Plogging: Eco-Friendly Fitness

1 / 2
2 / 2

Plogging – picking up litter while jogging – has become a popular new eco-friendly fitness craze. This common pastime began in Sweden as an organized activity and has recently begun catching on in other countries across the world. The word plogging fuses ‘plocka’ and ‘jogga’, meaning ‘picking (up)’ and ‘jogging’ in Swedish. The founder of this spontaneous movement is said to be the 57-year-old Swede Erik Ahlström. Moving back to Stockholm after having lived in the north of Sweden, Erik felt that there was a lot more litter on the streets than he previously remembered. Thus, he began his initiative to clean his community that caught on rapidly.

Not only does this new pastime combine jogging with picking up litter, but it also turns it into a community event or a social gathering. Therefore, plogging has many added health benefits, including overall fitness, social wellbeing, and improved environmental quality. It can even be a more effective form of exercise than jogging alone. As a workout, it involves variations in body movement, such as bending, squatting, and stretching in addition to the main act of running. According to data from the fitness app Lifesum, one hour of plogging burns 288 calories on average compared to 235 calories on average for plain old jogging. So by plogging not only will participants get an excellent workout, but also the added benefit that their local communities are simultaneously being cleaned.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368