The Carlisle United squad found another way of beating the weather on Wednesday, with a bit of assistance from the Sands Centre and Carlisle Leisure, when they took to the bikes for what turned out to be a punishing spinning session.

Youth and Reserve team physio Geoff Haugh helped to organise the morning's event with fitness instructor Stephen Weston the man keeping the players on their toes.

Stephen said: "This type of work is a big benefit to the lads. We do interval training, where they sprint for 20 seconds and then get a 10 second rest. That keeps them moving and it gets their muscles working."

"I've taken a few classes for footballers before, mostly amateur teams, and they have found it to be a benefit," he told us.

"With this kind of exercise it's all about what you put into it. I can scream and shout and encourage, but it really is up to the individual. It can be the easiest thing in the world to take the resistance off the bike and amble through it. It was good to see the players take it seriously and they all worked hard. I think they also enjoyed it."

Long-serving defender Peter Murphy said: "It was very enjoyable. It's been quite hard to find places to train recently, so there has been a lot of work done in the Neil Centre and in the gym. To be able to do something different to that has been great.

"The spinning was a group session and you have to push yourself in front of the other players. You can't really cheat there, so it was a good session."