A few GoodGym members came online to do yoga.

Yoga talk Yoga talk, static holds. This is a really interesting episode about isometric exercises and their benefits. In yoga, we are constantly using static holds on a combination of muscle groups. New research points to very positive benefits on blood pressure and fitness.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vmbm?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

A few goodGym people came online to do online yoga.

Yoga talk. Mindfulness meditation yoga The most important thing to remember is to witness but not to judge your thoughts ,emotions ..just follow your breath let the thoughts pass through.

Technique for breathing yoga Say the words just breath just as you breathe in and breath as you breathe out. ...within your mind... bring the breath to the back of your head. Think about quality of your breath

Another Wednesday, another sprinkling of goodness in the borough of Hounslow.

It was lovely to see some GG tourism - a big welcome to Fiona and Kate! It was a special night as we were also celebrating the birthday of lovely Michelle -happy birthday from us all at GoodGym Hounslow!

After a quick warm up that tested our agility, balance and coordination we started off our run pledging to do some kind things during the rest of the week. It's going to be a lovely few days for friends and family of GG Hounslow, as we promised to do extra missions, take loved ones on holiday, make scones for the office and look after our flatmates' cat. Oh, and help eat our mate's birthday cake. Nice!

We only had a short run to the local primary school, so we set off at a nice steady pace taking the railway bridge steps in our stride. Arriving at the school we found caretaker Claire, who had provided us with a list of jobs earlier that day, waiting to say hi. She let us know how appreciative the school was for the time we spend there after they've suffered budget cuts and are having to do extra work to avoid making redundancies. So it was with renewed purpose that we got stuck into the jobs!

After a surprising amount of discussion on how to divide ourselves up into small groups, we each took a job from the list which included trimming bushes, tackling bamboo (our Hounslow nemesis), weeding, skipping chairs and other bulky stuff and even putting together some water play tables for the kids. After 45 minutes of work we had ticked off all the tasks, and decided (after a non conclusive vote) to take a slightly longer route back to Turnham Green. With a very pretty yomp along the river, we got back to the park and smashed out a tiny tabata session which really got our hearts pumping, and a minute plank challenge where we took our minds off the pain by singing Michelle Happy Birthday. Then we went to the pub. Because, GoodGym Hounslow.

Next week we have an exciting new task at a local rowing club, where we'll be helping them revamp their clubhouse. Sign up here for more Wednesday running and gooding.

When National Volunteering Week and Global Running Day converge on a sunny Hounslow group run Wednesday, we have reached peak GoodGym.

We had a great task to celebrate, and some lovely new faces to welcome to the team. Please give a massive cheer to Eva, Emma and Sam who all joined us for their very first group run.

Before we left for our job, we had a quick run down of news and achievements. It's been a good week for Andy who not only got a new 5k PB but also achieved a 12 month mission streak - that means he has not missed one single month without doing at least one good turn for an elderly or isolated person, and that is something to be applauded! Well done Andy.

Don't forget that if you'd like to hear about all the good stuff that has been happening across all the GoodGym areas then come along to the social tonight at 18:30 in Farringdon. All details are here - would be great to see you there. But if you fancy a challenge (and some free drinks apparently!) head down to Richmond where there will be a GoodGym team competing in a massive tug of war. So much good stuff happening!

Our task tonight was for the amazing Whale Organisation, a charity whose mission is to lead us to a more sustainable future, promoting connection to nature through sports, the arts and craft. They are working on a Source2Sea project and needed some help cleaning up the shoreline of the Thames and asked us to help them out with a big running clear up. However, our projected spot near Kew Bridge was - happily - looking fairly clear, so we had a last minute change to Hammersmith Bridge which was not looking so plastic-free. After a quick check with lovely Hammersmith & Fulham trainer Polly to see if was ok to work on our neighbours' turf, we had a 3.5k run ahead of us.

Before we left it was time for our increasingly public warm up. Our perfectly-executed squat jumps, twists and fast feet caught the attention of one tot, who gleefully joined in and, quite frankly, showed us all up with his great moves. Youngest GGer ever? While we warmed up our muscles, we also discussed what we'd do if we got given a million pounds and only half an hour to spend it. Most of us would book the heck out of a massive holiday straight away, there were some kind donations to charities, some even kinder offers to take us all to the pub, and Adam said he would buy much KFC (and then fritter the rest away...!)

With a beautiful evening stretching ahead of us, we set off for Hammersmith Bridge, making good time, and only stopping for some conditioning exercises along the way. We soon found Carolyn and the team from the Whale Organisation waiting for us on the slipway, with two sites to clear. While one begloved team set off five minutes further up the river to work on a polluted area, the other half got cracking on the first spot and started to pile loads of plastic and other rubbish into bags. While we worked the guys from the Whale Organisation told us about the amazing stuff they had been doing - in fact they had come straight from Parliament where they had been meeting with MPs to talk about their Source to Sea project. They have made a huge rafts out of plastic bottles they had pulled from the river and will be paddleboarding down the length of the Thames to raise awareness of the huge problem of plastic pollution in our waterways.

Half an hour later, we were posing for a photo with one of the rafts when who should walk by but Hugh Grant and Jeremy Paxman. We were so engrossed in our task that we missed them, but running under Hammersmith Bridge a few moments later we stopped in our tracks as the two of them passed above us. Unfortunately our brush with celebrity ended rather abruptly as their mate greeted us with a less than friendly hand gesture (SO un-GoodGym!) and walked quickly on. I guess he's not going to be our new GG Hounslow ambassador then!

We stopped off at Furnival Gardens to knock out a little fitness session which featured plank, squat, and side plank races and an extra abs blast led by Chi. Thanks Chi! With our major muscle groups worked hard, we ran the 3k back at a good pace and finished off the night with some stretches. Next week we are going back to a (very) local school to paint a massive wall, and need all the help we can get. Hope to see you there gang!