Growing up, I watched a man fail to finish a finger of banana offered by a magician in a challenge. Yes, an adult failing to finish just a finger of yummy yellow banana after peeling and taking one bite.

It looked ridiculous, but then again, that was a challenge by a magician. Not so for a simple exercise programme.

That breathing in and out is in itself a task that can leave you panting is something you would swear as ‘utter nonsense’... until you try it. Look, all you can do is sit down, cross your legs under your weight and relax.

Then breathe in through the nostril and out through the mouth. Repeat this like five times in a minute. And if you are like some of us, you are probably going to catch a cold in the next few days as the air passages and whatever else in your lungs are cleared or whatever else.

You will probably need an internist or a pulmunologist to explain to you the detail of the things that makes your hitherto ‘clogged’ – I am just assuming that is the case – lungs open up and cause you colds when you change to such a programme.

The guys in the holistic medicines arena call such things yoga and Pilates.

Yoga is known to many but Pilates comes out as strange to many. It is a system of strengthening and stretching exercises designed to develop the body’s core, mobilise the spine and build flexibility.

The two are almost synonymous, being programmes that will force you to do the simple things you ignore, like instilling in you the virtue that when you are cooking or even brushing your teeth, you pull your stomach in and pull your shoulders down.

So it turns out breathing itself is an art. It is the basis of intense concentration that helps strengthen the abdomen, allow deep stretching, and focused meditation.

Try it!