.

Obviously I need to keep healthy during lockdown, so exercise is really important for me to do. However I don't want to cause WW3 with my neighbour.

Do you have any tips for doing intense workouts quietly? Would a towel under the yoga mat dampen the sound enough?

Thanks 👍

theoretica

Yoga mats are pretty thin - what about a martial art mat?  Also what is your exercise - are you dropping weights or just doing pushups?

NotReallyNorthern

I'd not thought of a martial art mat, I'll have a look online.
To be honest, the only exercise that bothered them was the Spiderman mountain climbers (instead of the normal mountain climbers). I was only doing it for 25 seconds but because I am overweight it seemed to bother them. 🤷‍♀️

Indigo_and_Violet

Do you have any outside space? I've moved my morning classes to our front garden to avoid disturbing our downstairs neighbours.
Other options might be:
- try and agree a mutually convenient time where they will be expecting some noise.
- mix up your workout so the cardio is done out of the house (running, cycling) and then do low-noise strength stuff in the house.
- as theoretica suggested, try heavier matting. I was doing squat jumps onto sofa cushions before it got dry enough to go outside. The extra absorbency increases difficulty, but it's hard with things like mountain climbers where you need a stable base (although you can just do high knees instead).
If you're in England gyms should open again on 12th April so only needs to be a temporary fix. Good luck!

missile

Laminate flooring transmits sound. Noise reducing underlay is the answer. Good quality underlay would be expensive to fit retrospectively.
The rhythmic noise generated by your Stairmaster would appear to be the issue. Perhaps you could go up and down your stairs as an alternative to avoid disturbing your neighbour.

Manxman_in_exile

missile said:

Laminate flooring transmits sound. Noise reducing underlay is the answer. Good quality underlay would be expensive to fit retrospectively.
The rhythmic noise generated by your Stairmaster would appear to be the issue. Perhaps you could go up and down your stairs as an alternative to avoid disturbing your neighbour.

I don't think they are using a Stairmaster.  I was perplexed as to what sort of workout would create enough noise to disturb the neighbours, but I googled Spider mountain climbers so I now know what we are talking about.  (Free-form on the floor, no machine).

TBH, no matter how overweight the OP is I cannot see how such an exercise (for 25 seconds!!!) could possibly create enough noise to disturb the neighbours without the OP being well aware that there was too much noise.  Even on a laminate floor laid over concrete I would not expect much noise transmission to annoy neighbours.  (But somebody grossly overweight doing "bouncy" alternate leg climbers on floorboards might be a different matter!).

We have a Concept 2 rower set up on bare floorboards.  It can be quite noisy if you are in the same room, but you can't even hear it in the adjacent room of our own house if the doors are closed.  We have a sound deadening mat for it, but we've never needed it.

If the OP wants to do the most they can to keep the neighbours happy, they could buy something like this (or even thicker) to put under the current mat, but I'm wondering if the neighbours are just being a PITA:  https://www.jllfitness.co.uk/yoga-mat-15mm-extra-thick.html

And they could then talk to the neighbours, say they are going to experiment with some different sound deadening measures throughout the day, and ask to let them know when they can hear it.  The answers might be interesting.

(I still find it hard to believe that these stair-climbers on a concrete floor - even with laminate on top - could possibly disturb neighbours?)

NB - I certainly do not want the OP to get in the neighbour's bad books, but I think it's fair enough for the OP to ask themselves if the neighbours are being reasonable.  Only the OP knows how much noise they are making, and they seem surprised anybody is disturbed.

EDIT:  If the OP is overweight and they are doing the "bouncy" alternate leg version - which is the only way I can see they would create any noise at all - I think I'd stop doing it anyway as a potential injury risk.  Looks to me like it's getting too close to a ballistic or plyometric type of exercise for safety and comfort

missile

Whatever noise caused by OP exercising in his own home is not unreasonable in my opinion. However, the OP wants to be a good neighbour. Without good underlay, laminate flooring will amplify / transmit noise which may be causing an issue for his neighbour.  

Daz2009

Your neighbours are being unreasonable if they never expect to hear a peep from your house.
It's not your problem they work shifts.
You can buy interlocking foam/rubber mats off ebay to make any size you want.These are pretty good at absorbing noise.

[Deleted User]

I'd work out in the early evening to allow for night shift working but I'm afraid I would not hold any truck with a neighbour complaining about the noise of a normal work out, you have a right to use your own house and provided the noise is not excessive, late or regular then they need to stop trying to control you.

Phlanger

Maybe look into rubberized workout mats. They should offer more padding than a yoga mat. If the noise is a result of weights hitting the floor that should help quite a lot. I have to say that it's pretty wild for them to be complaining about workout noise though. I can understand working nights is an issue, but that seems like something they need to meet you halfway about. 

elsien

God help the neighbours if a family with kids moves in next door. They shouldn’t be expecting people to tiptoe round because they’re doing night shifts.
Are you allowed to do normal day time activities such as listening to music or running the hoover round?