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The average American workout generally consists of throwing some clothes into a bag, hopping in the car, and driving to an indoor (read energy-intensive) gym where you step onto an electrically powered treadmill or elliptical trainer sipping your energy beverage as you go. When you're done, you take a quick shower and head home again. This system is tedious, uninteresting, and environmentally harmful, taking its tole on the earth in a number of ways.

Workout eco-challenges

Athletic clothing

Eco-friendly exercise starts with environmentally friendly workout gear. Because of the way that conventional cotton is grown and treated, workout clothes made from eco-friendly fibers, like hemp or organic cotton, can improve the environmental impact of your workout. In the United States, an estimated one-third-pound of agricultural chemicals are used to produce a single cotton T-shirt. Thus, a 100 percent cotton T-shirt is actually comprised of 73 percent cotton—the remaining 27 percent is made up of chemicals and chemical residues.[1][2] The chemicals used to treat conventional cotton can harm beneficial insects and soil microorganisms, pollute water, and adversely affect wildlife—including fish, birds, and livestock.[3] The farming of conventional cotton is also water-intensive. Approximately 400 gallons of water are required to produce a single cotton T-shirt.[4]

Some athletic clothing is also treated with bug-, odor-, or stain-resistant chemicals. According to the Environmental Working Group, Gore-Tex, Teflon, and other chemicals designed to repel water and dirt can break down into harmful perfluorochemicals (PFCs), such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Insecticides used on outdoor workout clothes may contain permethrin, which can be absorbed by the skin when the wearer sweats and is particularly toxic to aquatic life—harming amphibians, and killing crustaceans, rainbow trout, salmon, and others—when it appears in the environment.[5][6] Some products that have received anti-bacterial treatments containing triclosan also pose health risks to the wearer.[5]

Refillable water bottles

Even what you drink can green your workout. Waste prevention (reducing plastics use by refilling bottles instead of buying new ones) avoids the greater energy required for virgin-plastic production, as well as greenhouse gas emissions from incineration and landfill gases.[7] And the fewer plastic water bottles that are thrown away, the less landfill waste is created.[8]

Exercise close to home

Shortening or eliminating the drive to your workout space can also lessen the environmental impact of your workout. Even if the gym is just a short two-and-a-half-mile drive from your house, an average small car will release more than 1.5 kilograms (about 3.3 pounds) of carbon dioxide (a leading contributor to global warming) roundtrip.[9] Cars and other vehicles on the road also produce air and water pollution, as well as increased energy and land consumption.[10] Walking or biking to the gym not only lessens the environmental impact of your exercise routine, it extends your workout with a built-in warm up and cool down as well.

Want the ultimate in local exercise? Work out in your own backyard. Green exercise, a fancy name for physical activity in the great outdoors, like gardening, biking or walking, kite flying, or conservation projects, can be a great way to get fit without adding miles to your workout.[11] Exercising outdoors will not only increase your appreciation of a greener world, but can actively help reclaim and protect public lands and green space. Groups like Rails To Trails transform forgotten spaces, such as unused rail corridors, into trails for hiking and biking.[12] Exercising outdoors may also decrease your gym-related energy use. Over a month, 10 treadmills require almost 5 times the monthly electricity use of a US household.[13][14]

Related health issues

There are a number of chemicals of particular interest to those working toward a more healthy exercise routhine. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) labels perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a PFC and found in many work-out clothes, as a likely carcinogen. Permethrin, a nervous-system toxin, can cause skin, respiratory system and eye irritation, headache, nausea, numbness, and dizziness. In the environment, permethrin (which belongs to a family of insecticides called pyrethroids) can cause asthma attacks, headaches, and nausea, and is a suspected endocrine disrupter. The American Medical Association has found that triclosan can contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and can form chloroform, a suspected carcinogen, when mixed with chlorinated water.[5]

On the bright side, research on “green exercise” has found that being in nature helps to reduce stress and generally improve mental health.[15] Green exercise also improves self-esteem and mood measures, and reduces blood pressure.[16]

External links

• The Green Microgym An eco-gym where the bikes and treadmills produce energy for DVD players and radios.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) News - Students get charge out of pedal power Students are taking green exercise to a whole new level by trying to develop an eco-friendly exercise bike that, when pedaled, produces enough energy to charge a laptop.

Glossary

• perfluorochemicals (PFCs): A family of man-made chemicals used to make products that are resistant to heat, oil, stains, grease, and water.
• perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA): A chemical in the PFC group, the structures of which persist in the environment. PFOA is considered to be a volatile organic compound (VOC) and a Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxin (PBT).
• permethrin: A synthetic pyrethroid used as an insecticide.
• pyrethroids: Any of several synthetic compounds similar to pyrethrin, used as an insecticide.
• triclosan: An antibacterial agent. Effects may range from skin and eye irritation to the formation of dioxin and chloroform in the right circumstances, both probable carcinogens.
• volatile organic compounds (VOCs): Organic solvents that easily evaporate into the air. VOCs are emitted by thousands of products, including paints, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials, and furnishings, and may cause immediate and long-term health problems. VOCs are also considered a possible carcinogen, and can create ground-level ozone, the main component of smog.