Green exercising: good for you, good for the planet
We’ve all heard it before… “Exercising is good for you!”
Physical activity greatly reduces the risk of dying from coronary heart disease, and also reduces the risk of developing diabetes, hypertension and colon cancer. It enhances mental health, fosters healthy muscles and bones, and helps maintain health and independence in older adults.
Most of us are also know that regular physical activity can improve individual’s emotional and physical well-being by regulating hormones, brain chemicals and energy levels.
What many of us may not be aware is that some types of physical activities may benefit us because they facilitate or enhance our connections to nature and social communities, which in turn, may reflect back as benefits to the environment.
Studies have shown that physical and social features of the environment affect behavior, interpersonal relationships and actual mental states. What this complicated sentence means is simply that Noisy, dirty, violent settings tend to make us irritated, stressed out, antsy and even angry, while quiet, beautiful and peaceful settings tend to make it easier for us to relax and enjoy ourselves. Well, not surprisingly there is actual scientific evidence that closeness to nature increases human well-being and that complete disconnection to nature is harmful – both to individuals and to societies and cultures at large.
German social psychologist Erich Fromm called this general attraction we humans feel towards natural settings and other living beings as “biophilia”. American biologist Edward O. Wilson popularized the hypothesis in his book entitled Biophilia . The Biophilia Hypothesis states that, although modified by culture and experience, human attraction toward “natural things” is an innate product of biological evolution. This instinctive preference would perhaps explain why we humans feel pleasure into bringing plants, flowers and pet animals into our homes and may also make some sense out of the silly way many of us act around puppies, kittens and cubs.
In a nutshell, the idea is that feeling good around other living beings helps humans to increase the survival rates of these beings, which would then contribute to the maintenance of biodiversity and, because we humans depend on the existence of other living beings, ultimately increase our own chances of survival.
Anyway, you can probably guess by now where I’m going with this…
Exercise is good for you and if done in some sort of natural setting, exercise is even better for you!
Since at least 2005, Jules Pretty and colleagues from the Dept. of Biological Sciences of the University of Essex in the UK have investigated whether there is an additional benefit in combining physical activities with direct exposure to nature. These authors have called this combination ‘green exercise’. Based on observations of more than 250 people, these scientists’ research indicates that green exercise leads to a significant improvement in self-esteem and total mood disturbance (with anger-hostility, confusion-bewilderment, depression-dejection and tension-anxiety all improving post-activity). Both rural and urban pleasant scenes produced a significantly greater positive effect on self-esteem than the exercise-only control. By contrast, both rural and urban unpleasant scenes reduced the positive effects of exercise on self-esteem. These authors also found a clear effect of both exercise and different scenes on blood pressure.
I would guess many of you can relate to that. I certainly can. I not only prefer outdoor physical activities, but actually dislike going to the gym. Yes, it is much more convenient and practical to go to the gym, and yes, depending on where you live, it may be virtually impossible to get all your exercise hours “in nature”.
Yet, I will try to further convince you that we should all try to get some more “green exercise”.
Another way to look at benefits from “green exercise” is to consider the potential positive effects this trend may have on the environment itself.
Show me the money
First, it is logical that the more we take our leisure and health activities to the outdoors and into natural settings the more we tend to value these areas. Thus, it is likely that parks, nature reserves and beaches would receive more conservation investments from both private and public sectors, if more of us were interested in preserving these areas in their natural state, rather than giving place to new malls and developments.
Put in economic terms, it is a matter of opportunity cost. The more we use the outdoors in their “natural state” (or closer to their natural state) the more we care about maintaining these areas undeveloped or nearly undeveloped. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association report for 2008, the U.S. sporting goods industry is nearly a $70 billion business at wholesale. Even with a weakening economy, its growth rate is greater than the national average! Can you imagine if at least half of the money we as a society spend on fitness clubs and equipment was put towards conservation initiatives? I can.
Reduce your exercise footprint
Did you know that the average treadmill produces about 2 pounds of CO2 over the course of a 30-minute workout? As pointed out by the folks at treehugger.com, if you work out for half-hour on a regular treadmill (usually rated at 1,500 to 2,000 watts) you use 0.75 kilowatt-hours of energy — the same amount of energy you’d use to light up a regular 60 watt light bulb for twelve and a half hours. It is also the equivalent of lighting 57 13-watt energy efficient bulbs for an hour. That’s an office building worth of lights!
