We kicked things off with our usual warm-up before heading out for an evening of community action, great company and a lower body blast!

A big welcome to Sean, and Andrew who joined us for their very first GoodGym session. Hope you will be back for more soon! 👋

🍁 Leaf it to GoodGym!

Our main mission of the evening took us to St Mary's Church, where we got stuck into clearing the churchyard of fallen leaves.

The aim? To get the area ready for the planting of 1,000 daffodil bulbs in a couple of weeks' time 🌼

Clearing the leaves does much more than make the churchyard look tidy. A thick layer can prevent other plants from thriving, create trip hazards and provide valuable material for making mulch to support next year's growing.

The team worked together, raking, gathering and bagging up the leaves, collecting over 20 bags in total! That's a whole lot of leaves - which won't go to waste. They're being transported to a local community garden in Doddington, where volunteers can put them to good use on their growing beds. 🌱

There were plenty of extra treats along the way, too, including mini tours of the church, snacks and sweets to keep everyone fuelled, and a gorgeous view of the river to enjoy while we worked.

🏃 Time to get those legs moving!

With the leaves cleared and the hard work done, we headed just around the corner for a leg-focussed fitness session. It was a proper workout for all those lower-body muscles, and everyone put in a seriously impressive effort.

📅 What's coming up next?

There's lots more GoodGym on the horizon:

This Thursday: We're heading to Roehampton to help create a community growing space

Next week: We're mixing things up with a slightly unusual session. There's no run this time, but we'll be doing a positive task supporting a hub for people experiencing homelessness, followed by a Halloween social. More details here

A big thank you to everyone who came along, for bringing such brilliant energy and making a real difference.

Last night we kicked things off with a proper warm-up to get the legs moving, paired with our weekly question: What town has the longest name in the UK? The answer, of course, is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch—a staggering 58 letters long, and a test for anyone attempting to pronounce it mid-lunge!

Warmed up and ready for action, we set off on our run to Larkhall Park. Returning to this green space regularly is so helpful for the local community; keeping a public park safe, clean, and well-maintained means families, runners, and neighbours always have a welcoming place to reset, play, and connect with nature.

We met up with the rest of the team and split into two groups to tackle the tasks at hand. One group got stuck into weeding the overgrown cracks along the pathways, while the other took on a thorough litter pick across the grounds.

It’s always amazing to see how much of a difference a focused group can make in such a short window of time. By the time we finished, the park was noticeably tidier and more cared for—removing litter means fewer environmental pollutants making their way into local soil and wildlife habitats, making the space safer for everyone.

To wrap up all that hard work, we celebrated with a fiery five-minute core blast. It was definitely tough but effective!

A massive well done to everybody who came along and brought all the energy.

Next week on Monday, we're off to a very special place in Battersea Park—you can sign up and find all the details right here:. See you there!

It was our monthly trip back to Doddington last night. This former multistorey car park has been transformed into a thriving community garden, providing a valuable growing space for local people who might not otherwise have access to a garden of their own. We also had some very special reasons to celebrate: a huge congratulations to Jason on his 100th Good Deed! 🎉 And a very happy 30th birthday to Annabel! 🎂

We kicked things off with a warm-up and the evening's quiz question: how many dimples are there on a golf ball? There was some doubt over the answer, but I'll leave you to decide whether to trust the quizmaster…

We arrived to find a whole host of jobs waiting for us: clearing mallow and teasels, laying down cardboard and mulch, shifting mulch into the raised beds and transporting soil. Before too long everyone was busy getting stuck in. 💪🌱

There was also an added incentive for the evening: whoever collected the most teasels would win the famous Tromboncino!

But what exactly is a Tromboncino? This wonderfully weird looking vegetable is a variety of butternut squash which is used like a courgette — and if you leave it to mature, it can grow into a long, curved, trombone-shaped fruit of up to around a metre!

Once we'd done our bit at the garden, it was time to head down to the square for some fitness. This week's challenge was 130-themed: working in pairs, we had to complete a series of exercises which cumulatively added up to 130. Plenty of counting, plenty of reps and plenty of teamwork. Congratulations to Katie and Catherine, who completed the challenge first! 🏆

Then, of course, it was time for cake and the grand presentation of the Tromboncino. After her impressive teasel-gathering efforts, the prize went to Annabel — who immediately demonstrated the true versatility of this magnificent vegetable by wearing it as a rather beautiful neckpiece at the pub quiz. 🥒✨

A brilliant evening of community gardening, celebrations, questionable golf-ball trivia, fitness, cake and vegetable couture.

Huge congratulations again to Jason for this huge milestone - 100 good deeds shows massive commitment, energy and effort which has had an unquantifiable positive impact.

Next week... We're off to Balham Nursery to help with some jobs. You can sign up here

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! 😉