HE’S more used to chatting about football as a pundit on BBC’s Match of the Day than playing these days.

But ex-Saints star Alan Shearer is proving – ten years after retiring as one of the world’s best strikers – that he is still as fit as when he battered defenders during his playing days.

The England legend, the Premier League’s all-time top-scorer, returned to Southampton to introduce a calorie-busting training programme to the city, which is keeping him in such good nick.

After a playing career that spanned 18 years, he could be forgiven for cutting the red tape at the new facility and letting everyone else do the hard work.

However, the former Newcastle and Blackburn player confirmed that he’s still in great shape by fully getting stuck into the Speedflex session at NE1 Gym in Briton Street.

The high-intensity, cardiovascular exercise is done on hydraulic machines, which can help you burn around 1,000 calories in a 30-45 minute workout.

The equipment – called the Speedflex machine – is set up for different “high intensity, cardiovascular and resistance workouts” and is done in a circuit training format in groups led by a personal trainer.

The concept was brought over from America in 2009 and is now being rolled out across the UK.

“It’s the only thing that you can work so hard on and not have any stiffness or pain, and burn so many calories, then afterwards feel great,” said Shearer, who helped form Speedflex Europe in 2011.

“You can have 50, 60, 70-year-olds come in and do a session and work to their own levels.

“We’ve all got to watch how many calories we take on, particularly after finishing playing football you’ve got to watch what you eat and drink. It’s great exercise.”

Shearer, now 45, graduated from Saints’ academy in 1988 and went on to net 43 goals in 158 appearances for the club before departing for a then record-breaking £3.6 million transfer to Blackburn Rovers.

After winning the Premier League with Rovers, Shearer moved to boyhood heroes Newcastle for £15 million where he finished his career having scored 260 goals.

Now, he’s returned to the city where he has so many fond memories to launch Speedflex.

• Get involved by visiting speedflex.com or call the Southampton branch on 0844 543 3635.

Daily Echo:

Training with Shearer - Pete Howard

IT isn’t every day you’re training in the gym with Saints and England legend Alan Shearer – but if that opportunity comes along don’t try and compete.

Part of me still maintains that somewhere within my rake-like physique lies a Premier League footballer waiting to bloom.

I keep faith that at some point I am due a meteoric rise – like Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy perhaps. You can only dream.

In reality, though, Shearer proved to me that even ten years after retiring the fitness levels required are something to behold.

At the NE1 Gym in Southampton, Shearer and I partnered up for a new circuit training workout that he is wheeling out in the city called Speedflex.

It’s all based on hydraulic resistance and cardio machines.

There were a number of different stations around the glass-panelled room and we moved around them in three minute intervals doing different exercises from bench presses to squats.

In a room full of people, Shearer and I ended up being partnered together. My time to shine.

Really, though, by the end I was feeling it. Big time.

We moved round the room, rotating on two different machines after every 10th repetition. It felt like split seconds that Shearer had done his ten. I was trying my utmost, but my ten reps felt like an eternity.