THE 17ft marble statue is an icon of physical perfection.

But Michelangelo’s David, which celebrates its 500th birthday today, would have been a physical wreck, suffering from a bad back, a weak hip and ankles, hammer toes and poor flexibility, all stemming from his poor posture.

That, at least, is the view of Britain’s leading expert in the Pilates exercise technique, who is giving a lecture in London to coincide with Florence’s celebration of the 500th anniversary.

Alan Herdman, who brought Pilates to Britain 34 years ago, says that Michelangelo was no expert on physical fitness.

Pilates uses breathing and posture to lengthen and strengthen muscles and improve posture. It is named after Joseph Pilates, a German-born emigré to Britain and then America, who devised it early in the 20th century.

Mr Herdman says that David’s posture is dreadful and that his stance favours one hip as he is “sitting into” the other.

“He will have a weakness in one hip and suffer from lower back weakness and pain. His pelvis is all wrong. It is thrust forward and pushing into one hip. The right side isn’t straight. In the privacy of your own bathroom, try standing in that position and see how it feels. Not good.

“If you look at his left foot, you will see that he has got hammer toes,” he continues. “They are a bit clawed. The muscles in the front of the left foot must be weak.

“If you look at the rear view, you will find that the right buttock is not as strong as it should be because he is sitting into the hips, and the weight distribution is all wrong.”

Mr Herdman concedes that David has good legs, but that his ankles are weak. Art restorers would agree with that, having found a similar frailty in the masterpiece themselves.

Mr Herdman concludes: “David has all the flexibility of a 500-year-old marble statue. If he’d done Pilates he would not look so stiff.”

But he admits that even Pilates could do nothing about another of David’s defects. A computer scientist recently claimed that the statue also has a squint.

It is suggested that the diverging eyes may have been a deliberate ploy by Michelangelo to enhance the figure’s appearance from either side.

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