22 hardcore Hackney GoodGymers braved the threat of rain to run 6k to Hackney Elderly Caribbean Organisation and masterfully finish off a magical painting job with epic roller action.

On a drizzly evening in H-Town the weather fairy proved to be kind and held the rain away for us to get our roll on with some quality painting and mini circuit action. Great to see some super energetic new faces to Hackney GoodGym working hard and being helped along with our experienced core crew! A mini pulse raiser took us to London Fields for our warm up of duck walking and fire avoiding tip toe bouncing. Some skipping and leg swings got us nice and mobilised the action ahead. Setting off at a good lick weaving our way through the back streets of Hackney and out towards Stoke Newington in the close atmosphere we all certainly worked up a serious sweat!! The nearly 3k run zipped by in no time and great to see some big running fitness strides being made by many of the regular runners!! Running efficiency and speed are really improving with your consistent hard work well done!! 👏🏼👏🏻👏🏾👏🏿

With a pretty big group we split into groups to rotate through some physical preparation outside with some body resistance exercises and some super speedy painting. With 5 minutes rotations the pace was kept high both paining, taping up and beautifully executed exercises. We will flew through the task and had the second coat done in no time. To celebrate such a top task performance we finished off with a spectacular Static Squat Off where in a long line held a strong squat position for over 2 minutes!! Great way to Feel the burn!!.

We said our goodbyes and headed off for the race back to base. The Sexy group starting with a 3 minute cushion before being chased down by the Speedy crew great to see some of the Sexy group really pushing on in the last kilometre to really finish off the run strong!

A few static stretches and a mild panic to get back into the Bakehouse saw us end a very successful evening!

Be great to have you along next week as we work our magic at the Rio Olympic festival in Dalston please sign up here.

If you fancy some more running fun join me for a Running Fitness session on Thursday in Islington sign up here

If you are around on Thursday evening and fancy going along to the GoodGym monthly drinks all the info is here.

Big Good Luck shoutout to everyone racing this weekend in the ParkRun tour and in Regents Park 10k!!

Last but not least a huge congratulations to Cecilia on completing her 50th Good Deed!! 🎉🎈🎊🏆🏆🎉

Smooth strength

Joel

17 very sweaty GoodGymers ran 5k to help two Eco Active community gardens by shovelling, raking and sieving our way to glory.

On a tropical night in H Town there was a huge sense of relief that the furious Thunderstorms of the afternoon had subsided. The extra calories being burnt in the almost tropical conditions only added to the awesome workout!

We set off to explore some new Hackney back streets are we weaved our way to the eastern tip of Hackney. We stopped for a dynamic warm up and lower body conditioning after a little pulse raiser. Got everyone walking like ducks on our tip toes before dancing our way through a few rounds of the leg sapping box lunges. Keeping a steady pace we worked our way the just over 2.5k to the Kingsmead estate.

We were met by the guys from Eco Active where we fully tooled up and got to work! 4 tonnes of shingle was no match for the Team Hackney energy! In 20 minutes of incredible shovelling, raking and bag flipping action we had dominated the first task by levelling the ground of the garden so that people with mobility issues can now move freely around the space.

Not content with that the Team raced over to Patty's garden to hear some more amazing stories and sieve away all the stones from the main flower bed, while April got to work removing a very mean looking plant and the Root squad made another effort to free some of the deepest most clingy roots in all of Hackney.

Soon our time was up, aided by some amazing refreshments from Eco Active we ran off into the warm summers night. With the Sexy crew gaining a significant lead as the Speedies carried back the tools the race back to base was on! A top shift was put in by all on the slightly uphill return both groups arrived back almost together!!

A few static stretches and the obligatory ballet turn saw is finish off a very warm, successful and satisfying evenings action!

A lot of talk about races this week if anyone is after a little advise on good races just let me know!

