On a sunny Saturday like this, what could have been better than spending the morning amongst the lush green wilderness of Horsenden Hill? A recent report by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) found that spending 20 minutes in nature each day can brings incredible benefits to our mental health like reducing stress and anxiety and improving mood, self-esteem and confidence.

Members of WWF UK, Annie, Emma, Kat and Ferozah, visited Horsenden Farm as a part of their Prescription for Nature campaign to experience a GoodGym-style workout outdoors and encourage communities across the UK to do the same.

Not everyone has equal opportunities to enjoy physical activity in nature. For some communities being outdoors is not considered the norm, for others, barriers may involve access to transport or living in a nature-deprived area. Our special guest at today's session, Haroon Mota, the founder of Active Inclusion Network CIC and the Muslim Hikers group, actively works to empower the underrepresented communities to engage in the great outdoors.

The guests and nine GoodGym regulars met Elsa, a Friend of Horsenden Hill, who prepared a unique activity: a conservation-type task! Our job was to clear ash trees and brambles in the woodland area. How cutting back vegetation is supposed to help nature, you may ask. The benefits were twofold. Firstly, clearing the area of overgrowth was aimed at promoting the growth of grasses which would become habitats for various species, increasing the biodiversity of the hill. Secondly, we were making the feed for the Horsenden cows out of ash trees.

"The cows are going to eat wood? No way!"

Challenge accepted! We served lunch to the cows, a bull and a three-week-old calf by throwing the trimmings over the fence. And how they munched on those branches! Just like us on the pizza from Horsenden Loaf we treated ourselves to after the session!

Elsa was impressed to see how much space we cleared in 90 minutes, thanks to the power of teamwork. The session in the woods gave everyone a boost for the rest of the day. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with nature, meet new people and do something good.

If you want to join us next time at Horsenden Farm, sign up here!

There were a big group of volunteers this morning at Pitshanger Junior parkrun, both from their regular volunteers and 6 GoodGymers who were out of bed bright and early. They included Lucy, who completed her first good deed after joining us for a social run to Acton last weekend. Welcome Lucy! 👏🎉

Today, Lucy joined Harvey on finish tokens, while Run Director David assigned the 4 marshalling GoodGymers to the most challenging part of the course... the muddy part. Kash and Sevan were paired up ahead of a truck-created cavity running along the path, with Mohamed next, warning runners of uneven muddy ground. Steph was last up, telling the children and adults that the rest of the course was relatively hazard free.

In the funnel, there were all sorts of fun goings on with tokens tumbling, double counting of runners who passed through the funnel twice and others who bypassed it completely. It was very eventful by all accounts!

After the fun and games, the GoodGymers went to warm up with a coffee, ahead of their next task of the day at Pear Tree Park.

Icy Sunday morning and its normally Action Junior Parkrun, a chatty group run was organised from Ealing Broadway Station to Acton Park. This Sunday was a day with a twist!! To start I, Steph Ducat which is vey unusual was running late, so messaged Kash and Sevan to advise and they saved the moment by starting the warmup and I arrived late but on time for the warmup. During this time, 2nd twist of the day which meant changes in plans which had a knock on effect for all of us. Due to the cold weather a pipe burst in Action Park, which meant the Junior Parkrun was cancelled due to the water all over especially near the finish line. Bad news meant no mission at Acton Park, but on the other hand good news with 2 new starters at the chatty run session Liuba and Lucy which meant 6 in total as we also had Mohamed at the station. We all decided to still go ahead with the run or twisty runs as the streets had ice patches so needed to avoid slipping. Once at the park, we had a stretching session in front of a pile of woodchip : looks like a Goodgym favorite tasks coming near you. Then we all went for a nice hot beverage and a lovely chat with the new comers. Lucy left and shortly after the 5 remaining ran back to Ealing broadway station. Double success today despite the twist : 2 newcomers and 2 runs(total roughly 6km).