The Katherine Low Settlement in Battersea is an amazing hub for all sorts of charities. They support refugees with various programs, have clubs for the elderly, provide food for vulnerable groups and loads of resources for kids. They also have a garden which has been neglected over winter, and needed a bit of extra love. Which is where we came in!

A big welcome to Holly who joined for the very first GoodGym session, great to have you with us Holly!

We met at a very chilly BAC and got straight into getting those frozen muscles with lot of dynamic movements up the hill. We finished off the warm up with a quick Valentine's Day related quiz question with a bit of a dark edge to it before setting off.

After a brisk run down to the centre we were shown the garden and given a list of jobs which included deadheading, sweeping, clearing and weeding. There was also a job inside for the lucky few tidying up a games cupboard and sweeping.

Before long we were a buzz of activity and within 25 minutes of hard work the garden was looking so much tidier and more welcome for the service users. The games cupboard was immaculate and ready for use by the kids club, and the floors were spotless thanks to Jo and her giant brush.

After a few minutes thawing out in the warm we headed back out to face the night and do a fitness session based on lower body muscle groups. Every 30 seconds saw us change up the exercise, from curtesy, plié, oblique crunch and static squats, to lunges, jumps, single leg holds and pulses. Phew!

Next week we have an indoor task writing envelopes for an intergenerational charity - sign up here

Great work everybody, thanks for all your efforts on a pretty cold night!

Tonight at Wandsworth we celebrated the start of February and discussed what we were looking forward to for the month ahead! A common theme was the lighter evenings to come but we did get a shout out for more Goodgymming and some must have been hit by Cupid’s arrow with a special mention for Valentine’s Day! We realised that Pancake day isn’t until March this year sadly but I’m sure it will be worth the wait.

We had a brilliant group to set off to Doddington estate and loved welcoming some new faces to Wandsworth (Caroline and Mike)! We wish them all the best over in Merton on Mondays to come. We had to pivot slightly to a plan B at the task but set out enthusiastically litter picking to brighten up the local area. We filled quite a few bags and even had time for a good fitness session covering a whole range of exercises from squats to skaters before heading off to our monthly social. Well done Wandsworth, those brighter evenings are coming!

It was a double header of a Monday group session last night - just the thing to ward off any lingering January vibes!

We also got to welcome Andy to his first run - great to have you join us. To put us in the right frame of mind to kick off the evening, we did a dynamic warm up and then each shared one thing that cheers us up. Running came up top, as did going to the garden centre, playing with the dogs, and coming to GoodGym. What a wholesome bunch we are!

We set off in the drizzle, weaving our way round the Clapham commuters, and eventually arriving at Age UK Wandsworth for our first task of the evening. With Sophie leading the group, the first job was to drop off old magazines so the service users can repurpose them into art projects. Kudos to Steph for her very classy choice of reading material!

While the team got on with planting bulbs in the raised beds with old spoons as their tool of choice for the evening, as well as clearing leaves in the car park, the rest of us ran down to Bramford Garden. Our job was to help Shah, the community gardener, get rid of a massive piece of graffiti that appeared recently. Shah has been working on it singlehandedly for a while, but the sheer scale of it was too big for one person so she called in reinforcements.

We each grabbed a wire brush and gloves, and got stuck in. It was hard going but satisfying work. Certain colours were strangely harder to remove than others, but with some serious elbow grease we slowly got there -with Pritesh even making sparks fly!

With not one but two tasks successfully completed and the rain threatening to come down even harder, we hit the road. But don't worry, there is plenty more GGing to look forward to! There is this task tonight helping out an environmental clothes store packing up their sale - and it's a nice toasty inside job! Or why not help Jason and his team build tree protectors - the perfect way to kick off the weekend.

Last night was testament to the amazing things a group of us working together can do in just a short amount of time - and the level of happy chaos it can also create!

We had the pleasure of a new task yesterday. The Positive Network believes in fostering unity, empowerment and resilience predominately within the Black community across generations. They put on various programs and initiatives, celebrate cultural heritage and create a supportive network. They also believe in the power of community and collaboration to drive positive change - something we can definitely agree on here at GoodGym!

They have a centre in Balham which is used by its members. With so much going on there it is little surprise that its small store room had got to bursting at the seams with food, paperwork and other resources. It had become a bit of an issue for Grace, who runs the centre, and she asked us to come and give it a good sort out. There was also the question of a set of shelves to be built...

We quickly organised ourselves into a human chain. Out came dozens of water bottles, files of paper, more toilet rolls than we could count, a piano, a kettle, even a eyesight chart. It was like our very own generation game. All that was missing was the cuddly toy!

Meanwhile the shelves were being assembled by a group of allen key heroes. They made impressive headway in a short amount of time, only to meet with some resistance right at the last step. Nevertheless they persevered and right at the last minute they could be moved back into the office. Only to find, after all that work that the door didn't close properly with them in it! Disaster. Still, with some very impressive tetris style manoeuvring the problem was solved and we could call it a job well done.

Two groups set off for the pub in stages (thanks for expertly guiding everybody back Pritesh and to Katie for leading stretches!) and an evening of board games. With an epic game of Traitors we learned even more about each other, trust and treachery...!

Next week we're back to Age UK and there is also this great mission on Wimbledon common on Sunday - hope to see you there!

Brrr, the cold snap wasn’t letting up last night, but that didn’t stop our awesome group of runners from showing up and getting straight to work! There was no time to hang around in the freezing temperatures, we were all eager to get moving, warm up, and make a difference.

We welcomed some new faces to the group this evening — a big GoodGym welcome to you all! We’re so glad to have you with us and hope you’ll be back for more fun in the future. Great to have you join us Hannah, Lisa and Benjamin

We kicked things off with a quick warm-up, and Catherine came up with an excellent Monday question - where is the best roast in the area to be found? It got us all thinking (and hungry) — there were some great suggestions but we decided we definitely need to find a good veggie option. Suggestions welcome!

Once we were all warmed up and ready to go, we ran down to the Venue, a community hub that serves as a space for healthy eating classes, kids' groups, storage for donations, and more. Our task for the night was a massive tidy-up. There was plenty of composting, cleaning, and clearing to be done, but the biggest challenge? A pool of dried, spilled cream that had made a sticky mess! It was a tough one, but there was no use crying over spilled, er, cream. With hot water, cleaning fluid, and plenty of elbow grease, we managed to get the job done. No more rancid spillage, just one big sparkling floor!

There was lots to clear away, but with so many hands working together, we got through it all in no time.

After the task, we finished off with a core session. We all got to know each other a little better as we squeezed into one corner and got down to business.Core work helps with stabilising your body when you get tired during a run, so you can maintain good running form. It’s a key part of injury prevention, so well done on some great efforts from everybody.

After a run back we wrapped up with some stretches after all that hard work. Next week we have a new task in Balham, which means we’ll be leaving sharpish to get there. If it sounds like too much of a stretch, you can always meet us there. After the task, we’re having a social at the Four Thieves with some board games — it’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’d love for you to join us!

Some more dates for your diary:

• On Saturday there is this great mission to help clear the paths at a nature reserve

• We have a new regular community mission helping out with a kids club at the Doddington community garden late Thursday afternoons

• If you're free on the morning of the 24th and have an hour to spare, this amazing organisation which is home to several charities needs some help moving two offices around