If you've ever tried a Pilates workout, you'd surely agree it's lots of fun – but also a real challenge. Better Health has branded Pilates "a safe and effective method of rehabilitation and exercise that focuses on muscular balance and improves strength and flexibility." They added: "The workout consists of a variety of exercise sequences that are performed in low repetitions, usually five to ten times, over a session of 45 to 90 minutes.

" Pilates tends to be about performing movements in a slow and controlled way, focusing on form rather than on getting as many repetitions in as possible. Even still, it can be a phenomenal workout that really puts your body through its paces. However, not many people know how the rather unusual exercise was first invented, or where it got its name.

Joe Pilates (yes Joe Pilates) developed his famous exercise system while imprisoned in a WWI internment camp with limited access to traditional weightlifting equipment. It's funny how people dismiss a literal prison workout routine because it happens to be popular with women. https://t.

co/902J7gNjgg On X, a woman who had tried out her first-ever Pilates class said: "Girls who do Pilates are gonna be the last to die in the apocalypse, adding she had "worked muscles I'm not gonna need unless the world is ending." And turns out, that might actually be the whole idea behind the workout. Another person chimed in: "Joe Pilates (yes Joe Pilates) developed his famous exercise system while imprisoned in .