It’s 2.40pm in a field on the Isle of Man and Noel Edmonds and Gimli from The Lord of the Rings (John Rhys-Davies) are attempting to break the world record for the largest ever Pilates class.
The two men are not alone. Behind them, thousands of people, from the island and beyond, stand feet shoulders-length apart, heads held high, arms aloft, as a Pilates instructor runs through a series of movements on a big screen. The field, next to sweeping farmland and the stone tower of Corrin’s Folly on the horizon, is separated into squares and everyone has been given a T-shirt to wear to aid the count. Nearby, a Guinness World Record invigilator in a skirt suit watches on.
The attempt is part of an inaugural wellbeing festival, a collaboration between wellness platform 34 Moves, investment management firm Ramsey Crookall and Visit Isle of Man. It has already been delayed by half an hour so that as many people as possible can take part. Although I’d rather just observe, I am wearing a T-shirt and waiting in a “pen” in case the attempt fails by one and the drone hovering above works out who is at fault.
As the sun blazes overhead, glinting off Edmonds’ immaculate hair, we’re reminded of the significance of where we’re standing. It was in this field, in the grounds of the former Knockaloe Internment Camp over 100 years ago, that Joseph Pilates, the inventor of Contrology (later referred to as Pilates), was interned, and where some say the idea for Pilates was born.
Joseph Hubertus Pilates, or “Joe” as his fans affectionately call him, was born in 1883 in what was then Prussian Munchen-Gladbach, now Germany, to a poor family. As a child he suffered from a range of ailments including asthma and rickets, but taking part in gymnastics and boxing, under his father’s tutelage, dramatically improved his childhood health.
Pilates moved to England in 1914 and worked at a circus in Blackpool. But a year later, as the First World War led to rising anti-German sentiment, he was required to register at a police station as an “enemy alien” and arrested. He was shipped to the Isle of Man and interned at Knockaloe, the largest internment camp of the war, for three and a half years. It was here, alongside 16,000 internees, that he was able to practise, develop and teach his early methodology, aiding the health of his fellow prisoners.
Much of the lore surrounding Joseph’s time on Knockaloe and throughout his life is contested by biographers and researchers. His observations of Manx cats (in a 1962 Sports Illustrated essay he wrote that their stretches influenced Pilates movements) and the use of hospital beds, specifically bed springs, to prototype the original reformer equipment, could be fact, or the tall tales of a challenging man who loved a story.
After his release, Pilates returned to Germany before emigrating to New York in the 1920s. There, he and his wife Clara further developed his 34 movements and patented the equipment we associate with Pilates today. Uptake by a rollcall of famous athletes, dancers, singers and Hollywood stars, including Martha Graham, Laurence Olivier and Yehudi Menuhin, further increased the method’s popularity. Now, more than 50 years after his death, Pilates is bigger than ever.
According to data from fitness activity booking app ClassPass, Pilates was the most popular workout worldwide in 2025 for the third year in a row, experiencing a 66 per cent year on year increase. Online studio directory Pilates Studio UK currently lists over 1980 verified studios across the UK, and our Pilates and yoga industry has been valued at £1.1bn (globally, the industry is valued at over $120.9bn).
This rise has been controversial. Legal battles have raged in the US over the trademark of Pilates and the copyright of archive materials. Meanwhile, the British boom in Reformer Pilates (the most popular Pilates format worldwide on ClassPass in 2025, in which a bed-like machine, the reformer, is moved using straps, springs and body weight responding to various levels of resistance) has been described as a “wild west” with poor regulation, inexperienced teachers and profit motives putting individuals at risk of injury. Celebrity endorsements and social media prominence continue to drive demand as part of a culture ravenous for wellness.
Hana Jones, Professional Standards Advisor for the Pilates Foundation, has taught Pilates full-time since 1982. “When I was first teaching, I’d have to explain because people had never heard about it,” she says.
