8 Ways to Green Your Workout

This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.

Exercise is an important part of staying healthy and looking fit. But is it possible to reduce your waistline while keeping your environmental footprint “fit” as well? Here’s eight ways to start:

1. Exercise Outdoors

Gym memberships can be convenient and provide an opportunity to meet people, but have you ever considered how much energy it takes to power a 24-hour gym? Consider outdoors activities for your daily exercise, such as:

• Jogging around the neighborhood instead of on a treadmill
• Swimming laps in a community pool instead of using an elliptical machine
• Lifting yard waste in your garden instead of free weights in the gym

2. Evaluate Your Diet

There are many debates about what foods are better to consume before and after your workout. However, they all share the fact that most of the suggested foods are also eco-friendly, such as fruits and nuts. Avoiding workout meals filled with meat and dairy products will help your body cope better with increased activity, and it will also reduce your impact on the environment.

3. Recharge Your Playlist

Music can keep you motivated on a morning jog or while you’re lifting weights. If your CD player or radio runs on batteries, look for rechargeables since they last longer than single-use batteries. You can also find solar-powered or wind-up media players that don’t need batteries to operate.

You can find a location to recycle rechargeable batteries when they no longer hold a charge using Earth911.

4. Buy Recycled Workout Gear

You can find shirts and pants made of recycled cotton, or shop for exercise clothing at a second-hand store. You can even find shoes made of recycled materials, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” If you buy new workout attire, find our where to donate your old clothing using Earth911.

5. Find a Toxin-Free Workout Area

So you’ve decided to turn a spare room of your house into a home gym. One thing to keep in mind is that exercising involves lots of heavy breathing, so you’ll want to keep toxic products out of this area. This includes:

1. Freshly painted walls that release mercury through the paint vapors
2. Ammonia from household cleaners
3. Air fresheners

Inhalation of these fumes is not as dangerous as consuming the products themselves, but it definitely won’t help your body.

6. Limit Your Showers

You can use up to 25 gallons of water in a five minute shower. Even if you’re not in a drought, taking showers before and after you workout is unnecessary. If you work out in the morning, wait until after to take your first shower of the day.

7. Reuse Your Towels

A towel can be your best friend during exercise, because it helps remove perspiration from your body as well as machines. But instead of washing your towel after every workout, reuse the same towel multiple times, and include it with a larger load of laundry. Keep in mind: you may want to hang up the towel between uses to give it some air to keep it fresher, longer.

8. Don’t Flush Your Performance Enhancers

Your workout may be complimented by vitamins, or perhaps you need pain medication for those sore muscles and joints. If these products are expired, it’s not safe to ingest them, but they also shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet.

Our sewage treatment is not fit to handle pharmaceuticals, meaning these drugs easily get mixed in with our drinking water. If you have outdated medication or other medical waste, use Earth911 to find an event to properly dispose of it.