🌩️ Thunder, Tasks & Trivia Triumphs! 🌿🧠

A distant rumble of thunder kept us guessing as we gathered for this week’s GoodGym session, but it takes more than a bit of potential drama to throw us off course. Despite a power outage on the tube delaying our task owner, we were well-prepped with a list of garden jobs sent over in advance – and as always, we were ready to dig in.

Before setting off, we limbered up with a quick warm-up and this week's question was pub quiz themed: How many pubs are there in London? Guesses ranged wildly, but Jordan was closest to the correct answer – a a whopping 3,500 pubs! That’s a lot of potential quiz venues…

🌱 Once we arrived at the garden, we got straight to work. There was no shortage of tasks to keep us busy:

• Shifting lemon trees into position
• Plenty of watering to revive thirsty plants
• Weeding pathways and beds
• Sweeping away debris
• Turning compost and moving it around the garden

The garden was soon buzzing with activity and teamwork and the time flew by.

💪 With a few minutes to spare after finishing the tasks, we squeezed in a post-task fitness session featuring:

• A 3-minute mountain legs challenge
• A 3-minute arm burner, in honour of International Chest Day at the gym – we're very on-brand! The result? Some burning muscles and a sense of achievement!

🏆 Then it was quiz time - the team headed off to the pub. With the muscles having been given a serious workout it was time for the brains to get a turn in the hotseat. I'm happy to report the team absolutely smashed it, scooping gold. Huge congrats to all our GG geniuses!

📍 Next week, we’re heading to Paradise Cooperative to lend a hand. If you enjoyed working in the garden this week, don’t forget we have a weekly community mission to help out at the Doddington Community Garden Kids Club – check it out and sign up here.

Have a great week everybody!

With a last minute task cancellation last night we had to pivot quickly but that didn't dampen our enthusiasm in the slightest! Maybe that was because it was our fitness leader Catherine's birthday so we were feeling festive (and energised by the prospect of cake) or maybe it was that spring was in the air, or perhaps it was just those Monday GoodGym good vibes!

We kicked off with a warm up and a quick round up of what we'd be wishing for if we were blowing out the candles. From new houses, to more dogs in the world, to be able to fly, to fewer candles on the cake - our dreams are certainly varied!

We set off on our run to Bramford Gardens, a community green space run by a volunteer, Shah. Unfortunately when we arrived we found that a contractor had been in and pulled up a load of carefully thought out plants. We needed to jump into action to tidy up the place as best we could - and fast.

We divided up into teams. There was plenty to do - collecting and transporting pallets, litter picking, strengthening the raised beds which had been knocked down, scrubbing graffiti and picking out that sticky weed - which seems to get everywhere!

After a good stint we were done, and moved onto party game themed fitness. There was freeze tag and a plank waterfall, with just one team emerging victorious, although it was a close run thing.

After a run back it was time for stretches and cake - lots of cake! Next week it's Easter Monday so there will no group run - but don't worry it wil be scheduled for later in the week. There is plenty to look forward to, including this mission to beautify a nature reserve and a task to dig lots of holes in Southfields!

It's potato planting time! And who knew all your needed was some potatoes and elbow grease! A group of us planted a load of potatoes at the GG garden in Clapham - which we'll harvest later this year and donate.

Last night, 8 intrepid GoodGymers gathered to take on a mammoth task at the Katherine Lowe Settlement (KLS). For those whose first visit it was to this Battersea institution, KLS is a truly wonderful community centre that provides support for older adults, refugees, young people and vulnerable communities in the area. Not only do they provide a warm, supportive environment, but they also offer vital social services and activities for local people, so we were more than happy to help out!

KLS is having two floors redone, and they needed all the old flooring transported downstairs to be picked up this morning. We knew it was going to be quite the session so after a warm-up (where we spent way too much time discussing whether we were motivated by the carrot or the stick – turns out, most of us are stick people, which we should probably look into a bit further!) we set off on a quick jog down to KLS.

As we arrived and were met by Tracy and Tony. The scale of the job soon became evident with Tony's first question, 'how strong are you feeling?', which gave us an inkling about what lay ahead! We were working in a beautiful Victorian building, but those narrow stairs were definitely not designed for moving hundreds of planks of wood. Still, we are GoodGymers. And we fear no floor.

The plan was simple: Start at the top, and move planks down, all the way to the bottom.We were soon sweating, but there was a job to be done and we were going to do it no matter what. It was like a full-body workout, but after half an hour of intense work we managed it - after all, many hands make light work. We celebrated with a very artful group photo and headed out into the night.

The fun didn’t stop there. After all that lifting, we finished the night with even more fitness- a workout based on the classic game, I Have Never. We soon found out who has run more than 15km in one go, who has recently moved house and even who has broken the law. But there is a golden rule - what happens in GoodGym fitness stays in GoodGym fitness!

If you're free this weekend, Jordan will be leading a session on Saturday at the GoodGym Garden. You can find all the details here. Next week, I’m away, but Steph will be leading the session and you can find the info for that here

Great work, team! Another task well done, with plenty of laughs along the way. Until next time! 👏👏