Every session at GoodGym is special, but last night was especially special for a few reasons!

First of all we got to welcome Carol, Abi, Adam along for their very first group run with us - let's give them a big GoodGym cheer! It was also fantastic to welcome back some familiar faces too.

The evening was in collaboration with Sport England's This Girl Can campaign, which aims to remove all of the hurdles for women to participate in sport. This is particularly relevant at this time of year when the clocks have gone back and the evenings are darker. There is a lot of anxiety around running after dark, especially for women, and last night's session was a chance for us to help make wider society more aware of this and what we can all do to help.

So just before we started the task we went round the group to reflect on how running after dark made us feel. There were lots of different answers from us all, including concerns about running in parks (which takes away some fun and freedom of going for a run) , worrying about trip hazards, how every sound is amplified, being hyper aware of everything around us, and the disappointment of avoiding it all together. It was really interesting to hear everybody's thoughts from lots of different viewpoints.

If anybody in the group every wants to go for a run but doesn't feel safe, then feel free to message the group in whatsapp and we can hopefully get a buddy system going - I for one am always up for a social run!

What also made the task slightly different yesterday was that, rather than run to a community organisation like we normally do, we had our session right at our meeting spot at the BAC. So all we had to do was turn the corner to find the amazing permablitz garden. This space is available for the whole community to use, and anybody is welcome to help themselves to the produce grown at this edible garden. It's all planted so it's sustainable, organic and full of pollinators.

This is a wonderful community resource but it's also a huge space, and so we rolled up our sleeves as head gardener Polly took us for a tour of the garden. We saw fennel seeds, curry plants, learned about walking onions and admired all the amazing herbs. Some of the volunteers who work at the site have accessibility issues and the leaves falling around the planters have made the paths slippery and unsafe. So while half the group set about litter picking in the beds, the other half got stuck in clearing the walkways.

Meanwhile there was plenty of planting to be done, so we grabbed our gloves and a big bag of bulbs and got stuck in. Great work everybody, you've made an amazing difference in just a short amount of time. And good news! The blue keys were eventually located....

With no run involved, we had to make up for it with an full body work out. It was so good to see everybody throw themselves into loads of different circuit based exercises, including those dreaded hill sprints, tricep dips, bunny hops,lunges, lateral jumps and so many more - all of which were made doubly hard by doing them on that incline!

Next week we are back with a bang - expect lots of lovely Diwali and Bonfire night fireworks as the back drop for our run! We'll have an extra great view of them as we're going to the Doddington rooftop community garden for our monthly session followed by the pub quiz social. Everybody welcome, the more the merrier!

Which way is North???

Three Goodgymmers arrived at the Goodgym Garden at the Omnibus Theatre.

I was in disguise (I think a lack of Goodgym top on display and my newish beard & baseball cap, and Jordon walked straight past me).

Stephanie soon after arrived with the gigantic compost bin.

A team decision was made to have a coffee and read the instructions before placing the compost bin.

Caffeine ready when made our way into the Garden…

We were then tried to work out and which direction was direction was North for best placement of the bin.

Decision made, but a small obstacle…. -A gooseberry bush needed to be relocated. - At rapid speed the bush was dug up by Jordon, and Steph started preparing the ground for the compost bin. - I dug the hole for the bush to be re-planted.

After bush was re-planted and the bin was is place we tidied and the started to fill the composter. - Weeds, leaves, fallen apples, (to my own enjoyment dropping tomatoes in the bin) next seasons produce will be ready to be turbo charged which a bit of nourishment from the bin….

Sunflowers “one I should say should they stay or should they go…” some maintenance was required and despite Steph’s best effort using everyone’s friend google we were unsure if they will grow again next season…. Seeds collected & fingers crossed for 2025 flowering…

Tools packed away we set off in our separate ways to enjoy the pleasant sunny Sunday.

Should we name the new Compost bin??

Paul

Pumpkin spiced lattes, roast potatoes, fallen apples for composting bins....and dogs dressed up for Halloween? It could only be Autumn at GoodGym Wandsworth - and we're here for it!

We started off our evening with a warm up and a big decision to make. Did we have it in us to tackle not one, but two tasks that evening? Of course we did! So after several different moves to get our heart rates up and a discussion about whether we'd prefer to be super wealthy, wise or famous (we were split evenly between wealthy and wise) we set off for our initial location for the night.

The first part of our task was very much in keeping with the Autumn theme. We soon arrived at Christchurch gardens, a local space which is managed by residents. They try to keep it as clean, tidy, safe and welcoming for neighbours as possible, and asked us to come and lend a hand with the fallen leaves. The problem had got out of hand at the front of the community hall and church as they have been coming down thick and fast here, making it slippery underfoot. So while most of the team got busy picking and bagging them, some of us went round the perimeter of the garden collecting litter.

