The gym owner’s guide: mat hygiene from A to Z
Everything we have written on the subject, in the order an owner needs it. Read it once; keep it within reach.
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What a gym owner needs to know about mat hygiene, without jargon and with the sources.
How to clean jiu-jitsu mats daily
What your staff does between two classes protects your members’ skin. Here is the routine that holds, the one that damages the mat, and the limit of both.
Herpes gladiatorum: every wrestling coach’s nightmare, and the mat’s role
A wrestler with an active herpes lesion infects partners by contact. The mat only keeps the chain open.
Puzzle tiles, tatami or roll-out mats: every surface has its trap
You do not clean a wrestling roll the way you clean a puzzle tile. Dirt and moisture do not settle in the same place.
Opening a jiu-jitsu gym: the hygiene checklist
You think about the lease, the mats, the sign-up software. You rarely think about the hygiene binder before the first ringworm case. Here it is.
Registered disinfectant: what the DIN says, and what the label demands
“Disinfectant” is not a marketing adjective in Canada. It is a regulatory status, and it can be checked in thirty seconds.
Impetigo: the infection that runs through a kids’ group in a week
In Arizona in 2014, impetigo was the most frequent diagnosis in an outbreak of lesions among wrestlers. It is not a toddlers’ disease.
Preparing the mats for a camp, a seminar or a competition
Three hundred people from ten different gyms on your mat over a weekend. What they bring stays after they leave.
Wrestling mats in schools and CEGEPs: who does what, and when
The custodian washes the gym. The coach washes the mat, when there is time. In between, nobody looks underneath.
The mat smell comes from underneath, not from the surface
You wash the mat in the evening. The smell is back by noon. It is not your product, it is the place you never put it.
Mould under the mats: what happens between the mat and the concrete
The mat is a waterproof blanket laid on a floor. Whatever gets underneath no longer evaporates. That is the definition of a mould environment.
A ringworm case in my group: what to do in the first 48 hours
Ringworm is not serious. What is serious is letting it run through a group that rolls six nights a week on the same mat.
How often should gym mats be deep cleaned?
Three levels of maintenance, three different goals. The question is not “how many times”, it is “what, and how far”.
Staph and MRSA: what really lives on a grappling mat
Staph is the bacterium grappling gyms fear most, and the one they understand least. It does not come from the mat. It passes through it.
Dry steam or water extractor: what each method does to a mat
Both machines “clean”. Only one leaves a mat dry, healthy and ready to reassemble the same evening.
An outbreak costs more than a cleaning.
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