May II, 2011
^Jortlanh (Dbserurr
Page 7
Gym Goes Healthy
Exercise bikes
generate
electricity
(AP) - Reddening, a rivulet of
sweat running across her cheek,
Amy McCullough hunched overthe
stationary bike, pumped her legs
like crazy and began producing se
rious power — enough watts to run
a flat-panel TV and a ceiling fan.
She thrust her arms upward and
exclaimed: "Oh, 180!"
And, with that, her electrical out
put drooped. The generator at
tached to her exercise machine
slowed, and the digital readout from
the device on the handlebars fell
below 100 watts.
The transient burst was a per
sonal best for the 43-year-old legal
aid lawyer who works out five days
a week at a storefront fitness center
on Northeast Alberta Street where
members on exercise machines fit
ted with compact generators can
bum calories and generate electric
ity at the same time.
Their workouts satisfy a modicum
of the electrical draw at the 3-year-old
Green Microgym. More important,
Adam Boesel worksout on a stationary bike hooked up to a generator
at the Green Microgym on Northeast Alberta Street. (AP photo)
they satisfy a demand among its 200
members to be fit in a way that fits
Portland's green-indie-local ethos.
The 3,000-square-foot gym aims
for a neighborhood trade. It features
solar panels, recycled toilet paper,
renewable-source flooring and lots
For Your Health
of reminders on the wall about turn
ing off lights, fans and TVs.
"I was really attracted to the idea
that it w ould be green," said
McCullough, who joined shortly
after the gym opened in 2008. "I
could go in and generate electricity.
nancy rate of any developed na
tion— overall, three in 10 women
will become pregnant before age 20.
by D r . J ames N.
Nearly h alf (45.9 percent) of
M artin J r .
high school girls have had sex at
least once, putting them at risk of
an all-tim e low.
pregnancy. A sexually active teen
Teen pregnancy im pacts hun The bad news:
that is not using contraception
dreds of thousands of fam ilies in More than 2,000 teens still get
has a 90 percent chance o f becom
the U.S. each year. The good pregnant each day.
ing pregnant within a year. Em
news: Teen births have fallen to
The US has the highest teen preg- phasizing the benefits o f waiting
to have children is the focus o f
National Teen Pregnancy Preven
tion M onth in May.
Teens may not readily recog
nize the long-term costs o f early
sex and parenthood. One-third of
teen pregnancies end in abortion.
Weddings
O f those who decide to carry a
pregnancy to term , few teens
Corporate Events
ch o o se a d o p tio n — 90 p ercen t
raise the child them selves.
Onsite 5x7 Printing
Adolescent moms are signifi
cantly less likely to receive their
high-school diploma than those who
Online Proofs & Orders antonioharris.com
wait to have children. They are more
Preventing Teen
Pregnancy
503-730-1156
How cool is that?"
cut, bleeds green. It's regularly in
It has occurred to many exercis top 10 lists for bicycle and mass
ers during long stretches on ma tran sit co m m u tin g , rec y clin g ,
chines that it would be cool to turn composting, energy-efficient build
sweat into watts. In recent years, a ings and so on.
few tinkerers and entrepreneurs
"When I was researching Port
have brought the idea to market.
land businesses, they all were talk
So far they have but a teensy ing about sustainability — all the
sliver. The two leading startups sell good ones," he said.
equipment to retrofit existing bikes
He's gotten a lot of publicity about
and elliptical trainers, and each re the technology— helpful for a busi
ports hooking up about 1,000 ma ness that opened on credit-card fi
chines. An executive of one com nancing a few weeks before the
pany estimates that American fit economy tanked.
ness centers house 8 million to 10
But the machines, he said, are
million machines that could gener "just the shiny wrapper on a pack
ate power.
age, which is energy efficiency,"
They don't, though. Like much in something gym members such as
energy that's efficient or alterna Martha Jones take seriously.
tive, from plug-in cars to compact
"Whoops, I have to turn off the
fluorescents, initial capital outlays lights," she said at the end of an
are steep. Absent a subsidy, or a interview in the gym's basement
quantifiable green marketing ratio studio, dashing back inside.
nale, the returns on investment don't
Prominent in the gym are signs
come quickly, if at all.
that explain how to use the indi
Kurt Broadhag, a Los Angeles vidual, adjustable controls for lights
consultant to health clubs and an and fans. A wall-mounted button
advocate of greening them, says it connects to a remote device that
appears the payback period for elec allows the cable boxes to be shut
tricity-generating exercise equip down, not just put on standby and
ment is about 15 years — two to using 29 watts when the flat-panel
three times the machines' life span. TVs are not in use.
"The only sense it makes is in
Jones is an Intel engineer who
educating people in taking care of likes seeing her workout quantified
the environment," he said.
in watts. But it's not primarily the
When Adam Boesel opened the electricity that attracts her to the
Green Microgym in Portland's artsy, Green Microgym.
gentrifying Alberta district, he fig
"It's just really supportive," she
ured on a market among people al said. "If you have somebody who
ready educated about the environ knows you, who knows your name,
ment.
they will keep you moving. I know
The former teacher from Seattle for sure I will cheat right and left on
looked at Portland, a city that, when my workout without that."
likely to live in poverty, receive
public assistance, and have long
periods of welfare dependency.
When compared to women who
delay having children until their
early 20s, teen m others are much
more likely to rem ain unm arried
and raise their children without a
partner. Teen fathers are also less
likely to finish high school and are
more likely to have low er paying
jobs than their peers who have
children later.
Children of teen parents are also
affected. Pregnant teens often ex
perience pregnancy complications
due to the lack of prenatal care. Teen
moms may not be getting the proper
nutrition and may use alcohol, drugs,
and other substances that are harm
ful to a fetus. Nearly 10 percent of
babies
born to teen mothers are low
•
birth weight. Later in life, the daugh
ters of teen mothers are at high risk
of having children in their adoles
cent years, and their sons have a
higher chance of being incarcerated
than the sons of older mothers.
As parents and adults, we should
continue to encourage behaviors
that have contributed to the drop in
teenage pregnancy rates. These
include abstinence or the delaying
the start of sexual activity and con
sistent use of condoms and hor
monal contraceptives among teens
who are having sex. Studies have
also shown that parents can be very
influential in discouraging teens
from early sex and pregnancy. Par
ents who clearly convey their own
values toward sex, relationships,
contraception, and pregnancy can
have a huge impact on how their
teens respond to sexual situations.
Find more inform ation on teen
s e x u a lity and p re g n a n c y at
www.thenationalcam pcllgn.org.
Dr. James N. Martin Jr. is the
new president of the American
Congress of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists.