A home gym is a real treasure, but an eco-friendly home gym is nothing short of a small fortune. Private workout havens designed with sustainability in mind help add functionality, value, and comfort to real estate, and they’re also good for the environment, home budget, and long-term health. But how exactly can you go green in your exercise room? It’s easy, actually: simply follow the guidelines below and your fitness studio will soon shine a new green light on your at-home workouts.
Eco-Safe Flooring Update
In an average fitness center, flooring is the most prominent design element, and the costliest one to replace, too. If you’re about to transform your home gym into an eco-friendly workout haven, you should opt for recycled and/or reused materials such as rubber flooring or reclaimed wood treated with low-VOC paint to minimize your home gym’s environmental impact and total update costs. Alternately, you can try bamboo, cork parquet, or locally sourced cobblestone as a renewable flooring option that will cost but a fraction of the price of newly manufactured floor materials. You can also outfit gym floors with recycled carpet tiles to upgrade insulation, lower noise level, and minimize risk of injury.
Energy-Efficient Lighting
Your at-home fitness studio will need adequate lighting, especially if you intend to use it at night or in the evenings. To max out on the functionality and green value of your exercise room, swap conventional lighting with energy-saving solutions such as LED or CFL bulbs that can last several times longer than classic incandescents. Going green with gym lighting will allow you to cut utility costs and do a favor to Mother Nature and your long-term health at the same time. Still, when shopping for energy-efficient lighting, bear in mind your studio’s illumination requirements and select the option that promises best value for money in the long haul.
Clean as a Gym Whistle
Cool-looking home gyms need regular upkeep to stay in good shape. To stay on the green side of fitness studio hygiene, swap commercial cleaning supplies for their DIY counterparts made from natural ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda and sea salt. A majority of standard cleaners contain toxic chemicals which can compromise your respiratory function and long-term health, so the switch to homemade organic cleaning solutions will be beneficial for both Planet Earth and your wellbeing, and it’ll also go easy on your gym maintenance budget.
Save a Drop Every Day
Scarcity of safe drinking water has by now become a pressing global concern, but you can make a small contribution to the struggle against environmental pollution and exploitation of natural resources by turning on the water saving mode in your home gym. To trim long-term utility bills and help put an end to world thirst, outfit the shower room of your at-home fitness studio with water-saving add-ons such as faucet aerators, low-flow showerheads, and low-flow toilets, and turn off the tap when you don’t immediately need running water. To max out H2O savings, you can use greywater for gym cleanup purposes and cut your showers a bit shorter: every drop you save today will count a lot in the long run.
Clean the Air for Health
Air quality is an often overlooked aspect in many gyms, but if you’re about to make a change to sustainable fitness in your home fitness studio, you should brace it for the green move. Just like other parts of your home, the air in a home gym contains chemicals and potentially hazardous toxins which are detrimental to the environment and human health. Fortunately, a opting for a high quality commercial air purifier will help eliminate air pollution and dial up gym fragrances to fresh and eco-friendly. You can also outfit your home fitness studio with air purifying plants such as spider plant, dracaena, peace lily, aloe vera, and bamboo palm: a few pots with handpicked green tenants will dial up both indoor air quality and gym aesthetic interest.
Green and Powered Up
Electricity generating gym equipment is one of the fitness trends growing increasingly popular these days, and you can make use of it in your workout haven if your budget allows it. Gym gear that transforms your fat into power will reduce long-term household running costs, so the initial price difference will be more than worth it in the long run. As a general rule, power-generating equipment for a home gym that guarantees the highest return on investment includes cardio machines such as stationary cycles, treadmills and ellipticals. These machines convert resistance created during exercise into energy that can be used to power small household appliances. If the price of a new power-producing gym machine is too deep a dent in your home budget, you can try and retrofit an existing machine with a DIY converter and save a bit of cash for another green gym upgrade.
Are you ready to turn on the eco mode in your gym? Roll up your sleeves and get down to green work: with updates listed above, you’ll get to hack multiple benefits in a single workout. Your at-home gym shouldn’t be just a place you go to burn tons of calories at the end of a long day: it’s also a place where love and care for the environment, health, and wellbeing shines at its finest. Ready, steady, go green today!
Home Gym Essentials for Under $100
