I THOUGHT last week’s session was tough, but this week my personal trainer appeared to have gone to the school of parade ground Army sergeants.

I have been under the impression the softly, softly approach from Tom Ellacott at Meadowlands Leisure Centre gym in Tavistock would continue.

How wrong was I! Last week I was unprepared for the tough upper body workout Tom devised. He rightly, concentrated on back, chest and arms because my running race on the roads round Looe was too much for one of my legs and I pulled a muscle.

And this week certainly started off gradually with some workouts I had done before, which included holding two weights with lunges, lying on a bench lifting weights, and ‘rowing’ using the giant elastic bands (resistance bands) to exercise my arms and back.

I also worked on my legs on a machine on which I was sitting - I pushed up and lowered weights which rested on my lower legs. Tom oversaw the repetitions. He counted (eight per exercise) with a short rest in between and advised on my proper posture.

He said: ‘The key to all these exercises is to do them gradually and not jerk or rush and to hold the weights briefly in position. The right posture throughout the exercise is important, so you are working the right areas you want to concentrate on and to avoid injuries.’

After this relatively benign session, he cracked down and I was told to do as many eight-repetitions as I could manage, of a seqence of pull-ups, push-downs, lowering myself while standing on a step and sit-ups while lying down in ten minutes. That was the toughest intense exercise I’d ever done and and my legs were so wobbly I could hardly stand at the end. Tom felt sorry for me enough to modify my sit-ups and pull-ups to make them doable. I’ve never seen him grin so much after my sessions as after that torture!