102 when very heavy loads are applied referring to fig3 d shown in the heavily loaded mode when a pad 160 is fully loaded the pad 160 deflects until the bottom surface 145 of the lower subfloor 140 is in contact with the surface 104 of the substrate 102 the entire load is then carried by the substrate 102 an advantage of this arrangement is that the pads 160 are not completely deformed thereby not carrying the entire load when the floor 110 is bearing the heaviest loads this reduces the chance that the pads 160 are deformed past their elastic limit and also reduces the permanent deformation of the pads 160 which can decrease the floor system 100 efficacy over repeated use further this feature protects subfloor 120 and floor 110 components from stresses that would otherwise occur without the support of the surface 104 of the substrate 102 referring to fig3 a 3d for a given recess 144 width wr and pad 160 width wp the load distribution and shock absorption characteristics are a function of the width wr of the ridge 146 relative to the width of the recess wrr the wider the ridge 146 is relative to the recess 144 the less the deformation is of the floor 110 for a given load stated another way increasing the width wr of the ridge 146 relative to the width wrr of the recess 144 also increase the stiffness of the floor 110 preferably the widths wp wrr of the pad 160 and the recess 144 are both 1 0 inch with pad 160 thickness of 9.