Next week we are off to Bootstrap to get our paint on!! Be great to have you along for a fun task, please sign up here. As a special treat we will be heading out for our monthly social to get a drink and a bite or two to eat. Always fun and be awesome to have you along!!

Thursday sees the start of GoodGym London Running Fitness session in Lincon's inn field near Holborn. Be great if you would like to join me for some fitness fun! Sign up here.

Smooth striding

Joel

Nine dynamic GoodGymers ran 3k to help the Hackney Downs HUG garden move 5ish Tonns of soil and wood chip.

To round off an amazing National volunteer week Team Hackney enjoyed a Super Starter session to help the Hackney Downs User Group (HUG) to continue their great work creating educational and fun gardening experiences for the under 5's. Was great to see some brand new faces to a GoodGym session as well as a few ever improving runners not forgetting a couple of hard core GoodGym regulars.

We started the session we a dynamic warm up to activate the key muscles needed for the session as well and mobilising the major joints that help us perform our slick and efficient running actions. From there we ran a kilometre around the park at a nice steady pace including a few times around the mini roundabout and a final pick up and dip after a lap of the grass track saw us warm and ready for action. Splitting into two groups we attacked the two jobs with lots lots of enthusiastic energy. The first group got shovelling 5 (well near enough) Tonnes of soil. Using a slick wheelbarrow to bag technique a solid pace was set and maintained. Trip after trip saw the huge bag of soil gradually empty. Balancing acts to keep the soil upright and lots of stamping to compact the soil down were vital in this mission. A final monumental effort to drag the last 250kg of soil to its new home where it can be used to plant all the wonderful flowers and shrubs in the garden.

The second action unit had their work cut out shovelling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of wood chip from the pavilion to create a soft bed for the Willow tunnel Team Hackney had dug out in April. Taking the tough wheelbarrow pushing in turns the group make great progress shovelling the woodchip in and out of the wheelbarrow and smoothing it out to create a perfect base for the children to play in on their next visit. With a final push the tunnel was filled and was great to complete two physically challenging and rewarding jobs in 45 minutes of action!

To finish off the session we fed our legs some speed and played a little game of Lampposting. For 2k of running we run alternately hard then easy between the many lampposts of Hackney Downs, even kicking it in to overdrive for a sprint finish!! A series of revitalising static stretches and a elegant ballet spin rounded off a great mornings Fitness Fun. Well done to everyone and really hope to see you all at a Tuesday evening group run soon!!

Our next Hackney Group run is on Tuesday starting at the E5 Bakehouse at 6:45 please sign up here.

Another way of joining in is coming along to the GoodGym London fitness sessions I run on Thursday Evenings in Central London. All the information and sign up is here.

Thanks to Patrick for the Pun!

Smooth summer running

Joel

Cor, that was a bit special. 134 GoodGymers ran a total of 32km to do good all over London. Meeting at the iconic City Hall runners were greeted by Team London and swiftly assigned to their teams to be given their mission for the morning. After a quick pause for photos and some dynamic warm ups it was up to Tower Bridge to be seen off by Paralympian Andy Barrow. What a fantastic way to mark the start of volunteers week and celebrate London’s success of being named European Capital of Volunteering.

Let’s hear from the trainers about what each team go up to....

Khan we do it?

Led by Hackney trainer Joel Wiles

Team Southwark had the privilege of leading the charge off of Tower bridge! A strong team of 30 runners were soon navigating our way through the back streets of central London on the 2k run to Age Uk Southwark.

We met John the manager of the centre who welcomed us and was amazed to see so many of us. Quickly splitting into 3 groups with the majority of the crew working hard in the back garden smaller groups went to talk to the service users and play games of pool with them while the 3rd group scythed their way into the wild front garden.

An explosive pace was maintained in the gardens with impressive amounts of grass cutting, huge weeding and some very artistic gardening animal on the hedges art all done with huge smiles and great positive energy.

