** A Towering Team Effort with Tom's Run Club 🌱🏃‍♂️**

Yesterday's session was in collaboration with the fantastic Tom’s Run Club, a friendly and inclusive running crew known for combining social miles with a real sense of community - and plenty of post-run socialising! We met up at Bermondsey in high spirits, so after lots of introductions and a whole load of energy we did a warm-up that got the blood pumping.

With the sound system fired up, we hit the streets—winding our way through the hustle of London Bridge and along the Thames to our destination: the new garden by the Tower of London.

This isn't just any garden. It's part of an inspiring project by Grounded Ecotherapy, a community-focused organisation that supports people in recovery or facing mental health challenges by connecting them with nature. They’ve been transforming what was once a sad, neglected space into a lush, thriving green haven—and we were here to help keep that momentum going.

Once we arrived, we split into teams and got to work. Before we could tackle a huge planting task we had a serious challenge: hauling bags of stones up the stairs. A proper workout, with a purpose! Then it was onto getting the greenery into the ground. It was incredible what a difference it made - what was once just concrete planters suddenly came alive with pollinators, herbs, flowers and a whole range of other plants.

And just when we thought we’d earned a rest… we finished with a squat challenge followed by a cheeky core triathlon that had everyone working hard.

With the job done and muscles worked, we wrapped up with a shorter run back to base, took a team photo, and hung out for a well-earned post-run social. Running with Tom and his crew was a real pleasure—here’s to more teamwork, more miles, and more positive impact ahead. 💪🌿

A Sunny run and some serious shovelling: GoodGym gets Grounded 🌞🏃🌱

It was one of those evenings yesterday — the kind where the sun’s shining, the city is buzzing, and the pavements stretch out before us. We gathered by Temple Station to greet some new faces - welcome to the group Emily and Siobhan to your first session! Lovely to have you join us. After a quick warm up we took off along the river, weaving between after-work revellers spilling onto the Embankment, and soaking up every golden ray.

Our destination was a community garden with a view so iconic it could distract even the most focused of GoodGymmers. Tower Bridge at golden hour? You don't get much better than that. We didn't have too much time to admire the view though— there was work to be done!

We arrived to find the ever-enthusiastic team already grafting away, tools at the ready, and preparing for their reinforcements (us) to jump in. Under the guidance of Grounded — a brilliant social enterprise using gardening as ecotherapy — our job was to help transform a neglected patch into a green oasis of calm and healing for the city’s residents.

We split into teams with some of us lugging bags of compost up the stairs, others transporting around sacks of Leca (clay pebbles good for drainage, although it could also pass as the name of an Indie band from the 90s), while the rest of us found ourselves elbows-deep in soil emptying old beds before setting up a brand-new irrigation system. The heat of the evening just highlighted how important watering is!

It was sweaty work, but spirits were high - the combination of transforming a garden and seeing the progress already being made was inspiring.

If that wasn't enough of a full body workout we just had time to squeeze in a fitness blast to finish, this time a strength workout with a twist. While one of us ran a lap around the garden in the stopwatch role, the rest of us got stuck into push-ups, planks and tricep dips. Thankfully, nobody pulled the “I’m just walking this lap” trick, and we even inspired a few people sitting nearby to join in — next time we'll get them to help carry the bags of leca too! Anyone else got shaky arms today or is that just me?

All that was left was the run back, with the skyline lit up like a movie set. After all that hard graft, it never looked more beautiful.

Well done everyone — you smashed it. Next week, we’re heading to the oldest youth club in the world - see you there!