Free Fitness Movement. All you need to do is show up!
“Thats one small step for man, One giant leap for mankind”….
Well it may not have been quite on the same level as landing on the moon, but today was a pretty huge day. The 16 November Project tribes were on a mission to get #3014 people across North America to work out on a single morning, with NPNO being charged with getting 120 local members to attend. We are proud to announce that NPNO hit our goal of 120 members with Will’s toddler being our 121st tribe member at the workout this morning.
One of the best parts of being a November Project leader is the time just before the morning workout. As you watch shadows of people trickle in to Champions Square, at first in singles and doubles and then a flooding of larger groups, you can feel an electricity start to grow. Inevitably you have the hard core tribe member that show up extra early no matter what the conditions to get a little pre-workout in. Then just before you hit GO TIME, the masses start to flood down the walkway of champion square with folks coming from every direction ready to get to work. So many different thoughts go through your head as a tribe leader: Is this workout hard enough? Is it too tough? Did I put on a clean shirt? Yeah its clean, so where is that smell coming from?. It is a great culmination of feeling anxious, happy, and nervous all at the same time. All of that building up to ….The Bounce.
What do paddy cake and a blood moon have in common?
A bad ass workout.
Will got thing real close during the bounce with some partner paddy cakes that put the tribe mentally back in third grade. That time in your life when all you worried about was your flag football teams next game, who’s house you were sleeping over at next weekend and what Nintendo game you were renting when you got there. Priceless feeling for about 20 seconds. (sorry, no pictures because it was Thanks Will.
Fall has arrived and what a great way to start off a Wednesday then by embracing it open armed. Nola experienced a nice little cool spell, putting us at 70 degrees for workout time. This my friends is a borderline chili for us down here on the Gulf Coast.
To start the day off, Preston got us going with a little bounce and some hugs. Following that, the group moved into a warm up consisting of partner side shuffles, High Skips, Bear Crawls, and sprint Burpees. After warm-ups, a short planking Exercise and on to the meat of the workout.
We had to take it easy on Cameron and Will this week too. Need to make sure they are in tip top shape for this weekend when they are kicking ass and taking names at the #NPSUMMIT. We are all looking forward to finally getting to meet the awesome NP members of North America. This is going to be an awesome experience.
Outside of again using our alternate location, things started off rather normal. Preston got us warmed up with a jumping welcome and a brief update on our weekly location plans. The tribe was then sent on a full lap around the park (1.7 miles) to get our heart pumping before things took a turn for the awkward.
How great is it when you get a random text message from a friend? It may be just a check in to see how things are going, maybe a joke, or a “remember when your dumbass did _____?” (Preston gets those a lot). This simple act can be all that it takes to transform a crappy day, and turn it around for an individual. Just knowing that someone took the time to reach out to you and was thinking about you is a game changer.
God we love New Orleans. Life is just a little bit different down here. This is the home of “Go Cups” from the bar, the drive through daquiri shop, and the place that perfected Mardi Gras. Nola folks like to take a good thing, add throw some spice in dat gumbo, and perfect it in our own way. The same can be said when it comes to one of the near weekly festivals and events here known as San Fermin de Nuevo Orleans a la the annual Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain…But with a bit of Cajun lagniappe.
The 4th of July is the greatest day of the year. It’s really not even open for debate, it’s a fact…What’s not to like? Its summer time! You are likely going to drink large amounts of beer. Maybe find your way to a large body of water to hang out with friends and family and watch fireworks. Not sure how it could be any better. And of course, it commemorates that time a bunch of guys (and gals) got together, decided to give some colonial subjugators the middle finger, and form the greatest country ever.
When we started November Project New Orleans as pledge rats back in January, one N.P. descriptor that struck me in particular was the term “Weatherproof”. Sunday School classes here in the Bible Belt taught us not to lie, and that is a scary proposition for the first southern tribe (You may have heard a thing or two about our history with large storms, but we’ve moved on and aren’t getting into that). For us folks below of the Mason-Dixon line “cold weather” starts once the mercury drops below 60 degrees. The stories of eyelids freezing together during NP_CAN workouts and pictures of people doing pushups in the snow might as well have been scenes from an early aught disaster flick staring a young Jake Gyllenhaal. Hell, here in Nola we will shut down a whole city at the mere suggestion of a snow flurry and don’t even consider driving if anyone has spotted ice, outside of a highball, anywhere within a 30 Mile radius…..