I generally keep myself in good nick, but even the best of us who are happy to train independently need some help. A summer of sitting in pub gardens necking pints, and a not-so-strict diet – too much bread, cheese and scoffing of chips at 2am, we all do it – has resulted in me needing to lose some body fat and get my body feeling not only leaner, but stronger, too. Just running and spinning just hasn’t been cutting it, so I needed to put some weights and resistance training back into my schedule – with some expert guidance, in the form of Gymbox VPT, Richie Byrne.

Having to face up to making changes isn’t easy. And stepping into that first session with a new trainer is always riddled with some anxiety: “Am I really unfit? Will he laugh at me?” Having been going through a bit of a…