United States: In Edmonton, Alberta, it was still dark and over 20 degrees below zero when Tanis Smith got ready to run up and down stairs in the freezing cold. Even though it was really cold, she layered up and started her workout in the Saskatchewan River Valley at 6 a.m.
By the time she started, 10 other people had joined her. This group was not afraid to risk freezing their toes to get a workout in before the rest of the world wakes up!
“It’s pretty much like probably putting all your belongings on,” said Smith a civil accountant. “So, if you saw the pictures, don’t know who you are unless you recall what you wore.”
Since that fateful winter of 2013, Smith hasn’t missed a November Project workout session when the group was formed, featuring free outdoor group exercise with its origins in Boston. Regardless the month or the weather, the participants wake up before dawn at least one time a week and cover their face.
Half science and all goofiness, the project is a perfect illustration of how to maintain the motivation to exercise outside in the midst of winter.
As reported by Associated press, it began when two friends made a pact to work out in the morning each day of the month of November. Within two weeks, they were inspiring others to do so as well in the month end.
“A party is better when there is more people around,” said Bojan Mandaric who initiated the project together with Brogan Graham in 2011. ‘We would talk to anybody who would listen,’ Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and radio station reported.
It was soon growing to encompass meetings with a few dozen participants who then took this idea to other cities when they migrated. Today there are 52 chapters in eight countries of which 44 are in USA and Canada.
What does this exercise resemble?
Exercise, to which people of all ages and fitnesses flock, start with a sort of jump, known as a bounce, during which people respond with “Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, my body” and the like. As to how the classes proceed, it depends on the location and day of the week, and most of them involve running and such weight training moves as squats or burpees.
In an attempt to let people think of exercise as fun, they can also incorporate some of the normal schoolyard fun activities for what is usually regarded as children during their break or recess.