Norwegian runners test ‘churn and burn’ trend: jogging with cream to make butter

A bizarre fitness trend sweeping social media—where runners carry cream in a backpack to churn it into butter mid-jog—has been put to the test by Norwegian journalists, Dagbladet reports.

The so-called “churn and burn” method gained traction after an American couple, Libby Cope and Jacob Arnold, shared a video of their 10-kilometre run in Oregon with a bag of cream strapped to their backs. After finishing, they unveiled freshly made butter, sparking millions of views and inspiring imitators from Australia to South Korea.

To replicate the experiment, Dagbladet journalists filled a sealed plastic bag with 400 millilitres of heavy cream and a pinch of salt, then secured it in a backpack before setting off on a run through Oslo. The goal: transform the cream into butter through motion alone.

“When you know your backpack literally contains the potential for a buttered miracle, it gives you an extra push,” the reporter wrote, describing the unusual motivation behind the jog.

The run took them through neighbourhoods like Ensjø and Tøyen, where the sloshing cream served as a rhythmic reminder of the task at hand. While the process evoked images of traditional butter-churning on Norwegian farms—once a labour-intensive task where butter was so valuable it was traded like currency—the modern version required little more than a jog and a plastic bag.

By the end of the run, the cream had thickened, though the full results were not detailed. The trend highlights both the quirky creativity of social media challenges and the stark contrast between historical and contemporary food production—where a staple once considered “as good as gold” can now be whipped up during a casual workout.