What do Madonna, Oprah and Sting have in common, other than being obscenely wealthy and only needing one name?
They, along with millions of other people, practice Pilates.
German-born Joseph Pilates (1883-1967) was a bullied, sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. As he grew up, he devoted his life to developing a self-improvement system, drawn from Zen and the ancient Greek notion of a man ideal in body, mind and spirit. He came to believe that bad posture and improper breathing were the causes of poor health.