We helped out at Foodbox bagging up sugar, coffee and tea, before unpacking bags of donations and restocking the shelves.

Final task of the session was crating up drinks and setting them aside for Christmas hampers. Yes you read that correctly, Foodbox are all ready and prepared to take donations for Christmas for families in Hounslow.

With new term vibes in the air, we went back to Strand on the Green school to do a couple of big jobs last night.

So with half the group meeting at the Town Hall, we set off for the school to meet the rest of the team. I was ready to be bamboozled by the codes to get in as usual, but luckily Michelle and her super memory came to the rescue.

The painting team had quite the job in front of them, with two big walls to cover. They wasted no time getting started, with Georgia, Michelle and Lucy transforming the bricks from patchy to warm cream, and Gus tackling the highest patches of wall. But who ended up with the most paint on them, and who was the culprit? We may never know...

Meanwhile the pruning and clearing gang were hard at work by the pond and fence. Ivy was cut, brambles removed, holly trimmed, and after 45 minutes of hard work the area was clean, clear and ready for the kids to come back and enjoy.

We weren't going to pass up the opportunity of nice soft astroturf to do our fitness session, so we all found a comfy spot for core. Six different exercises including flutter kicks, toe taps and mountain climbers each for 45 seconds were repeated twice, giving us a good, thorough abs blast. All that was left was to run to the pub, enjoy Lucy's excellent stretching session and eat Luis' incredible cake for Remy's birthday!

Next week we're going back to the Comboni centre for some more gardening tasks to help out the sisters. See you there!

It was busy, busy, busy right from the off at GoodGym last night, so let's start off with a bit of a roundup...

Firstly a huge, GoodGymmy happy birthday with a crown on top to our lovely Michelle. Hope you have the best day - we'll let you off the squats (for this week only!).

Congratulations to Alan who is the newest and shiniest member of our elite taskforce!

On Saturday, do you fancy a parkrun/gardening double? Then join Jonny in Fulham for just the thing!

Sunday is the day of our very first West London scavenger race! Meet at Furnival Gardens at 10:45 for an 11am start. Challenge yourself to cover the distance picking up clues to your final destination - racing against other GGers! This will be a lighthearted, fun event which you can run, walk or cycle and will test both your legs and brains! Join us at the end for some refreshments and possibly a prize or two. Sign up here.

After going through all the fun stuff that is happening, we headed over to Chiswick House for our regular visit to lend a hand in the gardens. This week we were met by Connor who took us to the sheds and introduced us to the biggest pile of wood chips we had ever seen. Our task for the evening was to shift the pile over to another area in the grounds to be raked out.

We got straight to work filling buckets which we soon found out were light enough, but generated some serious heat! While we accompanied the trailer to the site, Lucy and Kymm got busy pulling weeds and Michelle had her rake ready.

After 45 minutes of hard work we were ready for a nice, gentle mobility for runners session , so made our way to the green outside the beautiful Orangery. We worked though lots of different moves that opened our hip flexors, increased the range of motion of other joints, reduced stiffness and strengthened muscles. Thanks to Emily for demonstrating the perfect pigeon!

Next week we're lending a hand at Strand on the Green school, hope to see you there for more fun and fitness!

(ps if you'd ever like a group fitness session focused on something specific such as form, speed, mobility, strength or a certain muscle group just drop me a message and I'll make it happen!)

Last night 11 Goodgymers ran, walk or cycled our way to Chiswick Allotments to help with clearing the plot donated by Chiswick Horticultural Society, for Hounslow Community Foodbox to grow fresh produce for food parcels.

A big welcome to Georgia joining for her first session with Goodgym, and great to have Eric and Kymm back for more good deeding.

Karoush showed us the section of the allotment that needed attention and there was a demo of efficient weeding and turning over the soil for anyone who needed it, before we got stuck in.

There was no time to waste and there was no signs of anyone feeling sluggish at Hounslow last night. Just under an hour later we had cleared most of the area under the picnic bench and relocated some slippery creatures with and without shells 🐌 so the area should soon be ready for planting.

Footnote: no slugs or snails were harmed (or consumed) during the task last night. Despite what some might have you believe in these photos!

We’ll be back at the allotments to help foodbox again in the coming weeks so look out for future tasks.

This Saturday we’re heading over to Strand on the Green school to help them out with lots of jobs, if you’re free why not come along and join us - sign up here https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/sanding-benches-ready-for-painting-4e9f1bd2-c73e-4ffd-9706-5177a8bd79e6