An Incredible Fitness Trend Is Gripping The Streets Of War-Torn Gaza

It’s a scene we’ve seen before, yet a scene that always cuts deep: bombed-out buildings, streets overrun with rubble, residents scuttling about under the constant fear of attack, poor quality of life, and the incredibly fresh scars of loss and mourning. This is Gaza. The United Nations just released a report indicating that if things don’t change, Gaza could be uninhabitable by 2020. “Three Israeli military operations in the past six years, in addition to eight years of economic blockade, have ravaged the already debilitated infrastructure of Gaza, shattered its productive base, left no time for meaningful reconstruction or economic recovery and impoverished the Palestinian population in Gaza, rendering their economic well-being worse than the level of two decades previous,” it stated.

It’s probably the last place you expect any good news from - which is what makes Bar Palestine all the more interesting. Started by 23-year-old Bakr al-Makadmeh, whose first brush with street workouts occurred on YouTube, the young man was inspired to start his own group, which now spends its evenings using the city as its gym.
Sure, you’ve heard of street workout, but you haven’t seen anything till you’ve seen what street workout with Bar Palestine in Gaza is like. Born out of rebellion - its early adopters were trying to send a message: we don’t need your expensive gyms and your fancy workout equipment. Everything we need is right here. We can exercise anywhere. The city is our gymnasium. And the parkour-like gym routines that were born out of it really shook the system up.

People indulging in street workouts used whatever they could - park benches, fences, walls and other infrastructure to create a whole new fitness craze. And while it makes for a pretty strong statement just about anywhere, the sight of its interpretation in Gaza tells a very different story.

As the pictures below clearly depict, Bar Palestine uses anything and everything they can get their hands on—unoccupied buildings, gutted structures, naked concrete posts and pilings, and other scarred remnants of Gaza’s harsh war-torn cityscape. A reminder of the resilience of life, the juxtaposition of people’s desires versus their realities, and just how badly our warring ways have affected the physical landscape of the planet we call home.