A four-minute workout? Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, not when it’s a breath-taking, pulse-throbbing, sweat- pumping interval style workout designed by Juliet Murphy as part of Irish Country Living’s four week fitness series.

The idea is to perform eight exercises to the best of your ability for 20 seconds each, with a 10 second break in between: hence the term “four minute workout”, though according to Juliet’s plan, you should perform the workout two to three times for the best results. She has mixed and matched a variety of cardio and toning exercises- high knees, ab curls, jumping jacks, squats, a plank, knee drives, bicycle curls and lunges- for a fast and furious total body workout, a video of which is online here at www.irishcountryliving/tv

The beauty of the programme is you don’t need to go to the gym: all you really need is a mat or a towel and a bit of space. I actually find the high knees the most tiring of all the exercises as I’m really trying to push myself, but everything is manageable in 20 second bursts. I manage to perform the workout three times, and can really feel the benefits afterwards. It’s a perfect solution for when you are short of time, or if the weather stops you going out for a run.

Speaking of which, this week I switched to four minutes jogging/one minute walking, which is actually week 2 of the beginner’s programme. I did feel the “step up” from the 3:2 ratio last week, but pushed through... until a shower of hailstones put a stop to my gallop at 3.5 kilometres. I’m going to try to complete 5km tonight, and hopefully the weather will be a little kinder.

My BPM this week has improved a few notches to 65BPM, and the food diary is helping me to be more aware of what I am eating, which I think is half the battle, but with a weekend away coming up, it may be hard to avoid temptation!

I’d love to know how other readers are getting on with the programme. Get in touch or email mmoynihan@farmersjournal.ie Remember, we’re in this together!

Start the fitness challenege by following these links:

Week one

Week two