Thanksgiving is the holiday where there is generally no gift-giving, no caroling, no candle-lit cakes and no pinatas. Thanksgiving is a day where people gather around, socialize, watch football and eat.
Eat and eat and eat.
And that means, a tighter waistline and (ugh)that dreaded muffin-top look.
But some people in the area — who themselves still enjoy gorging during the holiday — participate in an annual practice that they believe builds up the body’s metabolism in preparation for what lies ahead later in the day.
That tradition is called the Turkey Jam and it occurs every year Thanksgiving morning at the Becker Community Center.
Around 25-30 area women and men donned their best workout outfits, toted their expensive water bottles and gathered in the gymnasium to start the big day off with some rigorous fitness and exercise.
Four instructors — Dhani Adler, LaNeen Duke, Kelly Malisheski and Tracey Otto —lit a fire under them with loud music and a variety of muscle-toning exercises that even a plump turkey could benefit from.
“It gets the day going for us,” said Michael Pickle of Becker, one of two men in the fitness class. “As you get older, it gets harder and harder but also very important to do.”
Mike and his wife, Roxanne, have been participating in the Turkey Jam for the last four years.
“It’s our Thanksgiving Day tradition,” he said. “It’s great because each year the workouts have been a little different.”
The workouts were intense with Adler getting the class going with some kickboxing routines while Duke followed with a session in Zumba. Otto got the sweat pouring down their faces with circuit training where the class went from station-to-station conducting exercises such as bicep curls, lunges, tricep kickbacks, step-ups, planking, hula hooping, sit-ups and jumping jacks.
The last part of the fitness class consisted of yoga with Malisheski leading the session.
“I think this is awesome that the BCC offers this class on Thanksgiving,” said Otto. “This is a great group of people and I think they all benefitting from our class.”
The Turkey Jam workout was free to whoever came, but with one condition. Each participant was asked to bring in one food item to be donated to the Becker Food Shelf.
And that’s how you Turkey Jam.
