This Megaformer trend is like ‘if Pilates and bodybuilding had a baby’

Sébastien Lagree would like one thing to be clear: “It is. Not. Pilates. ”

Reports to the site of West Hollywood of Megaormer Studio.

(Stella Kalinina / For time)

The World Fitness Entrepreneur talks about the Lagree method, his patented training. You may know him: around fifty Socal studios are currently reading rights to use Lagree equipment, many of which in Los Angeles. Their door shingles boast of his name: there is Lagree 213 in downtown, Labree in Glendale and Live Lagree in Brentwood, to name just a few. Look in their windows and you will see machines that look like extra -worm pilates reformers – the so -called megaFormers – at the top of which Los An fair To execute squats, lines and slow but extra-succsux slits.

So, like, harder pilates, yes? No.

“It’s totally different,” said Lagree on Shanghai’s phone, where he meets fitness studios and manufacturers of his machines. “”Not Pilates. It is a false idea that I have been trying to fight for 25 years. »»

To set the record straight, Lagree is impatient to come back to the beginning.

With his chopped jaw, his sound voice and his bodybuilder frame, Lagree could be the child in love with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fabio Lanzoni. He grew up in Paris and, after obtaining an MBA from the University of Seattle, he moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to become – what else? – An actor. To support himself, he worked like – what else? – A personal coach in a West Hollywood gymnasium. His favorite mode of exercise was bodybuilding, but his work had him teach Pilates on the reformer, an exercise that was new to him.

The mastery, Heather Perren, shows the MEGA Pro in the QG of Lagree Fitness in Chatsworth.

(Stella Kalinina / For time)

After the sessions, he said, customers often wanted to do more cardio. “Because they did not feel like they had a training by doing Pilates. I said,” Is it going if I modify the method? Because they don’t feel anything. “”

Lagree has added weights of the hands and incorporated gymnasium movements composed such as pumps, squats, slots and boards on the reformer. Finally, he bought four Pilates reformers and started teaching in his living room. He was in three years at this stage, but many of his students were Hollywood makeup artists, stylists and private chiefs at the stars, and Word came out. Soon, celebrities presented themselves to his home studio. David Schwimmer, Gabrielle Reece, Molly Sims and Elizabeth Hurley all visited her apartment in West Hollywood before being expelled.

“I had no license. Everything was underground, ”explains Lagree.

In 2003, he opened his first commercial studio on Melrose Avenue – he called her Pilates Plus – but said that the Pilates machines “could not manage the training that I teach”. He decided to design his own oversized version of a Pilates reformer; In 2005, the forform was born. He added cables as well as platforms and walking bars at each end, allowing users to target different muscle groups such as chest, triceps and shoulders.

“People just liked it to promise,” says Lagree. “We received studios requests, so I decided to concede to the system. And that took off from there.”

But Lagree quickly felt the need to completely distance himself from any association with Pilates.

“In 2008, I changed the name because” Pilates “was misleading – it was not that,” he said.

The Megaformer made its debut in 2010. While the prominity was a piece of steel which weighed almost 500 pounds, the original megaFormer was 200 pounds lighter and was shipped in two parts, so he traveled more easily. The design was also simplified, with a narrower cart that had holes on the rear edge, offering better stability as well as variable grip points. The footbar was redesigned in divided handle bars, allowing an even more versatile exercise.

Mega Pro HQ Fitness Lagree Machines with Chatsworth.

(Stella Kalinina / For time)

“The divided handle bars, it allows you to make many more movements,” explains Lagree. “It changed the game.”

During the next decade, Megaformer’s demand has become so intense that the only California manufacturer could not make the machines quickly. In 2019, the Lagree method was appointed the fastest growth fitness trend in the United States by the Classpass exercise booking application. By 2023, exacerbated by problems of post-country supply chain, there was a expectation of 18 months to receive a machine. Lagree has since moved manufacturing operations to China and Vietnam, reducing the windows backwards.

