For a second session this week a great gang of GoodGymers gathered in St David's Church for an important painting job!

The hall in St David's Church is used for some great community work, such as a soup kithcken, toddler groups and Narcotics Anonymous. Today we gave it a second coat of paint, giving it the make over it deserves.

This was the first time that Tracy and Adam joined us. It was brilliant to have you along! We hope you enjoyed it and will come back soon again for some more "getting fit whilst doing good."

It was also Craig's second session this week taking him up to an amazing 49 good deeds with us in less than a year! Let's give him a big shout out when he reaches 50... it won't be long!

We had a lovely time chatting and listening to Christmas music whilst painting. If I had not been wearing so much paint (as someone kindly pointed out) we would have completed the job today.. Still amazing to see how much we got done by working together. Brilliant work team!

Keep checking the listings for your next session, there will lots of great tasks listed shortly. Also take a look at the Fitmas Advent Calendar, on our live Instagram story, for your daily fitness ideas!

Keep running, keep doing good, keep smiling!

What a fab community mission this evening! Five great GoodGymers met at St David’s church to help paint their communal hall and create a bright, fresh space for their soup kitchen, toddler groups and community events.

It was a festive evening with Hannah, Lisa, Florence and Liz singing Christmas tunes and Craig hitting the high notes in Wham’s Last Christmas!

Also congratulations to Lisa for hitting her golden anniversary - a whopping 50 GoodGym missions! Hurrah!

An amazing evening doing good - well done team!

25 (YES 25!!) incredible runners ran 4 k to help re-decorate the Parish Room in St Davids Church. This room is used for a soup kitchen and other charity work. What a great task for us get stuck in with!

Awesome to have Isabella, Pazzy, Anna, Lexi, Oliver and Thomas with us for the first time. It was great to have you with us and we hope you come back soon again!

GETTING FIT

We started our evening with a dynamic warm up session outside the Phoenix, playing a round of "Simon Says" involving a lot of high knees, lunges and star jumps. Warmed up and ready we set off towards out task location. It was a nice crisp evening, so much nicer than the stormy and icy weather we have had lately and it felt amazing to stretch our legs out! As always we re-grouped at regular intervals so that no-one got left behind. These stops are also perfect opportunities for squat challenges. LOVE IT!

The task owners very kindly let us use the church for our fitness session and it felt a real treat to do a core session on soft carpet rather than on wet grass or hard concrete! We did 10 different types of sit-ups and planks held for 30 seconds each, followed by Eminem's core challenge. GREAT WORK GUYS!

Don't think we ever thought we'd be doing a core session in a church! The things you get to experience with the GoodGym hey!

On the return run we took a new route again to make the run a bit longer. Such great effort, such lovely red faces when we returned to our base. You guys smashed it!

DOING GOOD

Good things come in three right! This was our third evening of working at St David's Church and everyone knew exactly what they were doing by now. We got stuck in straight away and worked hard for 45 minutes paining the doors, the ceiling and the walls.

What a fantastic end result! A complete transformation of the Parish Room! Ceiling, walls, cupboards are now sparkling white instead of dark orange. Check out the before and after photos, you just won’t believe it!

It has been amazing to have an indoor task this dark and blustery time of the year and it has also been FANTASTIC to have such good turn-out for the runs! Over three weeks 61 runners have been involved with re-decorating the Parish room, giving it a make-over so that the charities that use it can enjoy it more. BRILLIANT STUFF!

SHOUT OUTS

Big thank you to Nic who back marked. Such an important job!

Lovely to have so many great runners with us from the Exeter Uni's Cool Running Society. Thank you Emma for making this happen!

A special shout out to Helen who travels really far to join us every Tuesday evening! Such dedication!

Thank you to the lovely task owners at St Davids Church have let us use the church for our fitness sessions, away from the rain, and this evening also treated us to some amazing homemade cakes and biscuits.

A BIG shout out to every single one of you who came along with so much energy and such great attitude! You all did something amazing, you got fit whilst doing good! yay! Can't wait to see you all next week!

NEXT UP

Next week we will be running a total of 4 k to Newtown and Pennsylvania to do some leafleting for Ride On. We will do some little fitness challenges along the way and make this important task lot’s of fun! Sign up here and join us!

Don't forget to check the website for Community Missions. We got some great ones coming up!

Not sure what was most amazing this evening! The fact that 22 runners came out in the cold to run and do good OR the fact that we managed to smash TWO tasks! What a night! We ran between between 2 and 4 k and painted the Parish room in St Davids church white AND delivered leaflets for Ride On. AMAZING!

A very warm welcome Emma, Jack, Charlotte, Harry and Aled who joined us from Exeter University's Cool Running Society. Also fantastic to have Ginnie with us for her first GoodGym session. We hope you enjoyed it and come back soon again!

Getting Fit

We started the evening with a fun-filled dynamic warm-up session outside the Phoenix. Not sure what warmed us up the most, the laughing or the exercises? All the same, we felt ready to run and set off towards the task location.

