Russian nursery's take on extreme fitness

We've got very little heat in the upstairs apartment where my sister and her kids live. She uses electric heaters.

I watch her children every day during the week. The first thing I do when I get upstairs is turn off the heaters, because it's too warm for me, and because the children tend to do things like leave their blankets right next to them once they're awake.

So yeah, the temperature hovers near 40 F some days, or even lower. And to top it off, the kids voluntarily take off their clothes and run around naked ALL DAY if we're inside.

Those kids in the video? They're Russian. They live in a country where it's snowy a lot of the year. At this point they're probably so acclimated to the cold that it feels normal to them. Why shouldn't they go outside in their undies? This is the people who invented the Polar Bear Club, after all!

Those kids don't look like they're "forced" to run outside. They look plenty happy about it.

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The children do look like they´re enjoying themselves - and I remember those few swim classes when we managed to convince our teachers to open the door in the swimming hall and let us run around outside in the snow in nothing but our swim suits, as pretty darn awesome. I would be a little concerned with the almost Darwinian morals being taught to the children - that only strong and tough is good, but I don´t think that the running outside is bad for them, as long as they´re properly warmed up when the come back inside. I you want to be concerned with the welfare of Russian children, look at the orphanages where handicapped children are roped to their beds in their own filth, and the gymnastic schools where children are beaten and forced to bend into impossible poses to turn them into good Olympic candidates later in life.

By the way, Uly, speaking as a Norwegian - you do NOT get used to the cold physically, you just get better at dressing and coping. It´s still ridiculously cold :p

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This is High interesting! http://www.spymac.com/details/?2353878

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They do something similar to this in a lot of Japanese kindergartens too. In the morning, they have the kids strip down to underwear, and do a sort of dry towel rub to warm their skin up and then do some exercises outside.
When my husband was small, it was an everyday thing. Now it seems like it`s more of a once a week event. (At least around here.)

The explanations I`ve always heard for it has been that it lets the children`s bodies adjust to the seasons, and that it prevents illness. As far as I`ve seen, that`s actually true. Most of the kids who take part in it on a regular basis always seem to be healthier and happier than their bundled up counterparts.
There has never been any talk of being "strong" - except toward viruses and temperature differences.

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