We held a feedback session a few weeks ago to get your thoughts on how we could improve Good Gym and why you really do it.  We’ve summarised the gist of it at the top and then transcribed all the post-its below.  It’s really helpful stuff, thanks to everyone who took the time to feed into it.

What will we do about all this?
Thinking all of this through with you all was really useful. It seems like there are a few things that are coming out pretty clearly that we should do:

A newsletter for runners

A few of you talked about this as a way of keeping you up to date with what’s going on. We’ll include updates on group runs, stories from runners and coaches and other related stuff.

An info page with different stories of runners and coaches
We’ve put up a page on the site that tell a few stories about the relationships between coaches and runners and how they fit the running into their lives.

More guidance for initial meeting
A couple of you mentioned finding the first few weeks a bit awkward and that you’d like some guidance about questions to ask and things to talk about. We’ll write a brand new email which we’ll send to new runners just before their first run.

Technology stuff
We mooted the idea of having some run tracking software and a friendly league of some kind. Generally you seemed supportive of this.  Though some of you do not run with a smart phones so  we’d need to find a way for people to track their runs without having one too.

Donation page:
Instead of saying what you’re getting for your payment (CRB/ t-shirt), we’ll change the page to say what you’re helping with;  eg.‘sustaining the project and allowing us to find more older people.

More group runs

We’re starting to plan more group runs and will ask York Hall if we can move them to weekly as soon as possible.

Calorie counting on group runs:
Some of you said that we’re not taking the ‘gym’ element seriously enough and you like more info on how much energy you’re burning on your runs. We’ll start making an estimate of the calories burnt during group runs and the associated activities and tell everyone while we’re doing it.

Mailing list:
We’ll set up a mailing list so that you can easily ask each other questions.

Photo exchange- send a letter to the coach explaining who you are:
A few of you mentioned that you’d like your coach to know more about you before you arrived. We’re now sending new coaches a letter with some info about you.

Bigger post-it notes:

A request was made for bigger post-it notes. For the next session we will have bigger post-its.
We do however greatly appreciate the brevity and clarity of the post-it notes transcribed below.

Post it notes typed up:
In case you’re interested, below are transcriptions of  all of the post-it notes written on the night.

Why do you do it?
-To be part of the community.
-Connect with the community.
-Combat Loneliness
-Motivate and harness energy from exercise.
-Motivate myself to run once a week
-Knowing you make a difference.
-Challenge
-I work in a corporate environment where profit and deliverables are the most important things. Running at the Good Gym makes me feel better about leading this kind of life. My coach makes me feel happy and worthwhile.
-I urgently need regular exercise. Helping people provides the motivation I otherwise lack. Any exercise makes you feel good afterwards.  Good Gym good-feeling more-so as it is a twofold thing: exercise and doing good = super ace feeling. My coach in particular provides an extra ‘challenge’ , so it makes running more interesting.

How can we improve  Good Gym?
-More personable. Relationship/community between runner important. Common experience and socialising fosters harmony of GG ethos.  Images of runners (with consent) on website.
-Should coaches meet ever? Once a year?
-Provide support when we need it (you do).
-Scale it up so people understand!
-Competition – how many miles and how many monthly runs.
-Put logo on back of s-shirt.

-Discussed already this evening, but, for emphasis, feedback from coaches about how they find their runners would be useful. Anything from what they enjoy talking about to what they really don’t like talking about. Taboo subjects for that coach. (not relevant maybe?)
-More contact with other runners.
-Firmer leadership.
-Bigger Post-It NOTES
-For new runners a wee bit of history of the coach could help the initial encounter to help ‘break the ice\ as it were?

How could we use technology to improve your experience?
Timed runs – other people doing similar runs. eg park runs.
Monthly e-newsletter saying how many runners we have and case studies of runners.
Really like notification of distance and route on map (group run).  As mentioned some kind of personal tracking system for individual runs… important (IMO) to have sense of individual achievement, not just relative to other GG runners.
Good Gym microchip implanted in the the ball of each runners foot?

Tonight’s run was an unusually filthy.  We didn’t give away the specifics until we were gathered outside York Hall, secretly we new that tonight’s mission was to tackle what is extremely likely to be the largest indigenous farm-created compost pile in all of East London.

