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Tribune News Service

Sebastien Lagree would like to make one thing clear: “This. Is. Not. Pilates.”
The global fitness entrepreneur is talking about the Lagree Method, his patented workout. About 50 studios in Southern California currently license rights to use Lagree equipment, many of which are in Los Angeles.
Peer into their windows and you will see machines that look like hulking, extra-large Pilates Reformers – so-called Megaformers – atop which clients are moving between platforms on a modular, sliding carriage, positioning their body parts to execute slow but extra-strenuous squats, rows and lunges.
So, like, harder Pilates, yes? No.
They didn’t feel like they got a workout doing Pilates
Sebastien Lagree explains why he began modifying the Pilates method
“It’s totally different,” Lagree says on the phone from Shanghai, where he is meeting fitness studios and manufacturers of his machines. “Not Pilates. That’s a misconception I’ve been trying to fight for the past 25 years.”
To set the record straight, Lagree is eager to go back to the beginning.

He grew up in Paris and, after earning a master’s in business from Seattle University, he moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to become – what else? – an actor. To support himself, he worked as a personal trainer at a West Hollywood gym.
His preferred mode of exercise was bodybuilding, but his work had him teaching Pilates on the Reformer, an exercise that was new to him.
After sessions, he says, clients would often want to do more cardio, “because they didn’t feel like they got a workout doing Pilates”.
“I said, ‘Is it OK if I modify the method? Because they’re not feeling anything’.”
Lagree added hand weights and incorporated compound gym movements like push-ups, squats, lunges and planks on the Reformer. Eventually, he bought four Pilates Reformers and began teaching out of his living room.

He had been in Los Angeles for just three years at this point, but many of his students were Hollywood make-up artists, stylists and private chefs to the stars and word got out. Soon celebrities were showing up to his home studio.
David Schwimmer, Gabrielle Reece, Molly Sims and Elizabeth Hurley all visited his West Hollywood flat before he got kicked out.
“I didn’t have a licence. It was all underground,” Lagree says.
In 2003, he opened his first commercial studio on Melrose Avenue – he called it Pilates Plus – but says the Pilates machines “couldn’t handle the workout I teach”.
He decided to design his own supersized version of a Pilates Reformer, and in 2005, the Proformer was born. It had added cables as well as platforms and foot bars on either end, allowing users to target different muscle groups such as the chest, triceps and shoulders.

“People just loved the Proformer,” Lagree says. “We got inquiries to open studios, so I decided to license out the system. And it took off from there.”
But Lagree soon felt the need to distance himself, altogether, from any association with Pilates.
“In 2008 I changed the name because ‘Pilates’ was misleading – it wasn’t that.”
Then the Megaformer debuted in 2010. Whereas the Proformer was a hunk of steel that weighed nearly 500 pounds (227kg), the original Megaformer was 200 pounds lighter and shipped in two parts, so it travelled easier.
The design was simplified, with a narrower carriage that had holes on the rear edge, providing better stability as well as varying grip points. The foot bar was redesigned into split handlebars.
“The split handlebars allow you to do so many more movements,” Lagree says. “It changed the game.”
Over the next decade, demand for the Megaformer became so intense that the sole California manufacturer could not make the machines fast enough. In 2019, the Lagree Method was named the fastest-growing fitness trend in the United States by the exercise-booking app ClassPass.

By 2023, exacerbated by post-pandemic supply chain issues, there was an 18-month wait for delivery of a machine. Lagree has since moved the manufacturing operations to China and Vietnam.
Lagree experiments constantly, tweaking his exercise method and machines. He says he has amassed 200 patents.
How different, really, is the Megaformer from a Pilates Reformer? Both machines use carriages and spring tension – the springs are easier on the body’s connective tissue, making exercise low-impact. But that is largely where the similarities end.
Pilates – developed by German physical trainer Joseph Pilates primarily for rehabilitative purposes and which focuses on core strength, flexibility and balance – is generally low-intensity.
I’ve always promoted the benefits of Pilates. I tell people you’ll get the best results if you mix and match Pilates and Lagree
Sebastien Lagree
The Lagree Method is high-intensity; it combines strength training, cardiovascular exercise and muscular endurance, with exercises performed at a very slow tempo so muscles experience more time under tension. Many of the exercises are done kneeling or standing up.
“It’s like if Pilates and bodybuilding had a baby,” says Natalie Grimsley, owner of Plankhaus in Santa Monica, which teaches the Lagree Method as well as mindfulness workshops.
It is not like Lagree hates the P-word – he thinks Pilates is valuable, especially for restorative purposes.
“I’ve always promoted the benefits of Pilates,” he says. “I tell people you’ll get the best results if you mix and match Pilates and Lagree.”
Then he sighs heavily, adding: “They’re just different – we’re not Pilates.”


