AS far as dodgy excuses go, it’s up there with ‘the dog ate my homework’.

Keen to get back into the swing of things after the Easter break, I’d gone to the gym on Wednesday evening after work... only to unzip my bag in the changing room to discover I hadn't brought any shorts.

Needless to say that was enough motivation to scuttle off home and give it up as a bad job for the night.

To assuage my guilt over the workout-that-never-was, or shortsgate as I’ve imaginatively titled it, I clocked up successive sessions over the next two days – appropriately equipped on both occasions, thankfully.

Michael Hodgson, the ever-patient Dolphin Centre instructor who has been coaxing me through the early stages of my efforts to get in shape, looked suitably unimpressed as I ‘fessed up about shortsgate when I bumped into him the next day.

No doubt I’ll be made to pay for my forgetfulness at a future personal training session with the lad.

It wasn’t until the day after shortsgate, when I was telling the centre’s sales manager Lisa Soderman about what a fool I’d been, that she mentioned two words that could has spared my blushes on Wednesday: lost property. Ah well.

Attire-related mishaps aside, though, it has been going pretty well. Thursday was a textbook hour-long session getting used to the new routine that Michael has set for me.

As well as plenty of cardio and a few weights, it also includes some full-body exercise like planks and kneeling press-ups (yes, kneeling. Stop sniggering, you lot).

Planks are great for strengthening your core muscles. You start on your elbows and knees, straightening your legs so your weight is supported by just your forearms and the balls of your feet.

Serious plankers can hold this position for close to a minute, but I’m doing a modest three planks at 15 seconds a piece and that will do me for know, cheers.

Friday’s session was a bit more of a weird one – our website editor, Mike, decided to tag along and take some photos of me as I worked out, for the dual purpose of building up the stock of images for the blog and getting used to his new camera.

I’d already had one embarrassing photo-shoot at the gym and thought that was my lot, but apparently not.

This was a new low, I think we got about four usable images, most of which were of me sporting a fetching mid-workout grimace. Never again.