The other morning, while trying to serve a child’s cereal in the bottom half of the lemon squeezer, I realised I needed a rest.

Yes, it’s plastic and bowl-shaped. But really, it was my body telling me I needed to go on a good 50-mile bike ride to shake off the excesses of 2015.

At this time of year, getting out of bed and making a pot of coffee requires superhuman resolve. My bicycles are a distant memory and while raindrops like Zeppelins lash the windows, that’s how they will remain.

My last off-road ride in mid-December ended after just an hour, with both wheels so clogged with mud that they were stuck fast. I had to drag the bike a few hundred metres over a field to a lane full of puddles where I washed the wheels and gears with viscous, gravelly puddle water that froze to my fingers.

Road-riding is off-menu too. Cycling dressed in neoprene and wrapped like a plump turkey in boil-in-the-bag waterproofs is as appealing as bog-snorkelling. And I don’t have a turbo-trainer (static bike) set up in the garage either – so what’s a boy to do?

Well, finally dear readers, I’ve cracked it. The solution to the cyclist’s winter blues is Pilates.

Pilates is a fitness discipline that you can practise one-to-one with a practitioner or as part of a mat-class with others. It was invented around 100 years ago by a German called Joseph Pilates who was interested in finding ways of preventing certain kinds of sports injury. His method of “contrology” is a bit like an active form of yoga. Certainly, its underlying principles are shared.

Pilates involves developing an awareness of all the muscles in your body and having a sense of alignment and coordination in the way you move.

It’s about being conscious of your breathing, and more than anything, it’s about activating and using the core muscles around the base of the spine.

No abs or big muscle groups here: it’s all about tiny, precise movements with the body’s lesser-used muscles.

For lifting heavy objects, and for balancing effectively on our bikes (more important for off-road than road riding) having core body strength is important.

Actually, for posture, for walking and moving, and breathing in the most relaxed way, core body strength is essential. It’s claimed that practising Pilates regularly gives you a natural sense of well-being, confidence and control in everything you approach.

I haven’t done Pilates long enough to vouch for any long-term benefits, but I often used to get back pain, caused both by lifting wriggly children in awkward positions and by over-tight hamstrings that I’d failed to stretch properly before and after rides.

After a few months, attending classes three to four times a month, I am feeling nimbler and freer of aches and pains.