Fitness Equipment Helps Facilities Harness User-Generated Energy

Back in 2007, members at Gainesville Health & Fitness might have noticed a young man planted behind an elliptical machine, "tinkering" (as he called it) with the unit's moving parts. That would have been Hudson Harr, then a recent University of Florida graduate invited by club owner Joe Cirulli to experiment on the equipment. Harr was convinced he could harness the kinetic energy generated by elliptical users, convert it to kilowatt-hours and load it back to the facility's power grid. The result? Free electricity.

SportsArt Fitness introduced the Green System "pod" of fitness products wired to an inverter (bottom) at the IHRSA Convention & Trade Show in March. (Photos courtesy of SportsArt Fitness)

"I went in there expecting I was going to add a turbine and other types of controls to these machines — not realizing a lot of them existed in the machines already," says Harr, now president of Clearwater, Fla.-based ReRev™, a company that retrofits cardio equipment with small resistors and control boards that feed energy to inverters the size of a personal computer's central processing unit, which then reroute the power. "We just had to make use of it and engineer a process to pull the power out. Solar, wind, any form of renewable energy being pushed back to the grid does so in the exact same way."

ReRev and other companies have since created various means to achieve that same end. For example, while the majority of ReRev retrofits are for ellipticals — Harr says their weight, stability, design and higher usability make them the ideal green machine — The Green Revolution in Ridgefield, Conn., retrofits indoor cycling equipment. Other manufacturers, including PlugOut Fitness, a Seattle-based manufacturer formerly known as Resource Fitness, produces out-of-the-box elliptical cross-trainers and stationary cycles specifically designed to power a facility's grid.

Meanwhile, at the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association's International Convention & Trade Show in March, Woodinville, Wash.-based SportsArt Fitness launched the Green System, a "pod" of fitness products wired to an inverter about the size of a stereo receiver. Each pod, expected to be available later this year, can generate up to 2,000 watts per hour, resulting in annual electricity savings of more than $3,000 depending on usage, according to the company.

The benefits are many. "It's not meant to make you money, but it will definitely offset electricity," says Amber Maechler, marketing and communications director for SportsArt Fitness, which also makes a treadmill that uses less energy than traditional units, as well as a line of self-generating ellipticals and cycles requiring no outside power. "Plus, members are going to feel good about generating energy, and club owners are going to be sending an amazing message and using it to motivate members to work out longer and harder. Places of high use are where you're really going to see the benefits."

Manufacturers vary in the ways they communicate how much energy their people-powered equipment is capable of producing. For example, PlugOut Fitness says typical users will be able to generate between 50 and 150 watts during a single workout — enough to power a cell phone for a week. By contrast, an elliptical machine in regular use at a commercial facility using ReRev technology generates an estimated one kilowatt-hour of electricity every two days; that's the same amount of power it takes to run a laptop for 24 hours or a vacuum cleaner for 45 minutes.

A thermal-imaging camera captures the amount of wasted energy generated by an elliptical user before the machine is retrofitted with ReRev equipment. (Photo courtesy of ReRev)

This much is clear: The concept is catching on. One obvious indication of that is the Energy Civil War, held between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University during the week leading up to the schools' annual "Civil War" football game. Officials at each university keep track of the number of calories participants convert to kilowatts, and then tally up the results. Oregon won the 2010 battle, as students, staff and faculty generated 21,600 kilowatt hours of energy on equipped machines between Nov. 29 and Dec. 3; Oregon State participants managed to generate 20,000 kilowatt hours. Collectively, UO and OSU generated 75 percent more energy than they did during the 2009 Energy Civil War.

It's no surprise that manufacturers in this market segment report the greatest buy-in at college recreation centers, where there already exists an environmentally aware user base. But the concept is making strides in other facilities, too, including health clubs and municipal recreation centers. And it holds great promise for high schools (where calculating energy savings and converting kinetic energy could become part of math and science curriculums) and military bases (where power is at a premium in some remote locations).

