If you’re worried about the impact your exercise routine has on the environment rest assured that even your workout can be greened-up. Just a few simple changes are all that it takes. To see what I mean take a look at the green exercise tips below.
Outdoors. Exercise outdoors every now and then. You don’t have to do it all at once or everyday. If you exercise 3 times a week at a gym, change your routine to something like twice at the gym and once outside. Change is good for your body anyways and exercising outside is extremely beneficial. It allows you to workout in natural light, fresh air and the sounds around you (singing birds) are much more pleasant to your ears and mind than the ones at the gym (pounding of feet on the roaring sometimes squeaky treadmills).
Exercising outdoors also saves you money since membership is free and all you need is you and some comfortable clothes. You can also choose to bring along a bike to ride the beautiful long nature trail in front of you. It is much more interesting than a stationary bike. Don’t you think?
At the Gym. If you feel a gym is your only option for a good workout you still have many green opportunities to practice here. For example, if the gym isn’t too far and if the weather isn’t bad outside ride your bike to the gym instead of your car. Riding your bike is a good pre-gym warm-up. By the time you get to the gym you are ready to really get moving. Other green transportation options are: take the bus to the gym or carpool to the gym with your workout buddies. You are more likely to stick to a workout if you bring your buddies along.
In addition, encourage the gym you’re a member of to recycle, cut down on electric use and clean their equipment with environmentally friendly cleaning products. Even if all they agree to do is recycle that is more than they were doing before.
At Home. Another option is to save gas and exercise at home sometimes. There are plenty of workout DVD’s and books you can check out from the library. If you have a need for exercise machines look for second hand machines and equipment in online communities like freecycle, and craigslists or visit local thrift, consignments and resale shops. You will also save a lot of money this way.
Keep hydrated, but don’t be trashy about it. Buy a reusable water bottle. Drinking water is the best thing you can do for your body and for the environment; just make sure you aren’t using disposable bottles. A reusable bottle: glass, aluminum, eco-friendly plastic is much better for the environment than buying bottles of water all the time. It will save you money too.
Eco-gear: When your sneakers wear out take them or mail them to a shoe recycling center such as Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe where old shoes are ground up into new material. The new materials are then used to make things like new sports surfaces (football fields, soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, tracks and playground surfaces).
You can also donate your old shoes to Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization that collects gently used shoes. Soles4Souls then distributes these gently used shoes worldwide to those in need.
New Exercise Clothes and Shoes: Buy exercise clothes made of recycled material or environmentally friendly material: organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, recycled and even soy fibers. That includes socks and shoes. Patagonia has clothes made from recycled material. When you clothes are worn Patagonia allows you to send it back to them to be fixed and reused again. Teko has socks that are made from organic cotton, wool and fibers made from corn. For new shoes look for shoes that are made of recycled parts and who keep shoe packaging to a minimum.
Yoga Mat. Many mats are made of PVC. Luckily there are environmentally friendly alternatives. Today many mats are made of recycled material, jute, natural rubber or non-toxic material, etc.
If the new gear seems expensive think about quitting the gym membership and exercise outside. That extra money you save can buy your new fitness gear and be placed into a savings account for later use.
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