Mark Gilyead

Following last Tuesday's group run which featured a bunch of tools, tonight's run featured many-a-plank and also lots of other things - more on that later...

A chilly January's evening saw 6 GoodGymmers (including for her first Group Run, Ebru! Welcome! 🎉) meet at the Bridge House to firstly discuss what type of fish they'd be (Ian would undoubtably be a barracuda) before setting off for a warm up and 2km run up through the park.

The hills were navigated with aplomb and we met a very bright Katy at Upper Norwood Library Hub.

It'll be a quick task.

said Mark. It wasn't.

We'd been asked to pile up a load of junk that was hanging out behind the sheds (like those naughty kids in school) so it could be taken away and disposed off. There was a big mix of stuff...:

🌲 A fake tree

📺 A big old TV

🤺 Fence panels

🏠 A For Sale sign

💡 Some very 'light' fluorescent tubes

And a whole lot of planks and wooden boards.

It was all hidden behind a mysterious fence and red curtain. Luckily Katy's ingenious idea of tying it back with some plastic and Stephen's knot tying skills meant it didn't get in the way any more!

After 30 minutes and a seriously good workout we'd managed to clear the bulk of it. 💪

We took a longer 3km route back (thankfully mostly downhill and finished off with a stretch).

Ace work gang 💥

Pun credit to Hayley 💥

Tonight's starter session was a good one! It was a chilly evening but we had some un-fir-getable moments...

We started out welcoming Hayley, Cat and Diogo to the gang - lovely to have you along to your first GoodGym run guys! Tonight's big question was "if you were going to run a restaurant, what kind of cuisine would it serve?" We were treated to some great answers, but none better than Diogo's "I actually run a restaurant." 🤯 It's a Portuguese called Cantinho in Brixton - go check it out?!

After a brief warm up in the park, we hit the road, in search of leftover Christmas trees 🎄

The council recycle the trees into woodchip to be able to use in parks across the borough - pretty neat. So our job was to hunt down the trees and carry them to the treecycling spot in Mayow Park.

Fir crying out loud

We saw one! Hiding by the bins by a block of flats. And another one! Soon we had 6 trees between the 6 of us and doing a mix of walking and running, we made it to Mayow Park.

We dropped them off, took a quick snap and headed back. But not without a few bonus fitness drills thrown in for good measure - squats (with calf raise), tricep dips and wall-sits - lovely stuff.

🎄🎄🎄 We Tree Kings 👑👑👑

Great stuff guys - and so nice to have some new attendees!

Click here to sign up to next Tuesday's run to the Library! 📚

A few GoodGym members came together for some online yoga while watching the sunrise.

yoga talk

Science tells us that there are four chemicals that can have an impact on your happiness – serotonin, endorphins, dopamine, and oxytocin. Any imbalance can have dramatic results. So, to address mental health challenges like depression and anxiety you need to work to address this imbalance. The imbalance can be corrected with pharmaceuticals, but the natural act of exercising will also help in the release of endorphins.(2) This is the chemical change in your brain that will increase your sense of wellbeing and can be triggered with just 15 minutes of exercise.  To maintain a healthy balance, you’ll need to find something that works for you, be it going for a run, taking a 30-minute stroll through your local park, yoga or riding your bike. Even better a variety of them.