How to Make Your Workout Environmentally Friendly

Doctors always advise their patients to start working out. They comment on statistics that tell how great working out is, and how you can definitely make your life better, and you can live longer, if you get exercise on a regular basis. “Get your heart rate up,” you’ll hear them say, “and make sure you do it at least three times a week!” There are even national campaigns that talk about how you can make your life better if you exercise. Did you know that you may be making your life better if you exercise, but killing the life of the earth?

Exercising can be very bad for the environment. Don’t think so? Think about this for a moment: where do you workout? If you workout in your own home or outdoors, great, but if you workout in a gym or use a machine that requires electricity to work out, then you’re not being green. If you run for thirty minutes on a treadmill, that treadmill actually takes up .75 kilowatt hours. How much is this? It’s about the same amount of energy that you’d use to light up your holiday tree for a half a day. If you do it at least three times a week, you’re using up even more energy. There are, however, a number of things that you can do to make your workout eco-friendly.

Water

One of the most important things when you’re working out is water. Water keeps us from being dehydrated and, more importantly to some, gets rid of that “dry” taste in the mouth that you get when you’re working out hard.  Do you bring a plastic water bottle to your workout with you? A plastic water bottle is extremely bad for the environment.  If you look at the Container Recycling Institute’s research, you’ll learn that up to 80 percent of bottles that people buy every year wind up either going through the incinerator, which is horrible for the air, or in a landfill. To make your workout eco-friendly, instead of using a plastic water bottle, try buying a metal water bottle or using one of the new BPA-free plastic bottles.

Getting There

How do you get to your workout? Do you drive? Driving unnecessarily is definitely not good for the environment, and if you have to drive more than ten minutes to your gym or to the place where you workout, you’re definitely causing an issue with the environment. Instead of driving to your workout location, try walking there! Walking is not only great for you, but it stops you from using all of the gas that you would have to use if you drove instead of walking.  Instead of going outside of the home to exercise, you can exercise around your neighborhood. Jog around your house a few times or run to the corner store and back. You’ll get a great amount of exercise and you won’t have to really go anywhere. Also, if you’d rather go to the gym, you can bike there, which is also great exercise and which helps the environment as well.

Equipment

Who says that you need expensive equipment that eats up the kilowatts in order to enjoy great exercise? Many of the top celebrity trainers in the nation say that the way that they get their client’s bodies into tip-top shape has nothing to do with expensive equipment or a power cord. Instead, they use things like a resistance band or a balance ball to get their clients the workout and the sculpted body they want. These things can be taken anywhere that you want to go, so you can even take them to the park with you, and they will give you an amazing workout.  Best of all, it’s completely green.

The Gym

If you must go to the gym to exercise, there are still things that you can do to help reduce your carbon footprint. One thing is to bring your own towel. Gyms go through towels like crazy, and the amount of laundry that they do is definitely not considered to be eco-friendly. If you bring your own towel, however, you’ll be able to conserve energy. Another thing you’ll find at your local gym is televisions. People watch television in order to make their workout seem shorter.  Do you really need to have all of the TVs on at once? Turn off any TVs that aren’t being used (make sure you ask people first to avoid frustrating them). You can also ask the manager of the gym if it’s possible to install low flow showerheads and lights that conserve energy. All of these little things can make a huge impact on the environment, and an eco-friendly workout is an even better idea: it helps you and it can help the earth at the same time.