"People are ready for the idea now, and it has legs," says SportsArt Fitness product manager Bob Baumgartner, who has been involved with the Green System since its inception. And if facility operators can give exercisers additional incentives to work out — essentially helping the environment while helping themselves — the message behind that idea holds even more juice. "We understand that we just can't put something like this in the club and have people realize the impact they're making," Maechler says, adding that SportsArt Fitness plans a major promotional and branding campaign for the Green System's early adopters. "Facility owners are not just buying a new piece of equipment; they're buying into a new marketing message."

Manufacturer-driven technology that details how much power facility users generate individually and collectively on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis make it easy to engage in competitions with facilities on the other side of town or on the other side of the country, as well as create new fundraising and educational opportunities. Predicts Harr, "This is going to make equipment even more of a fitness product than it was in the first place."

The result of combining fitness with sustainability — "two really positive industries," as Harr puts it — has not happened without growing pains. Consider the debate over the role batteries should play in the conversion of kinetic energy into AC power. While The Green Revolution wires exercise bikes into a central battery that can store energy, other manufacturers eschew batteries, citing efficiency, cost, size and disposal issues.

Besides, adds Baumgartner, the process of converting people power into facility power is already complicated enough. The Green System, which does not require batteries, is in the process of gaining UL approval. "We still have a long way to go in some respects," he says. "We're working through the approval process, and that's a challenge. We understand what it takes to get UL approval for a fitness product, but to get approval for a product that actually produces power and sends it back to the grid requires a whole other set of compliances."

Harr says all of the effort involved with helping create a new product category has been worth it. In fact, he doesn't see an alternative. "With humanity growing by leaps and bounds and emerging markets doing what they're doing without even a full rebound in our economy, we will run out of power," Harr says. "It was so easy for so long to just drill a hole in the ground and have an abundant source of energy at our fingertips. I don't want to see our standard of living decline because we didn't think about the future. Is ReRev solving any great problem? Absolutely not. But it's starting a discussion."

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes in Children

What Is Type 2 Diabetes?

Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes produce insulin; however, either their pancreas does not produce enough insulin or the body cannot use the insulin adequately. This is called insulin resistance. When there isn't enough insulin or the insulin is not used as it should be, glucose (sugar) can't get into the body's cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, the body's cells are not able to function properly. Other problems associated with the buildup of glucose in the blood include:

Dehydration. The buildup of sugar in the blood can cause an increase in urination. When the kidneys lose the glucose through the urine, a large amount of water is also lost, causing dehydration.
Diabetic Coma (Hyperosmolar nonketotic diabetic coma) . When a person with type 2 diabetes becomes severely dehydrated and is not able to drink enough fluids to make up for the fluid losses, they may develop this life-threatening complication.
Damage to the body. Over time, the high glucose levels in the blood may damage the nerves and small blood vessels of the eyes, kidneys, and heart and predispose a person to atherosclerosis (hardening) of the large arteries that can cause heart attack and stroke.


Type 2 Diabetes in Children

More and more children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Find out about type 2 diabetes symptoms in children, the diagnosis, and the treatment in WebMD's article on type 2 diabetes in childhood. If your child is at risk for childhood diabetes, it’s important to learn specific self-care tips to help prevent diabetes.


Who Gets Type 2 Diabetes?

Anyone can get type 2 diabetes. However, those at highest risk for the disease are those who are obese or overweight, women who have had gestational diabetes, people with family members who have type 2 diabetes and people who have metabolic syndrome (a cluster of problems that include high cholesterol, high triglycerides, low good 'HDL' cholesterol and a high bad 'LDL' cholesterol, and high blood pressure). In addition, older people are more susceptible to developing the disease since aging makes the body less tolerant of sugars.


Although it is more common than type 1 diabetes, the causes of type 2 diabetes are less well understood. It is likely caused by multiple factors and not a single problem.

Type 2 diabetes can run in families, but the exact nature of how it's inherited or the identity of a single genetic factor is not known.


What Are the Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes?

The symptoms of type 2 diabetes vary from person to person but may include:

Increased thirst.
Increased hunger (especially after eating).
Dry mouth.
Nausea and occasionally vomiting.
Frequent urination.
Fatigue (weak, tired feeling).
Blurred vision.
Numbness or tingling of the hands or feet.
Frequent infections of the skin, urinary tract or vagina.

