Lillinton Garden estate was one of the last of the high-density public housing schemes built in London during the postwar period and is considered one of the most distinguished. However visitors to the conservation area could find themselves wondering through the labyrinth of paths and covered walkways, past the 19th century church hidden in the middle of the estate and still not spot the sunken garden that is in the process of being turned into a thriving community space.

Luckily GoodGymers have a keen nose for doing good and all met at the green area on a drizzly Tuesday night to help get it prepped for planting. There were plenty of weeds to take up, raking to be done, soil to turn and ivy to trim so we all got cracking with the tasks.

Chat turned to using AI to get a 5km pb training plan, a potential royal visit to GoodGym, future races and, of course, parkrun news. We couldn't believe it when we looked at our watches and saw our session was up. Time flies when you're helping transform a space into something local people can use to promote biodiversity and grow fruit and veg!

Next week we're going to the Abbey Centre to help with various jobs - check out the future sessions as there is always something impactful happening on a Tuesday night in Westminster!

Of course! Here’s the same report with all asterisks removed: Yesterday was meant to be 'Blue Monday', but there was absolutely nothing blue about GoodGym Wandsworth this week. Any gloom was swiftly chased away during the warm-up, where we shared the things that cheer us up most. The answers were a happily mixed bag; animal videos, GoodGym itself, hill sprints , sugar, peanut butter, singing, and—the evening's winner—chocolate. That's your January wellbeing toolkit right there!

**A huge welcome to Evie, who joined us for her very first GoodGym session—lovely to have you join us!.

We set off for Larkhall Park, where we regularly support the brilliant volunteers who care for this thriving green space. These sessions help keep the park well-maintained, improve biodiversity , makes the space safer and more welcoming for the community, and ensures it stays somewhere people want to spend time. Plus, the work couple with the good GG vibes is an instant mood boost for us!

There was plenty to do and everyone got stuck in. Tasks included litter picking, bed maintenance, leaf clearing, and shifting two enormous ton bags of soil. This involved a carefully choreographed shovelling method, which turned out to be quite the workout.

We attracted a fair bit of attention while we worked—some curious passers-by, one particularly questioning lady from the pub and a very welcome visit from a bouncing curious golden retriever, which instantly boosted morale by approximately 300%.

By the end, the jobs were done and the task owners were really pleased with what we’d achieved—always a nice finish to a task. On the way back we broke up the run with several fitness stations along the way: squats, single-leg holds, toe taps, and finally a well-earned set of stretches .

• Coming up soon: a Saturday mission at Doddington, followed by a coffee social.
• Next week, we’re back to Age UK Wandsworth to sort out the garden.

Ana, Jeremy& Chalomi met at St Faith's Community Centre to help the GROAD volunteers sort donated items as well as help set up the 'Open House' for the beneficiaries of the project (vulnerable families, refugees, and people in crisis).

Ana ran all the way from Wandsworth contributing double to the January challenge and earning the prestigious title of the GROAD Runner. Sadly I forgot to take a picture but I will do next time :)

We were ready for our close up last night in Hounslow as our task plastic picking by the river was to be covered by a photographer from Associated Press. It was with the flash of the camera that we left Chiswick Town Hall after warm ups to head to Kew Bridge.

Once there we met up with Dan from Active 360, who handed out litter pickers and plastic tubs. Luckily for us the tide was out, but unluckily it revealed masses of plastic bottles, cans, microplastics and wrappers that had been washed up onto shore.

We ventured down as far as we could go collecting everything we could see and chatting with local people who were interested to see what we were up to. We even spoke to one older lady who was stopped from studying geology at school because of her gender, but went on to do an archeology course in later life. She was very keen to see what treasures we might find! Unfortunately I don't think the British museum would be particularly interested int he discovery we made under the bridge last night....

The trugs were being filled quickly and our trainers getting muddier (see Breda's muddy badge of honour in the photos - hope you managed to get them clean!) as we picked and sorted. Before long it was time to bag up and count up how much we had saved from polluting our waterways. Dan worked out we got more than 6 kilos of waste, which is pretty good going in the time we had. Every little helps when it saves plastic getting into our water systems and aquatic life.

We made use of a nice well lit tunnel to do our fitness session, inadvertently creating an unofficial guard of honour for everybody that passed through - I think they appreciated the cheers! We knocked out various different lunges, jumps and leaps, which certainly worked up a sweat.

We saw off the evening with stretches, and for some, a warm up (and clean off, hopefully!) at the pub for food. There are a few fun missions coming up such as this one to drop off old trainers in Osterley and bashing and weaving on Chiswick eyot. Next week we're off to help Wild Chiswick in the allotments - see you there!

Last night was our regular session to pick up lovely food that would otherwise be thrown away and get it to the people who can distribute it into the community.

There are always a few unknowns with this task, but it never fails to have a net positive effect. We don't always know if the cafes are going to still be open and how much food they'll have left to give away. Last night it looked as if it might have been a bit of a light haul, but in the world of GoodGym you never know what good things are round the corner!

I met Laura with an armful of bread just about being held together in a very wet soggy bag. She rescued the goodies just before they hit the pavement and we went off for our first drop.

Locating the UOS team without too much bother, we picked up a variety of big sturdy bags - not knowing just how useful they were going to be!

We arrived at Pret just before they were closing and had a few minutes to wait until the manager let us know what we could take with us to pass on to the rough sleepers. We couldn't quite believe it when we we were finally shown just how much they had for us. More sandwiches,soups, rolls, salads and pastries than we could shake a bread stick at!

We weren't totally sure we could fit it in the bags, but with some strategic packing we managed to get it all in and set off for the queue of people waiting for their evening meal. On the walk we tried to work out just how much the haul we were transporting would be worth, and calculated it was at least a few hundred quid - thank you so much Pret! The impact this short task has is huge. Saving good food from being thrown away and at the same time feeding vulnerable people - what could be better?

Next week we're off to a community garden in central London to give it a bit of GG love - all welcome!