Is the goal of a ‘long and lean’ physique promised by influencers attainable? Or does long and lean essentially just mean lean?

Pilates has been hailed as something of a wonder exercise in recent years. Some fans claim the low-impact conditioning workouts can lengthen muscles, leaving participants with longer, leaner physiques. But is that true?

Absolutely not, says Dr Christopher Morse, reader in exercise physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport. For a start, he says, there’s little evidence to show human muscle fibres can be lengthened by stretching – and if it were possible, it would require putting the muscle under great strain, which pilates doesn’t do. “There is some data that shows you can lengthen muscles,” he says, “but it was performed on the wings of quails with a weight hanging off them for 16 days of continuous stretch.”