STAR forward Jonathan Brown is already a convert and now teammate Josh Drummond hopes Pilates and other core strength-building techniques can help deliver an injury-free season.
The creative defender has become a key player for the Lions with his willingness to run forward and find teammates with his raking left foot.
But his three seasons of AFL football have also been interrupted by a succession of injuries, including hamstring and shoulder problems.
Last pre-season, ankle and hamstring woes put Drummond on the back foot in the lead-up to the home-and-away campaign.
I’ve been done all the training so far but I’ve varied my workload a bit in terms of work-rest ratio,” he said.
“I’ve been doing things that suit my body more – Pilates and then also some work to improve my running technique.
“The back-related hamstring injuries I’ve had built up over a couple of years so by improving my core strength, hopefully I won’t be breaking down again.”
As might be expected, Drummond says altering a running technique is no easy matter at age 24.
“The toughest bit is changing your running style when you’ve been doing it for years,” he said.
“But it’s just a matter of developing good habits and the Pilates work helps with that as well.
“It’s not so much changing your technique in terms of how your legs and arms work but more making sure I activate the right core muscles to reduce the stress on my hamstrings.
“Running properly when you are by yourself is one thing and doing it in a game or training is a whole different story.
“But I’m doing exercises two or three times a day to help make sure I activate those muscles.”
While Drummond is working intensively on his core strength, the kick-in specialist won’t begin full-scale work on match simulation foot skills until later in the summer.
Drummond’s ability to pinpoint long targets has become even more important to the Lions since the introduction of new kick-in laws in 2006 which allow kickers to put foot to ball before the goal umpire finishes waving his flags.
“We’re doing our physical and skill development stuff now - we’ll get to the match situation work as we get towards February,” he said.
“That part of the game has changed a fair bit in the last couple of years and it’s probably become a bit easier.
“Under the old rules teams would generally be able to zone off and there was a bit more skill involved in freeing up a teammate and then being able to find him.
“But it’s still amazing how opposition teams are able to get back into position even though you are kicking in quicker.”
