Sophieâ™s trainer

Couch Potatoes

"Choose a training programme that will work your body in one session. Start off with sessions no longer than 25 minutes and make sure you do a five-minute warm-up of walking or jogging, then a whole-body sport you liked at school, such as badminton or swimming. Or go to a gym and ask their best trainer to give you a 12-stage exercise programme that covers every body part and finish with five minutes’ cardio."
Weekenders

"Work out a routine that will fit in with your lifestyle. Get a programme that revolves around you — if you can’t manage to get out of bed at 7.30am to go to work, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get to the gym at 6am. January wonders are February disasters — if you work out six days a week in January, by February you’ll come out in a terrible rash. Be realistic."

Fanatics

"Close the gap between your strengths and your weaknesses. The fitter people are, the greater the imbalance between their strengths, such as stamina, and their weak points, such as inflexibility. This gap makes people vulnerable to injury. Sophie Dahl, like all my clients, follows 22 exercises in sequence with each exercise designed to offset any negative effect of the previous exercise. This creates true fitness — a body able to perform over a range of requirements. You can learn about counterbalancing stretches and exercises from a good trainer."