Joseph Pilates, who invented the practice in the 1920s, originally wanted to call his method ‘contrology’, to emphasise its aim on building a mindful connection between breath, body, and movement. For this exact reason, a lot of people find that it has the same relaxation benefits as yoga, but with more focus on body awareness.

“Pilates instructors ask you to do lots of things at once – move in a certain way, while also breathing at a certain time, plus making sure you feel the correct muscles working. This means that you end up being very mindful in class,” says Grant. “It requires you to switch off from emails that need sending and food shopping that needs ordering, and instead tune into your body.”

While the exercises aren’t visually as explosive as chest-to-floor burpees or plyometric box jumps, don’t be fooled by the fact you’re lying down for a lot of the session: the range of movements in a pilates class continuously engage the muscles in your arms, shoulders, core, legs and glutes, causing even the strongest athletes to wince in pain.

Yup, there’s a reason why the notorious ‘pilates shake’ is a thing: the isometric pulsing movements in these classes gradually push the muscle fibres to their maximum capacity, causing them to tremble from the extreme effort. But because you’re not throwing your body around a studio, there’s less overall stress on your joints and nervous system.

“I tried a viral pilates challenge every day for 2 weeks – here’s what happened”