Lucy Wyndham-Read | 'I hated sport at school'

Two days before our interview, lifestyle and fitness influencer Lucy Wyndham-Read hits one million followers on YouTube. "I’m still having to pinch myself. It’s a dream come true," she tells me when we meet for coffee in the bar of a swanky London hotel.

While 48-year-old Wyndham-Read has more than 25 years’ experience in the fitness industry, her huge online audience has been amassed relatively recently. After discovering social media, she built up a respectable 250,000 followers over several years, but then hit on the concept of the "7-Minute Workout". In our increasingly time-pressed world, it has proved a storming success and is now available on her channel in many different iterations, depending on which part of the body you want to work. Her "7-Minute Workout to Lose Belly Fat" in particular, has been a monster hit, racking up an extraordinary 43 million views since Wyndham-Read first posted it in January 2018.

When I posted it I was in my PJs at home, with cats jumping all over the computer as I was trying to upload it. I knew it was a good workout but I had no idea it would get such a response

Now she is bringing out a book: The 7-Minute Body Plan: Real Results in 7 Days: Quick Workouts and Simple Recipes to Become Your Best You. It contains seven exercise routines; each one of seven minutes’ duration and containing seven moves, detailed through step-by-step illustrations which feature women of all ages, shapes and sizes. Using zero equipment and doable in the smallest of home or work spaces, the routines can be attempted by anyone at any level of fitness, and are easily adaptable for those with injuries, or even for wheelchair users. The book also contains tips and case studies, along with uncomplicated and inexpensive recipes for smoothies, snacks, breakfasts, lunches and dinners. The food bit is optional but combining it with the workouts is highly recommended. "When you eat healthily, you have more energy and you want to work out. It’s such a positive spiral," says Wyndham-Read. And as for her exercise routines, almost all of which are exclusive to the book, she wants people to try them and think: "Actually I can do these for the rest of my life.

A woman of substance

While each new year brings a new fitness guru, it’s impossible to be cynical about Wyndham-Read’s mission to get us "shaping up and feeling our best selves" when you hear her inspiring story. She may cut a petite and glamorous figure in person, but she’s clearly something of a maverick in the fitness world, and also a woman of no mean grit and determination. "I hated sport at school. I was also shy, had no confidence and was really dyslexic. So I struggled. But even though I would hide myself away, and do anything to get out of games lessons because I was always the last one to be picked, I still felt there was this strong, confident person inside of me, bursting to get out. So when I left school at 18 I thought, I need a challenge. I’m going to join the army."

Wyndham-Read’s creative, arty parents—her father is a folk singer, her mother an artist—were initially horrified by her decision. But their daughter was adamant. She went on to spend five years in the army, becoming extremely fit and acquiring a steely "can-do" attitude in the process. "I’m not saying I was a great soldier—I was a bit like Private Benjamin, to be honest. But it was hugely empowering and I met some amazing people."

One of them was her beloved fiancé Mike, and this is where the story turns dark: Mike was subsequently killed in a shooting accident. As one of few women in the forces, Wyndham-Read was already the subject of bullying, and after this horrific turn of events, the bullying worsened. Effectively she was told to "man up" and get on with it after only two weeks’ compassionate leave. "They sent me on an arms course to learn about the same type of
gun as the one he was shot with. I was also doing dental nursing at the time and the sergeant major I worked for deliberately left my fiancé’s dental records out for me to find on my first day back. It was really, really tough and the only thing that got me through the grief was my family and throwing myself into fitness." Unsurprisingly, Wyndham- Read came out of the army soon afterwards, but she has no regrets. "It was a real turning point for me."

After leaving the army, she began a new career as a personal trainer. But it wasn’t long before she began to question the fitness industry’s attitude to the people it purports to want to help. "I remember having this interview at a lovely and exclusive gym. And the philosophy they had was very much: we just want as many members as possible, we don’t care if they come or not. The fact that it was all about money really disappointed me. I realised then that I wanted to reach as many people as I could and help them to get healthy and fit."

Over the next few years, Wyndham-Read experimented with different combinations of the short, sharp high intensity interval training (HIIT) routines that she had learned in the army, years before HIIT became a stock-in-trade for the wider fitness industry. She even wrote and published a number of fitness books, including The No Gym Workout in 2007. None made much of an impression. But then with the advent of social media, she found her natural habitat and built her community—now known as #LucysSquad. Even she was taken aback, however, when her "7-Minute Workout to Lose Belly Fat" went viral (it is now the most-liked fitness video on YouTube). "When I posted it I was in my PJs at home, with cats jumping all over the computer as I was trying to upload it. I knew it was a good workout but I had no idea it would get such a response."

Keeping it simple

She is full of praise for the team at DK. "I’m working with the most amazing team of experts. For years and years, all anyone wanted to know was: which celebrities do you train? And because I didn’t have any celebrity clients, few people were interested in what I was trying to do. But now I have a publisher who believes in me and isn’t trying to change what I do. My goal is to produce the most incredible book that presents everything in a simple, clear, exciting and motivating way."

Whether the extent Wyndham-Read’s massive online following will translate into book sales remains to be seen, but the lure of losing that Christmas creep of belly fat by putting in only seven minutes a day has the proven potential to appeal to just about anyone. And you might also want to bear the following in mind.

Almost exactly four years ago, I interviewed a personal trainer named Joe Wicks who was about to launch his first book after garnering a phenomenal 475,000 Instagram followers in two years. The rest is publishing history. Now Lucy Wyndham-Read is about to launch The 7-Minute Body Plan with a YouTube following that is more than twice the size. Her excitement at the prospect is infectious. "My community is so excited about this book: they can’t wait to get their hands on it," she beams.

Book extract
So here they are, my seven workouts to do at home that will change the way you feel and will get you maximum results: great health (the most important thing), a newly toned and sculpted body, and a positive mindset to carry through with you on your fitness journey forever. Each of the seven workouts consists of seven exercises, and each of those is just 60 seconds long. Try it for a week, commit to just that single week, and you’ll be so amazed at the results that you’ll want to carry on.

These workouts really are for everybody. This is not a book for gym bunnies; instead it’s a book for anyone who wants to improve their health and fitness levels wherever they are starting from. Just had a baby? You can work those abs, and I’ll show you how to do it safely. In a wheelchair? No problem, have a look at my Cardio-Boosting and Sculpting Seated Workout. Feel like you never have time for exercise, or just feel unfit? Welcome! Your path to fitness, confidence, and feeling good in your own body starts right here.