How to Prevent Mat Burn During MMA and Martial Arts Training

We’ve all been there. Mat burn sucks. It stings (especially in the shower!), it impacts your training, and it’s annoying to treat. It takes time to heal, and there’s not much you can do about it after it happens.

The best thing you can do about mat burn is try to prevent it from happening. It’s a hard task, we know, but there are several things you can do as an athlete or gym owner to prevent mat burn from killing your feet, knees and elbows.

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What Causes Mat Burn?

Mat burn occurs when your bare skin comes into contact with martial arts mats, usually while grappling. This excessive contact causes friction that can burn the skin or create abrasions. This particularly tends to happen while training on tatami mats, which have a natural texture that allows for better grip. While that helps you with training, it comes with the tradeoff of mat burn becoming more common.

How can you prevent mat burn?

Invest in Better Mats

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Lower quality martial arts mats are made with inferior materials that wear down more quickly with consistent training. This creates a rougher surface that does not maintain its form over time. This rough surface not only eventually loses its grip, it also creates a sandpaper type surface that is severely uncomfortable to train on. These types of low-quality martial arts mats can also become chemically unstable and breakdown over time due to exposure to sweat, cleaners, and other types of liquids.

Always invest in high quality mats if you want to prevent mat burn.

Understand Surface Types

Martial arts mats tend to come in two surface types: tatami and smooth. Learn more about the difference between tatami and smooth mats here.

ZEBRA’s Tatami Textured Mats are specially designed to replicate the natural rice straw texture of traditional Japanese tatami mats, which are known for their comfortable texture that allow for better grip. While it’s designed to reduce mat burn, it doesn’t outright prevent it.

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Tatami mats are the most ideal for standup martial arts. If you practice BJJ or MMA, you may want to consider using smooth mats because they’re more comfortable to train on. It’s up to you to decide which is best for you and your gym.

Wear the Right Gear

A lot of mat burn on your elbows and knees can be prevented with the right gear, particularly if you’re practicing No-gi BJJ. Your BJJ gi does a lot to prevent mat burn, but if you’re going without it today, make sure you suit up in these types of apparel:

• Long-sleeve rashguards
• BJJ spats

For your hands and feet, a good quality athletic tape can go a long way in reducing and preventing mat burn. Taping can be difficult at first, but you will get better at it over time.

Recognize the Early Signs

If you see red or irritated skin anywhere on your body, mat burn is likely to occur very soon. The two best things you can do are cover up the impacted area and stop doing what you are doing immediately. Change up how you roll or grapple. Stop dragging the tops of your feet on the mats. Work with your instructor on how to better position yourself to prevent mat burn. This comes with experience, but you’ll get it over time.

Treating Mat Burn

What’s done is done. If you have mat burn already, try treating it with one of these methods:

• Wash it with cold water
• Disinfect the area
• Use burn cream or ointment
• Allow the wound to stay open to heal faster
• Avoid getting it dirty
• If you must, cover the area with a band aid (if small) or gauze (if larger)

Reduce mat burn with ZEBRA mats! Get the best mats in the industry today!

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