Most clients don't come to Pilates for their mental health. They come because their back hurts, or someone told them to try it. Then a few months in, they mention something in passing — how the hour in the studio is the one hour in the week they're not overthinking. It's not accidental. Here's what's actually going on.

Most people notice it in a photo first. A rounding of the upper back, a forward tilt to the head — changes that crept in gradually over years of desk work and daily life. They're not inevitable. Here's what's actually happening, and what genuinely helps.

f you're in your 40s or 50s, you'll know that the changes happening in your body go far beyond hot flushes. Sleep suffers. Anxiety creeps in. Joints ache in ways they didn't before. What's often at the root of it — and what most people don't realise — is the nervous system. Here's what's actually happening, and what genuinely helps.