Last night’s GoodGym Wandsworth session kicked things off by welcoming Dominic to his very first session—great to have you with us, Dom! After a quick intro and a warm-up to get everything moving, we fired up our muscles and then our brains with a quiz question: which country drinks the most coffee per capita? A deceptively tricky one this week!

Then it was time to head out, jogging down to St Mary’s School where Isa was waiting to guide us to the nursery garden. School resources are tight, so the work we do here helps free up the caretaker to focus on other essential jobs around the school. And as we arrived, it was clear there was plenty to get stuck into.

The team didn’t hang about. Hannah, Sophie and Matthew took on the challenge of wrangling the old netting, carefully bringing it down ready for replacement. Dom did a fine job putting up the new netting like a pro. Nearby, Letizia and Felix turned their attention to the benches and raised beds, creating a work of art with a fresh coat of yellow and green paint.

Jo and Beth gave Mary a makeover, while Steph, Annabel, Ali and Caroline tackled a serious weeding task, which really made a difference. Everywhere you looked, people were grafting, chatting, and transforming the space bit by bit. By the end, the garden looked so much tidier and more welcoming. But the night wasn’t over just yet!

We made the most of the lovely outdoor space to squeeze in a fitness session—the “3-minute mountain leg challenge.” No hills? No problem. This session is designed to replicate the strength and endurance demands of hill running: three minutes per leg, split between one-legged step-ups and reverse lunges on the same leg. It’s tough, a little bit wobbly at times, but brilliant for building single-leg strength, stability and injury resilience—everything you need to power up real hills when they do appear.

After some determined efforts and some burning quads), we ran back to base for a well-earned stretch.

Next week’s task is still being confirmed, so keep an eye on [this space…] ( but we do know there will be a pizza social afterwards! Let us know if you’re coming so we can book enough space for some lovely carb loading!

Same time next week!

We had a flipping great time in Wandsworth last night as we enjoyed pancake day, birthdays - and a whole lot of positive impact!

There was lots of good news to share, including these two upcoming missions:

• at a local nature reserve on Saturday where you will be creating safe access, building 'dead hedges' and log pile habitats which provides refuge for important wildlife species such as hedgehogs

• and prepping or delivering food on Sunday so that our most vulnerable people get a hot meal

Not only was it almost pancake day and a sweet social to look forward to, but it was also Jo's birthday - so there was plenty to celebrate. After our warm we each guessed how many pancakes are eaten across the UK today, with Ali's guess coming closest to the whopping 117 million total!

We set off for our task at Larkhall Park where after a bit of confusion about our meeting spot we met Theresa with tools and instructions. Our job for the evening was to weed an area so it can be planted up with hundreds of new plants, and to clear the troublesome bamboo - which was more stubborn than we anticipated.

After half an hour of solid effort we had made a big difference, and we just had time to squeeze in fitness session based on isometric holds to improve our strength and stability.

A quick run back to base and it was pancake time! Great work everybody. Sophie will be leading you in a session at the GoodGym garden next week, so why not sign up to start the week off right!

Last night’s GoodGym Wandsworth run had community impact, zombie related content, a lot of manure, and some EMOMs that made sure no one noticed the freezing temperatures.

We kicked things off with a warm-up and a chat about how the January Challenge has been going. We've logged plenty of good deeds but we're still only 75% of the way there - can you help us get there? There’s still time to add to the total this Saturday's community mission in Doddington followed by coffee ☕️.

Before heading off, we paused to celebrate something pretty special: Jordan’s 300th Good Deed. From missions to group runs, socials and celebrations sessions Jordan has shown up to make Wandsworth a better, more community-minded place to live. A great milestone and one that deserves cheers (and cake, next week, when we'll have even more to celebrate!)

We also tackled the big question of the evening: who would you want on your team in a zombie apocalypse? The shortlist was eclectic. Bear Grylls (obvious survival skills), Barack Obama (calm leadership and negotiation under pressure) and Claudia Winkleman (great fringe). Strong team. The Zombies wouldn’t stand a chance.

Then it was time to run – heading up to Age UK Wandsworth Day Centre. This day centre is a vital community resource, offering support, connection and activities for older residents – a place that helps people stay active, social and independent. Spaces like this really make a difference in people's lives.

Our task involved two massive piles of manure which needed spreading across the garden beds. Tools were initially in short supply, but this is GoodGym – we adapt, we improvise, we get it done. With a bit of teamwork and some impressive resourcefulness we dispersed the manure and also squeezed in a big tidy-up of the surrounding area, leaving everything noticeably more welcoming.

With the task complete, it was straight into a fitness session in the car park. The workout? A EMOM (every minute on the minute) session featuring lunges, shuttle runs and squat jumps which kept the cold at bay. Strong effort all round.

Looking ahead to next week: we’ve got more milestones to celebrate, another great task, and then our monthly pub quiz. See you there!

Of course! Here’s the same report with all asterisks removed: Yesterday was meant to be 'Blue Monday', but there was absolutely nothing blue about GoodGym Wandsworth this week. Any gloom was swiftly chased away during the warm-up, where we shared the things that cheer us up most. The answers were a happily mixed bag; animal videos, GoodGym itself, hill sprints , sugar, peanut butter, singing, and—the evening's winner—chocolate. That's your January wellbeing toolkit right there!

**A huge welcome to Evie, who joined us for her very first GoodGym session—lovely to have you join us!.

We set off for Larkhall Park, where we regularly support the brilliant volunteers who care for this thriving green space. These sessions help keep the park well-maintained, improve biodiversity , makes the space safer and more welcoming for the community, and ensures it stays somewhere people want to spend time. Plus, the work couple with the good GG vibes is an instant mood boost for us!

There was plenty to do and everyone got stuck in. Tasks included litter picking, bed maintenance, leaf clearing, and shifting two enormous ton bags of soil. This involved a carefully choreographed shovelling method, which turned out to be quite the workout.

We attracted a fair bit of attention while we worked—some curious passers-by, one particularly questioning lady from the pub and a very welcome visit from a bouncing curious golden retriever, which instantly boosted morale by approximately 300%.

By the end, the jobs were done and the task owners were really pleased with what we’d achieved—always a nice finish to a task. On the way back we broke up the run with several fitness stations along the way: squats, single-leg holds, toe taps, and finally a well-earned set of stretches .

• Coming up soon: a Saturday mission at Doddington, followed by a coffee social.
• Next week, we’re back to Age UK Wandsworth to sort out the garden.