7 Fantastic Goodgym diehards and 1 local resident tonight donned their super thick gardening gloves to tackle a very overgrown and brambly green space in the middle of a local housing estate. The land is unadopted and so nobody really takes care of it and it really was in need of some TLC.

Karen, Nigel, Maurice, Nahashon, Claire, Hazel, Linda and Nicola set to work with chopping (with shears and loppers), pulling, tugging, raking and bagging up all the brambles and weeds. It soon became dark, so the good old Goodgym spot lights made their first appearance of 2021 (although I think a couple of them need a bit of TLC as they refused to work).

It soon became dark, so after just over an hour or so, we finished bagging up all the brambles and weeds ready for collection by the council.

It might have been dark but it didn’t stop us from making an impact. It’s hard to see in the photos due to how dark it was but we definitely got some seriously clearing done.

I think we’ll be back – but maybe at the weekend when it’s light!!

Well done you awesome bunch – amazing, enthusiastic work as always.

Gosh, the nights are really starting to draw in – don’t know about you but I’m not ready for Autumn yet!

Tonight saw 5 of us come together for another great task. Some of us ran our way there, some of us cycled and some of us walked. It was a lovely evening for any of the above.

We started our warmup with some simple star jumps, squats and high knees – all of which (the exercise and the reps were decided by our lovely members ;-)), then we set off on our run. It was quite nice to be running somewhere different. We meandered through the woods, taking us down a gentle hill until we reached the main grassy area of Joey the Swan (if anyone wants to know the story of Joey, just ask!). We ran the long stretch to the other end of the park, we followed the stream and saw plenty of dogs and their owners along the route (some more friendly than others, lol). Rather than retracing our steps, we took a slightly different route back. We ran across the bridge and through the area that feels a little bit secret as it’s surrounded by quite rich foliage. Then we reached the bottom of the hill – time for some hill reps! (groan). We all did one push up the big hill but Nahashon and Emily went back for a second serving! From the top of the hill, it was a small run back to the building for the start of our task.

We were back at Motherwell tonight. It’s been a while since we’ve done any tasks for them, so it was great to be back there. Motherwell are a charity that work with women through their journey of life – lots of work around motherhood but so many other things as well. Kate, the founder and CEO greeted us and talked us through the task.

The charity are holding an open day next week and Kate wanted the outside of the building smartening up a bit, so that it looked more presentable for visitors coming.

Nahashon and Claire worked on the front of the building – scraping and pulling up lots and lots of weeds. The place was transformed within the hour! It was amazing! Maurice, Nicola and Emily were tasked to the back, where again, it was our job to tidy up the weeds. Pulling up the weeds wasn’t a problem – it was identifying the difference between a weed and plant that was!!

Although we weren’t able to complete all the tasks that were intended this evening (we were locked out of the building), we still made a significant impact, and the outside space is now looking much more cared for than it did before. I’m sure it will be a hugely successful open day.

Thanks for having us Motherwell.

It was brilliant to see our two new members from last week, Emma & Phoebe return for more Goodgym fun this week. We hope you enjoyed this week as much as last week! A big welcome to Kat's Mum who is visiting Kat for the week and joined us this evening too. You may have to check out GG Newcastle now! ;-) Also wonderful to see Claire sporting her new 50 good deeds T-Shirt! Well done Claire!

We spent another fabulous evening down at the Flag Lane Baths working on the beginnings of a HUGE project to restore this iconic building into a bustling community hub. Tonight was one final push to get the place looking the best it possibly could be ready for an amazing community family fay which is going to be held there this coming Saturday

We had two groups again this evening - a walking group and a running group. It’s always great to have a walking group so that everyone gets an opportunity to take part. A big thank you to Karen for leading it this evening.

If was another great evening spent with lots of different members of the community. It really is so lovely to see so many people joining forces in a combined effort to help bring this amazing concept to life!!

We hoed, we weeded and we swept. The transformation over the past 4 weeks really is nothing short of miraculous and really is testament to community spirit and people coming together.

We are always thrilled and privileged to be involved in this fabulous project and tonight was no exception. We look forward to being back again in the coming weeks and months!

Well done to Goodgym and to everyone involved in making tonight another amazing success!!

And we can't wait for the family fun day on Saturday - we know it will be an amazing day! :-))

Firstly, a HUGE welcome 2 lovely new members, Emma & Phoebe who joined us for the first time tonight. We hope you had a great evening and will be back to see us again soon! Your T-shirts will be en route to you as we speak! ;-)

We spent another fabulous evening down at the Flag Lane Baths working on the beginnings of a HUGE project to restore this iconic building into a bustling community hub.