We were then joined by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan who gave us loads of encouragement to work up even more of a sweat and talked to the team about volunteering opportunities in London before going to talk to the service users and playing an impressive game of Pool.

After 40 minutes of great action we had interacted with all the service users at Age UK Southwark, filled 12 bags of gardening waste and got the gardens looking great especially with the hedges trimmed to look like a hippopotamus, red squirrel and a slug!

Before we set off on the run back to City Hall we smashed out an intense leg workout where we powered through a series of strength building and coordination testing exercises and really got to feel the burn with a few static squats to finish! With legs throbbing and after a lot of thanks from the service users and team at Age UK we ran the 2k back to City Hall before a few static stretches by the river to round off a top morning.

Paint the town white

Led by Tower Hamlets trainer Tom Craggs

Of the masses of runners who met at City Hall a team of 10, a mix of new and experienced goodgym runners, headed down to local charity Siblings Together.

The 2.5km run to the charity took in Tower Bridge and the docks and warehouses of Rotherhithe. When we arrived we were handed spin brushes and 40 minutes of rolling, brushing and masking later we had the office looking fantastic with a new lick of paint. As a small charity these are often the jobs which have to take a back seat to day to day operations so it was great to make such a difference so quickly. After a 2km run back we stretched and headed back to our homes and workplaces - fitness and good deeds in the bank.

Soiled beyond belief

Led by Southwark trainer Jo Swift

Speeches, pictures and warm ups done, 12 runners set off across Tower Bridge with a mix of new and familiar GoodGym faces and navigated more than a few tourist pictures as we headed towards Aldgate. I'd warned of traffic lights but there were almost as many of them as there'd been blue t-shirts at City Hall.

We arrived at Providence Row, a centre providing support to homeless in the East end area, and were met by Joe who had lots of work for us to get on with. Hidden away behind hipster Brick Lane and Shoreditch, the centre have created a roof garden growing plants and peace. Half of the group were shown a pile of soil and manure bags, 2 wheelbarrows, 3 floors of steps and a lift.

Some ran the stairs as the lift was a little slower. Big ups to our crew who weren't put off by the muck on the bags despite heading off to work after our run.

Whilst 6 strong volunteers carried on with this, the rest of us cleared a plot of land of rubbish, weeds and laughing gas pods to give a bit of a face lift.

Joe and his team weren't sure we'd get it all done in the 45minutes we had but we did it! Always so brilliant how much you can get done in a GoodGym session. We said our goodbyes and made our way back through the lunching city workers & across the bridge for a photo finish outside city hall.

See you for the next one!

Sugar-Rush

Led by Brent trainer Ellie Wood

A tribe called GoodGym teamed up with Team London for a morning of super running and super volunteering to celebrate volunteers week and London being named the European Capital of volunteering.

My lovely eleven made up the team for our nominated charity Bliss - a wonderful organisation, who provide support and services for families with premature babies in the UK. After intros and housekeeping, this awesome crew, bustled out into the cold for warm-ups and photo-calls amidst the glorious back drop of Tower Bridge and City Hall.

After a serious amount of posing and pouting and not letting the threat of rain kill any excitement, we head out on our mission, a fast and furious scoot over to our destination for the day. Upon arrival we were greeted by the fabulous Nicola and her girl power crew, gleefully waiting to present us with our task - The prepping of gift bags to be posted out to supporters of the charity.

Despite the temptation of stuffing envelopes, we managed to resist stuffing our faces with the contents - about 200 bags of SWEEETTTSSS. Spurred on by my fabulous mix of empowering tunes....Thank you Chaka Khan and a lot of laughs, we managed to finish the job with time to spare!! Hurrahs.

All the honest work paid off in the end and all of the runners were presented with their own goodies YAY. So freshly powered by the sweetie all-sorts delights, we 'Sugar-Rushed' down to Tower Bridge for some sprint drills and tempos, before heading back to City Hall. Finishing with some 'Core-Blimey these are hard' planks, a final stretch brought the session to a close.

