This Tuesday, seven of us headed to Brighton Youth Centre again for a task that promised ‘moving fun action’. In GoodGym style, that turned into a full-body workout featuring sofas, cushions, cabinets, giant boards, and several floors’ worth of stairs.

We started by hauling furniture and sofa pillows up those multiple floors, honing our pivoting and manoeuvring skills from the last time we paid a visit. Then came a deep dive into the mysterious workings of power drills as we freed shelves from their wooden casings. We then hoiked the remains into the lift for their journey up to the (busy!) skate park to be repurposed and, by the sounds of it, reassembled(?!).

Outside, in classic UK November fashion, the weather treated us to rain and hail as we battled big wooden boards over to the bins. Sometimes with brute force, sometimes with the saving grace of a rolling trolley.

In between all the heavy lifting, we managed to get lost between floors (more than once), locked out of several rooms (trapping Annette’s beanie hat in one) and learned the increasingly odd system of codes needed to activate different lifts - some of us needing to link them to different historical events to be able to memorise them.

And, during one of the ‘we’re locked out’ journeys down the stairwell to find some help, I spotted a text announcing that my niece had just been born! Definitely a GoodGym mission I won’t forget anytime soon, a ‘where were you when...’ moment for the books :-)

Great work GG-ers - Brighton Youth Centre is clearer and looking better than ever!

A core group of five valuable GoodGym-ers run and cycled to Leach Court – a large Brighton and Hove County Council’s senior residential housing with a communal patio-garden needing some care. New host, known task, great team! The fame of GoodGym Brighton preceded our entrance in the building. Only a few weeks earlier, we were in fact at Lavender House with a “weeding” force of good!

Arrived a Leach Court, we were welcomed by Tony and cheered by the astonishment of other residents lounging in the grand central salotto. “Are you going out there for gardening, REALLYY?? NOW??” – a resident’s question. Our answer: “YEESS! This is GoodGym. We Do Good and Get Fit every Tuesday after our working day and, this evening, we will be shining our torches 🔦 ON 😉 your garden. You are welcome to join us, next spring maybe?!” 😊

We scraped out weeds from the patio pavements, we cleared the pile of green/brown waste from the noticeable non-biodegradable plastic contamination to make it ready for composting, and we swept the autumnal leaves that were invading the most hidden and darkest corners of the Court’s outdoor space. Torch essential to shine on all the Good done all around🔦 😉

The last but not least task of the evening was to make a draw to decide who would represent GoodGym at the Active Sussex Award Ceremony 2025. GoodGym Brighton is a runner-up for the Environmental Sustainability Award! Great achievement all.

Stefania, Juliet, and I attended the Sussex Sport & Physical Activity Awards 2025, where GoodGym Brighton was awarded Runner-Up for the Environmental Sustainability Award. We had such a great evening — full of energy, community spirit, and the chance to meet so many inspiring people from across Sussex.

Although we didn’t win the top spot, we’re incredibly proud to have been recognised and truly appreciate the honour. Sustainability remains one of our highest priorities when designing our activities, and this acknowledgement reinforces the importance of the work we’re doing.

We’re really grateful to Active Sussex for the opportunity and for celebrating organisations striving to make a positive environmental impact.

A sunny but crisp day so I was well layered up for the visit. Spent an enjoyable 90 minutes weeding beds and plant pots, ready for the winter ahead. This was clearly a well loved garden which gave S. a lot of pleasure.

This Tuesday, 10+ of the GoodGym Brighton crew ran, cycled and walked over to Lavender House for a full perimeter clear-up. Headtorches on, we weeded, detangled and plucked our way through the edges of the building, filling up multiple wheelbarrows for compost and giving the outside a noteworthy November glow-up.

Jane had a moment of magic finding a red admiral butterfly and having it stay still on her hand long enough for a photo and a video. A flash of summer in a little bit of a November drizzle!

Also on this week's GoodGym Brighton’s wildlife watch: an honourable shout out to the many ‘bench bugs’ we had to yank coats and jackets away from, and a healthy, stocked-for-winter looking worm. Christophe’s ‘bright’ idea to light our group photo with headtorches gave us a more sinister, ghostly energy than our normal group shots, but it’s not been too long since Halloween so I think we got away with it.

Weeds tackled and all equipment returned, a few of us ran over the road to the Sidewinder for some burritos and much-needed trail run chat.

It is that time of the year when our friend Stuart from the Friends of Palmeira and Adelaide reaches GoodGym Brighton for some Autumnal conservation of the community green spaces in Palmeira Square. Despite the chill air temperatures of this week Tuesday evening, 10 brave heart GoodGymers cycled and run to our weekly task, where Stuart, the lead gardener Jan and the lovely Andrea welcomed us with garden tools ready for some speedy (and warming up) raking action in the outdoors.

Have you ever raked wet leaves from a city park? Like (or even better than) exercising with a Power Tower Gym – Rachel’s quote, enabling you to perform functional exercises that are the most efficient and effective training regimen out there. With this powerful piece of equipment, you would be able to perform 4 major kinds of workouts, namely, Chin-ups, Press-ups, Dips and Vertical Knee Raises.

We managed to rake 4 big bags of green waste, 2 tons plus of minus, which will be collated in the new composting area enabling to recycle food and green waste separately, to close the biological cycle and produce lovely compost to regenerate new grass for the park next spring.

We welcomed returning new members Amy and Dagdas, and lovely Sarah who is commuting every week from PeaceHaven to what has now become her regular weekly appointment with GoodGym! Tell your friends WHAT's ON at GoodGym Brighton.