You’ve just run five miles on the treadmill at your gym. As the machine slows to a stop, you step to the ground feeling exhilarated. Then you look up at the rows and rows of fellow fitness enthusiasts, sipping from plastic water bottles, reaching for single-use towels and chugging away on exercise machines beneath blaring TVs, suddenly you don’t feel so healthy anymore. Gyms are great for your body, but tough on the environment, so how do you maintain a healthy lifestyle and a healthy planet?
For starters, not all gyms are energy-guzzlers. A new wave of green gyms powered by the exercisers themselves are on the rise. They’re not widespread yet, but if you happen to be in Hong Kong or Portland, Oregon, you’re in luck. Both gyms use modified stationary bikes that store energy in batteries to power things like lights, TVs, laptops and stereos. The Green Microgym in Portland supplements this calorie energy with solar panels and also uses recycled and energy-efficient equipment.
One of the greatest green lessons from this facility is that its 70 members all live within walking distance. Wherever you are, it makes no sense to drive somewhere to get healthy, so sign up for a gym you can walk to.
Even better, you don’t really need energy from an outlet to work out. Get as much human-powered exercise as possible with activities like yoga, spinning, lifting weights, cycling, running or outdoor sports. Streaming workout routines available on Netflix and On Demand get your heart pumping with no more equipment than hand weights.
That’s my advice for exercising in a perfect world. Now on to reality. Not all of us live in an area where we can exercise outdoors or have the motivation to exercise at home. So if you are going to join a gym, evaluate your choices using these handy guides from Green Planet and Mother Nature Network.
One of the easiest changes you can make is to choose a gym that doesn’t sell bottled water or hand out towels. Gyms have to sanitize towels after every use, wasting energy and water. You’ll get more mileage per wash out of a towel you bring yourself. The same goes for water bottles; if the disposable option isn’t available, hopefully more people will reuse bottles. Suggest that your gym give a reusable bottle to new members on signing.
Gyms that use energy efficient equipment, like Green Revolution stationary bikes or Eco-Powr Treadmills, are another optimal choice.
Source: BecauseAction.com
