I was a sceptic.  I don’t work out, I hate the gym, I hate machines. I am an outside person. I run, I cycle, I surf, I longboard, I snowboard. But the Rooboard arrived in the post regardless and I knew I would have to open it eventually and try.

Today, finally I pulled out the contents of the quirky bright green bag. Inside was a fitness deck and two balance pads. No instructions, but the design reeled me in, so I went onto the website and clicked into the You Tube tutorials. Play. First up, the plank. Pause. I thought my core was hard as nails, how wrong I was.  Every exercise you do on the floor, the intensity is amped up twofold when done on the Rooboard, because you have to balance yourself at the same time. My balance was embarrassing at the start, just getting on the board to begin the workout seemed like enough exercise for me. But as ever, I endured and eventually started to feel like I was getting somewhere.

And then I found the surf workout and I was sold. As I don’t live on a beach, my time in the surf is sporadic, I only get out amongst the waves when I get time, but life is always getting in the way. However, if I can integrate this surf workout with the Rooboard into my life than the next time I get out on the water I won’t have to waste the first hour on the waves re-mastering the pop up and tiring myself out before I get to the good stuff.

I quickly found that I was warming to it because it didn’t feel like a work out. By laying it out on the floor in your room you can do short bursts of work on it, say do five pop ups while you wait for the kettle to boil or your dinner cook. It fits into your lifestyle. At first glance it is a bit pricey at £39.99, but when you think about it, its way cheaper than a gym membership,  its portable, plus you can do a ton with it; squats, planks, press-ups , hand walkouts, it’s a pretty long list. The fear of losing balance and bursting my head off the ground is the only fault I can find, but hey we love the danger  in the extreme don’t we?!

Website: www.rooboard.com

Twitter: @RBFitnessDeck