Aug 22, 2005

Work (out) and get paid



My research supervisor had once remarked that the guys who work out in gym are wasting their energy doing no work. Though it sounded as nothing at first, during subsequent visits to gym, I kept thinking about it.. and the thinking got deep when I moved to US and saw actual calories and watts of the work-out. Just think about it.. forget cardio.. but we do all the muscle exercises simply against gravity.. There is sooo much energy and power in the gyms but no output except for the people working out.

Imagine this.. you work out on a particular machine, and the weight you pull is used for actually doing some work.. It could be an emf motor to generate power, or anything.. Just that one may not see what the load of say, 50 pounds, actually is.. because that would psychologically not please the mind, so start with.. If some companies put some brain and money in designing such machines, I think it would be worth it.. So, the guys who work out actually do work and so they may not pay a fee for using the gym.. Or, even better, they might even get paid to have done a job while working out.... I am sure more people would be utilizing the gym then.. Even for some cardio exercises such as cycling and elliptical pedalling, the resitance level controlled by the user could actually be used for doing some type of job.

Does sound crazy, doesnt it? I think there is a good market out there for this..

11 comments:

S.G.Ramkumar said...

Nice idea, but is the same logic hold for hand-pumps in TN, "yettrum" in earlier days, "chekku" for getting oil from peanuts... etc., Machines are made those days but eventually they vanished. They are now need to come back in a different form, different name.
"Kaala Chakkaram"

tt_giant said...

Being an avid gym user myself, I feel working out should not be mixed with bizarre ideas. Just think: if the gym owners say that, for so many watts of power generated, we would give X cents. This would only make people to excercise far more than what they are supposed to - leading to damage to their body. Excercise is a positive activity - could be used for both fat burning and muscle development. The returns of this activity is ultimately good health. And that is good enough.

Raju said...

Ram, yeah.. thats an interesting comparison.. They became obselete when machines were invented.. Now human machines can add more power.

Deepak.. u are right.. I didnt think from that angle.. Yeah, over-working is bad too.. so, may be, as I had first mentioned, such gyms could be made free.

The inspiration for this post came from the body of a young road-digger I saw two years ago.. Just awesome.. each and every muscle addressed.. and perfect 6-packed belly..

Ram C said...

GP... it is a strange thought.. Hope none of the employers see this. I am worried about doing bull's load of work, like the hard worker whom you have mentioned.

But, U have highlighted one point.. he is getting paid and strengthening his muscles.. we are paying someone to strengthen ours!!!

Raju said...

Ram, strange thought indeed.. If I dont share here, where else I would? :-)

I have read news about how a film actor (Vikram, Ajith, Surya and Kamal for instance) went to gym for hours per day and get pumped up.. On the other hand, the poor guys.. They work hard at a young age.. The other common thing is that the diet routine I saw of the actors is nothing exotic.. very simple.. Even the poor (infact, the poor eat quite healthy food) can afford to maintain such a diet (unintentionally, though).. Hope they get good food..

aruna said...

I like this post best of all yours!! I always argue on this topic to my friends, when people use cars & elevators until they reach the gym doors, instead they can start walking from home, saving gas n electricity.

Anonymous said...

This is already being implemented!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/hong_kong_gym_h.php

At the present time, such a solution is difficult - the upfront costs of building such machines would take years to pay off, as the power generated by humans are not great.

Many machines have displays that are powered by the people working out - and sometimes if you do not work hard enough, they turn off - even for something simple like lighting a digital display requires a lot of human work! Therefore, economically, it isn't feasible (at the moment anyway)

But hopefully we'll see more of this in the future - maybe a mass-harness of human power? Even if one human cannot provide a lot of energy, a thousand can. :)

Raju said...

Aruna, thank so much... Glad you liked this post. Yeah, what u wrote is very true.. I think there is some kinda pride in getting a parking place closest to any entrance, and also using the elevators.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anon, wow.. thats awesome to hear.. Thanks for providing the link..

Hmmm.. i realize that the costs are high but it is a good solution for energy creation and consumption..

I liked your conclusion.. I hope too that it happens soon..

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