Standing 10 feet apart, Minnesota neighbors come together every day for community calisthenics

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/KARE11)

last updated 27 March 2020

These neighbors have found a way to stay healthy — and connected — while quarantined.

Every day, they meet for a group workout, filling the street in their St. Paul, Minnesota, neighborhood. Each person stands in a chalk-drawn circle, and follows the lead of Momo Hayakawa Koenigs, who participated in mass workouts while growing up in Japan. They bend, stretch, lift their arms, and move their legs in unison, with everyone a safe 10 feet away from their neighbor.

The exercise group grows by the day, as more and more neighbors choose to join in. They come with their dogs and small children, and when they're done working out, they don't immediately rush home — they stay in their circles and talk, finding out who is celebrating a birthday that day and who might have an extra roll of toilet paper to give away. "We're not created to be in isolation, we're created to be in community," participant Kim Kokx told KARE 11.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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