We had a brilliant GoodGym session last night – big welcome to Ariane on her very first run with us. Great to have you on board, and we hope it’s the first of many!

It was a short but sweet run in the summer heat, taking us back to a local church and community centre for another round of clearing, weeding, shifting and digging.

On arrival, we were greeted by an unconcerned rat 🐀 While I may have been a little perturbed, everyone else barely blinked – too small for an fuss apparently!

The jobs for the evening included tackling two big weedy areas, which were soon transformed thanks to some serious elbow grease. On the paths we had to do some weeding and digging before laying down a weed membrane to help keep things clear. The evening's power move was shifting a very heavy filing cabinet down the stairs – big kudos to Steph and Kash for a successful manouevre 💪

In just 45 minutes the place looked so much tidier and Carol, the the task owner said what we did would have taken her weeks so well done team! 👏

We ran back to Turnham Green where we wrapped things up with a take on a relay: while one person ran, the others kept moving with various exercises – squats, planks, you name it. There was no time for a breather!

We finished with some well-earned stretches covered in dry grass. Join Ariane again for her first community mission this Saturday – it’s going to be a beautiful day on Chiswick eyot where there is plenty of balsam bashing to do and the fight against the mitten crabs continues!

Thanks to the photographers for the photos last night - it's a bumper week of pics!

Phew – it was a warm one last night as we returned to the beautiful Chiswick House for another impactful GoodGym session!

This time, our task took us to the dog playground, where a massive pile of mulch was waiting for us. And as well as being huge it was also quite compacted,which added to the hard work. But we weren’t phased. Especially as our aim was to make the dogs of Chiswick as happy as possible with a freshly mulched play area.

Armed with barrows, rakes and enthusiasm, we set to work. The pile soon turned out to be no match for our big team. We raked, shifted, scooped, and (squeakily) wheeled mulch across the playground. Several dogs passed by mid-task, offering us an approving wag – the highest form of praise, obviously.

With the job wrapped up in no time, we relocated to a lovely grassy spot nearby for a bit of strength and conditioning - and a much needed cool down. We worked all the major muscle groups and tested our mettle with various planks. After returning the tools, we jogged back to base for a good stretch and a debrief.

Coming up: We’ve got a mission this Saturday at Chiswick Allotments in the sun.Sign up here to keep the good deeds flowing!

ps Did we mention it was hot?

For the second week in a row, we had the pleasure of celebrating a GoodGym birthday – this time, a very happy birthday to Florian! 🥳

We've started a new tradition where the birthday person gets to choose the fitness session – so what did Florian go for? Legs? Arms? Conditioning? Nothing at all? You'll have to read on...

We enjoyed the beautiful early summer's evening as we headed down to the drawdock, where our job for the evening was to clear the area of the plastic and other rubbish that pollutes our waterways. These riverbanks can collect all sorts of debris, and cleaning them is crucial – it protects local wildlife, improves the water quality, and helps keep our city clean.

Armed with litter pickers courtesy of Active 360, we got to work – and it wasn’t long before the weird and not-so-wonderful bits and pieces started turning up. Amid the usual suspects (bottles, wrappers, and mystery items), we found a surprising number of old metal pieces. Chris – clearly the group's secret scaffolding expert – identified them as scaffolding fittings. But how they ended up in the river is anybody's guess.

We divided everything we found into recycling and non reclyclables and filled several bags with rubbish. Great work, team.

Then it was time to find out Florian’s birthday fitness choice... and the decision was... Tabata!

Three tough 2-minute rounds of high-intensity exercises, with 20 seconds of effort and 10 seconds of rest – we did half burpees, sumo squats, power lunges and more. Not even the stunning river views could distract us from the burn. But as always, we powered through it together.

After a run back to base and some much-needed stretches, the birthday evening was celebrated in the best possible way: at the pub, with Florian’s amazing air fryer cake.

Looking for a weekend challenge? We’ve got a massive session coming up this Saturday in Battersea and we need all the help we can get. It’s going to be a great task, followed by a well-deserved social – the perfect post-parkrun, pre weekend activity!