The notion of driving (or even riding a bus or train) to a gym so you can run around in a series of circles, bicycle in place or lift weights up and down to stay in shape may be a trifle odd to many TreeHuggers, despite being thoroughly embedded in mainstream culture. How do we put all that energy being expended to good use? Here are some of our picks for going to the gym, TreeHugger-style.

1) The Gimnasio Ecológico Lumen is an outdoor, hand-made gym built from natural products (like tree branches) and salvaged bicycle and boat parts.
2) Green Gyms allow TreeHuggers in the UK to get a good workout (some Green Gym activites burn a third more calories than doing a step aerobics class) while doing some good for the planet and your community by planting trees, laying hedges, building walls and the like.
3) Notions of Expenditure is a request "for speculative proposals to re-design exercise equipment to generate and store energy; and/or to retrofit gyms to function as local power sources linked to the grid." It envisions a "redesign of gyms into power hubs and a linking together of the power hubs into a massive power network".
4) Design that Matters proves that good design can be harnessed to improve the lives of all, not just the wealthy. Check out the LED-based projector whose batteries are recharged by bicycle power, used for community literacy programs.
5) Riding a bicycle can be used to power a great many things, as it turns out; the Cyclean pedal-powered washing machine and Bikeblender are just a few examples of putting crank power to good use.

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