WEBVTT

00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:12.260
I've been thinking about gym memberships,

00:00:12.260 --> 00:00:16.147
in particular, all the gym memberships
I've underused in my life.

00:00:16.977 --> 00:00:20.430
I'm definitely one of those people
who likes the idea of being fit

00:00:20.430 --> 00:00:24.259
far more than the actual
reality of getting fit.

00:00:24.259 --> 00:00:28.030
In my youth, I really, really
wanted Brad Pitt's abs.

00:00:28.030 --> 00:00:29.360
(Laughter)

00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:33.040
These days, it's Jason Statham's
chiselled physique.

00:00:33.040 --> 00:00:36.369
Every now and then, I'll get
all excited about getting buff

00:00:36.369 --> 00:00:38.742
and sign up to my local gym.

00:00:38.742 --> 00:00:44.201
"This is it," I tell myself, "from now on,
I'm going to be fit, healthy and happy."

00:00:45.281 --> 00:00:47.130
I do not have Brad Pitt's abs,

00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:49.711
and I only have Jason Statham's hairline.

00:00:49.711 --> 00:00:50.900
(Laughter)

00:00:50.900 --> 00:00:55.321
The sad truth is every time I've signed up
to a gym, I've barely attended.

00:00:55.321 --> 00:00:59.771
When I have gone, I've found it
a truly miserable experience.

00:01:00.481 --> 00:01:03.200
And I think I've boiled that down
to two main reasons:

00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:06.139
connection and purpose.

00:01:07.179 --> 00:01:10.920
I find the gym a particularly
isolating environment.

00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:15.592
Here I am, surrounded by all these people
I have at least one thing in common with,

00:01:15.592 --> 00:01:18.810
and I couldn't feel
more distant from them.

00:01:18.810 --> 00:01:22.871
Almost every machine caters
for one person only, can't be shared;

00:01:23.371 --> 00:01:26.155
we all have headphones in
to block each other out;

00:01:26.155 --> 00:01:28.180
and we actively avoid eye contact,

00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:32.042
never mind strike up conversation
for fear of looking weird or creepy.

00:01:32.882 --> 00:01:37.090
That sounds more like my morning commute
than it has any right to.

00:01:37.870 --> 00:01:41.191
Then there's the act of exercising
in an artificial environment.

00:01:41.191 --> 00:01:43.290
Lifting things that don't need lifting,

00:01:43.290 --> 00:01:47.262
and generating all this energy that has
no meaning or impact on anyone else.

00:01:47.262 --> 00:01:48.822
(Laughter)

00:01:48.822 --> 00:01:52.360
The treadmill is the perfect embodiment
of my life at its worst:

00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:55.859
going nowhere fast
and paying for the privelage.

00:01:55.859 --> 00:01:57.730
(Laughter)

00:01:57.730 --> 00:02:00.150
It's been said that
if exercise were a pill,

00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:01.960
it would be prescribed to everybody,

00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:04.970
such are the wonderous
health and wellbeing benefits.

00:02:04.970 --> 00:02:08.551
That may be the case
but I still find it hard to swallow,

00:02:08.551 --> 00:02:10.460
and I don't think I'm alone.

00:02:11.220 --> 00:02:14.291
In 2018, gym memberships in the UK

00:02:14.291 --> 00:02:17.991
rose to nearly ten million
across 7,000 locations.

00:02:17.991 --> 00:02:20.553
However we still have
a physical activity challenge

00:02:20.553 --> 00:02:22.166
with around a third of UK adults

00:02:22.166 --> 00:02:25.506
not getting the miminum
recommended levels of exercise.

00:02:26.246 --> 00:02:30.455
We know we ought to be fitter,
many of us even want to be.

00:02:30.835 --> 00:02:32.760
We just don't enjoy it.

00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:34.439
So what if the answer

00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:37.890
isn't more ways for us to exercise
and feel bad about ourselves,

00:02:37.890 --> 00:02:42.091
but instead more ways for us to connect
and feel good about ourselves?

00:02:42.091 --> 00:02:45.260
This is where GoodGym came into my life.

00:02:45.260 --> 00:02:50.137
GoodGym is a community of runners
who get fit by doing good.

00:02:50.607 --> 00:02:54.709
We run in groups to help
community projects such as city farms,

00:02:54.709 --> 00:02:57.460
community centres or food banks.

00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:00.265
We undertake missions
for older neighbours,

00:03:00.265 --> 00:03:04.371
helping out with tasks around the home
such as changing a lightbulb.

00:03:04.791 --> 00:03:07.230
And we visit isolated older people,

00:03:07.230 --> 00:03:10.079
giving them an opportunity
to meet a younger local runner,

00:03:10.079 --> 00:03:12.430
and in turn, become that runner's coach.

00:03:13.410 --> 00:03:15.350
GoodGym makes the act of getting fit


00:03:15.350 --> 00:03:18.710
a way to be both social
and make a difference.

00:03:19.660 --> 00:03:23.789
It has grown from a small project
in Tower Hamlets back in 2009,

00:03:23.789 --> 00:03:27.760
to a UK-wide social movement
with around 1000 people every week,

00:03:27.760 --> 00:03:30.311
getting active and doing good.