As we were a big group with mixed abilities we divided ourselves in two different speed groups. To make it a bit more fun the faster group had to run down under the Iron Bridge whilst the gentle group ran on top off. Great work everyone! As always we re-grouped at regular intervals so that no-one got left behind and we made the most of these stops by carrying out some lunges, squats and press-ups.

Our fitness session today was a HIIT style circuit training session. HIIT training is great as you can get a lot out of it in a very short amount of time, it tones your body really well and it also makes your metabolism work hard for hours afterwards. The task owners very kindly let us do this inside the church. What an incredible place for our fitness session!

Fantastic effort everyone! You totally smashes the burpees, squat jumps, planks and crunches! I hope you LOVED IT!

Doing Good-A TWO-TASK Tuesday!

As we were a big group this evening we decided to try out two tasks for the first time! Exciting times in Exeter hey!

Lisa, Pete and Helen, our brilliant task force members, took charge of the painting in the Parish room in St Davids church. This room is used for a soup kitchen and other charity work. What a top task for us to get involved with. And what a fantastic job everyone who worked there did!

In 45 minutes they transformed the room completely!

The other task this evening was leafleting for Ride On, a charity that works to make Exeter greener and healthier through refurbishing bikes, providing bike maintenance courses and cycling advice among other things. The leafleters also smashed their task! In 30 minutes they managed to deliver 300. They were in fact so quick that I just had to give them some extra squat challenges and agility work to carry out before we returned to the church.

Shout Outs

• Big thank you to Nic who back marked. Such an important job!

• Great work Helen for leading the gentle run group. It was fab with two speed options for our big group!

• Thank you Pete, Lisa and Helen for supervising the task in the Parish room! It was fantastic that we managed to get two tasks done in one evening, so really BIG THANK YOU!

• Love all the new colorful leggings guys! Just waiting for the "meggings" now. No names mentioned. You know who you are!

• Thank you to the lovely task owners for letting us do our fitness session in the church AND for giving us teas and biscuits! So nice!

• MASSIVE shout out to all of you for coming out this freezing evening! You are the best! So much achieved and so much fun! Also, we haven't had such a big group since September. Let's keep this up, I would love to see you all next week again!

Next Up

Next week will be our last week of working in St Davids church. It will be fantastic to see the end result! Sign up here to come along.

On Saturday we are meeting at Killerton Parkrun for a fun and muddy 5 k run. Sign up here to join. It will be an epic trail run, lots of mud and lots of stunning views! Come on, you will love it! Cake and coffee to follow!

14 runners braved storm Brendan and ran 2 k to help re-decorate the Parish Room at St David’s Church, a room that is used for a soup kitchen and various other charity work. They also smashed out some hill reps and a fitness session. Excellent work!

A very warm welcome to Darragh, Clàudia and Terry who joined us for the first time. Fantastic to have you with us! We hope you enjoyed it despite it being such a stormy evening and we hope to see you soon again!

The rain had been pouring all afternoon but very kindly turned in to a soft drizzle as we gathered outside the Phoenix for a welcome speech and warm-up session. After A LOT of LAUGHING, some high knees, jogging, coordination work and some active stretches we felt ready to go running and set of towards the task locatioin, St Davids Church. A big thank you to Helen who back marked the whole way so that no-one got left behind!

A bit wetter but very cheery we arrived to St Davids Church where we were welcomed by Pete and Glynis who explained what needed doing. We quickly got stuck in and in 45 minutes we managed to:

• Empty the room of boxes, tables and chairs
• Remove curtains and pictures
• Cover the floor with dust sheets
• Sand down skirting boards
• Paint most skirting boards
• Paint half the ceiling and make a start on some walls

It was like a whirlwind of workers hit us!

Top work guys! It will never stop to amaze me how much we can get done by working like this together! Just imagine what another 2 weeks of working there will do!

After working hard we were rewarded with a lovely cup of tea and biscuits in the church. Such a nice way to finish of a great session! Thank you Glynis and Pete! Refueled and happy with what we had achieved we set off running again. We quickly made our way to the Iron Bridge, where we just had to stop for some lovely hill reps (one simply got to make the most of all these beautiful hills in our city! Don’t you just love them!)

After that we carried out a strengthening session which included 5 types of squats and 5 types of lunges. Super well done all of you! You smashed it! I just have to apologies that we didn't get time for any Sally Squats.. I promise it won't be long till next time though he he he!

When we returned to the Phoenix we carried out some stretches and talked about how important the cool down is as part of your training. It is here that you prepare your body for your next session and make sure you reduce the risk of injury. So keep up the good work with that guys, as well as your regular training of course.

As always I left feeling so happy to have been out running and doing good with all of you guys! No matter the weather, no matter the dark evenings, no matter what task we complete, it is always one of the best part of my week! Totally Terrific Tuesdays! I hope to see you all next week when we will return to St Davids Church and continue our work with refurbishing the parish room. Sign up here if you can make it.

On Sunday 19th we are also doing an extra group run as starter session. If you know anyone who is keen to come along and find out what the GoodGym is all about please let them know about this! We will run 3 k and help Powderham Crescent Residence Association with some gardening tasks. It will be awesome, sign up hereto come along!