Human Hamster Going Green!: Court Skabelund Personal #2

Recently I wrote a research paper concerning the growing number of gyms and company's committed to the abundance of using the energy we exert in gyms. What sparked this paper was the emergence from my scrawny shell and to actually start working out! After going with my SagePoint 810 friends to the U of U field-house gym, I started to notice something very peculiar about the way our society has viewed exercise. In the US we are obsessed with getting thin but are increasingly becoming more fat and easily the fattest nation in the world. At the gym, however, I only see two types of people; the thin or slightly chubby. Although my paper didn't addressthe problems concerning America's health concerns it does show a lack in personal awareness in trying to solve these problems. What my paper did cover were the benefits of retrofitting your gym with generators to use the energy we produce on treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, spinners, and even cable machines to power thegyms electrical needs. The University field-house's largest section of the gym is filled with over 50 machines, bikes, ellipticals, and treadmills all incorporating the benefit of only the user and in turn using electricity to do so. In many universities around the country, including University of North Texas (UNT), University of Florida, Kentucky, Oregon and many others have already retrofitted their technology and have started to save hundreds of dollars ever year just on energy conservation. The next step is the University of Utah. Although this technology isn't creating self sustaining gyms it is creating a minor solution to our growing energy crisis and providing us with a positive way to work out. Both for the environment and for ourselves.

I would like to thank Kelsee for my title.