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.

It was lights, camera and plenty of action last night in Wandsworth as we not only had a busy session at our regular Doddington task, but we had our monthly pub quiz and a visit from the global press. What a way to kick off the week!

We started the evening with our usual warm ups, and a run down of all the news. Well done to everybody who came to Sunday's mission where we grappled with an enormous sand pit - if that's given you the fomo (fear of missioning out), then why not sign up to this great Saturday mission in Streatham clearing out Unigate woods.

After getting our muscles warmed up for the run ahead, we did a few sprints up and down the hill, and, blinded by the bright lights of the cameras I forgot our regular name, number and question of the week. Sorry about that - although it did mean we got an extra run up and down that hill. Silver linings?

After a quick run down to the task we were met by Malissa, who deployed us around the garden to tackle various jobs. Doddington roof garden is a beautiful area used by local people who don't necessarily have access to green space to grow their own fruit and veg. It is used for community events, kids clubs and is a real urban oasis. It is great to see how it changes and evolves every month when we come for our regular session - and there is always plenty to do!

We were soon busy shifting an enormous barbeque, stripping grass, pulling up mallow and turning compost. In between jobs Catherine, Sophie and Jason were interviewed by the AP, revealing themselves to be consummate professionals in front of the camera.

The time flew by and before long we downed tools, waved goodbye to the Doddington team and headed down to the square for our fitness session. This week we tested our brains and body with a group challenge featuring maths and squats, before moving on to our cardio and conditioning workout. Great effort, everybody.

While some of us ran back to the BAC for stretches and one final run up that hill (that must be some kind of record), the rest of the group ran to the pub to reserve our space for the pub quiz. The rivalry was definitely heating up, and it was a strong performance by both GG teams.

Next week we're back to Larkhall park for some lifting and shifting. If you needed any extra motivation, we've completed 42 of our 125 good deeds target, and have run a 25% of our distance goal for January. We're already almost half way through January - can you help us make it?

Great session, hope to see you at the next one!

Team Wandsworth were embracing the January challenge in style with a fantastic group turning up today to transform a nursery 60 minute makeover style. We had a big job on our hands and so we split up to cover the various areas. One team may have landed the inside job but had multiple storeys and a lift to contend with to get their items out of the door. The outside team received an education in nursery life discovering spaces from the mud kitchen to the forest cabin! AstroTurf was rolled out to create a new space and we cleared out a whole host of unwanted and sometimes unexpected things (including the largest rubber deck we have ever seen) to ensure the children had the best play area possible. Once we had done our removals work, it was time to tackle the main event - the sand pit! It felt as large as a long jump pit and the clearance certainly felt like an Olympic effort. We furiously shovelled away and filled all of the bags that we had at our disposal. The bags didn’t always keep up with our ambitions but we ploughed on and filled a whole parking space with all our collected items. Impressive work Team Wandsworth! Well done all and a special shout out to James who achieved his first good deed today!

We spent a lovely morning getting into the Christmas spirit at St Saviour's! There was a lot to do to turn the church into a winter wonderland fit for their carol service but we set to work to pull off a Christmas miracle. Our group of elves set up (and untangled!) six sets of hanging lights, swept up eleven bags of leaves from outside, sorted and decorated two Christmas trees and made sure every surface was looking fabulous with cloths, nets and candles galore. Special shout out to Letizia who took on the task of brightening up the scaffolding and to Jordan and Felix for patiently stringing five hundred lights back and forth.

It will be a wonderful event for the community and will hopefully get everyone feeling festive. It was great to welcome Tom to his first festive group task and to see everyone else ahead of our last task of the year on Monday winding up another fantastic year of doing so much good!