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Wellness

‘If Pilates and bodybuilding had a baby,’ it would be the Lagree Method workout

Sebastien Lagree’s fitness machines were created for his workouts, which are a mixture of bodybuilding and Pilates. Photo: Instagram/sebastien.lagree

Sebastien Lagree attends the grand opening of a fitness studio in Los Angeles, California, in June 2024. Photo: TNS

Elizabeth Hurley was one of Lagree’s early celebrity clients in Los Angeles. Photo: Getty Images

A Lagree Fitness machine in action. Photo: Instagram/sebastien.lagree

Lagree’s machines are now made in China and Vietnam, and he has 200 patents from his constant tweaking. Photo: Instagram/sebastien.lagree

How pioneering Pilates studio in Hong Kong lasted the course and stretched to expand

Anna Serafinas (left) and Heather Thomas in her studio using the Pilates equipment. Photo: Flex Studio

Heather Thomas, founder of Flex Studio in Hong Kong, in her studio in Wong Chuk Hang. She opened her first studio in 2005, and it was one of the first places in Hong Kong to teach Pilates exercises. Photo: Edmond So

Heather Thomas is the founder of Flex Studio in Hong Kong. Thomas earned her Pilates certification in 2002. Photo: Edmond So

The interior of the first studio Thomas opened in 2005 in Stanley, on Hong Kong Island. Photo: courtesy of Heather Thomas

Anna Serafinas (left) and Thomas in her studio using the Pilates equipment. Pilates was created in the early 20th century by German physical trainer Joseph Pilates. 

Thomas (far right) at a Pilates teachers graduation celebration at Flex Studio Hong Kong. She is a lead trainer for the “Real Pilates Teacher Training” programme. Photo: courtesy of Heather Thomas

Thomas with her three children in Cartagena, Colombia. In her free time, she enjoys travelling with her family. Photo: courtesy of Heather Thomas

How ‘12-3-30’ treadmill workout can help lose weight and is still big on YouTube, TikTok

Influencer Kols describes how she used the 12-3-30 treadmill routine as part of her weight-loss journey, with tips for newbies to the gym on how to get started.
Photo: instagram.com/healthkols

Lauren Giraldo, a social media influencer and creator of the “12-3-30” treadmill routine,  works out at a gym. Photo: Instagram/laurengiraldo

Before and after photos of Instagram influencer Kols, who says she used the 12-3-30 treadmill routine as part of her weight-loss journey. Photo: Instagram/healthkols

Sonali Prabhu has had more than 752,000 views of her YouTube video on the 12-3-30 routine. Photo: Instagram/so_narly

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Fred Fitness CEO Andre Enzensberger explains how its AI-powered equipment works. The gym in Los Angeles pairs AI software with human coaches to keep gym-goers on track. Photo: Instagram/fredfitnessofficial

The gym is airy and bright, with exposed wood rafters and leafy hanging plants. Photo: Instagram/fredfitnessofficial

Rachel Winokur, aged 50-plus, works out at Fred Fitness where the AI-based equipment’s analysis suggests she has a biological age of 33. Photo: Instagram/fredfitnessofficial

The exercise machines are gamified, meaning their screens display a Pac-Man-like video game that members “play” by moving the weight during reps and sets. Photo: Instagram/fredfitnessofficial

The exercise machines at Fred Fitness are tailored to you. Photo: Instagram/fredfitnessofficial

Fred Fitness is the brainchild of Andre Enzensberger’s brother, Alfred, who is the president and founder of Germany-based fitness franchise Clever Fit. Photo: Instagram/fredfitnessofficial

Kim Kardashian’s weight loss journey: Atkins diet, plant-based diet have helped reality star lose kilograms – as have lots of exercise

From a diet that Kardashian claims helped her lose 27 kilograms to the trainers she has worked out with, we look at what the reality television star says she does to lose weight and stay fit. Photo: Getty Images

Kardashian attends the 2022 Met Gala in New York. Photo: Getty Images

Kardashian in New York in 2015. Photo: Getty Images

Kardashian at the 2019 Met Gala in New York. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

Sebastien Lagree talks about adapting Pilates, adding weights and exercises, and his machines – the Proformer, followed by the Megaformer


Sebastien Lagree talks about adapting Pilates, adding weights and exercises, and his machines – the Proformer, followed by the Megaformer.


Health & Fitness

United States

‘If Pilates and bodybuilding had a baby,’ it would be the Lagree Method workout

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Sebastien Lagree talks about adapting Pilates, adding weights and exercises, and his machines – the Proformer, followed by the Megaformer

Sebastien Lagree talks about adapting Pilates, adding weights and exercises, and his machines – the Proformer, followed by the Megaformer