00:03:30.311 --> 00:03:33.059
Be that helping older neighbours
feel more connected,

00:03:33.059 --> 00:03:35.544
setting up beds in a homeless shelter,

00:03:35.544 --> 00:03:38.490
building toilet platforms
for water voles -

00:03:38.490 --> 00:03:40.659
yep, that exists apparently,
which is great! -

00:03:40.659 --> 00:03:41.614
(Laughter)

00:03:41.614 --> 00:03:44.351
and shovelling a lot of compost.

00:03:45.031 --> 00:03:47.152
What drives the social movement

00:03:47.152 --> 00:03:50.509
are the stories behind
everybody who takes part.

00:03:50.509 --> 00:03:53.621
We're not just missing
something in our exercise.

00:03:53.621 --> 00:03:57.102
Quite often we're missing something
in the way we live our lives as well -

00:03:57.102 --> 00:04:00.629
a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose.

00:04:00.939 --> 00:04:04.529
My GoodGym journey started
six years ago in Camden.

00:04:04.529 --> 00:04:08.239
Running each week to a different
community project, making new friends,

00:04:08.239 --> 00:04:10.792
and acheiving ever further distances.

00:04:11.382 --> 00:04:14.583
I used to think that five kilometres
was the absolute furthest

00:04:14.583 --> 00:04:17.180
a human being could
or should travel by foot.

00:04:17.180 --> 00:04:18.831
(Laughter)

00:04:18.831 --> 00:04:22.472
Within six months, I'd completed
my first half marathon,

00:04:22.472 --> 00:04:24.949
supported not just
by my fellow GoodGymers,

00:04:24.949 --> 00:04:28.213
but by all the projects we'd supported
along the way as well.

00:04:28.773 --> 00:04:31.109
Then my world shook.

00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:34.271
All of a sudden,
my mum became very, very ill,

00:04:34.271 --> 00:04:38.220
very, very quickly, and she passed away.

00:04:39.350 --> 00:04:42.309
I felt a lot of horrible
things at that time,

00:04:42.309 --> 00:04:47.421
but one of the things I struggled with
was feeling very, very useless.

00:04:48.561 --> 00:04:52.872
My first GoodGym run after my mum's death 
became very important to me.

00:04:52.872 --> 00:04:55.901
It wasn't about exercising
to make myself feel better.

00:04:55.901 --> 00:04:58.671
It wasn't even really about
seeing my friends.

00:04:59.101 --> 00:05:03.561
I think there was a need to take all that
negative energy and chaos inside me

00:05:03.561 --> 00:05:06.242
and know it could be used
for something positive.

00:05:06.872 --> 00:05:11.130
That evening, we were running to bring
an old community space back into use -

00:05:11.130 --> 00:05:14.030
ripping up carpets,
repairing beaten up walls.

00:05:14.741 --> 00:05:19.680
My vivid memory of that evening is,
first-off, not being very good at it;

00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:23.231
being covered head to toe
in plaster and dust;

00:05:23.231 --> 00:05:25.590
laughing a huge amount;

00:05:25.590 --> 00:05:29.982
and most importantly to me,
just feeling useful again.

00:05:30.882 --> 00:05:34.341
You know, in a lot of ways,
my real GoodGym journey started that day.

00:05:34.881 --> 00:05:38.690
As I increased my running,
now I was increasing my volunteering.

00:05:38.690 --> 00:05:42.157
I started to do jobs
for old people in the community,

00:05:42.157 --> 00:05:44.970
mainly clearing gardens
or moving furniture.

00:05:46.186 --> 00:05:48.742
I came to appreciate
how a simple act of kindness

00:05:48.742 --> 00:05:52.870
can completely transform a person's
sense of self-worth and identity.

00:05:53.740 --> 00:05:55.691
And then I got matched with a coach.

00:05:55.691 --> 00:05:59.008
An absolutely beautiful,
wonderful woman called Marian,

00:05:59.008 --> 00:06:03.420
who taught me running up a massive hill
to deliver a TV Weekly Magazine

00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:07.270
was far more motivating to me
than how chiseled my stomach looked.

00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:12.801
In all honesty, I've never been fitter,
happier, or more confident

00:06:12.801 --> 00:06:16.530
than when running to a community project,
helping someone with a task,

00:06:16.530 --> 00:06:18.691
or visiting my coach.

00:06:19.321 --> 00:06:22.740
And you know what? I've not completely
given up on those abs of steel.

00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:23.599
(Laughter)

00:06:23.599 --> 00:06:26.150
But I'm confident now
that if I'm going to find them,

00:06:26.150 --> 00:06:29.620
it's not going to be
in a weird room full of machines,

00:06:29.620 --> 00:06:32.801
but it might just be amongst
all the people I've connected with

00:06:32.801 --> 00:06:35.322
and who make me feel
like I mean something.

00:06:35.601 --> 00:06:36.804
Thank you.

00:06:37.081 --> 00:06:40.530
(Cheers) (Applause)