Well done Jo but like many others I abhor the waste of energy.
Once, while waiting to cross the road in Toronto we were looking up at a whole bank of fit young women peddling away furiously on exercise bikes in the brightly lit windows of the YWCA gym. A passing Policeman remarked to us 'Isn't that a wonderful sight - do you know they are powering all the street lights in Toronto?' He was joking, of course, but the idea was very appealing. All the energy being produced could at least have powered the lighting in the huge YWCA.
I have never been able to understand the mind set of people who DRIVE to a gym and pay good money to WALK on a treadmill, when they could walk to the shops and back carrying a couple of heavy bags, deliver charity leaflets (paper is heavy and lots of stairs to climb) or even better walk through the woods collecting fallen branches or pine cones, haul them home and complete the fitness workout by sawing/chopping them into logs and firewood. I know a young mother who has 'no time' to maintain her own large garden and pays someone to tend it. She does however have time to go to the gym EVERY DAY to exercise and swim while a paid childminder looks after her baby and toddler (and she continually pleads poverty). It seems like madness to me as she could be getting all the exercise she needs in her own garden, with her children 'helping' and as a bonus, growing their own fruit, veg and flowers.
When there is so much that used to be done in the community by the young and fit- clearing snow, collecting and delivering wood to the elderly, digging their gardens, fishing and sharing out the catch - today it seems to be all ME, ME, ME. Sorry about the rant - good to get it off my chest.