“Then Madonna started doing it in the 90s and it became a commercial thing. Then the mat work came in, and people thought, Pilates is the mat work, and nobody knew about the whole system, the apparatus. Now it’s Reformer Pilates, and people think that’s Pilates.”
According to a history compiled by The Society For The Pilates Method, pilates-based exercises began being taught in the UK at the London College of Dance and Drama in the 1960s, with the first official studio opening at The Place in London by Alan Herdman in 1969. Hana stresses the positive effects of Pilates on the body – which include its low-impact techniques, improved posture and spine alignment, increased core strength, injury prevention, scientifically proven back pain relief, improved flexibility and mobility, as well as the associated mental health benefits – if the methodology is respected, applied individually and understood in its wider context. “The technique is incredibly effective,” Hana adds.
Yet she is concerned that people are taking the exercise too lightly. New at-home equipment such as Aldi’s ‘VIRAL £150 PILATES MACHINE’ could lead to inexperienced people taking risks they shouldn’t. She believes Pilates’ popularity, especially its overwhelming popularity among women, reflects the pressure put on female body image and the superficial yearning for instant flat abs and toned arms. She cites a magazine editorial in which Colleen Rooney poses on Pilates equipment wearing six inch heels. “The thing about the Pilates method is it’s a developmental pathway. I’ve got clients who’ve been coming to me for 35 years and they’re still learning. It’s not about getting good at the exercises like in a fitness class, it’s about developing a relationship with how your own body moves. The way I phrase it is, people will wash, deodorise and dress their body, and then drag it behind their very important head.”
Hana encourages those pursuing Pilates to seek out affiliated teaching professionals with a minimum of 500 hours of training. Reformer classes with more than five people and a teacher telling you to attach all of the springs the first time you do a class are red flags.
“The important thing is people should ask themselves – does this feel good for me?” Hana says. “If it doesn’t, go to another teacher, until you find the teacher who helps you and supports you to really feel good in yourself.”
Back on the Isle of Man, John Rhys-Davies, is pitching to the festival’s audience. He stands on a stage as clips of an interview he conducted with notable Pilates disciple Lolita San Miguel, one of the few certified by Joseph himself, play on the screen next to him.
“What the island needs at the moment is a second stream of tourism, and we can own Pilates,” he bellows to the crowd. “I urge you to get behind this movement. Let us make this the place of pilgrimage for everyone who works and worships the methodology and the healing practices of Joe Pilates.”
Rhys-Davies, a self-confessed “comeover” to the island, tells the crowd he’s writing a film about Joseph Pilates, who he believes is a genius. The script, which he says he hopes to film on the island, will be his contribution to a place that has welcomed him since he moved here over thirty years ago. Later, John will himself channel Joseph Pilates, speaking to the crowd with a German accent. “…and you too could be like this. The whole world would live in peace and do Pilates and live forever.”
As we wait for the result of the World Record attempt, I mooch around the festival. A range of free classes across the wellness spectrum have been put on, as have talks on mental health and diet. The island’s charities have been given stalls among island-based wellness businesses ranging from salt caves to personal coaching. Most attendees I speak to say they were unaware of the island’s affiliation with Pilates prior to the event. The day’s demographic feels like a cross-section of island life, male and female, from spandex-clad millennials and family day trippers, to the sort of upper age group representatives you’d expect to see at a country fair.
Wellness is a key pillar of Visit Isle of Man’s tourism strategy. A range of yoga and Pilates studios, wild saunas, spas, meditation and sound bath classes and other associated facilities are available on the island. But when it comes to feeling better, the island’s biggest advantage is arguably the warm hospitality, idyllic surroundings and turquoise waters available for free.
As for the World Record, it’s a mixed bag. The 2,804 in attendance didn’t manage to beat the 3,486 people that had previously set the record in Turkey in 2013. But, perhaps craftily prepared as a backup, attendees did manage to achieve the most number of people performing the “standing roll down exercise” in one minute, beating the previous number of 250.
What would Joe himself have made of it all? Who knows. You’ll have to wait for the film.
[Further reading: Switzerland has been overrun by influencers]
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