Most of us would love to be fitter, and although we plan to do something about it, more often than not, we don't actually do anything. Even those who do take the plunge and join a gym find they make use of it far less than they had intended. For some, the ideal solution is a personal trainer - a fitness expert who will put you through your paces. But does this one-to-one fitness regime work? Encouraged by his wife Sarah, Bradford multi-millionaire entrepreneur and professional pianist Sir Ernest Hall signed up with personal trainer Paul Mitchell. Helen Mead asked them about their partnership.

THREE TIMES a week for the past four months Sir Ernest Hall has packed his sports bag and left his Bradford home for Fitness First, a health club based in Halifax's Dean Clough arts, industry and leisure complex.

There he is met by Paul Mitchell, whose job it is to get people fit. And it is a job he does very well indeed, as Sir Ernest - at 69, the oldest of his 40 clients - testifies.

"Before I came, aerobically I was not very fit. I did nothing before - the only exercise I've regularly done is piano playing."

But the four months have seen enormous improvements. He is now able to shift 140 kilos on the horizontal leg press, compared with 60 when he first gave it a go. And his so-called aerobic capacity has improved. He started out at 105 heart beats a minute on the jogging machine, and can now to coast along at 120 plus.

Paul is not a hard taskmaster, Sir Ernest is keen to point out, and each session he works towards what, as a professional, he believes are the limitations of each individual. Says Paul: "We have rough guidelines relating to age, size and gender. And I set targets."

Adds Sir Ernest: "There is nothing macho about Paul. I do what he tells me to do, but he's not out to make me feel inadequate, he's very encouraging. I've got confidence in him, in that he knows what I should do and how I should do it."

Paul has not only educated Sir Ernest as to the workings of each muscle in the body, but also in the fitness function of each piece of equipment, some of which would not look out of place in a high-tech torture chamber.

Says the businessman and co-founder of Dean Clough: "At first I came to the health club on my own and it was a complete failure because there is such a bewildering array of machines. I didn't know what to do."

The pair have a rapport, chatting about anything and everything as Sir Ernest works up a sweat on the rowing machine.

Says Paul, who also works with people in their homes: "It does help if you get on with the person, and we hit it off straight away. When Sir Ernest is on the rowing machine for 15 minutes it would be boring if we didn't chat."

The hourly sessions begin and end with a series of stretching exercises, and leave Sir Ernest feeling great. Sarah, herself a member of the health club, has noticed a change, both in her husband's physique and his energy levels. "He is not as tired." It was Sarah who provided the impetus to Sir Ernest's decision to enrol with a personal trainer. She bought him a book on fitness by polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and it had a marked effect.

It instilled into Sir Ernest the belief that "if you are going to get the best out of life you have to do more than sit back. You must maintain a level of fitness that enables you to enjoy and make the most of life."

Paul's regular work-outs - particularly those aligned to the upper body - have even helped with Sir Ernest's piano playing, as certain muscles in his arms have gained strength, and he hopes to see further improvement.

And the composer believes his new-found fitness, which he sees literally as a new lease of life, will be of indirect benefit to his 14-year-old son Leopold. "I'd hate to be on my death bed, and it be a consequence of being an idle slob that he is left without a father."

A busy man, with many commitments, Sir Ernest rarely misses an appointment with Paul. As the shrewd entrepreneur, who grew up in Bradford's back streets, adds: "It costs me money, and one of the things I could not do is fail to turn up!"

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.