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I've been thinking about gym memberships,

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in particular, all the gym memberships
I've underused in my life.

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I'm definitely one of those people
who likes the idea of being fit

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far more than the actual
reality of getting fit.

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In my youth, I really, really
wanted Brad Pitt's abs.

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(Laughter)

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These days, it's Jason Statham's
chiselled physique.

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Every now and then, I'll get
all excited about getting buff

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and sign up to my local gym.

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"This is it," I tell myself, "from now on,
I'm going to be fit, healthy and happy."

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I do not have Brad Pitt's abs,

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and I only have Jason Statham's hairline.

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(Laughter)

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The sad truth is every time I've signed up
to a gym, I've barely attended.

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When I have gone, I've found it
a truly miserable experience.

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And I think I've boiled that down
to two main reasons:

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connection and purpose.

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I find the gym a particularly
isolating environment.

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Here I am, surrounded by all these people
I have at least one thing in common with,

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and I couldn't feel
more distant from them.

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Almost every machine caters
for one person only, can't be shared;

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we all have headphones in
to block each other out;

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and we actively avoid eye contact,

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never mind strike up conversation
for fear of looking weird or creepy.

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That sounds more like my morning commute
than it has any right to.

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Then there's the act of exercising
in an artificial environment.

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Lifting things that don't need lifting,

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and generating all this energy that has
no meaning or impact on anyone else.

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(Laughter)

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The treadmill is the perfect embodiment
of my life at its worst:

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going nowhere fast
and paying for the privelage.

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(Laughter)

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It's been said that
if exercise were a pill,

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it would be prescribed to everybody,

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such are the wonderous
health and wellbeing benefits.

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That may be the case
but I still find it hard to swallow,

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and I don't think I'm alone.

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In 2018, gym memberships in the UK

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rose to nearly ten million
across 7,000 locations.

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However we still have
a physical activity challenge

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with around a third of UK adults

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not getting the miminum
recommended levels of exercise.

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We know we ought to be fitter,
many of us even want to be.

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We just don't enjoy it.

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So what if the answer

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isn't more ways for us to exercise
and feel bad about ourselves,

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but instead more ways for us to connect
and feel good about ourselves?

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This is where GoodGym came into my life.

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GoodGym is a community of runners
who get fit by doing good.

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We run in groups to help
community projects such as city farms,

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community centres or food banks.

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We undertake missions
for older neighbours,

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helping out with tasks around the home
such as changing a lightbulb.

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And we visit isolated older people,

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giving them an opportunity
to meet a younger local runner,

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and in turn, become that runner's coach.

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GoodGym makes the act of getting fit


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a way to be both social
and make a difference.

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It has grown from a small project
in Tower Hamlets back in 2009,

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to a UK-wide social movement
with around 1000 people every week,

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getting active and doing good.

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Be that helping older neighbours
feel more connected,

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setting up beds in a homeless shelter,

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building toilet platforms
for water voles -

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yep, that exists apparently,
which is great! -

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(Laughter)

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and shovelling a lot of compost.

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What drives the social movement

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are the stories behind
everybody who takes part.

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We're not just missing
something in our exercise.

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Quite often we're missing something
in the way we live our lives as well -

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a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose.

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My GoodGym journey started
six years ago in Camden.

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Running each week to a different
community project, making new friends,

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and acheiving ever further distances.

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I used to think that five kilometres
was the absolute furthest

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a human being could
or should travel by foot.

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(Laughter)

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Within six months, I'd completed
my first half marathon,

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supported not just
by my fellow GoodGymers,

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but by all the projects we'd supported
along the way as well.

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Then my world shook.

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All of a sudden,
my mum became very, very ill,

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very, very quickly, and she passed away.

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I felt a lot of horrible
things at that time,

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but one of the things I struggled with
was feeling very, very useless.

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My first GoodGym run after my mum's death 
became very important to me.

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It wasn't about exercising
to make myself feel better.

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It wasn't even really about
seeing my friends.

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I think there was a need to take all that
negative energy and chaos inside me

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and know it could be used
for something positive.

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That evening, we were running to bring
an old community space back into use -

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ripping up carpets,
repairing beaten up walls.

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My vivid memory of that evening is,
first-off, not being very good at it;

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being covered head to toe
in plaster and dust;

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laughing a huge amount;

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and most importantly to me,
just feeling useful again.

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You know, in a lot of ways,
my real GoodGym journey started that day.

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As I increased my running,
now I was increasing my volunteering.

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I started to do jobs
for old people in the community,

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mainly clearing gardens
or moving furniture.

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I came to appreciate
how a simple act of kindness

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can completely transform a person's
sense of self-worth and identity.

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And then I got matched with a coach.

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An absolutely beautiful,
wonderful woman called Marian,

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who taught me running up a massive hill
to deliver a TV Weekly Magazine

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was far more motivating to me
than how chiseled my stomach looked.

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In all honesty, I've never been fitter,
happier, or more confident

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than when running to a community project,
helping someone with a task,

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or visiting my coach.

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And you know what? I've not completely
given up on those abs of steel.

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(Laughter)

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But I'm confident now
that if I'm going to find them,

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it's not going to be
in a weird room full of machines,

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but it might just be amongst
all the people I've connected with

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and who make me feel
like I mean something.

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Thank you.

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(Cheers) (Applause)