(Tennis) balls to the football!

Last night while most of the nation were either watching the World Cup (rumour has it that there was a big semi-final game going on…), Wimbledon or the Tour de France, 6 GoodGym runners battled through as Remy aptly termed it, the ‘travel apocalypse’ for a fun-filled evening of puns, fitness…and the aim of doing good!

News this week

1. The GoodGym monthly social is being hosted by Wandsworth at the Plough on Thursday 12th, come along and join the fun! – full details here.
2. It’s the monthly GoodGym Long Run next Sunday which will be starting at Finsbury Park Station and be led by the brilliant GoodGym Barnet Trainer, Damian – sign up here.
3. The wonderful founder of GoodGym, Ivo Gormley was on the Let's Get Running podcast this week with one of GoodGym’s own, Shaun Dixon - check it out here.

No keys, no secret; no tools, no task

Unfortunately there was a very late task cancellation at the local school due to a caretaker ‘dropping the ball’ and forgetting to leave the shed keys out for the headteacher. Sadly, no tools available meant no task for the eager crew.

Instead the group headed over to Turnham Green for an extended games based fitness session with surround sound of the match on from the neighbouring pubs. Following a quick warm-up which included some high knees, heel flicks and lunges we got into the first game.

Squat, squat, goose

Same rules as the game many played as a kid with the added addition of squats or power squats to those of the person who is ‘it’ – now after the level of success Ana had when we played zip, zap, boing a few months ago I should’ve maybe stayed away from the kid’s games….

Abs fab!

Next up was some upper body exercises with the added addition of a tennis ball. In pairs the group did some Russian twists, planks and sit-ups. This was followed by a quick game of ‘over and under’ and with the church and blue skies in the background this made for a lovely photo.

Trying to turn’em green….

Upper body toned we moved onto some sprint work. First was the pyramid sprint, out and back to the three tennis ball and first aid kit markers in whatever order preferred. Second was the sprint relay – each person in the pair took it in turns to collect a tennis ball or return the tennis ball to its original position; while one group completer this the other group completed some squats and mountain climbers.

Relayin’ the England & Nadal score

A quick check on the England score (we were still winning 1-0 at this point and all was going well...) and the Nadal score (now into an epic 5th set decider) was followed by a team technique relay – fast feet, high skips, backwards, grapevine…I believe we’re still awaiting the confirmation of the winner from the VAR referral and a hawk-eye check on whether some went out of line!

No 'goldenballs' to be seen, Amanda *court * the tennis ball thief

And last but not least the group had an extended stretch out and cool down to work on flexibility. Fitness session done we went to head back to base, but, something was missing...the tennis balls had vanished! Eagle-eyed Amanda spotted a dog walker in the distance in possession of them and sprinted after her to retrieve them for me, balls retrieved and some bonus GoodGym promo for the dog walker who asked what we doing and who we were. Success all round!

Ana is back for next week’s task which is “Bagging up woodchip” for Cultivate London Sign-up here - there is an ENORMOUS pile of woodchip to bag, can last time's effort of 120 bags be beaten?!

Hopefully see you all next week, again, thank you all so much for tonight and apologies for the lateness!