It was a nice idea.

The good news is that a Canadian fitness company has invented a 4-minute fitness routine that give you the same results as a ‘gruelling’ 90-minute workout down at the gym.

The bad news is, it probably doesn’t work.

“Fitness experts say the company’s bulky H.I.T Fit cross trainer, which looks like a slightly scrunched elliptical trainer stuck to the back of a rowing machine and centered around a flywheel, cannot replace more traditional methods of exercise.

A high-intensity four-minute workout on the H.I.T machine may build muscle tone, they say, but calorie burn will be relatively meager. ‘There’s no quick fix to gaining fitness or to exercising without sweating,’ said Jack Goodman, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Toronto.

So that’s that then. Move on. Nothing to see here.