Green Gym 

Traditional gyms are guzzling energy at an alarming rate but  that's no excuse not to get fit and healthy. Here's how you can work that body without wasting the earth's resources - it's fun, free and fantastic for mind, body and spirit. 

Gyms may be good for our health, but they are helping to choke the planet. Next time you're slogging it out on the treadmill, take a good look around and ask yourself what price the earth is paying for the toning of your glutes. You'll no doubt see rows upon rows of exercise machines, some occuiped, some not, but all guzzling energy at a faster rate than you can burn calorie exercise. Vast walls of TV screens blare out music, and neon lights illuminate it all in an artificial glow. Despite the air conditioning - which emits huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere - you'll probably be sweating. But hey, no problem, grab yourself a boil-washed and tumble-dried towel to wipe down. Once you've showered, used a couple more towels, blow-dried your hair and jumped into your car for the drive home, you could calculate the amount of non-renewable energy resources you've consumed, rather than the number of calories you've burned.

Break free of the gym
A great initiative, Green Gym combines keeping fit with environmental conservation.  It offers free, regular sessions run by a trained leader, with activites including planting new hedges, clearing footpaths and helping to build comunity gardens. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that it makes people feel better mentally and we find it has a much higher retention rate than the traditional gym.

Benefits of a green workout

Fresh air and open countryside.
Calorie burn. A 40-year-old female participant at a Green gym burned 392 calories felling trees and piling them up. She would nave burned 306 for the equivalent time doing aerobics.
Total body workout. A range of manual activites strengthens and tones the entire body rather than one specific muscle group.
Low dropout rate. Variety, teamwork and a worthy cause will spur you on - 70% of the original participants at a Greens gym were still attenging two years on.
It's FREE!

Benefits of daily exercise

If you are strapped for time or live too far from a Green Gym, why not apply its principles to your own daily exercise regime. A recent survey published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that three 10-minute bursts of activity spread over the day are as benefical as a 30-minute block of exercise, so try integrating these exercises into your daily rountine:
Get gardening. Trees absorb harmful greenhouse gases and provide habitats for a wide variety of animal and plant species. According to the Woodland Trust, planting trees burns roughly 420 calories an hour, 30 calories more than aerobics class. Mowing the lawn burns 387 calories, the same number as an hour of golf or gentle ice-skating and, if you rake the leaves, you'll
burn 216 calories and make a mean compost when you've finished.
Ditch the car. If you walk, run or cycle, you'll get fit and avoid contributing harmful pollution to the environment. Our Continental counterparts help stay trim by walking exercise everywhere and always taking the stairs.
Home exercise. Invest in a trampoline and skipping rope or dumbbells. Play physical games with your childern - fun physical games, not only will this distract them from the TV, but  you'll also burn 350 calories an hour.
If you do end up in the gym... Take classes such as exercise bike, yoga exercise and circuits, and use free weights and Swiss balls. The Swiss ball abides also known by several different names, including exercise ball, gym ball, Pilate ball, sports ball, fit or fitness ball, stability ball, therapy ball, yoga ball, balance ball, or body ball. Go before eork so you can limit yourself to one shower a day and take your own towel.
Daily Exercise workout to get rid of cellulite and improve your life.

Daily exercise tip

Denise Austin Fit Forever

How exercise can improve your daily activities, and good nutrition habits that tie into your fitness goals.
Exercise videos: Denise Austin - American fitness and exercise expert.
She is known for her emphasis on staying fit naturally, emphasizing that she herself exercises only about 30 minutes a day.
Exercising helps you  be in shape. Incorporate stretching into your Daily Routine, lose weight with Denise Austin's free weight loss exercise program. Get Fit Today!