1.You stop counting the seconds in sujood
Most of us have been on the same thin mat for years. We treated the ache as part of salah. Get down. Wince. Get up. Do it again at Maghrib.
The padded mat is thick enough that your knees stop meeting the floor. You stay. You are not timing the prostration so it will end.
That is the whole job. Not a thicker towel. Not a folded corner. Just enough foam that sujood can be sujood again.