Food. Family. Fun. When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of the regular things like cranberry sauce and the Macy’s parade. I do not think of exercise. However, there are apparently a large portion of people who do. While I cannot see many stats (thanks ccsd for your unreasonable blocking), in 2019 somewhere around 538,359 people participated in a “Turkey Trot” or Thanksgiving run of some sort.

My family went camping over the break last year and at the campground there was a 5k fundraiser run Thanksgiving morning. I’m not a huge runner, but my sister convinced me to do it with her. We ended up contributing to the exercise craze before indulging in mountains of food. We’re going back this year and instead of searching for athletic wear the night before, we will come prepared for our Turkey day run.

It’s not just running that has high participation. Some people engage in a Thanksgiving day workout. If you google “Thanksgiving workouts,” there is a plethora of cute workout plans in the images and plenty of articles to help you “torch that turkey.” Ella Moore says that her family normally does “a hard workout to ‘earn’ [their] dinner,” although years where they’re training for a half marathon they do a long run instead.

Obviously I get why it might be a good idea to exercise on the day where we consume more calories than just about any other day of the year, but then again it’s a break for a reason.

So what about you? Do you plan to exercise on Thanksgiving day? Answer the poll at down below to see how other students answer! Enjoy the break everyone and have a great Thanksgiving!!