NKU’s Campus Recreational Center (CRC) is taking a greener step towards fitness with their self-powered ellipticals.

The CRC houses 16 Precor EFX 546i ellipticals. Each elliptical has features including heart rate monitors, calories burned, distance traveled and strides per minute.

According to Jennifer Hilvert, assistant director of facilities at the Campus Recreational Center, NKU has had this model of elliptical for about six years.

While all of these features certainly appealed to the final decision of choosing which elliptical to go with, Hilvert said the fact that they are self-powered didn’t even cross their minds until later.

“The self-powered attribute was an added bonus,” said Hilvert.

Students using the ellipticals were also keen on the idea.

“I try to be aware of my impact on the environment,” Clayton Selch, sophomore business management major, said. “So the fact that I can work out without harming the environment is great.”

According to a study done by MIT an elliptical can consume an average of 700 watts per minute, which is the same as burning seven good light bulbs for the same amount of time.

So if an elliptical runs for an hour it burns approximately 42,000 watts, but since the ellipticals in the CRC don’t plug in, the school is saving all of that energy and money.

According to livestrong.com, a popular fitness website, the Precor ellipticals in the CRC come with a cheaper price tag than those with comparable features.

With a new fitness center coming in 2016 there is sure to be more ellipticals and other workout machines to come.

“We will have similar self-powered ellipticals in the new facility,” Hilvert said. “We will also look at adding additional self-powered pieces of equipment in the future.”

So next time you decide to workout, be sure to check out the self-powered ellipticals and burn calories without burning any electricity.