Rarely, a person may be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after presenting to the hospital in a diabetic coma.


How Is Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosed?

To diagnose type 2 diabetes, your health care provider will first check for abnormalities in your blood (high blood glucose level) during a random fasting blood test or through a screening test known as the 2 hour glucose tolerance test. In addition, he or she may look for glucose or ketone bodies in your urine.

Type 2 diabetes testing includes a fasting plasma glucose test or a casual plasma glucose test. You will also need to check your blood sugar levels regularly.

Philadelphia Youth make a difference

PUFFA is truly grassroots with a strong collaboration made up of residents, block captains, youth, community-based organizations, schools, libraries, recreation centers and gardeners. All come together in PUFFA to make the places where they live and work healthier and safer.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation selected Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance (PUFFA) to as a grantee in its Food & Community Program effort. The $1.2 million grant, over three years, is one of nine awarded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to community and non-profit groups that are working together to transform how food moves from the farm to the table in Philadelphia and how our communities can have access to safe places for fitness and play. The Health Promotion Council (HPC) administers and staffs PUFFA.

PUFFA’s work focuses on:

* Improving healthy food available for our children at school
* Increasing access to safe and pleasant places for play and physical activity
* Increasing healthy food in our communities




What is PUFFA?



PUFFA (Philadelphia Urban Food & Fitness Alliance) is part of a national movement funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to shape how we feed our children and create safe places where they can be physically active. PUFFA has partners who are community residents and youth; experts in how food moves from the farm to our schools, our grocery stores and our tables; those who transform vacant land into places for safe play and gardening and those who provide opportunities and places for fitness such as dance, yoga and martial arts.



What does PUFFA mean to Philadelphia?



During the Planning Phase, community residents and youth surveyed four Philadelphia communities looking at how easy it was to buy affordable and healthy food or to find safe places for play and fitness. Now PUFFA partners are working with The Enterprise Center CDC in West Philadelphia and the Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative to improve access to healthy food in our schools and our communities and to create safe places for play and fitness.

3 Vegetables That Fight Abdominal Fat

A unique way that a few specific vegetables can actually stimulate the burning of abdominal fat...

Chemicals that force your body to hold onto belly fat

Something you may have never heard about is that certain chemicals in our food supply and our environment, such as pesticides, herbicides, and certain petrochemicals from air and water pollution, household cleaners, cosmetics, etc can react with your body and make your body store excess abdominal fat.

These chemicals are known as xenoestrogens.

Xenoestrogens are chemicals that you are exposed to (and are hard to avoid in the modern world) that have an estrogenic effect in your body. Excess exposure to these can cause hormone balance disruptions for both men and women. So these can wreak havoc in the body for both guys and gals.

These estrogenic chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis can stimulate your body to store belly fat, along with many other problems (including cancer risks in the long term).

So here's where this specific class of vegetables comes in handy...

One of those cool tricks that I teach my clients that hire me for nutritional counseling is the use of cruciferous vegetables to help fight against stomach fat.

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, etc. contain very specific and unique phytonutrients such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that help to fight against these estrogenic compounds...

And by fighting against these belly fat stimulating estrogenic chemicals, this is just 1 more step in helping you to win the battle against abdominal fat!

So there you go... just another excuse to do what mom always told you and eat more broccoli!

I've really learned to like brussells sprouts in the last year too... Melt a little grass-fed cheese on them and some garlic and they're great!

Lose unwanted body fat- 5 simple proven ways to burn fat fast in less time.

1. Drink more water throughout the day


Water is used in every physiological process your body undergoes, including vitamin absorption, digestion, and waste removal. In order to make sure these important processes are not disrupted, you want to drink enough clean water.

Drinking water will also help you feel more full throughout the day, so you’re less likely to be hungry and less likely to snack.
One trick to help you eat less during your meals is to drink a tall glass of clean, cold water before you eat. This will help you feel less hungry, so you’ll eat less during your meal.

Try to drink at least a gallon of water each day. Keep a bottle of water at your work desk, in your car, and one handy at home. The importance of water for good health cannot be overstated. You can live weeks without food, but only days without water.

