A big GoodGym Wandsworth welcome to Alice, who joined us for her first group run last night! 🎉 We hope you enjoyed your first session with us — although perhaps we should have warned you that it sometimes means shifting a truly ridiculous amount of mulch…

We started with a warm-up and a question about the quietest place on earth before heading out on our run down to Doddington. Once there, we were faced with a big challenge. The council had kindly donated a huge — absolutely massive — pile of mulch, but unfortunately it had been dumped in a spot that blocked access to the bins, a parking space and an entrance to the estate. So the priority was clear: move it, and as quickly as possible.

We grabbed whatever we could find that had a viable cavity — tubs, bags, boxes, buckets and anything else capable of holding mulch — and got shifting.

What followed was the ultimate full-body workout. No separate fitness session required! Legs were getting a workout carrying loads up the stairs, arms were doing the heavy lifting, and our cores were working overtime to keep everything stable as we hauled mulch up the stairs.

And we really did move mountains. By the end of the session we had transported at least half of the enormous pile. At times it felt like we weren't making much of a dent, but take a look at the before-and-after photos and you'll see just how much we achieved. 💪🌱

A massive well done to everyone who got stuck in. Next week is a bank holiday, so we'll be switching things up with a lunchtime session. Exactly what we're doing is still to be confirmed, so watch this space! 😉

We've launched! It's happened!

On Wednesday 22 Elephant & Castle GoodGymmers headed down to Nursery Row Park to help the Friends of the Park with upkeep of the community space.

We raked leaves galore, giving the grass underneath a much needed chance to grow; a team of the most green-fingered (i.e. the people who had brought gloves) turned over the local primary school's gardening patch, leaving it ready for planting, and an intrepid crew ventured into the orchard to do some advanced litter picking...

We jogged back to our meeting point at the Castle Centre, and after a gentle cool down stretch, a few of us headed to Four Quarters to toast a succesful inaugural GoodGym Elephant & Castle.