Cranbrook community centre is a lovely space, offering a hall for community-based events and private hire and also a food garden. This weekend, they were participating in both Open Garden squares weekend and the Big Lunch, and were looking for some help to tidy up their garden in advance of this.

And so seven GoodGymmers met up this afternoon to help Cranbrook community centre clear up their garden.

As nominally in charge, Liz took the details of the first task from our contact, Janet. In essence, this was to throw away some fence panels (without being as gung-ho about it as the wind wanted us to be) and to bundle some sticks together. This did not take long to do, and we soon looking askance at Janet for more to do (probably in much the same way that a dog looks at you when you're eating a bacon sandwich. Or cheese).

Thankfully, Janet's need for clean wasn't yet satiated. For task number two, we moved onto an immediately adjacent area (comprising more sticks, but, also, some pots!) with instructions to bring order to the universe. This is when everyone started to come into their own, making useful suggestions about the best way to go about it in a constructive and collaborative way that allowed Liz to simply take photos and give a health and safety briefing ("Please don't get hurt: I have no qualifications to help if you do").

This sort of Kings (or Queens?) was mucho fun and we learned lots! For example, we learnt to avoid water (both standing water from pots to be discarded and hose water from, well, a hose), how to tie sticks together (show them some affection by hugging them), and which GoodGymmers to avoid if you've been irreversibly transformed into a snail (most of them, tbh).

Part way through the big sort, Assiya and Jess were siphoned off to put up posters/deliver leaflets, while the rest of the group finished up sorting.

Tasks completed within a super speedy 45/50 minutes, and separate photos of Team Clean and Team Leaflet taken by Janet, we made our goodbyes and took some Oreos for the road (Jess was also gifted some lovely rhubarb from the food garden, which she plans to be traditional with by seasoning with custard).

Lovely meeting you all and hopefully you can join in Cranbrook Community centre's Big Lunch tomorrow! 😄

Despite the hail 15 minutes before the start, a lovely group of women turned out to Manor Park joining a few local families to transform a row of soil along a wall into a beautiful oasis of greenery. There are plans for beautiful murals to be painted on the walls soon too so the park will look fantastic.

A few hours were spent digging, planting, top soiling and watering. The soil was quite hard so it took a little force, standing on the spaces to get deep enough - toning those thighs and calves as a small bonus! The team worked hard and smiled throughout. What a way to spend a Saturday! Head over to Manor park later in the summer to check out the results.

It was with remarkable energy and enthusiasm that a crew of indefatigable goodgymers from a variety of London Boroughs congregated in Bethnal Green following a gruelling (sorry, 'challenging'!) workout courtesy of the legendary Chi, to help our friends at Friends of Meath Gardens with a variety of tasks. First up, were the bulb planters, who set to, planting around 400 hyacinth bulbs (hence the pun - in case anyone missed that!) which we hope to see brighten up the garden in a mix of pink, white and blue in the springtime. A highlight was noticing we were being watched by three green parakeets in the trees - photo attached! Meanwhile, others got to work sawing fallen branches to which they then applied their creative juices to build warm habitats for the minibeasts and small mammals of Meath to see them through the cold winter. Glutes and upper bodies all received a good further workout and lots was achieved. A great afternoon's work with a great team. As one of the bulb planters remarked as she stood back and admired the work, 'we are amazing!'. I think we'll take that!

It was a little bit of HiIT and a little bit of Hang

After rolling into Meath Gardens, the sight looks looked like a dream spot for outdoor fitness. Monkey bars, pull-up bars, soft grass, paved paths and dipping bars. Who needs a gym! The enthusiatic group looked a bit chilly, so we started with a a few warm -up exercises and a medium paced jog, After that, we did some drills which involved quite a bit of leg work.

Circuit Breaker

The next session of the day involved challenging circuits that had 5 stations. 1. Dips 2. Elevated Press-ups 3. Sprints 4. Squats 5. Mountain Climbers 6. Plank

The determination on their faces looked like they had a goal that they wanted to reach and no amount of dips will stop them from reaching it.

Raising the bar

This is where the fun part begins. We had a mini assault course greet us at the other side of the the park. The group were divided up and walked over to the interesting obstacles. They stayed a minute on each station which seemed to be enough for them to get comfortable and find their own technique to tackle the challenges. The monkey bars seemed to of triggered a few childhood memories for some of the participants.

Abs a go

We finished off with the core exercises to make sure our whole body felt like it has been tested today. The group did really well and worked very hard. I can see with the determination i saw today. They will reach their goals faster than they think.

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