Why walking groups for men are exploding – and it’s not just for the fitness element

It started with just 5 mates but has exploded to 800 in just seven months. This is why young and old are getting a very positive extra health benefit that has nothing to do with fitness.

It began with five mates who decided to catch up for a walk and talk back in September last year.

Just seven months later, the fledgling Adelaide Men’s Walking Group has exploded to 800 members, with branches to the north, north-east and south of the city and plans to expand into the west.

“The idea just started to bloom. Every day it’s growing, every single day,” said John Seve, a wedding and real estate photographer who founded the group with his brother, Timani.

“I’m enjoying seeing the new faces that become returning faces.”

Timani – who creates TikTok videos of the group’s weekly walks that are going viral online, with one racking up 500,000 views – said he was blown away by the group’s instant success.

“I think it’s great that it’s getting out there and has grown so quickly,” said Timani, a support worker for children with autism.

Adelaide Men's Walking group organiser Matthew McCurry with founders Timani and John Seve. Newton. Picture: Emma Brasier

“People are sharing (the videos) with their friends. It’s just become hundreds and hundreds of guys wanting to get involved.”

Group organiser Matthew McCurry said the group had tapped into a need for “connection to other men that is easy to step into”.

“The instant success can’t be a surprise to us because each of us was looking for something but how quickly it’s become popular has been. But it still shows us there just wasn’t anything in that space,” said Mr McCurry, who is a Premier’s Excellence Award-winning principal of Hospital School SA.

“Our group is not complicated. This is for all men, it’s just really easy, laid back. We go for a walk and when we sit down for coffee afterwards we hear the spectrum of conversation.”

Mr McCurry, who taught John Seve and his brother, Timani, at high school back in the 2010s, said members ranged in age from teenagers to an 87-year-old, who discovered the group on TikTok.

“He said to me ‘I’m all on my own. I’ve got no-one, I don’t have a partner, I don’t have family and sometimes it gets really lonely’. And his voice broke,” Mr McCurry said.

“And I just said to him, ‘do you know what mate, we’re just going to walk and talk, that’s all we’re going to do’.”

Another man in his 30s confessed that joining the group had been his “last attempt at life”.

The movement – which has been applauded by popular influencer and podcaster Abbie Chatfield – meets at 7am at Mawson Lakes and Seacliff every Saturday and Thorndon Park Reservoir every Sunday.

The Adelaide Men’s Walking Group has exploded to 800 members, with branches to the north, north-east and south of the city and plans to expand into the west. Picture: Emma Brasier

They’re part of a trend in men’s groups that are enjoying a meteoric rise in South Australia.

Wellteam, an Adelaide-based business that provides emotional and physical support for men, now has members all over the world.

Troy Flower, a former company executive who started Wellteam during Covid, said it was tapping into a need to provide support and community for connection-starved, time-poor modern men.

Wellteam holds regular events in and around Adelaide for men to catch up over healthy activities. Picture: Supplied

Wellteam’s paying members complete healthy habit-building “bio-hacks” – including physical and diet-based challenges, mindfulness practices and even attending doctor’s check-ups – that they then log and earn points for completing. They all compete against each other for the highest score.

“There’s so much pressure on men to do and do and do but Wellteam just creates a space where they can be,” Mr Flower said.

He said Wellteam organised group events, including weekly walks around the city and a trip to Nepal last year, when members cycled the Annapurna mountain circuit.