At Thrive and kicking!

A last minute change of task yesterday meant that rather than running to help open up a community garden which has been closed for years, we were down at Battersea Park's beautiful Thrive therapy garden. This amazing space is used to promote therapeutic horticultural skills to bring about positive changes in the lives of people living with disabilities or ill health, or those who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable. At GoodGym we truly believe in the power of getting active outside so it was the perfect fit for us!

We started off the night by welcoming some new faces to our group - so great to have you along for your first session Ben, Mike and Helen. Give them a big cheer, GoodGym!

Thankfully it was a lovely warm night compared to last week's washout, so we did a brief warm up to get those muscles firing. Before we set off on our 2km run to the park, we also went round the group to find out what everyday item (aside from our phone) we couldn't live without. Coffee and delicious things to eat came very high up, as did our watches, beds and our trusty kettle!

We made our way into the park, trying not to notice all the picnics and cool drinks at the cafe, and headed into the therapy garden where we had a list of jobs waiting for us. There were plenty of tasks to choose from, from watering, litter picking, weeding and leaf raking. Everybody cracked on with their chosen task, and somehow it was Paul who ended up on the wrong end of the hose again - or perhaps given the warm weather the cooling off was welcome?

At the end of 40 minutes we had got loads done, including collecting a huge ton bag full of leaves and making sure all the plants (and some humans) got a good watering. It was a calm, regenerative place to spend the evening and easy to see what a great resource the garden is for local people. We'll be back across the park at the herb garden in a few weeks, so get those green fingers ready for more Thrive fun!

It was almost time to run back, but not before an intense plank challenge. For four minutes without a break we held various plank positions, working all those ab muscles. If that wasn't enough we finished off with a core triathlon before heading back to base for stretches. Great work everybody.

Next week we will be back at the Rose community centre to finish off a huge painting job. There are plenty of other sessions to get involved with too, from supporting junior parkrun to helping deliver food for vulnerable people.

As always, if you have any questions about any sessions or events coming up don't hesitate to let me know, and if you haven't joined already we have a busy whatsapp group full of all the GG and social news. Happy GoodGyming everybody!