A small and committed team gathered on top of Mile End Park’s Art Pavilion last night to run through our pre-task workout.

The Squat Masterclass

Today’s workout focused on exercises to support the hips and knees. After a couple of mobility and warm-up exercises, we started with squats. Easy-looking but surprisingly complex to get right, the team patiently performed squat after squat with a new instruction after each rep.

We moved to single-leg squats, lateral lunges and ‘the perfect lunge’, finishing with some push-ups against the fence.

As we ran through our last stretch, we were joined by John from Friends of Mile End Park.

Who are Friends of Mile End Park?

This independent group aims to encourage a sense of local ownership towards the park, helping to promote awareness of the park and its facilities, and encourage and support their use.

Proactive with everything from fund-raising for additional resources for the park to hosting sociable, monthly litter-picks, it’s a fantastic group for GG TH to be asked to join for our Monday night activity.

(You can read more about the Friends, including their monthly litter-pick here).

As we prepared our equipment (a test in patience and tolerance last night btw, as we battled strong winds attaching rubbish sacks inside the game-changing litter-bag hoops), we made our plan. John reassured us that there would be plenty of rubbish along the southern areas of the park.How right he was: as we filled our bags, we were struck by the amount of litter that could already be found on a Monday night.

Half time

Just as our bags became full to overflowing, we approached a bin: “All change,” said John. Little did we know, we were heading for Part II with brand new sacks to head back to base.

A race against time, as we headed down Clinton Road, we just couldn’t resist the last few crushed Red Bull cans: in it all went, and we were still posing for our last pic by 8:15pm.

A fantastic effort, everyone! No mean feat to fill 12 bags on a windy, wet December night. (And a special shout-out to Johnny, who joined us for a pre-birthday task - Happy Birthday, Johnny!).

Until next time.

GoodGym joined Friends of Mile End Park and Tower Hamlets Greens in the monthly littler picking this sunny Sunday

We collected around 15 bag of trash from up and down the North end of the park, plus along this busy section of canal.

It was lovely to meet up again with folks from our previous activities together, and we made plans for planting spring bulbs as a group in November - watch out for new listing!

The group then trooped down to the secluded back garden at The Coffee Room on Grove Road, for pastries, drinks and more chat.

Following our inaugural Mile End Park litter-pick in March, we returned with Tower Hamlets Green Party members and new local Councillor Nathalie Bienfait to join the monthly Friends of Mile End Park litter-picking event.

Thirteen keen pickers met for introductions and a briefing with John from Friends of Mile End Park. Armed with grabbers and bags, the group spread out, heading North through the park and woodlands collecting discarded bottles, caps, cans, cigarette butts and everything else that was making the environment less pleasant for people to visit.

At 12:00, with full sacks and rumbling bellies, we reconvened to admire our hard work and take photos of the bagged litter mountain. Fortunately, John provided us with drinks and cakes a-plenty from the nearby Coffee Room.

What a great way to start a Sunday!

GoodGym Tower Hamlets will be back at Mile End Park on 10 July for next month's litter pick in Mile End Park. Sign up now!.

Two tasks; two fantastic teams.

We gathered by the lock-up at Mile End Park's Art Pavilion just after 7 to meet John, one of the best task owners in town.

The brief? To dig over two planters on The Mound and clean the pond.

It sounded like a pleasant way to pass an hour on a sunny Monday evening, but 90 minutes in, boy, were we glad we skipped the gym.

John headed up Team Pond who, armed with pond nets and rakes, headed over to the pond behind the Pavilion to clear it of weed and all other debris. Wet, mucky and laborious: this was not for the faint hearted.

Meanwhile Team Tulip, headed by Jo, made their way up to the large planters on top of The Mound. "Just a little dig over, and then pop them in," John had breezily said of the last of these Spring bulbs. Well. With fewer forks that we would have liked, not to mention the solid terrain​, this was a workout-and-a-half. We called for reinforcements from the Pond Posse and the team worked solidly for 70 minutes, getting the grass shifted, the soil turned, and the bulbs planted

At 8:33, the last remaining GoodGymers, Grit and Rohan, were glimpsed accompanying John to return the tools along Clinton. Way to go, folks.