Sébastien LAGREE and the master’s Heather Perren demonstrate the Mega Pro.

(Stella Kalinina / For time)

Lagree is constantly experimenting, refining her exercise method and her machines. He says he has raised 200 patents. In addition to the original trainer, there was also the Evo and Evo II, the supra, the mini-component and the mini-component pro, the microForme and the microForme Pro-the last four intended to maximize the space.

The Megaformer has also crossed a dozen iterations, a dizzying alphabet shuffle that includes the M1, M2, M2S, M3, M3S, M3K, M3K +, M3X, M3E, M3. Each offers design adjustments. A change in the location of the spring in a model, for example, allows users to switch to exercises faster; More holes in the platform or the transport of another model allow users more anchor points to enter during the exercise.

“The machines evolve with the method to distinguish us more from the Pilates,” explains Heather Perren, director of community relations of the company and master master. “Lagree is a method supported by science, a live method.”

Through all this, Megaformer remained the star of the company, a giant at the center of the most intense non-pipals, the adjacent exercise in Pilates. How different is it, is it different from a Pilates reformer?

The two machines use cars and spring tensions – the springs are easier on the connective tissue of the body, which makes the exercise with low impact. But it is largely there that the similarities end. The Pilates, which has been invented for rehabilitation purposes and focuses on the strength, flexibility and the balance of the heart, is generally low intensity; The Lagree method is high intensity. It combines strength training, cardiovascular exercise and muscle endurance, with exercises carried out at a very slow tempo, so the muscles experience more time. Many exercises are done on knees or standing. It is not unusual to see the participants transpir and breathe, their trembling members, at the end of a whole.

Springs on the mega pro.

(Stella Kalinina / For time)

“It is as if Pilates and bodybuilding have a baby,” said Natalie Grimsley, owner of Plankhaus in Santa Monica, who teaches the Lagree method as well as the mindfulness workshops.

I stopped by the West Hollywood studio in Lagree a recent afternoon and I was struck by the size of Megaformer. It is a massive machine, like a reformer of Pilates on steroids. It measures more than 10 feet long and weighs 395 pounds (in comparison, the smallest reformer of Pilates generally weighs up to 150 pounds). The cart panels are numbered, so you can precisely position your feet and hands to correctly perform the exercises. Place your knees on 0 and your hands on 1 and 3, for example. You are now in the right alignment to make a modified board.

A little intimidating? Yes. But I gave training my best shot. However, it was so intense at points, I did not succeed all the 50 -minute session. Deep House Music filled the room, which was weakly lit and bathed in lavender. About twenty women, many of whom looked like budding actors, knelt on numbered panels while relying on the waist and pulling a cable to execute a triceps press. They moved surprisingly slowly and deliberately, and the exercise has become increasingly difficult. We had been warned: a sign of red neon at the edge of the bathroom shone “it’s not Pilates, it’s Lagree”.

“Sliiiiide, turn on your heart, use your cheeks,” said instructor Sam Rabon. “Slower, deeper, a little more intention!”

“It is a total, very effective package,” said Rabon after lessons. “We led a lot – certainly not Pilates.”

Two days later, my thighs and buttocks hurt again.

Lagree now has four of his own studios in Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Brentwood, Studio City and Santa Monica, and one in Miami. Seven hundred approved studios – in 45 countries – pay $ 3,990 per year to use the megaformer and teach the method (and that does not include the cost of purchase or rental of the machine).

“But there are so many copys who do not want to pay for the license,” said Lagree. “They buy copying machines that do not work as well and call it Pilates.” Oh, it’s Pilates, but more intense. This is where confusion comes from, people in the gray region. »»

It is not as if Lagree hates the word P – He thinks that the pilates is precious, especially for restorative purposes.

“I have always promoted the advantages of Pilates,” he says. “I say to people you will get the best results if you mix and associate the Pilates and Lagree.”

Then he sighs strongly, adding: “They are just different – we are not Pilates.”