A marvellous morning, a cracking crew and an absolutely terrific way to celebrate volunteering in our fair London Town!

Do Good. Feel Good. Inspire.

Garden Footprint

Led by Westminster trainer Cory Wharton-Malcolm

Post photo we were whisked away, carried by the ever present sound of our little feet as we headed South to Bermondsey Community Nursery to see a lovely lady about a garden.

15 strong we were greeted by a group of small people who will one day become adults and their ever so lovely teachers.

Our tasks for the day? Dismantle compost bin and redistribute soil lovingly into new home, plant flowers and vegetables, destroy broken notice board, kill pesky weeds, fix hose and most importantly make area look pretty again. How long? 30 mins.

Did we get it done? Of course we did. 4 teams working harmoniously for the greater good of our host. There was however one little mishap, one of our newbies mistook a small toy dinosaur for a real beast, screamed and nearly knocked herself out lol. Did she survive? OF COURSE she did.

Thank you's, goodbyes and a cheeky little 1 miler tagged on the end just for the fun of it. Lots of newbies and lots of good done. What better way to spend a morning?

Inspiring a generation

20 runners including a huge bunch from Zendesk completed a quick loop from City Hall and returned for a speed careers session back at base. Children from across London were given an inspiring speech from Andy Barrow followed by speed careers advice from our volunteers. The future of London is in safe hands with this lot.

Shelfless Runners

Led by Tower Hamlets run leader Ivo Gormley

A brave crew of 17 blue GoodGym runners hit the streets of Southwark to make things happen at the Downside Fisher Youth Centre.

The run there: once we'd escaped the photographers, done some lunges, some knee raises and some impressive fast feet, introduced ourselves 5 times, was a doddle. 0.6kms run through in no time.

We arrived at the door of the centre and were met by Christine and Phil who run the place. We were tasked with cleaning the windows and sorting out a cupboard.

We split into two crack teams of 8 ; the cupboard was emptied with precision and zeal, the windows were flooded with mr muscle and the job was underway. Ladders were scaled, shelves removed, climbing equipment was sorted, admin material was separated, extenders were grasped and elbow grease was applied. 30 mins later both jobs were done to a high standard.

Phil, who works for the centre said "I was amazed how much you got done."

The general manager Christine, said "Bloody hell, that was quick. Those windows are gleaming."

Not content with just doing good, we set about pushing ourselves a bit harder, we nipped 1.2km down the road to Southwark Park. We did 3x30seconds intervals with 30seconds rest. A TOUGH session, handled admirably before we strode back along the Southbank of London's great river Thames.

Well done all. See you at the next one.

Team Tower

Led by Haringey trainer Varon Lewis

15 GoodGymers navigated their way from City Hall, over the bridge that bared the teams name, through cobbled city streets and into the palace grounds at the Tower of London. There we were met by Sarah, the task owner, who lead us past the beefeaters and guards, under the tower of doom and into part of an old​​ building that was used as a classroom for visiting children. Here the team packed envelopes given to those who had become members of the Historic Royal Palaces charity. Team Tower did GoodGym proud and managed to pack over 900 envelopes within a 35 minute window. This would have usually taken volunteers around 3 hours. We had conquered our task as William had conquered centuries ago. Great job guys!

Until next time folks - Stay Fit, Do Good & Look Out For The Light!

What next?

GoodGym is the easiest way to get fit in London. This weekend we have some special starter sessions to make it even easier to get involved. Sign up to one now and keep that good going:

GoodGym Lewisham are getting ready for festival season by helping out at the Brockley Max Festival. Sign up here.

GoodGym Camden are running to help out a local growing space. Sign up here.

GoodGym Hackney are giving some HUGS to the Hackney Downs User Group. Sign up here.

GoodGym Croydon are running to help the local Brownies. Sign up here.

