*The following contains gifted products*

I started home gyming somewhere around 10/11. It was pure abs. I was doing every variation of a crunch I could think of and I was loving it. Equipment slowly followed as each year went by. I got an ab roller, an exercise ball, a mini trampoline and I eventually graduated to dumbbells. These times I had the likes of The Rock, Farooq and John Cena as body inspiration and I had no idea what training was required to get there. (This is before I had internet at home).

I was there doing full body workouts every day of the week, until my body literally couldn’t take it anymore. I can’t remember when/how exactly I learned more productive ways of training, but as soon as I saw it directly correlated to results, I couldn’t get enough.

That didn’t mean it was actually working though.

Now I know so much more, it’s so obvious why my results were so slow:

• I wasn’t eating properly
• I was doing too much cardio
• I was doing way too much volume
• I was doing far too many muscles in one session
• I didn’t have the right equipment

I always thought the last one was the reason why I wasn’t getting anywhere, but couldn’t see that the other factors were just as detrimental to my potential. I would eventually catch up once I got my own place and had the space/money/vision to make my own home gym. Even though I have all this stuff now, there’s something about the bodyweight training lifestyle which is just so alluring.

As an early teen, I spent a lot of time at my local country park. I remember going there on a Sunday morning and seeing a guy using the climbing frame to do calisthenics. These times I couldn’t do a single solid pullup, but seeing that made me imagine what I’d be like at 18 – coming down to the park to bang out reps on all this free equipment to achieve my dream body.

We’re 10+ years later and that dream body never arrived and I was never confident enough to go to a park and use whatever equipment they had to work on my back, biceps, triceps and core for real workouts. What’s even more annoying now is that very same country park I used to go to back then now has proper outdoor exercise equipment! However, I’m happy with my workout routines these days.

I might be fully converted to the gym life now, but when Hollie’s got the car and I’ve got to kill time with the kids, I might just find myself at one of our nearby parks on the climbing frame and the rest of the equipment getting in some bonus reps in – because I just can’t help it.

As you can see, I opted for the new M&S Goodmove drop for my latest sessions. Their tops and shorts are super stretchy and breathable, so ideal whether you’re wearing them for cardio and just squeezing out reps with your favourite exercise. I was properly running low on gym tops, so I’m buzzing that I’ve got a fresh batch to keep me covered over the tail end of summer.

Check the rest of the M&S Goodmove collection here.

*Listen to South Central Cartel*