We were lead tonight by the Simon Cole, long term Good Gym runner and boss of the most unusual, regionally-specific and exciting tour company Hackney Tours, who kept us all together and in good spirits.   After a thorough talk about the general perils of the night and the dangers of running we headed out into the drizzly darkness feeling pretty brave.  A slight detour at a community centre meant we arrived slightly late for our date at Stepney City farm, a place we visited for  the first time in January and which have since showered us with offers of  donkey running and were keen to have us again.

Annie the volunteer manager was sleeping over at the farm to practice her goat birthing skills, she hadn’t tried it before but was keen to give it a go even if it kept her up all night (kids these days…), so she was ready and waiting to let us in and show us to our pitch forks.

Annie (left) briefed us on the technicalities of compost airing,  everybody was utterly thrilled to see the huge pile of semi-composted manure that awaited us.
This thrilled-ness was generally expressed by everyone looking a bit concerned by the sheer size of it.

It was not long until we were ankle deep in the stuff. Compost is quite heavy stuff and gives you a pretty good workout. Especially with such East London record-breaking quantities of it.

It was a truly spectacular sight to see a team of runners throwing the mixture of manure and straw into the air. As we got deeper into the stuff it started to release a lot of steam.

It also gave off a lot of heat, it was like being in some kind of unusual smelling sauna.  All good gyms should have one.

In 30mins we had aired moved approximately 2.7 tons of manure. Something it would have taken one person more than a day to complete.  It was tough work, using many of muscles not used in running.

The run home was uneventful but handy for getting the muck off the feet.

As a result of this run, we’re  going to add a bit into the faqs that warns against wearing one’s most prized/snazzy running gear.

Next Monday is the regular group run from York Hall.  We’re going to be running to tackle two tasks this time:  the first is at Sonali Gardens, a day centre for older people in Whitechapel and the second is some good hard physical work at Stepney City farm. We estimate 6-7k total distance.

Please come dressed for mud and cold.

Start Location:
York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)

Time: Leaving at 7pm, Monday 13th February, 2012

Other stuff: We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.  York Hall has changing rooms and somewhere we can leave our stuff.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

Tonight the Good Gym is having a first test run in Chicago.  Details for how to get involved are below. The run will begin in Lincoln park and head towards to an assisted living centre where we’ll be doing some good deeds.  If you’re in Chicago this evening, come run with us.

The Good Gym is supporting people to test the Good Gym concept in a variety of locations and guiding them through the process of setting it up.  We’re starting to create the infrastructure to support the project to run anywhere in the world and the group runs being organised are helping us work out how best to do that.

Start Location:
Running Away Multisport
2219 N. Clybourn Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
(Close to Fullerton or Armitage on the el – there’s a map here)

Organisers: Patrick Gazely and Elaine Lopez

Time: Leaving at 6.30pm, Tuesday 7th February, 2012

Other stuff: We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

Photograph by Gravitywave.

Having left York Hall (run by Social Enterprise GLL – good people, and which also has a really nice spa in the basement by the way), we headed up towards the canal. Judging by the photos, most of us were going so fast we turned invisible, but luckily we were lead by someone from Tron.

We were aiming for Headway UK, a charity charity that works to improve life after brain injury – they have a nice garden down by the canal that needed a bit of sorting.  They also had a hefty pile of bricks that needed moving that were blocking an alleyway.

Most of us worked on sorting out the leaves which were all over the decking:

While others attacked the bricks using plastic chairs as hods:

Once that was pretty much sorted- bricks moved, garden tidy, we headed onto our next mission; distributing a stack of 200 flyers for St Joseph’s Hospice (they’re having a jumble sale).  We split into two teams, one for odd numbers, one for even, and distributed the flyers evenly.

The different sides took slightly different techniques to ensuring that the leaflets reached their destinations – both had runners sprinting to see which side of the street could be finished first.

In 8mins  we had distributed the flyers to every single building on the target 0.7km street and even did half of a different street to use of the rest of the flyers.

So, having completed our missions for the evening, we headed back along the canal to York Hall.

We’d run about 5k, and due to popular demand, we’ll be looking to step it up a bit over the next few runs, whilst still making sure we don’t leave anyone behind.

