Excerpted from November Project The Book: Inside the Grassroots Fitness Movement That’s Taking Over the World (Rodale), by Brogan Graham and Bojan Mandaric with Caleb Daniloff. Available wherever books are sold.
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On October 30, 2011, we sat at a bar in Boston and made a fitness pact. We pledged to show up every morning at 6:30 to run the river, hills, or the steps of Harvard Stadium. We wanted to stay fit over the winter. But we didn’t want to go to a gym. We didn’t want to pay to get fit. This was about accountability, a core ethic. We needed someone to make sure we’d show up.
Our first workout—a six-miler with snow spitting in our faces—was two days later on November 1. We created a Google doc where we posted our times and tracked our improvements and named it November Project. It became addictive. After six months of logging miles and eating up stadium steps, we began hyping our workouts on social media. We don’t even remember how it went from five people to 50 people. We are just two dudes who wanted to surround ourselves with other like-minded dudes and gals who wanted to get in shape—no machines, no facility—and get silly, have fun, and bond over sweaty postworkout bear hugs.
Soon, a few hundred Bostonians were showing up for our three weekly workouts, and our talk of world takeover started to seem real. Today, there are tribes in 30 cities, including Reykjavik, Iceland, and Novi Sad, Serbia.
No NP near you? Apply to start one, or borrow from our lineup of workouts to inject some spice into your own existing tribe. The workouts are hard—you’ll feel them the rest of the day. But as you sit at your desk afterward, all tucked in, kinda bored, kinda adult, using your indoor voice, you’ll know that you’ve already done something that’s pretty raw and real. And that it’s something you wouldn’t have done on your own. That it’s the people around you, pushing you, who are making you stronger.
See, we always pick locations for our workouts that keep the group together or in a loop. We encourage support, so as members pass each other, no one is made to feel like they’re underperforming. As the lead dogs double-back and pass the slower ones, they push and encourage. And all of a sudden everyone is working much harder than if they were running alone. The slower end of the group strives to catch the middle of the pack, while the midpackers are chasing down the top guns. The elites are always working hard to stay there, as it feels like everyone is breathing down their necks. By the sheer power of the mass working off of each other, everyone is getting fitter, faster, better.
Here are a few of our signature workouts, which you can try with your own running crew. If you really want to keep it in the spirit of NP, hug it out at the end. We made sure we gave each other a giant hug each morning when it was just the two of us, and we keep that tradition today. People spend too much time avoiding each other, looking at screens, looking away. Shake things up and don’t shake hands.
Strength Workouts
Bojans
This is a partner workout. One person gets into a pike position with feet and hands outstretched on the ground, body high in the air (our yogi men and women call this a downward-facing dog). The other partner crawls under the space created. Once on the outer side, the now-free crawler stands and turns around to face the down-ward-dog partner, who is now in a curled-up ball, face down (Namaste, our yogi friends; we call this child’s pose). With both feet together the now-standing partner jumps this ball of human, landing on the other side. When the jumper turns around and gets down to crawl under, the piked dog is back up, booty high above the ground. Repeat 10 times; switch positions. We usually then have one partner sprint 100 yards or more while the other partner holds a plank. When partner one returns, it’s back to Bojans. Repeat for 20 minutes. The idea is to work at anaerobic threshold, as the heart rate remains fairly high due to lack of rest between transitions of jumping, crawling, and sprinting.
Sebastians
Taken from the world of CrossFit, this jump-squat-pushup-jumping-jack mash-up was a no-brainer. No equipment, no resources; clothing optional. One of our most die-hard, badass-looking dudes at NP Boston is also an avid CrossFitter. Sebastian is the guy who will walk up to you and begin telling you all about his CrossFit workout before you even know he’s arrived. His intensity is what this workout is about. Seven minutes of burpees at November Project is called a “Sebastian.” Women, men, kids, old folks. Try it: Burpees for seven minutes. Know that our standard goal for men and women is to hit 100 total. Your body weight, your drive, your fitness. GO!
Hoistees
A hoistee is a partner exercise where the movement of a squat jump is extended all the way down to a sitting position. Partners start by facing each other, holding hands, and touching toes. Then, both partners go down to a sitting position while their toes maintain contact. Once both partners’ butts touch the ground, they spring back up by pulling on each other’s hands and pushing against each other’s toes to propel themselves up into the jump. At the top of every jump they yell out, “HOISTEE!” The silliness of the exercise distracts the participants from the fact that each partner is completing a very hard and complex movement that involves a wide range of motion of the lower body, upper body, and core muscles. These are a Dan Graham (yes, we’re related) original.
Bear Crawls
Butt up in the air, hands and feet crawling, head down. That’s it. We don’t act like animals enough during these adult days of ours. The intent of the exercise is for people to recognize how weak their hips, shoulders, and core are, and how badass bears are for being able to hit 30 miles per hour moving like this.
The Vortex
The tribe runs around in a circle continuously while a leader yells out a category. If that category applies to you, you run into the middle and perform the stated exercise (burpee, pushup, etc.), then return to the vortex. Example categories could be anything from simply “If you are married” to the more complex “If you are afraid of spiders, snakes, and/or ducks.” We feel like we really get to know the tribe with this workout.
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Challenge your opponent to a game of rock, paper, scissors while performing squats. The winner gets to direct the loser to the corner of the park they have to run to. Each corner has a different challenge exercise, along with a hill or stair climb that returns the runner to the central workout site. Once there, they challenge a new opponent.
Compliment Squats
While facing a fellow runner and doing squats, compliment your partner with a straight face in an effort to make him or her laugh. If you are successful, you run to your next opponent, and the laughing loser of the two of you returns to the bottom of the line. Some of our favorite compliments have been “I bet you look sexy eating corn” and “You make kegel exercises look so easy.”
