Those nice people at Slendertone have just sent me some of their fantastic-looking Slendertone Bottom Shorts. The idea is that I use them four times every week for four weeks and then report back on any effect to my readers and tweeps. I did warn them that I already have a pert and desirable bottom and that the effect of these shorts was therefore unlikely to be very dramatic but, surprisingly, they were unswayed by this and sent them anyway.

So, here is a picture of the shorts:

The machine takes three hours to charge and the gel pads that conduct the electrical stimulating pulses are supposed to last for 20-30 uses. This has often been a stumbling block with me in the past, especially for the facial machine pads. It’s so easy to get them tangled up when setting up the machine, thus rendering them unusable, so I shall make sure I am very careful this time and that I don’t stick myself to my stylish natural oak console table.

The Slendertone Bottom normally sells at UK shops including Harrods, Boots, Next, Argos and Littlewoods or directly from the Slendertone website at www.slendertone.com for £139.99 (but I got it free in exchange for writing honestly about it,) and the lovely box contains a charging device, socket adaptors, shorts, pads, full instructions and a detailed explanation of bottom exercises that one can do whilst wearing the shorts but not operating the machine. This does bother me slightly. How can one assess the effect of the Slendertone Bottom in isolation if one is doing toning bottom exercises too? So I’ve decided not to follow the exercise programme with such precision and just use the shorts along with my normal daily routine.

It’s a bit daunting, to be honest, but I’ll certainly give it a whirl, especially as I shall be exposing my naked flesh on a beach (not Brighton) in, ooh, four weeks’ time. Do watch this space for updates.