LUKE MARSDEN: how the gym work-out has knocked years off me

I used to laugh and ask myself does that actually work? I’ll get to the answer by the end of this column.

At the start of the year I documented the start of my "gym journey” at the newly revamped Fitness First Wigan. Looking back I was a total gym novice: I couldn’t even use the treadmill properly.

Now I’m not saying I’m suddenly Joe Wicks and about to launch my own cookbook (how many different ways can you actually cook chicken?) but I’ve never felt fitter.

According to the Fitness First app my bio age is now my actual age(or soon will be) 35. When I first started in January, the app put my biological age at 48 so I’d say this is substantial progress.

I’m not going to sugar-coat it though: the gym is hard work and that dread of going that you hear people talk about is very real.

It’s easier to stay at home, it’s even easier to pour a gin and tonic after work and sit in the garden if we get a few minutes of sunshine. Surely no rational person would willingly choose to do a 30-minute high intensity Trax class where an instructor screams “you need to go faster!” on an assaults bike?

I can happily confirm I’m that rational person and I love it!

As you enter or leave the changing rooms at Fitness First Wigan on the wall in big black text reads “Don’t stop keep it movin.” I smile every time I read it as I’m walking past rather than standing still.

But whether intended to be motivational or not, it works not only for the gym which I can already see a physical and mental difference so far but for everything that’s going on with the world right now, we don’t need to stop we need to keep movin’.