Core-some effort

For the month of May, we put together a daily challenge to work on the core. We all talk about how strong our core should be and pictures of ripped individuals with muscle definition that almost makes you want to wash your clothes on….but why do we need a strong core?

Your core muscles are the base of support for your entire body

That’s why!

It all started off ok…

Didn’t it just….it was a bit like running a race wasn’t it…you had the warm up in days 1-6 where you were learning the core-ect way to do the exercises and even if we had a a few abs-entees during this phase, it didn’t matter too much as you could always catch up.

The nerves are kicking in…

Then came race day….where we all know how to core-late one leg in front of the other and get to the finish line so how hard can it be right?…

Days 8-13 started to get into reps of 20’s and 30’s….. now we knew were in the race pack and things were going to get messy..if you were going to abs-tain from these exercises..it was too late now as you’d started so you had to finish!

I was core-stricken at the dedication shown! The little time-lapse videos were coming in and our insta page was getting some abs-urd amount of likes..

Wohoo…you’re half way there..

So into the main body of the race – the half way line. This is when you either really regret ever starting this race or get your second wind knowing you’ve only got half way to go…This is how days 15 to 20 felt. The number of reps creeping up to the 30’s and 40’s. The strain starting to show on your faces, but you kept it real when you saw the camera person snap a photo of you (Sutyee and Nisha)…

So close…yet feels so far away..

Days 22 to 27 are when you needed your gels…that isotonic fix to keep the muscles going. The sweat was dripping off, the hair was wild, the neatly pinned on race number was flapping in the wind….the St John’s Ambulance team were who you really wanted to hang out with…you couldn’t core-late which mile you were in and TomTom was just being a you know what again…But you didn’t give in! The 40’s and 50’s were being banged out – Core-Some!

The finish line..

You see the finish line, you know a camera is somewhere nearby so you wipe the excess gel off your mouth, flatten out your hair, straighten your posture and look like a pro! Days 29-30 were those moments….50 vs 55 reps argh! But we did it!

Well done everyone…

I know my stomach is now FLAT! ….The L is just silent…

Hope you all enjoyed our daily challenge – thank you to Jen, Nisha, Harsha and Sutyee who sent through all those video clips and the motivation levels high.

We do have a daily June challenge…it’s not too late to join in on that and this one focuses on upper body, lower body, core and cardio!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/daily-strength-exercises

A lovely evening of running and doing good on the week that Goodgymers all around the country support the #RunAndTalk campaign with England Athletics and MIND charity..

A warm welcome to Alistair and Matty who came along to their first Goodgym session... hope you dug the task tonight! Well done for getting totally stuck in..

After a fairly brief warm up with a few choice noises from Manjit with her achey marathon legs we headed out on our fairly short run to see Jamie at the Jubilee River Riverside Centre

Canoe help?

Jamie asked us to help on two tasks today... T-Cut a boat and dig out two tracks for loading the boat into the river

We divided into two teams... no-one minded which team they went into.. it was a case of either oar

1. The Ship Shapers
2. The Diggers

Forty minutes later the boat was gleaming in the moonlight .. some serious elbow grease put in by Meera, Rachel and Jenni and the tracks were dug out and the planks laid by Michael, Darren, Alistair and Matty

One happy task owner and 8 happy Goodgymers although The Diggers were getting tide so we decided to call it a night

We headed back to base and finished off with some stretching and more noises from Manjit!

Next weeks task will be a Community task with us working with the local residents, local PCSO, local parks team and local Neighbourhood Services Team from Slough Borough Council... we will be helping to tidy up a childrens play area in Cromwell Drive

Its a nice short distance of 2km one way to help those suffering with tired legs after the Slough Half Marathon

** Drinks after next week's Group Run at the Salt Hill Activity Centre**

Please do come and join us

** Friday 30th November The Corner House Windsor - Goodgym Slough Christmas Drinks Do**

Everyone Welcome

Have a great week everyone Manjit

14 runners braved the unknown, donned their waders and dug deep clear the stream last night in Sloughs Salt Hill Park!

We had 3 new comers to GoodGym last night, big welcome to Darren, Shalini and Nick who all did a great job last night and got stuck straight in on their first task! We also had three tourists from GoodGym Ealing including myself who was covering for Manjit while she’s on her holidays, thanks for having me!

We started outside the activity centre with a few introductions before heading out for a couple of laps of the park. As our evenings duties were taking place in the park itself we needed to get in a bit of running before we got started! The group did laps at their own pace stopping at the same point in between and doing squats to regroup each time. After a couple of times around we were ready to meet Claire from Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust who was all set with the waders and litter pickers laid out for us!

She gave a little health and safety information to prepare us as best as she could but who knew what we were to unearth…

What lies beneath…

We had two groups, one on the banks helping to bag all the things we collected from the stream and one team knee in the stream itself digging around to get out as much rubbish as possible!

A few mystery bags were uncovered and TONS of litter but probably the worst was the floating dead rat… we decided to leave that where it was to naturally decompose!

I’m glad to say there were no accidents and as much as we all love a comedy fall everyone emerged from the water nice and dry with no leaky waders!

After packing up we had plenty of time for a good fitness session where we had 4 ‘stations of hell’ (they weren’t that bad!) with a mixture of different HIIT and strength exercises at each. We also had sprints in between each station to really get everyones heart racing! We then finished up with a little team sprint off before saying our goodbyes!

Thank you!

Thank you for a wonderful evening and for all your efforts to help your community. It was great to see a new area and meet you all, it’s fantastic to see a new area thriving with lots of members really getting into the GoodGym spirit!