IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Talk about a form of exercise you used to do but no longer do now

: You should say

what sort of exercise it was
how long you did it
why you stopped
And say if you would like to do it again or not. why

: Sample Answer

Ooh, it’s really fun to think about what to talk about for this topic! I can think of a great form of exercise I used to do but don’t anymore. I’m going to tell you all about what sort of activity it was, how long I did it for and why I stopped. As to whether I’d like to do it again in the future, you’ll find out later

The exercise I did was called Body Combat, and I loved it at the time. It was a period of my life when I was working part time and studying for a post-graduate qualification simultaneously so I was pretty busy. To help me stay fit and healthy I joined a local gym. Knowing I find it hard to motivate myself I signed up for some classes where there would be an instructor to motivate me, and it was really by chance I ended up picking this activity. It just happened to be scheduled for days and times that fitted with my work and study timetable

The classes were hilarious. They were hard work, because they were extremely energetic, we worked through a number of routines to very loud music. The exercises were apparently inspired by the number of different disciplines and martial arts such as karate, taekwondo, tai chi and boxing. It was a great way to get fit and lose weight too – calorie burning is easy as you kick and punch through the workout. Although our instructor took it all very seriously, yelling at the class and ferociously demonstrating moves with high kicks and punching, those of us who attended treated it all a bit more light-heartedly. I think you need a sense of humour if you are as uncoordinated as me and trying to do a sequence of back high kicks and under-cut punches. I’m not even sure if I’m naming the moves correctly. The rest of the group felt the same as me, we often fell about with laughter as we tried to keep up with the routines, much to the annoyance and frustration of our fitness coach. I went three times a week for about a year, and it was the fittest I’ve ever been

I was really sorry to give it up, but eventually, I finished my masters (the postgraduate course), and had to get a full-time job, then there just was no opportunity to get to the classes anymore. I did try one with a different instructor, but that wasn’t nearly so much fun, the new teacher was a bit too polite and it didn’t work as well. Then I ended up relocating to a different area and Body Combat classes don’t seem to happen where I now live, it is such a shame

I would love to do Body Combat again, though I’m older and stiffer now, I don’t know if I’d be able to keep up. The problem is I think it has rather gone out of fashion as an exercise format. Funnily enough, I was looking on the internet only last week to try and find a class that ran locally to me, but there was nothing. I think Zumba – a workout to dance music -is the new craze, but I miss my entertaining combat classes and fellow classmates, those were the days