GoodGym Turns Good Deeds Into Workouts. A UK Study Links It to Less Loneliness

People who run, walk or cycle to help isolated older people and local projects through the UK charity GoodGym reported less mental ill-health and loneliness than people who had signed up but not yet volunteered, according to a study announced by King’s College London on Oct. 14. The research shows a link, not proof that volunteering caused the improvement.¹²

The study appeared in the journal Social Science & Medicine. Its authors are Dr Maria Cotofan of King’s College London and Christian Krekel and Ekaterina Oparina of the London School of Economics.¹⁴

The study matters beyond one charity. The King’s release puts the cost of mental ill-health to the UK at almost £120 billion (about $160 billion) a year. The authors suggest that programs like this one could be a cost-effective way to support people with milder mental health conditions.¹

A workout with a destination

GoodGym was founded in 2009. Its members get their exercise on the way to a job: keeping an isolated older person company, or pitching in on a practical community project.¹

The charity says its members have helped more than 58,000 people with more than 383,000 tasks. Most fitness routines end where they started. These end at someone’s door.¹

Related: Breakfast, Sleep and Exercise Linked to Better Stress Coping in College Students

What the researchers found

The team analyzed survey data from more than 2,800 participants collected between February 2023 and March 2024. WellNation, which reported on the study, gives the exact sample as 2,856 respondents.¹²

Regular participation was linked to a significant reduction in mental ill-health. Volunteers also reported less loneliness and a stronger sense of trust, connection and belonging where they live.¹ According to WellNation, participation was associated with an average 0.43-point improvement in life satisfaction.²

“This is one of the first studies to investigate how participating in sports and volunteering via a large-scale nationwide programme relates to participant mental health.”

That is how the research team described the work in the King’s College London release.¹

The limits

This was an observational study, so it found associations and cannot show that the volunteering itself caused the improvements.²

The comparison group was people who had signed up for GoodGym but hadn’t yet volunteered. Anyone who has bought a gym membership in January knows that group well. Because people chose for themselves whether to show up, that choice could affect the results.¹

The study also looked at one organized program. It does not show that any walk plus a good deed would bring the same results.

What the findings suggest

• Occasional still counted. Even infrequent participation was linked to measurable improvements.¹
• The benefits lingered. The mental health gains were still there more than six months after a participant’s last volunteering task.¹²
• It wasn’t limited to one kind of person. The benefits applied to men and women regardless of income or age group.¹
• It may be good value. By the researchers’ own calculation, the program’s wellbeing benefits outweighed its operating costs by at least 40 to 1.¹²

A prescription for jogging somewhere useful

The authors point to social prescribing, in which a doctor refers a patient to a community activity rather than, or alongside, a pill or a waiting list. They suggest programs such as GoodGym could fit that role for people with milder mental health conditions.¹

“At scale, programmes like this could offer a simple and practical way to improve wellbeing while strengthening social connection in communities,” Krekel said, as quoted by WellNation.²