I thought about making a 'fat-gym' where people of weight, could climb a set of stair, and hop on a descending elevator to produce electricity. There could be weights they lug up to help them in the generation of electricity.
People could lose weight and generate electricity in the process. Perhaps even get a free drink or something. Their sheer weight would do the majority of work. and descending people would raise unloaded platforms, etc, only going up through the stairs.
A fat-vator so to speak.
What's wrong with a treadmill?
I prefer the actually radial kind.
Modified rowing machines could be used. This would allow the use of the traditional whip-and-drum method for pacing oarsmen, as used in Roman times.
The clients can be conditioned so that the drum-beat and oar-pull are a single event in their minds by sufficient application of the whip. After this, a fast drum roll should result in the production of enormous amounts of power. ;D
LOL; ;D
I think the work that can be done by falling fat people more intriguing than treadmilling, on top of that, direct connection to the generator makes work appear even more obvious, ..when they're generating electricity, they're actually at rest.
Perhaps this is an extension of bessler's wheel?
Sealed room. Just hoiemtrainer bikes. Light are only on when bikes are paddeled. If paddeled hard enough, TV's switch on, and bags of chips fall from the ceiling. Excess energy back to the grid.