By Sunil Agnihotri

A few weeks ago, I saw an interesting tweet from Andrew Ference, the newest member of the Edmonton Oilers.

In Edmonton for a couple of days, #destinationdeck is rain or shine at 630am sharp for anyone who wants to join. pic.twitter.com/Mqq4tPMrni — Andrew Ference (@Ferknuckle) July 15, 2013

November Project

If you’re not familiar with the November Project, it’s a year-round, outdoor group fitness class for anyone and everyone to join for free. It was started by a small group of people in Boston who were looking to get into shape without having to splurge on expensive equipment and memberships. Pretty quickly, using social media to announce locations, their sessions grew, with some workouts involving over 300 people. Today, the November Project has been established in Madison, WI and San Francisco. It really is a grassroots movement that emphasizes community and fitness.

One member of the November Project tribe is Andrew Ference who attended sessions as a player in Boston. Now that he’s a member of the Oilers, Ference is starting up a chapter here in Edmonton.

“It’s a mix between a flash mob and Fight Club”

Since early July, the Edmonton group has been following the original November Project workout plans and rules, meeting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 6:00 AM, regardless of the weather. Ference has been instrumental in getting the word out on Twitter

In a recent interview with Sportsnet, Ference talked about how staying fit should never require expensive equipment, but also emphasizes the importance of community when remaining active:

The biggest thing is having a group, and having people that you know are going to show up. Working out by yourself is tough and it’s really hard to motivate yourself and push yourself as hard as you would when you’re surrounded by other people. That’s the part that makes it special is finding that group. And once you do, it’s like a family, it’s great.

Ference’s attitude towards fitness is accurate in that our social networks do play a significant role in our behavior. It has been discovered that obesity is contagious (Christakis and Fowler, 2007), so surely fitness and healthy activity can be as well. The requirement, however, is a positive, social setting, welcoming to participants, which is what the November Project values very highly.

It’s especially encouraging to see an NHL player push for fitness through community building. It should come as no surprise that Ference is enthusiastic about a social issue that impacts his community. Ference has also been a strong supporter of environmental issues, including partnering with David Suzuki Foundation to offset more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon emissions during the NHLPA Carbon Neutral Challenge in 2008-09.

Ference probably won’t be attending many sessions because of his hectic NHL schedule, but he appears to be committed in making a difference in the community by getting the word out, setting a foundation and supporting the growth of a special movement in Edmonton.

November Project in Edmonton

For more information about the group and their workout locations, follow @Nov_ProjectCAN on Twitter or on Facebook. The current workout schedule is:

Monday – Destination Deck workout. Locations vary.

Wednesday – Running stairs near the Royal Glenora, downtown Edmonton.

Friday – Hill Repeats, Cloverdale area in Edmonton, but subject to change.

Related links:

Crossman, A. (2013, August 8). November Project’s Growing Fitness ‘Tribe’. The World. Retrieved from http://www.theworld.org/2013/08/november-projects-growing-fitness-tribe/

Christakis, N. A. and Fowler, J. (2007). The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. The New England Journal of Medicine, 357. Pp. 370-379. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa066082

Goldberg, C. (2012, November 2). Two guys walk into a bar and a free fitness ‘movement’ is born. CommonHealth. Retrieved from http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/11/november-project-free-fitness

Lehrer, J. (2011, April 19) Contagious Habits: How Obesity Spreads. Wired Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/how-habits-spread/

Lewis-McDougall, A. (2013, September 30). November Project: A workout you need to try. Avry Sports. Retrieved from http://avrysports.com/2013/09/30/november-project-a-workout-you-need-to-try/

Szto, C. (2013, August 1). We make exercise scary: A failure of the physical education system. The Rabbit Hole. Retrieved from http://cszto.blogspot.ca/2013/08/we-make-exercise-scary-failure-of.html