BTCV's Green Gyms For Fresh Air Fitness

There's a bit of a 'big up' for the British Trust For Conservation Volunteers 'Green Gym' concept in today's Guardian which is definitely worth a look.

It's a cunning ruse by BTCV, a charitable body which organises conservation projects like footpath and dry stone wall restoration and the clearing of inappropriate shrubbery. The idea behind the 'Green Gym' is to appeal to people who want to exercise and improve their fitness but would rather do it outdoors than in some air-conditioned. MTV-infested, mechanised torture chamber.

There are 50 'Green Gym' groups across the country, all free to join and a good way of both meeting like-minded, or even conservation-minded, folk and in the process, putting something back into the outdoors. If you're scoffing a bit at this, I can tell you, on the basis of once having spent a week near Dow Crag restoring a foot path with huge slabs of rock, it's anything but easy and activities like digging, rock shifting and moving barrowloads of soil around really do give you a proper workout.

Just as significantly, many of them will recruit big muscle groups to work together in a way which gym machines, designed to isolate particular muscles, often don't. You can read the Guardian article at www.guardian.co.uk.

For more details about BTCV see www.btcv.org where you can find detailed information about Green Gyms under the 'special projects' heading.