A brilliant evening all round, and a special shout-out to our Dave, who tonight hit his 100th good deed. Great to see you, Dave; hope to see you soon :)

Next week, it's Bank Holiday Monday, so Our Big Task falls on a Saturday, when we'll be heading to Tower Hamlets Cemetary Park to commence Operation Cow Parsley. You snooze, you lose.

Until then

No fewer than 21 runners congregated at Mile End Art Pavilion last night to help plant 1000 bulbs in the Bow Conservation Area, including first time runners Zahra and Cathy.

We were greeted by Task Owner John, who wasted no time at all in talking us through the evening, which started with extensive kit-collection from his house on Grove Road.

There were 26 trowels; 1000 bulbs, daffs, drills and shovels. It was quite the operation. And so we made our way to Tredegar Square to a total of five planting areas, where the team spent an hour digging tough, impacted soil and planting bulbs of all shapes and sizes.

It was fun, fast and a teeny bit freezing, but we loved every minute, not least when our Chi showed up halfway through, to take some pics and help pack up.

The team did good: John was happy; a few remaining bulbs mean we’ll be heading back to the Holy Trinity Church area in the coming weeks and we got to run the pretty mile-long route back to the Hotel to warm up.

All is good.

Bravo!

Well done to the whole team, for getting so much done, for staying late, and especially to Task Force members Stephen for fantastic run-leading and route navigation; to Emma and John for greeting and light-carrying, and to our first time runners Cathy and Zahra – what a spectacular GoodGym debut, and we hope to see you very soon.

Next week: We’re back on the Hollybush Estate to help with the big community centre clean-up!

Until then.

A chilly, cheerful start

It was a splendid start to the night: a good-sized crew gathered above the well-lit Art Pavilion in Mile End Park to speed through thirty minutes of the sweaty stuff this evening.

It was a chilly one and the team didn’t stop.

Off they sped through the usual tough balance and abs moves; running drills and stretches. And to top it all off, we enjoyed an impromptu segment taught by Ivo: partner exercises, hip strengtheners…We were very lucky indeed.

Our Beth

And then we went to meet John, our task owner from Friends of Mile End Park, an 'independent and inclusive group that will play a role in ensuring that the Park is developed, cared for and used in ways that actively involve and benefit the local community.'

But before we moved on to The Main Business of the Night (woodland clearing) we paused to congratulate Beth on her 1000th good deed. Beth does a lot of GoodGym. A lot. And keeps pretty quiet about it. But what an asset she is, to so many.

About the offal

John then gave us a thorough briefing, with plenty of health and safety, including The Story of the Buried Offal, and other nasty need-to-knows.

Off to the woodland we marched, complete with lights, spare gloves and a can-do attitude.

Teams were divided into three: one shovelling and wheeling woodchip in an attempt to uncover The Missing Snowdrops; another headed to the ivy area, to clear the pathway, while a third team tackled beastly brambles, taking their life into their hands as they got stuck into the grim greenery.

It was all go, I can tell you. Barrows were filled, ivy un-knotted, kitchen implements uncovered (will explain another time).

Despite freezing temperatures, spirits remained high and productivity off the scale.

At gone-8, we reluctantly agreed to call it a night, before dimming lights, posing for pics and saying cheerful cheerios, with a promise from John we could return soon.

Shout-outs

To Joel for this evening’s fabulous pun.

To Ivo for leading some fab last minute fitness.

To the Central team, past and present, who came to show their support and respect for Beth, but who boosted morale and warmed spirits more than they could realise.

To John, from Friends of Mile End Park, our brilliant task owner whose planning, humour and commitment to our activity always makes our night.

And to Beth. ❤

Until next time.