Lizzy Main reckons fitness pioneer Joseph Pilates would have been ’chuffed to bits’ with the success of her business teaching pilates to hundreds of people over the last 10 years.

The former primary school teacher has never looked back since she made a career change and launched her own pilates business a decade ago.

She unveiled Pilates Isle of Man in 2010 and last weekend, to mark the occasion, she returned back to where it all started, at Knockaloe.

She told Business News that when she began the business, as a newly qualified pilates instructor, and living in Patrick, ’I was aware of the link between the island and Joseph Pilates, who was interned here during the First World War’.

Joseph Pilates was a German physical trainer and notable for having invented and promoted the pilates method of physical fitness.

She added: ’With that local history in mind I started my first class at what was then the Knockaloe School rooms. ’We quickly outgrew the space and demand for the classes soon became apparent.

’I spent the next 18 months trawling around various church halls and gyms from Ramsey to Douglas, to St John’s and Colby.

’Eventually I took the decision to open my own premises in Peel and the clients followed me there too!

’I kept up my classes in the south of the island and also introduced chair based pilates, PureStretch, Zumba Gold and more recently Paracise.’

She said returning to Patrick marked the culmination of a challenging year. During lockdown the business moved on to a virtual platform while she kept her original timetable, reaching out to up to 100 clients on some days.

She said a ’Howard’s Hero’ award and a charity fundraiser for Nobles’ Hospital were her personal reward.

On Saturday she was at the Knockaloe Visitor Centre to host an afternoon of drop-in classes.

She invited all her clients past and present, with guests including ’special’ women who have been with her right from the start and to all her different venues. They also helped cut a cake to mark the anniversary.

And the event was also hosted on Zoom for her clients around the world.

Asked what she thought Joseph Pilates would have made of her business she said: ’I think he would have been chuffed to bits.’

Mrs Main is married to Peel’s harbourmaster Michael Main and has a daughter Alice who is at Oxford University.