Power in the pedals

At Yogatopia, cyclists burn calories, create electricity

By Hillary Hamm | for NWgoinggreen

     When Stacy Pettitt steps into the foot pedal and straddles the exercise bike for her four weekly workouts, she feels exhilarated.
     Not only because she’s prepared to burn calories, but also because she knows that her time on the bike, and the energy she creates is actually generating usable power.

     “Not only am I getting a great work out, but it feels like you’re actually doing something,” she said.
     Pettitt is enrolled at Yotgatopia in Pullman’s Gladish Community and Cultural Center, where owner Aletha Lassiter has recently launched a series of classes using stationary exercise bikes that convert motions for exercise into electricity that feeds directly back to the power grid.
     Lassiter said she had long thought it would be smart if exercise equipment could somehow be built to capture energy. Then last year, she saw a news blip about The Green Microgym in Portland, which offered exercise bicycles by Resource Fitness that helped to power the building.
     “I thought, ‘That is so awesome, I’m going to bring it to Pullman,’” she said.
     Lassiter unveiled the five bikes — called visCycles — in January, with two instructors teaching nine cycling classes a week.
     She hopes to eventually increase the number of bikes and cycling classes offered.
     The visCycles need no fancy inverter, but simply plug in to the wall and and instantly transfer the power back into the building.
     According to the Resource Fitness Website, a 30 minute visCycle workout will yield 50 to 150 watts — enough to charge 10-15 smartphones, five compact florescent lightbulbs or five netbooks.
     Lassiter said there is equipment to track the amount of kilowatts being generated, and hopes to buy one in the future to get a more definitive understanding how much energy the bikes generate.
     She’s done some preliminary math and said if she increases her bikes to 23 and offered four classes a day 365 days a week, it would save $800 a year.
     Lassiter notes that that’s enough to purchase a window for Gladish, where an effort is being made to install energy efficient windows to save on power costs. For now, she hopes that the visCycles will help at least cover the costs of the energy to run her fans and CD player.
     Yogatopia opened in May 2009. Lassiter, who has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and is a registered yoga instructor, had previously been teaching yoga and belly dancing classes for the City of Pullman and at the Washington State University Recreation Center.
     The idea of Yogatopia, she said, is to create an place that brings together community and the environment.
The addition of a cycling class with visCycles is part of the business’ mission by promoting not only exercise, but riding bicycles for function and recreation to and from work, for instance, or exploring the local trails.
     “It’s the ripple effect,” Lassiter said. “It’s the idea that this small step builds awareness and consciousness.”
     Lassiter said her classes have grown significantly, with 100 students enrolled at the end of last year, and nearly doubling size by the end of February.
     Yogatopia now teaches everything from prenatal yoga to Zumba. The cycling classes range from the 5:30 a.m. Sunrise Spin, to Palouse Trails, which mimics the trails around the area. The YogaCycle class incorporates 40 minutes of yoga followed by 40 minutes of cycling.
     Lassiter said the combination of yoga and cycling create an intense, cohesive workout, as both exercises promote breathing, flexibility and endurance.
In addition to Pettitt, Lassiter said student feedback has been good. In fact, the cycling classes filled up almost immediately.
“There were people lined up at the doors,” she said.
     Pettitt, who has participated in triathlon and enjoys the variation of yoga and cycling in Yogatopia classes, said she lucked out and was able to reserve a seat on a visCycle through this spring.
     She credits Lassiter with “thinking outside the box” and bringing the bikes — and a new point of view — to Pullman.
     “Any way we can put things back into our environment — especially when we’ve been taking so long — is awesome,” she said.