FIT FOR NOTHING.

Byline: KATE CONDON

Exercise videos used to be so glamorous with the likes of Jane Fonda and Cindy Crawford showing us how it's done. Now they're strictly for C-list celebs looking for a little extra coverage. Here's what's on offer to help you work off the turkey this year...

SO you've been on a reality TV show or sacked from a soap and you quite like living in the limelight, so what can you possibly do now to prolong your 15 minutes of fame?

Simple really - release a fitness video.

They're all it. Big Brother winners and losers, soap sackees, sad sackees ... you name it, they're pumping iron, sweating buckets and coining it in.

Keep-fit videos are the new panto. Instead of humiliating yourself in front of an audience twice daily for 10 weeks, you spend one afternoon with 30 of your closest friends and you get a five-figure payday and a lifesize cutout in Woolies.

Just ask Nell McAndrew, GMTV's Penny Smith, dumped EastEnder Lisa Benjamin and Corrie reject Jennifer James, Big Brother winner Kate Lawler and Big Brother piglet Jade Goody.

Actually Jade, Jennifer and Lisa are a bit greedy - they're doing panto, too, although Jade's performance in Snow White must be bad if even she is poking herself in the eye with a pair of scissors.

All the minor celebs are handily releasing their videos just in time for the post- Christmas guilt trip when, laden down with gift vouchers and forced into wearing jogging trousers because nothing else fits, the nation makes a new year resolution to get fit.

For the fame-hungry minor celeb, it's a short route to a fast buck.

Who cares if their offering will be gathering dust at the back of store shelves by February? Or worse, covered in half-price stickers by Easter?

Not them. Certainly not Nell McAndrew, cashing in on the massive exposure she's received since featuring as wallpaper - albeit attractive wallpaper - in I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here.

Peak Energy is the name of a class she's been going to near her London home for four years.

So when she was approached by a video company, she was keen to endorse a workout she used herself.

Nell said: "I had been asked to front videos before, but I didn't want to do a workout that I hadn't done myself.

"I wanted my video to be real and it is. The people in it are the ones from the class - they're ordinary people who want to keep fit, not glamorous model or Hollywood types. And there are blokes there, too.

"And I'm not sending the message to anyone who buys the video that Peak Energy alone is going to transform them. Doing the routine will help, but you need to work hard and eat right to get in great shape.

"I want people to work up a sweat. That's what I love about working out, getting all hot and sweaty. I like to know I've been working out, I like getting bright red."

If it's red-faced celebs you're looking for, Jade Goody should fit the bill.

In Jade's Dance Workout, there's no sign of the infamous "kebab" Jade revealed to a stunned nation during Big Brother 3 - the kebab, by the way, was her spare tyre.

The new sleek Jade is the result of months of working out with Fame Academy choreographer Kevin Adams.

Rocket science this is not as Jade explained: "I needed to lose weight and making the video has been a lot of fun."

The spice in the mix for her is that Dance Workout will go up against her Big Brother rival Kate Lawler with both videos released today.

Kate's Cardio Combat does exactly what it says on the tin - a cardio workout involving boxercise.

The first female winner of the reality show said: "The more you put in, the more you'll get out. Get ready and come out fighting."

We're not sure if that's an invite to Jade or an explanation of the video.

The last time we saw Jennifer James, she was snivelling into a hankie as she disappeared into the soap abyss.

AS Coronation Street barmaid Geena Gregory, she'd been torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool. Now Jennifer is filling in the time between acting gigs by fronting Get Fit Quick.

She said: "I wanted this to involve all the things that I enjoy about working out, but with a little twist. And the twist is that the video is divided into three different workouts - a 10-minute one, a 20-minute one and a 30-minute one.

"That was very important, so that no matter how much or how little time you have, you can choose a workout to suit you."

Jennifer worked with fitness instructor Suzanne Cox - she was Vogue in TV's Gladiators - to come out with the best regime and even had an input into choosing the music.

She said: "It's a mixture of everything. There's an aerobic workout with toning exercises and sit- ups, all the things that nobody wants to do but are really good for you.

"The aerobics workout builds into a routine involving everything from salsa to kicks and punches.

"And it can be as easy or as hard as you want it. We do tell viewers if they don't think they can get into a particular bit, they can keep it at a lower level."

The most important thing for Jennifer is that anyone buying the video sees that she's a normal woman with a normal body shape doing normal things to stay fit.

She said: "I'm not a size six, I've got boobs and a bum - I'm a normal woman. But I like to keep fit and I want to tone my body, like most women do. I'm not totally skinny so maybe anyone watching the video and taking part will relate to the fact that I am normal.

"I'm doing this workout because I enjoy it and hopefully they will enjoy it, too."

Even the military are getting in on the act.

Gunnery Sergeant Harvey Walden, the man with the loudest voice in television, licked the members of Fat Club and Celebrity Fit Club into shape - some more successfully than others.

On Fighting Fat, Fighting Fit, Harvey barks orders with such ferocity that you'll be scared to disobey even from the safety of your living- room.

Then again, there is always the off switch ...