CAN't See The Wood For The Trees

Five fitness fanatics frolicked frenetically to meet Karen and her other volunteer at Stanley Field near Neepsend. We were aiding the Pitsmoor Pickers to pluck lots of trash from the wooded embankment down by the side of the road.

On the way to meet Karen we were having a bet about what colour her hair would be on this occasion... nobody guessed red, and that's what it turned out to be! Appropriate for a visit from red thunder.

Karen distributed pickers, hoops and bags and sent everyone on their merry ways.

We worked our way through the dark, dank woods, blitzing the leaf litter of litter!

Some interesting finds of the evening were several large gas canisters (which Karen takes to a specialist recycling company), 75 drinks cans (which are exchanged for money that is used to buy equipment), cannabis growing equipment, a couple of substantial flat-screen televisions, and a shelving unit.

After 45 minutes of plucking we gathered up all of the bags and bigger bits. We left them in a pile by the side of the road where Karen had arranged for them to be picked up by the council. Before we left we took the opportunity to get a group photo of ourselves looking happy with our haul.

When we arrived back at the showroom there was one final special surprise for the volunteers... the 'Sally up' challenge, this time utilizing it for squats. The premise of the challenge is to perform the downward action of the exercise every time the song says 'bring Sally down' and the upward action only when 'bring Sally up' is sang. This results in lots of reps and varying lengths of time holding stress positions. Everyone loves it!

After this we stretched off all the key muscle groups used throughout the evening's exertions and parted ways.