2. Eat five to six smaller meals each day

This will keep your metabolism running smoothly and efficiently. Eating a smaller meal every 3 to 4 hours will help speed up your metabolism so that it burns through food quicker.

Eating one or two larger meals each day will cause your metabolism to slow down. If it’s not presented with food more often, it doesn’t burn fat fast.

Skipping meals altogether will cause your body to hold onto stored fat as a defense mechanism. Your body isn’t sure when it’s going to get its next meal, so it conserves stored fat to use in case of future calorie needs.

Each meal should consist of high protein (builds muscle), moderate carbohydrates (fuel for the body), and low fat (used for energy and organ protection).

Foods like chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, and milk are good sources of protein. For quality carbohydrates, eat complex sources like whole grains, cereals, breads, vegetables, and beans. Fats should be kept to a minimum and they should come from sources like fish oil, olive oil, flax seed, and whole fish.

3. Do three to four cardiovascular workouts each week

This is how you’ll burn the majority of your daily calories. Cardio increases your metabolic rate, so that you’ll burn more calories throughout the day, even while resting.

30 minutes of cardio, three to four times a week, is enough to raise your metabolism and help burn calories. Any more than that could lead to overtraining.

Choose cardio machines that get more of your body moving. the more you move your body, the more calories you burn. The Stairmaster, biking, and running on the treadmill are all good examples of intense cardio that will move more of your body.

4. Weight train three to four times a week

Weight training will not burn a sufficient amount of fat while you’re doing it. Weight training will help you burn more calories and fat in the future.

When you add more lean muscle tissue to your body, you have to expend more energy (burn more calories) just to maintain that lean muscle tissue. So when you’re at rest, even sleeping, you’ll burn off more calories with this additional lean muscle. The more calories you burn, the more body fat you will lose.

That’s why weight training is an important part of the weight loss equation. The more lean muscle tissue you have on your body, the more calories you will burn off as a result.

5. Begin to slowly reduce your calorie intake

In order to lose body fat, you need to expend more calories than you consume. Or simply put, burn off more calories than you eat.

Begin by reducing your daily calorie intake by 150 to 300 calories. Start cutting out extras like butter, cream, mayo, sugar, and any high-calorie dressings or condiments.

Instead, use spices or low-calories sauces to add flavor to your food.

As you reduce your daily calories, begin to observe in the mirror what effect it’s having on your body composition. This will help you decide whether or not you should reduce your calories again or if you’re making progress where you are.

If you don’t see results after a couple weeks of reducing your daily calories, reduce them again by 150 to 300 calories.

This slow, methodical drop in calories will allow you to find the number you need to keep losing fat, without sacrificing lean muscle tissue. If you eat too few calories, your metabolism will slow down and you’ll also stop adding lean muscle tissue.

Over time, you’ll find the number of daily calories you need to keep losing body fat, without losing lean muscle tissue.

There you have five simple, proven ways you can burn fat fast in less time. The more of these tips you use, the quicker you’ll begin to see positive changes in the mirror.

Exercise and Electricity Generation

A California Fitness Center in Hong Kong, a subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide, is using manpower to generate electricity in its gym. In other words, energy burned off by exercisers is diverted and converted to power lighting fixtures, while excess energy is stored in a battery. The program is called Powered By You. Thanks to French inventor Lucien Gambarota, entrepreneur Doug Woodring and the Hong Kong's California Fitness center we will all soon see a lot of healthier people in a much more sustainable world.

The project works like this: there are 13 step, cycling, and cross-training machines to use, plenty of volunteers and batteries that will store the energy that then turns on the lights. According to California Fitness president Steve Clinefelter, "someone running an hour each day on a machine can generate 18.2 kilowatts of electricity and prevent 4,380 liters of CO2 from being released each year."

When all 13 exercise machines are in use the power generated amounts to about 300 watts. 300 watts is about enough to run three 27-inch television sets or five 60-watt lights. The initial investment cost of this project was $15,000. The center is planning to expand the idea throughout the gym if the project is successful and "economically viable".

