In New York, the Strongmen Step Outside
The New York Times
A new generation of fitness buffs is prioritizing mutual encouragement in the group workouts that have sprouted up in city playgrounds for years.
In the haze of a fall sunset, dozens gathered at a jungle gym at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx. The sun crept below the horizon, casting an amber hue over the more than 50 people there, some doing push-ups, others pull-ups, a handful running laps around a track in the shadow of Yankee Stadium.
It was Sept. 30, the 15th consecutive Motivational Monday held at the park. People had traveled from as far as Long Island and Yonkers to do one thing together: work out. With iPhones set up on tripods to capture the physical activity, a crowd began to form near the monkey bars and a count off began.
“One, two, three … come on! You can do better than that!” a young man yelled into a megaphone, urging on the person hanging from the pull-up bar. With his shouted encouragements, he was putting out a wider message to others in the park: We are here to push you.
A year ago, the man, Jonathan Perez, went to the park to start working out after a tough breakup.
“I started off running every day,” Mr. Perez, 19, said while sitting on a bench beside the track. “When I was running, all I could think about was how tired I was. My mind wasn’t anywhere else.”
As Mr. Perez ran lap after lap to get over his heartbreak, the jungle gym kept calling out to him.
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