It didn't take us long to make a huge difference, so after a quick break for a photo (thanks Andy!) we got ready for our second task of the evening.

FoodCycle aims to make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community. Their vision is to connect communities, reduce loneliness and food poverty using surplus food to help everyone who needs us. They have a new hub in Clapham Junction which is a welcoming space for people from all walks of life to meet, eat and have conversations, but it is still in its early stages to needs more volunteers to help run the place.

They asked us to help spread the word by leafleting in the local area to try and raise awareness and recruit people to help. So armed with a few hundred flyers, we got started by forming a highly efficient human chain. With a group of us on each side of the street we went from house to house putting the leaflets through letterboxes. It ended up being a bit of a race - a spot of healthy competition always helps get the job done faster at GoodGym!

At the end of the evening we had covered quite a bit of mileage and supported two important, and very different, local organisations. What better way to spend a Monday! If you'd like to extend the happy feeling of using your workout to do good, why not join me tonight to deliver more leaflets for FoodCycle this time in the Elephant and Castle area. Or if you're free Sunday, why not pop down to the GoodGym Garden in Clapham to do various jobs including, excitingly, installing a new composting bin!.

Next week we're back at the BAC helping with their Permablitz garden. Not sure what Permablitz is all about? Click on the link to find out more and sign up!

Chaotic? Sometimes. A challenge? Definitely. Effective? Always!

Tasks can sometimes leave us scratching our head about the best way to execute them, and often they test our muscles and spatial awareness. But one thing is for sure, they always make a positive difference!

This was definitely the case last night when we returned to Waste Not Want Not to help Hadas rearrange the zero waste hub so that it can be used as a healthy eating centre. Hadas saves good produce from being thrown away, and aims to help the local community access healthy food.

There have been several issues here recently, including the electricity being switched off for 7 weeks, so we got straight to work!

We were delighted to welcome Adam to his very first session (great to have you join us Adam!) we did our warm up and had a quick discussion about our favourite soups. Everyone had their personal faves, including leek and potato, mushroom, carrot and coriander and lentil. Yes, we tackle the hottest issues at GoodGym Wandsworth.

The first item to tick off the list was putting up the gazebo, which always seems a straightforward job...until we start assembly. Of course it didn't help that the original location wasn't quite the right spot, so much to the bemusement of passers by we hoisted it up over the heads of the commuters and repositioned it.

Next was to rearrange the cookers and other (extremely heavy) items in the hub itself. Suffice to say it took masses of energy, some strategic thinking and a lot of manoeuvring but we got there in the end.

We finished off with sorting stuff into various boxes, which turned up some interesting discoveries - most notably a flame thrower!

Hadas was really pleased with the new lay out, and hopefully it means the centre will be back up and running before long.

The evening wasn't quite over as we still had our fitness session to do, which soon got competitive! There were definitely some tactics at play as we tested each other on how many squats, press ups and steps up we could complete.

Next week I'm just waiting to conform the task but you can still sign up for it right here. Hope to see you there!

It was our favourite Monday of the month last night, as we went for our regular visit to Doddington community roof garden, followed by the pub quiz! Only one thing could make it better - a new face joining our group. So imagine how happy we were to welcome Laura to her very first session! (and not least because she cracked the tricky anagram question in the aforementioned quiz...)

We started off the night with a balance based warm up and, giving we've just entered the spookiest month of the year, a poll about scary movies - yes or no? The answer was a pretty much unanimous no - obviously we're all too busy getting out there for runs and doing good!

We had a bit of a soggy run as we headed down to Doddington, a former derelict car park which has been transformed into a thriving community garden, but arrived ready to get cracking on various jobs.

Malissa explained that the main task for the evening was the rid the garden of various grasses, mallow, bindweed and salvia. After a quick run through of what exactly we were looking for we got stuck in, each tackling a different corner of the huge space.

Keeping in with the Halloween theme of the evening, we managed to dodge the many massive spiders as we watched over by the clowder of cats that have made the garden their home. We filled compost bins, pulled weeds and dug out soil until it was time for us to leave.

With the rain setting in we opted out of a fitness session and headed instead directly for the pub where we tested our grey matter. Out of a lucky 13 teams, I'm happy to report that the Bindweed Babes came a very respectable 5th and Jesmond Dene parkrunners finished in third! Great work everybody.

If you're looking for a fun and rewarding way to spend your Saturday, why not join the group at Unigate Nature Reserve in Streatham helping to clear the paths to make the area move accessible? It's a task that will make a big impact and will double up as a great workout too!

Next Monday we're back to waste Not Want Not to empty a room to make space for donations. Hope you can make it!

Five GoodGymers met at the Omnibus Theatre garden to do some weeding, watering and harvesting! Tomatoes were in abundance and the kale was ready too.