Many fitness enthusiasts have found that working out in gyms have made their bodies less streamlined and elegant - the muscle they have built leads to a squarer, stockier look. Pilates is different. Traditionally popular with ballet dancers and models, it gives you a long, lean physique, better posture and general health. It is soft exercise, combining low-impact but high energy movements with realignment of posture. Lesley Ackland (who has more than 200 weekly clients at the famous Pineapple Studios in Covent Garden) has developed a "body maintenance" programme which helps a wide range of problems including back pain, scoliosis, RSI, arthritis, pregnancy and stress problems.