Don't like the gym. How about dancing or walking to power up? Two projects under development are The Sustainable Dance Club and The Facility:Innovate. The Sustainable Dance Club, a nightclub in Rotterdam, is a dance club/project where you can dance and power up the floor all at the same time. It is a project created by the Dutch environmental group Enviu and the architecture firm Döll. The Facility:Innovate, a London design firm, harvests power from footsteps to light up things like iPods or even street lamps.

It is amazing what can be done with our bodies to spark a little electricity and I don't mean it in a dirty way, but rather in a clean renewable way. It is a rational and simple solution to long time problem of obesity and high electric cost. Did I mention it makes exercising a lot more appealing and motivating?

4 Tips For Effective Treadmill Weight Loss

1.Nutrition
"A good diet will account for about 80% of an individual's success or failure..."

Nutrition is the cornerstone to any weight loss program. In fact, a good diet will account for about 80% of an individual's success or failure when it comes to shedding body fat. The proper foods in the right combinations can make time spent on a treadmill extremely effective by setting up the body hormonally for weight loss. The key to this is to limit complex and simple sugars and to focus on eating lean protein and fibrous fruits and vegetables. Keeping carbohydrate intake to a minimum and increasing lean protein will create an environment that will literally force the body's metabolism into burning fat for fuel. This is because carbohydrate is the primary fuel source for working muscles. The body will always choose to burn carbohydrate over fat because of its ease in making it readily available energy. If a limited amount of carbohydrate is available through proper diet partitioning, the metabolism must increase the consumption of fat stores to meet the fuel demands of any given treadmill workout. By increasing protein intake, the ability to recover from work outs is increased and new muscle tissue may be created that in turn will require more calories and fuel.

2.Treadmill Workouts


"An individual needs to bring his or her heart rate up to between 55%-80% of it's max and keep it there for at least thirty minutes."
Daily workouts on the treadmill are very strait forward and consist of more coherence than anything else. An individual needs to bring his or her heart rate up to between 55%-80% of it's max and keep it there for at least thirty minutes. Thirty minutes is the absolute the minimum required, but if physical activity is something new to the individual at hand, it would be good to keep it light for a few weeks to condition the body and prepare it for more vigorous activity. Intervals, or small bouts of intense exercise every few minutes during the duration of time on a treadmill can really boost overall calorie consumption. For more advanced users, the incline can be raised to provide greater stress and faster results. The key is to raise the metabolic rate and keep it there for a length of time that really allows the body to dig deep into its fat stores and release energy for fuel. If the diet recommended above is followed, this can make way for a very effective work out routine.

3.Water
"The amount of water in an individual's system can have dramatic effects on it's ability to metabolize and burn body fat."


The amount of water in an individual's system can have dramatic effects on it's ability to metabolize and burn body fat. Water is needed for nearly every single bodily function and weight loss is no different. Water helps shuttle fat from stores on the body to hard working muscle cells and also aides in the transportation of oxygen from the lungs. Water even works as an appetite suppressant that can help avoid overeating at a meal. Simply drink 8-12 onces before sitting down to eat and the amount of food consumed can often be cut in half. Don't overlook this vital nutrient in your weight loss program. Also, drinking more water helps to reduce water retention by stimulating the kidneys. Numerous studies have shown that if an individual is overweight, they should add at least 1 glass of water to their daily intake for every 25 pounds over their recommended size.

4.Sleep
Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can actually inhibit the body's ability to burn fat. The reason this happens is because sleep deprivation can lead to a hormonal imbalance which may throw the metabolism out of whack. As a result, fat burning is greatly diminished and work outs become far less effective and can make results far harder and longer to achieve. If an individual is going to take the time and energy to work out and eat correctly on a regular basis than he or she should strive to get the most out of each exercise session by getting plenty of sleep. 8 hours a night is the recommended amount of sleep by most experts. In recent years however, that number has been reduced somewhat and now many are stating that between 6-8 hours is plenty. Whatever the case may be, make sure to get plenty of rest during any physical fitness program.

So there you have it. Four tips, that if followed correctly will help aide in fat loss. Always consult your physician before beginning strenuous physical fitness program and always be sure to build up your time on the treadmill.