The Rise of “Green” Gyms

By Kelly Turner on August 26th, 2009

Most people are concerned with simply powering through their workout, but those that work out at the newest green-trend, green gyms, actually use that energy to literally power their workout itself.

Everyone is looking for ways to be greener these days- to save the planet or to just not get yelled at by those that like to make people who use plastic grocery bags feel like crap.  Doing your part can keep our planet healthy, but a new trend of “Green Gyms” is allowing you to take care of both the planet and your health.

Calories are units of energy.  Your body burns calories to produce energy so your body can do work (or you make your body do work to burn calories, depending on how you look at it.)  It only seems natural to harness that energy we are just dissipating into the air, and use it to power the very place we are doing said work out.

In these gyms, such as The Green Microgym in Portland, OR,  most of the amenities are either reused, recycled or used to produce energy to power the club.  Cardio machines, such as ellipticals and treadmills are hooked up to batteries which store the energy to be used to power the lights, TVs or fans.  The floors can be made of recycled rubber, and the equipment is recycled and refurbished to work good as new.

Most are not 100% man powered- solar panels can be used to produce the remainder of needed energy, but many feel eventually green gyms can run entirely on the blood, sweat and tears of it’s members.

You may be wondering why you’ve never heard of these kinds of gyms before, and there’s a good reason for it: its expensive.  Rather, its expensive to overhaul an already established gym with modified equipment.  Its easier and cheaper to start a green gym from scratch, and with our society’s growing interest in environmental integrity and consciousness, fitness experts believe we will see an explosion of green gyms in the near future.