From the editor | April 04

What a week it’s been. After spending days cooped up in our homes, it’s time to get some exercise –– and better yet, be mindful about it. Whether indoors or (safely distancing) outside, here’s how to appreciate those steps we’re taking to work off some of the cabin fever and confinement snacking. Plus, a surprising history lesson about Joseph Pilates (pictured).

Barbara Fletcher, Senior Editor

Good Sh*t

Could the Secret to Arms Like Arnold Be Plants?

Want to be better, faster, tougher, stronger? This celeb-studded doc says it comes down to being mindful of what you put in your mouth.

If you want to perform athletically at a high level, you’ve got to treat your body like a Ferrari, explains Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira, and that means pumping in premium fuel. According to a recent sports documentary, that fuel isn’t a steak at every meal; it’s plants.

Eating plants instead of animals is the best way to optimize athletic performance, claims the controversial and celeb-studded documentary The Game Changers, which has found a quiet but fervent following since a fresh cut was released in September. The premise: A plant-based diet — and being mindful of not just how we’re eating, but what we’re eating — leads to a stronger athlete. Muscles work better, recovery is quicker and overall health improves.

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True Stories

The First Pilates Studio Was an Internment Camp

Trapped on an island, Joseph Pilates put his time to good use.

For Joseph Pilates, the exercises that changed his life took shape on the straw mat of a prison camp. The German-born part-time boxer and circus performer was living in Great Britain when World War I broke out. He was sent to an internment camp on the Isle of Man where tens of thousands of suspected “enemy aliens” were kept throughout the war.

There are few surviving photos from Camp Knockaloe, but one depicts Pilates leading a field full of men in standing exercises. Decades later, the exercise legend would recall devising his physical fitness system, which he called Contrology, by looking at the sickly prisoners around him — starving due to the German blockade of the British Isles — and then at the also starving, yet still sprightly, cats.

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