Keeping it Fresh
We try to host new, fun, and creative events and workouts that are at zero cost to our participants. Here are a few of our favorites.
Ninja Race
We had 350 RSVPs for this nighttime event, which was an eight-mile out-and-back race with 20 burpees at the turnaround in January 2013. Temps dipped below 14 degrees. Many assumed the race would be called off. But those who were close to the NP movement knew the terrible weather was a gift. Runners dressed in head-to-toe black, and ice formed on the eyelashes of many and seemed to freeze zippers and hands, making the process of thawing out at the after-party something to see.
Running in the Cold
Another night-racing event, in November 2013, in which the theme was bright, blinking, neon, glowing, and visually stunning. It would bring racers around two loops of Pleasure Bay in South Boston, creating a five-miler—or was it a 5K? It really doesn’t matter. The point was that it was cold and dark. There were costumes like we’d never seen. And the banquet hall for the after-party was standing-room only.
#ShovelShuffle
One Friday in January 2014, the weatherman was preparing us for another Snowmageddon of epic proportions. We saw a golden opportunity: clear some sidewalks and driveways along Summit Ave as part of our morning workout. So the tweet went out to the tribe to bring shovels. And about 70 members turned what was supposed to be a 40-minute workout into an hour-long run-shovel-run event. We got a good workout—and tons of brownie points with the neighbors.
Egg Deck
In May 2014, we loaded 100 plastic eggs with thin strips of paper. On each piece were typed directions: “bear crawl across the courtyard,” “bray like a donkey for 30 seconds while spinning.” It was happy chaos as everyone dashed, sang, changed, crawled, and jumped their way across an outdoor courtyard on Boston University’s campus. People were having insane fun, and it wasn’t even Easter. Just another regular Monday morning.
Sunrise 6K
This was an event that was something to train for and would replace a workout. In February 2015, all 16 member cities raced 6K for time. Why 6K? Because why 5K? Why 26.2? Why hurdles? Why anything? Everything is made up. 6K? Why not 6K? And why not attend a full-on race before work? Workouts are great, but later in your normal day when you’re at the water cooler talking to Karl-the-office-guy and he idly asks you “How’s your day going?” and your answer is “Amazing!”…well, then. That’s why we do what we do.
Hill Workouts
Full Frontals
Running Full Frontal hills is the least exciting, most boring workout in our repertoire. Yet for the first few months, that’s all we did. And we loved it. The workout originated from our rowing days at Northeastern University, where Coach Pojednic would pile the 40-plus person roster into vans, drive to the hill, and have that same roster race each other all-out up the hill, until he said to stop. There was never “We’re doing six repeats,” or “You have three more to go.” The only time we knew we were almost done was when he said, “This is the last one.” And even then we weren’t 100 percent sure. It was straight-up brutal. Every. Time. Whoever dreamed up the acronym K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) definitely had Full Frontals in mind. All you have to do is run up the hill, turn around at the fire hydrant at the top, come back down, and repeat that five times as fast as you can.
We eventually moved the start/finish line to the top of the hill. Before, with the finish line at the bottom, in an effort to post fast times, people would bomb down the hill with no regard for human life. Lighter runners had a big advantage doing this, as their weight didn’t cause as much stress on their joints as it did on the bigger runners. We both have 200-plus-pound frames, and we can report it was an unnecessary strain. So to even out the playing field (and prevent potential injuries) we discouraged reckless downhilling and instead focused on the uphill push.
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Once we brought the starting line to the top of the hill, we realized that there were two sides to this hill. Who knew, a hill with a front side and a back side?! Mind-blowing! Aside from this amazing discovery, we also recognized the fact that our group wasn’t getting any smaller. So to keep runners safe and drivers away from vehicular manslaughter charges, we decided to utilize the full hill (front and back sides). This gave us the opportunity to spread out the group, allow runners to enjoy the slightly less intense gradient profile (the back side of the hill we use is much shorter and easier to tackle), and put in longer mileage.
Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones forces teams of five to 10 people, organized in a straight line, to push each other up a hill. The person in the back sprints to the front, breaking up the long hike up the hill into shorter, higher-intensity intervals. Once at the front, that person slows down to a normal running pace. Runners are teamed up according to speed, so everyone is pushing to the limit.
Cross-Country Spice
This started as an optional detour across a grass patch off to the side of the hill. Initially, we placed a few cones in the corners of the lawn and asked people, as they were coming back down the front side of the hill, to make a cross-country detour around the cones. Eventually we started creating obstacle courses, using anything from recycling bins and caution tape to miniature flags and, of course, car tires.
Penalty Burpees
To keep our workouts fresh and creative, we throw in small, quirky elements to break up the monotony, get people to meet new friends, and sometimes even forget about the watch on their wrist that’s counting out splits. Hello, burpees, old friend.
Sprinkling in burpees as a penalty for running without a partner during a “No one runs alone” workout was a perfect way to get people to interact with strangers. We’d also play various iterations of the game of tag, in which each runner at the top of the hill has to run through the tag area. If touched by a tagger, the runner would have to do five burpees. Some of the smarter runners would calmly run up to the tagger, take their burpee penalty, and continue about their workout, while some runners would try whatever they could to escape tagging, as if the tagger was infected with Ebola virus. Most of the time, the chase eventually resulted in tagging, so not only would the tagged runner have to do five burpees, they’d also spend 20 seconds dodging the tagger, getting themselves even more tired than if they were just to do the burpees. Not a single person involved in this workout ever had a grumpy face. Why? Because we all loved playing tag as a kid!
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Excerpted from November Project The Book: Inside the Grassroots Fitness Movement That’s Taking Over the World (Rodale), by Brogan Graham and Bojan Mandaric with Caleb Daniloff. Available wherever books are sold.