On another note; St Joseph’s Hospice are having a jumble sale; 10am- 1pm – this Saturday.  Its on Mare Street close to London fields. Probably worth checking out.  If you have any stuff you’d like to sell, it can be dropped off at reception any time.

They’re ready – everything is set.  The site lights are on site; the extension leads are coiled, ready for action. The brooms just need sweepers, the gardening gloves just hands to fill them.  Next Tuesday, 24th Jan, the good gym is running a group run to Headway, where the outside space remains covered in leaves and pieces of broken willow following the high winds of earlier January. Join us at York Hall: help a worthy cause, get your heart pumping, burn some calories.

Start Location:

York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)

Time: Leaving at 7pm, Tuesday 24th January, 2012

Other stuff: York hall has changing rooms and shower facilities. We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

We had the biggest turn out yet for our group run tonight with 21 runners ready to get themselves exhausted. We set off from York Hall as a crowd and quickly became a long trail of joggers so as not to take up too much pavement.

We headed north to the canal and ran west along the tow path to Kingsland Road.  Runners who got too far ahead were sent sprinting to the back of the group in an effort to tire them out. We reached our destination but due to circumstances beyond our control, were unable to get in, so we set off east towards Haggerston Park and then south to Ion Square Gardens.

When we got to the gardens, we played 3 rounds of Stuck-in-the-Mud to get everyone into the anaerobic zone, followed by a quick round of British Bulldog before setting off back down Hackney Road towards our end point.

An unusual and fun group run of intense games and large numbers. And 3 miles covered.  Not bad for for the first outing of 2012.

The January group run is here and the destination is about 1.5 miles from York Hall – a perfect distance to start getting your fitness back after the break.  We’re running to a charity that supports those affected by acquired brain injury; their garden has been covered in detritus after the high winds battered their poor willow tree.  We’re running in to sort it out.  Join us at York Hall on Monday, ready to leave at 7pm.

Here’s the details of the run:

Start Location:

York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)

Time: 7pm, Monday 9th January, 2012

Other stuff: York hall has changing rooms and shower facilities. We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.

More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.

Good Gym is getting bigger and better for 2012 and we’re expanding to the rest of East London.  We’re now opening our doors to the five Olympic Host boroughs; so if you’re in Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest or Tower Hamlets you can now be a part of Good Gym.

January is the most popular time for joining a gym.  We want to convince you that the Good Gym is just as likely, if not more likely to get you fit than a normal gym. By connecting you to good causes in your area the Good Gym can keep you motivated to exercise in the long term.  You’ll also be helping other people who need your help so you’ll probably feel pretty good about yourself.

The time after christmas is also a very lonely time for many people. A large part of our  work is providing regular deliveries and visits to isolated older people – so getting involved now could make a big difference.

So, if you’re in East London, we hope that you feel now is the time to join and that now is the time to get all your friends to join.

Or, if you have any questions, ideas or want to work with us, email mark[at]thegoodgym.org or give him a ring on 07984336580.

We hope to see you soon.

Do you love exercise, older people and want to be part of a social start-up?
Good Gym is looking for interns for the period between Jan-June 2012.

What do we need?
You’d be working closely with our project coordinator Mark as we scale up to the six Olympic boroughs.  You’ll be assisting with organising runs, publicising the project and helping us develop our network of community organisations.   We’d like to work with someone full of energy who can help to drive the project forward. An interest in running is not essential but would help.

What’s in it for you?
We’re at the early stages of scaling up an ambitious project. You’ll see the prototyping and design process and interact with community organisations in and around the Olympic Park area.  If you’re interested we’ll also help you develop your sports leadership skills.  We’ll be developing our web services over this period too, so if you’d like to learn about the web service development there’s opportunity for this too.  As with all of us, the role will involve quite a lot of running around which will help shed the Christmas pounds.

What’s the deal?
We will cover your expenses and you’ll be working 3-4 days a week.  You’ll be supervised by Mark Herbert, the project co-ordinator and be involved in the development of the Good Gym in East London.

To apply, send a CV and a letter saying why you’d like to get involved, to getinvolved@thegoodgym.org

Please apply by the 10th of January at the latest.