While some gyms are striving to adapt to a more environmentally friendly existence, such as the Green MicroGym in Portland, OR (http://thegreenmicrogym.com/), most gyms are concerned with offering their clients a modern, hi-tech look and feel, and that includes all sorts of electric machines, electronic devices and air-conditioning. Think about all the flat screen TVs, vending-machines, computers, lights and all other energy-consuming equipment that one can find in a gym. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could use those little treadmills to actually generate power, rather than consume it?
Bottom line is: Let’s run or bike outdoors, do yoga at the park, and swim at the ocean as often as possible and give machines a rest, at least a couple days of the week.
Fulfill your life with meaningful non-consuming activities
Okay, so this one may be a stretch, but here it goes… I suspect that having one or more regular outdoors activities as hobbies may keep you away from consuming more than what you actually need.
I’ll explain. I have observed from my own experience and from family and friends’ behavior, that when stressed out about work, school or personal issues we try to occupy our minds and escape from our problems by doing what anybody is really good at: shopping!
We go to the mall, we shop online, we over-do at the supermarket, in an attempt to feel more in control of our own lives. How many times have you tried to appease your mind by buying yourself a special treat you didn’t really need? It seems that for some folks, shopping has actually become a recreational activity. They do it to avoid boredom. Strolling through Target aisles or at the mall (and eventually purchasing superfluous items) has become an unsustainable method for relaxation.
I earnestly feel that having a hobby, especially one that combines physical activity and nature, can help us all to alleviate stress while keeping us away from the shopping carts.
Of course, there are some major problems with my little theory. An obvious one is that it is possible that once we become more involved with our hobbies we may want to buy more and more gear. Still though, I have a feeling that this “gear-up effect” generally requires less for outdoor activities than it does for indoor exercising.
One more thing…
Now, let’s use some common sense! No matter how much you love it, golf, does not classify as “green exercise” (at least not according to the terms we have established here). Golf courses are artificial sites manufactured to make you “think” you are “in nature”.
In fact, the activity is responsible for substantial alteration of natural habitats, chemical contamination of water due to the use of fertilizers and pesticides on the turf, and wasteful use of freshwater for irrigation. These impacts are well documented in the scientific literature, but rarely discussed in the media or among policy experts (for more details on the environmental impacts of golf check out the article “A Global Perspective on the Environmental Impact of Golf ” published by Kit Wheeler and John Nauright in the Sport in Society Journal of July 2006, volume 9, issue 3, pages 427 — 443).
To the list of activities that do not qualify as “green exercise” I would add any kind of motorized activities, such as motor boating, jet skiing, motorcycling, and four wheeling.
I guarantee that you can have the same (or even more) amount of fun doing something a little less harmful to the planet. Some creative folks have actually found ways to bring sports that are traditionally practiced indoors to the outdoors: yoga and tai-chi classes are commonly held in parks these days and many personal trainers are taking their clients to the outdoors and converting the usual weight lifting routine into open-air workouts and cross-country training. What about giving hiking, biking, surfing, swimming, snowshoeing, kayaking, climbing or sailing a try? The options are numberless!
So, get your hats out, put your sunscreen on, bundle up, if playing in the snow and let’s venture back into the natural world!
3 Responses to “Green exercising: good for you, good for the planet”
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The blog 'EARTHactually' was started by a group of young scientists, teachers and activists who study the state of our planet and ways to live in harmony with it. Our mission is to create a lively forum for the discussion of all things Earth related without censoring, editing or peer-review.
I’ve always wondered why gyms don’t tap into all the energy created. Since you have discos that can be powered by the movement of the dancers, surely the gyms can do the same?
“To the list of activities that do not qualify as “green exercise” I would add any kind of motorized activities, such as motor boating, jet skiing, motorcycling, and four wheeling.”
It’s funny that this actually has to said!
granda vager mi arava te imorias adins fúposondu. mexpro te constra sseis nos encia o ulinhaisu adamo radarquiu bien.
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