Ten fearless Hackney GoodGymers braved the Tuesday Hurricane to deliver 600 flyers to promote St Luke church's amazing summer fair while running 3k and hundreds of stairs.

Only the strong survived tonight!! First the mental strength to get out the door and join the rest of Team Hackney, second to bound effortlessly up and down the stairs of 12 blocks of flats.

With the high number of stairs to be tackled tonight we started the evening with a series of plyometric exercises to strengthen up the lower body, improve core strength and balance as well as making our running efficiency even better!! We hopped, skipped and bounded in a mesmerising rhythm.

We then run 1.5k to St Luke's church to get loaded up with flyers for the very impressive Summer fair which doubles up as the Queens 90th birthday celebrations! Once fully loaded with flyers we descended on mass to each block dominating the task in record time!! Managing to stay together in the vast maze of the estate we bounded up and down the stairs super efficiently. In 40 action packed minutes we had completed the task and totally covered the estate in Summer fair cheer!! We left a very greatful St Luke's and ran the 1.5k back to base with many smiles and an impressive amount of feel good chatter.

After a rejuvenating static stretch out we were on our way feel great about an enjoyable task well done!

Next week we are back to Eco Active to enjoy the delights of levelling their community garden and many other jobs while being treated to some of the funniest stories you will ever hear. Would love you to come along!! please sign up here.

As a special treat we also have an amazing starter session on Saturday with the HUG garden on Hackney Downs! With a little less running but the same action pact 90 minutes of feel good fun be great to have you along and why not bring a GoodGym newbie friend along for good measure!! Sign up here. Please not we are starting and finishing at the HUG garden in middle of Hackney Downs. See you at 9:45!

Smooth sailing

Joel

Nineteen bouncing Hackney GoodGymers ran 5.5k to Hackney Downs to plant flowers in the HUG garden and clear the Old Park keepers lodge of 10 bags of rubbish.

On a Wild and Windy night in H- Town we welcomed 6 new faces to Hackney GoodGym and showed them how we do things.

We began the evening with a mobilising dynamic warm up where we got our lower body joints and muscles primed for action! We then bust into a series of strength building and core stabilising body weight exercises to get our muscles and joints robust and strong. We then bounced into action with some testing plyometric drills to activate a few fast twitched muscle fibres.

After the action packed start we headed off onto the Hackney back streets weaving our way 2k to Hackney Downs where we met Myra from HUG (Hackney downs User Group). We split into two groups the first began by ferrying watering cans to the garden to soften the flower beds for planting while group 2 headed to the Old Park Keepers Lodge to begin the first stage of regenerating the derelict building to hopefully being a community centre in the the not so distant future.

With both groups in full flow Christmas trees were being planted random single shoes were being bagged up. There were many weird and not so wonderful things found and removed in the Old Park Keepers lodge, a very satisfying task where we made a huge difference in a short space of time! With fence panels uncovering shoes and scorpions while suitcases didn't uncover any body parts but instead more single shoes. A fast and effective clearing pace was maintained and in 35 minutes the whole area was looking virtually pristine!!

In the garden holes were dug and soil was turned while an impressive number of plants were planted to brighten up the garden. In 40 quick minutes all the watering, soil turning and planting was complete and after a quick tidy up we were on our way!

The group chose to run a longer 3.5k route back to base so I added in a few loop de loop missions for those that wanted to increase the pace and distance! Special mention to Chris who was on fire and went on every special mission and lead the group home with a huge sprint finish across London Fields!

As I mentioned Saturday sees the GoodGym Parkrun Tour come to Hackney Downs and with so many of you in great form and fitness it would be great to see you there with many other GoodGymers from all over London and beyond! All the information is here about the Parkrun tour.

Next week we will be heading to Eco Active for a great task in their garden! We will be Digging up bushes, levelling off the ground, topping up raised beds with soil and making woodchip paths with so much to do it would be great if you came along and we had a monster turn out!! So please sign up here.

Silky Smooth Running

Joel