I’ve been on a bit of a health kick over the last year. I gave up Diet Coke in January (drank £20,000 worth of the stuff and have the expensive fake teeth to prove it), went on a food detox and sorted out my heartburn and IBS (I STILL need to do a proper blog about Claudia) and now (and you’ll need to sit down for this)… I’ve been exercising.

I’ve always wanted to be fit. Well, that’s a lie. I used to want to exercise to be thin, but after the nutritional programme I was on in the summer, I’ve learned that exercise and eating healthily is important – regardless of the weight situation, and linking the two doesn’t help.

I’ve tried every fad going and never managed to keep it up for more than a week or two. I was a member of a gym until I started with the LRG Fitness programme, but never went, wasting nearly £40 a month. I’ve bought fancy trainers and an iPod to do the Couch to 5k NHS programme, but just never kept it up (though other people do really well if you have no cash at all and want to try getting fit).

What is LRG Fitness?

As much as I’m really not up on my fitness crazes (my copies of Women’s Health must be going to the wrong house! ha), I can’t help but have heard about HIIT exercises. All my fit and beautiful friends in London are going to classes which cost, and I kid you not, around £20 – £30 a time.

HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a training technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods. This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time. Nina, who is the main trainer along with her husband Ben, says that these short workouts of 20 mins are more effective than running for an hour.

OK – so LRG fitness is an online HIIT programme which gives you the personal training experience, but in your house (because no-one at the gym wants to see me sweat and swear) for a monthly fee of £20 a month.

It’s run by Nina and Ben, who are in the videos (read about them here) who are friendly and make the videos really fun. Oh, they’re on Facebook and Twitter too.

What’s it like?

Let me set the scene here… I’m SUPER unfit (well, was…. well kinda still am). I can’t run down the road, can’t do one of those girls press ups and because I’m not a small girl, find it hard to move my body about.

Although each exercise ‘class’ is 20 mins, it’s really not easy. I couldn’t do hardly any of it in the beginning. And my god, THE SWEAT and the pain the next three days. But Nina checks in with you all the time (there are also comments too where you can ask questions), and she just told me to do whatever I could.

Because each exercise session is so short and filled with smaller short workouts – it’s OK. It doesn’t get boring and it honestly goes so quickly because they give you no time to think too much about how awful exercise is! ha.

I’ve nearly been doing it for three months, and yeah… not managed to do it three or four times a week which is ideal but always happily come back to it if I’ve been lazy or busy. And the other day, I managed A PROPER PRESS UP (and I’m built a bit like a T-Rex). I’m starting to feel fit for the first time in my life and its brilliant.

A free month you say?

First off, I reckon its more than worth the £20 a month, because not only do you get a new workout every two weeks which changes things up, but you also get sent a blog in your inbox with recipes and tips, as well as Nina, being there whenever you want to ask her a question (or to give you a kick up the arse if she’s not heard anything from you).

They also have monthly family videos, where their super cute kids get involved if you plan on exercising as a family. That’s £20 a month too.

Ok, the free month. To celebrate their first year, they’re giving away a free month when you sign up. You don’t have to commit to any time more than that, and can cancel whenever you like – but reckon you’ll love it.

I kind of figure that if you want to get fit, and hate the idea of the gym or can’t afford your own personal trainer – there’s nothing to lose by trying out LRG fitness.

Are you going to try out the free month? Let me know in the comments and we can keep each other motivated.

* I got a free trial of the programme for my honest opinion*