Daniel Muotka, who runs Crossfit Holistics in Luleå, one of Sweden's most northerly cities, took a class of ten from his gym out between eleven and twelve on Saturday morning to clear snow from driveways across the city.  

 

“We went all out for one hour, so it was a pretty hard workout," he told The Local. "It’s the perfect training. You get the cardio and you get the strength. You can make it as hard as you want or as easy as you want depending on your fitness level. And it’s fun.” 

 

Muotka had the idea earlier this week after the city received almost metre of snow in four days. 

 

“It’s obviously chaos in Luleå because of all the snow that’s fallen, and we have a gym full of people that love to sweat and work out, so I thought why not do something useful with all the energy?” 

 

Muotka posted a message on his Facebook page on Friday lunchtime offering to shovel snow for anyone who’d make him and members of his gym a cup of coffee. Close to a hundred people responded, who Muotka  then ranked according to need, putting old people whose grandchildren were away living in southern Sweden ahead of the local companies who applied. 

 

“We did what we could with the people we had,” he said. 

 

Muotka has now launched a campaign, "Snöhjälpen" (or 'snow help') on  his company's Facebook page, which he hopes will inspire other gyms across Sweden to run similar snow-shovelling 'workouts'. 

 

"We want to attract gyms from all over Sweden to do the same thing," he said. "Everyone can help out it doesn’t have to be a gym. We can't do it all ourselves. Some people are really snowed in. I don’t know when we’ve had as much snow as this.”