We had two groups again this evening - a walking group and a running group. It’s always great to have a walking group so that everyone gets an opportunity to take part. A big thank you to Emily for leading for us tonight :))

It was another great evening spent with lots of different members of the community. It really is so lovely to see so many people joining forces in a combined effort to help bring this amazing concept to life!!

We hoed, we weeded and we swept. The transformation over the past 3 weeks really is nothing short of miraculous and really is testament to community spirit and people coming together.

We are always thrilled and privileged to be involved in this fabulous project and tonight was no exception. We look forward to being back again next week!!

Well done to Goodgym and to everyone involved in making tonight another amazing success!!

Last night was another truly fabulous evening spent out in our community joining forces with local residents, local councillors, community champions and church leaders. I wonder whether the turnout might be significantly reduced as it was week 2, but it wasn't. Our community did us proud.

It was great to see Nahashon back, this week proudly wearing his new Goodgym T-shirt. Kat also returned back for her second week, despite the very wet inauguration she had on her first week with us. Great to see you both again!

The fabulous Pastor David of the Lighthouse Centre is heading up this huge project and his enthusiasm and drive is simply infectious. Last night, one of the volunteers was telling Emma about the plans and vision for the building and outside space and it's simply amazing! It will incredible when it's completed and something that the community can be extremely proud of.

Last night we spent more time clearing the outside space - mainly taking up weeds from the guttering and weeding some of the grassy areas. We had the hoes, the spades, the rakes and the brushes all set to work (and it was quite physical, let me tell you as some of those weeds were whoppers!). As always on a Goodgym task, it wasn't without chatter and laughter. It was really lovely to meet some more new people and we really are proud to be part of this amazing project.

We're looking forward to the next couple of weeks when we can spend more time back there and we look forward to the day when we can hopefully get inside the building too.

Well done team for another amazing effort You are all awesome and I love spending my Wednesday nights with you.

See you soon.

Lots of love, Nicola xx

Wow! Well there’s so many things to say about such a wonderful night last night that I don’t really know where to begin…

But I’ll start by firstly welcoming our two fabulous new members that joined us for their first time last night – Kat and Nahashon. It was great to have you both with us for your very first Goodgym task. We hope you had a fabulous evening (and weren’t put off by the rain – which has never happened to us before on a task would you believe!!). We hope you’ll be back with us again soon – we absolutely loved having you!

And… HUGE congratulations to our lovely Claire who last night reached her 50th Task milestone! Well done Claire, we are so proud of you and the commitment you’ve shown to Goodgym Crewe over the past 20 months. You are such an important part of our Goodgym family and GG Crewe just wouldn’t be the same without you.

Our evening started by meeting up at the Lighthouse Centre. We did a short, dynamic warm-up (space was limited), which included high marches, butt kicks, heel reaches and leg swings. We felt a few drops of rain just before we set off but luckily, it stopped and we set off on our run. We took an indirect route to the baths – a fairly short burst but we managed to sneak a nice hill sprint in there too.

We arrived (slightly sweaty) at the old site of the Flag Lane Baths. Such an iconic building that once stood proudly as Crewe’s main swimming pool. Sadly, it’s now in a state of disrepair and has been subject to anti-social behaviour and vandalism. It’s a huge 1.5 acre site and the vision is to turn it into a bustling community hub in the heart of our town. Pastor David Edwards of the Lighthouse Centre has been passionately driving this forward for the past couple of years and it’s edging ever closer to becoming a reality. Tonight it was the job of the volunteers to help tidy up some of the outside space. There was lots of litter, cans, glass and lots of weeds!

The best part of the evening was seeing so many local residents, community leaders and community groups come together in a joint effort to improve the space. We worked hard sweeping, picking litter, hoeing, shovelling and generally tidying up the area. The old saying of ‘many hands make light work’ was certainly fulfilled tonight – the place was looking hugely improved in such a short space of time. And we even got served with tea and hot chocolate by some wonderful young volunteers.

Just as we finished for the evening, the heavens opened and gave us all a good soaking! We ran back with squelchy trainers and soggy t-shirts. I think it’s fair to say that we all looked like drowned rats by the time we got back. We were quite put out by this new phenomenon of rain on a Goodgym night!! Lol

Well done to everyone involved. What a fabulous community we live in. We are so proud to be part of it!