To be clear, we’re not suggesting this is a great idea.
But people across the globe have figured out an easy, if mildly dangerous, way to create a makeshift treadmill in their homes: by pouring soap or shower gel onto tiled floors in kitchens and bathrooms, adding a touch of water, gripping a sturdy surface, then forming a trot by slipping their feet across the self-created hazard. It kind of works.
It may not be the ideal form of exercise, and it could very easily go wrong for the clumsy among us, but people worldwide are at least amused by the effort. A video posted two weeks ago on Weibo, a Chinese social network, has been viewed more than 14 million times. A video posted by Deja Lewis, a 20-year-old student from Gaithersburg, Md., posted Monday, has been viewed more than 17 million times on Twitter.
“I held myself up as I was running and when I wanted to stop, I just slowed down and tried to find a dry spot on the ground to put my feet,” she said.
Neither was the first to figure out the new form of D.I.Y. exercise. One video of an unidentified man doing the same thing was posted to Imgur on March 26, and another man posted a similar video on YouTube on April 3.
Lest you think there’s a vast Treadmill Challenge taking over the internet, à la the Ice Bucket Challenge or the Mannequin Challenge or the InMyFeelings Challenge or any number of other challenges, there hasn’t yet been a wave of imitators. It’s come closest to a phenomenon in China, where thousands of Weibo users have commented on a handful of popular videos.
In China, many of those commenters fretted about the possibility of broken bones or chipped teeth, or that the videos could be a bad influence on less graceful, vulnerable children. But others hailed the runners as conquerors, referring to those who subjected themselves to the slippery conditions as “talents” or “those who have defeated the treadmill.”
The South China Morning Post assembled videos from those “talents” on Chinese social media.
The videos have a slapstick appeal: When the participants speed up, their legs spin like accident-prone cartoon characters. A tension arises as viewers wonder when, or if, the runners will slip, and just how clumsy they will look when they do. Thus far, there has been little payoff for those thirsting for chaos: The runners have almost all remained on their feet.
“My feet were slipping backward so I was trying to move my feet forward so I wouldn’t fall on my face,” Ms. Lewis said of her jerky movements in the video. She said she did not fall in her two attempts, but warned that laughing too hard may lead to an accident.
The video genre does not lean on political statements or self-aggrandizement, the common sources of internet ire. It is just a goofy thing that is on the internet, a moment of mild ingenuity entirely absent of agenda, and something you most likely never would have thought of or seen if the internet weren’t around. Those still exist.
