Maggie Winzeler
Maggie Winzeler, personal trainer and exercise physiologist who lives in Virginia and blogs about fitness and wellness at WellnessWinz.
Bottom Line: Help yourself and the environment.
Looking for a workout that delivers heart-healthy benefits, gets you outdoors and is good for your community?
Welcome to plogging—and it’s lower-intensity counterpart, palking. Plogging, a combination of jogging and picking up litter, originated in Sweden (the Swedish word for “pick up” is plocka upp), and has since spread around the world. Palking is the walking version.
It’s a good workout, since you’re adding squatting (to gather trash) to running or walking. You’ll be outdoors, soaking up vitamin D and improving your mood. And you’ll be doing your part to make the world a cleaner place. By collecting a few plastic bottles, cigarette butts or food wrappers off the ground, you’ll be doing something meaningful, a big secret to happiness.
Want to give it a try? Some tips from personal trainer and plogging devotee Maggie Winzeler…
Be mindful when you pick up trash. Rounding your back and reaching forward is bad for your back and knees. Instead, squat and then reach down.
To do a proper squat: Spread your feet hip-distance apart for better balance and bend your knees as if you were sitting in a chair. (Practice this movement on a straight-back chair to get the hang of it.) Keep your hips back, don’t let your knees extend beyond your toes and use your butt muscles to go up and down.
A wide stance will give you better balance. You can also support yourself with a hand on your thigh.
Carry disposable gloves and a trash bag. To avoid picking up germs along with litter, use disposable or gardening gloves, and stash your haul in a trash bag.
Alternate sides and hands. As your trash bag gets heavier, alternate which side you carry it on so that you balance your muscles and avoid straining one side of your body. Also alternate which hand you use to pick up trash, so you’re not just reaching and bending on one side of your body.
You don’t have to pick up litter every time you exercise—unless you love doing it of course. If it starts to feel like a burden, do it once a week or every other week, or turn it into a group effort so that it’s a social event instead of a chore.