Plogging: The Sport That Combines Fitness and Environmental Care

For some time now, the planet has been giving us multiple signs of needing immediate action. The seasons have changed and the weather is not what it was. Faced with this scenario, we often ask ourselves what we can do to be more ecological and contribute positively to the environment. What would you say if we told you that you could combine an activity as healthy as it is going for a run with recycling? That is precisely why the Ploggingnew sport that is gaining more and more followers. We explain what it consists of!

What is the plogging?

He plogging is a sports modality that emerged in Sweden that manages to add a new dimension to exercising regularly. Its concept mixes environmental awareness and the pursuit of an active lifestyle it combines jogging with the active search for garbage to collect it.

So to practice ploggingin addition to dressing in your usual sports clothes and wearing good sneakers. Running you will need to carry a few bags with you. And this modality demands that you get involved in each of your outings to go running making the world a cleaner place. This way, you will not only practice jogging but also you will collect all the waste that you find on the route you establish.

Because, unfortunately, there is a large amount of garbage in the streets, parks, beaches, or in any other public environment, plogging can be practiced almost anywhere. This fact encourages many people to go off their usual routes, motivated by the challenge of collecting the maximum amount of garbage possible while completing their journeys. Jogging.

How did the plogging?

The word plogging comes from the terms “jogging” (playing sports running) and “plocka upp” (which in Swedish means “to collect”). This discipline originated in 2016 in Stockholm, by Erik Ahlström. Ahlström had recently moved to the Swedish capital and decided that his exercise routine could incorporate an ecological and environmental service factor.

This is how he decided that his routes of jogging would include collecting garbage that was found in their path and that, for one reason or another, remained uncollected in various public places. What began as an individual gesture spread, to the point of spreading globally. Quickly, social networks contributed to the virtualization of the plogginga fact that made it easy for many people to add it to their sports routines.

Without going any further, The call was held in Ibiza’s “Plogging Tour” where more than 1,500 people decided to meet to give greater resonance to this practice and encourage other people to carry it out. The phenomenon goes much further: neither more nor less than more than 100 countries around the world have already joined this initiative, a number that is increasing every day and which is accumulating more and more followers on its official website and social networks.

Sport and environment

Physical activity and the environment are two concepts that very often go hand in hand. And, even though many sports disciplines involve visiting a gym or an authorized center, the truth is that many other modalities allow take care of your health while enjoying the outdoors.

His plogging goes one step further in this common communion of physical activity in the natural environment, making people get involved by being part of an ecological movement. Thanks to gestures like this, awareness is possible, and a way to significantly improve our usual environment becomes effective.

Although plogging was born as a discipline that united jogging with garbage collection, due to the large amount of waste that we can find in many places, Its practice can be combined with alternatives to running. More and more people are incorporating this gesture while cycling, as well as those who practice water sports. Aquatic surfaces are ecosystems that are very damaged due to the dumping of garbage, so it is very easy to integrate the plogging.

Benefits of plogging

He ploggingIn addition to making a more ecological reality possible, adds very interesting aspects in terms of health and active life. And having to continually run and bend down to pick up waste helps increase calorie burning. The extra squats added to the run represent an additional effort that your body will notice positively.

On the other hand, one of the advantages of plogging is that it constitutes an easy activity to carry out by people of any age and physical condition. Everyone can regulate the pace, intensity, and difficulty of the route as they see fit, so it is a very accessible sport, even if you are just starting to run.

Social networks are full of images of people collecting containers, plastics, cigarette butts, chewing gum, and all kinds of waste while practicing. plogging. One more way to make visible the ecological awareness that the world needs and virtualize the small gestures that make it possible to improve the environment. For all these reasons, plogging is the perfect way to practice a very beneficial sport for health while investing part of your time in improving your environment through a sustainable initiative.

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