Are YOU tough enough for Meghan’s torture machine!
As I fall to my knees, shaking, the fitness instructor cries: ‘Glide into a high plank! From here, you’re going to bend, tuck in your knee and pivot to the left.’
I want to do as she says because this is humiliating. the class started only ten minutes ago, but I feel completely drained of energy and in a state of shock and disbelief.
Moments into my high-intensity workout on the Megaformer — a dastardly machine that would fit well in a torture chamber — I realise what sorts the strong upright wheat from the feeble old chaff, and me from the likes of Meghan Markle.
Let me explain. As the world admires her slender but strong frame, the actress and soon-to-be royal bride has piqued the interest of fitness fans by praising Pilates Platinum, the LA studio chain, as ‘hands down the best thing you could do for your body’.
At the LA studio, which housed one of the first Megaformers, clients are promised a ‘fun and energising’ workout.
Markle says ‘the results are incredible’ — and those who admire her toned figure will agree.
no wonder then that the Megaformer, a favourite with professional athletes and celebrities (Michelle Obama and Jennifer Aniston are also fans) is fast conquering the globe, with more than 300 studios licensed to use it.
Fortunately for Meghan, and the rest of us, that means the Megaformer workout has come to the Uk, courtesy of the fitness chain studio Lagree. named after the Megaformer’s French-born creator, sebastien Lagree, it is opening its fourth London venue and plans to go nationwide with potential sites in Liverpool and Manchester.
As Robert Lepone, the Uk managing director for the brand, reveals of Meghan: ‘she was a regular visitor to one of our Lagree studios in toronto when she was filming suits. she’s recently professed she’s a big advocate of the workout — she loves it.’
so I had arrived at the City branch of studio Lagree thrilled at the chance to take on Meghan’s machine. Perhaps I should have been warned when I had told a toned twentysomething in the changing room that I was about to try the class. she’d laughed and said: ‘I couldn’t even do the warm-up!’
I also recalled studio Lagree’s Robert Lepone describing the workout as ‘Pilates on steroids’. he’d used the word ‘brutal’, adding that after his first session he couldn’t walk for four days.
now, as my thighs burn and my breath catches in my chest, I understand. the stationary machine has a sliding carriage, with a non-moving platform at either end, plus various handles, pulleys and weights.
this, theoretically, enables one to perform lunges, squats, pushups and other hardcore horrors, and forces constant use of legs, arms, and stomach. six hundred muscles are worked, and though I didn’t realise I had that many, it certainly feels like it now.
Years ago, I did clinical Pilates on a reformer machine — a far more basic device that adds resistance to the traditional Pilates moves. Comparing it with the Megaformer is to compare a kitten with a sabre-toothed tiger.
My instructor, sharlene Greechan, says: ‘the Megaformer looks like a reformer, but it’s not Pilates. It’s classified as high-intensity strength training, but there is zero impact.
‘so unlike a hIIt (highintensity interval training) class, which is also high intensity, pounding and jumping, it’s very good for your joints. You also get cardiovascular training. For 45 minutes, you work out non-stop.’ It’s absolutely not for wimps. the sliding carriage has spring-loaded resistance and many of the exercises involve moving it back and forth with a precise muscle group — say, your abs — in a moving plank. Up you rise, like an inverted V, then down again, controlling the astonishingly resistant carriage. there’s a lot of holding poses for 30 seconds and even more pulsing. I’m almost instantly exhausted. sharlene says, ‘the method is designed so you hit total body muscle failure within 45 minutes.’ I get there far, far sooner. By working intensely on one muscle group at a time, she explains: ‘We activate the slow-twitch muscle fibres that build that long lean muscle and really slim us down. ‘But it’s not so much about the aesthetics. We focus on core health and on correcting posture. We also work very slowly, as the slower you move the more effective it is. We focus on good form, and that keeps you safe.’ the class burns up to 800 calories as your metabolism stays boosted for hours. sharlene says: ‘You’re going to get a smaller waistline and a nice derriere, but what’s more important is building a strong body that will carry you through life. ‘I’m 40 in a month, and I’m not so worried about what my summer body’s going to look like. ‘I want to have the vitality to make it through my day. I know I’m going to age well and have that energy when I’m 50 and 60. I feel and look better than ever.’ sebastien Lagree has been described as a ‘fitness visionary’, though as I tremble, sweat, and pray for the 50-minute class to end (it includes a fiveminute warm down), I consider him an evil genius. When I call him at home in LA, still buzzing and aching, I confess his machine crushed me. he replies: ‘You’re welcome!’ he’s refined the Megaformer over 15 years. his aim was to create ‘a fitness method that would do everything’. ‘Usually, people pick a type of fitness: they’ll run or do cardio, and that’s all they do,’ he says. ‘Running is only one facet of fitness. I wanted to combine strength, endurance, cardiovascular fitness, but also balance and flexibility. Learning to balance stimulates the connection
between your mind and the muscle. And, of course, you need a strong core.’
Lagree’s background is in bodybuilding and he’s studied a range of fitness disciplines. He adds — and his accent reminds me a little of Arnold Schwarzenegger — ‘This is why, today, when you took the workout, you felt very humbled, because you stimulated your body on so many levels that you’re probably not accustomed to.’
Alas, Lagree is right. My pleasant regime of running, swimming and lifting a few weights in the gym allows me to avoid suffering. The Megaformer has highlighted every physical weakness. For instance, that my abdominals are about as strong as chewing gum. The next day, it hurts to breathe and my husband suggests I’ve used my intercostal muscles, which lie between my ribs, for the first time.
The good news is that Lagree reckons it doesn’t take long before your body adjusts to the pain and you begin to enjoy it.
SHArLene, my instructor, agrees. Her first Megaformer class left her reeling, and, she adds: ‘It wasn’t easier the second or the third time. There’s a ten to 12-class learning curve. I started taking two classes a week. That was all I could do.
‘But I felt I had more energy. Then I noticed my clothes were starting to fit differently. You start to feel really good. You also change mentally. You get that strength, that spirit, that fire.’
even as my muscles scream, and (oh, the shame!), Sharlene hurries over to manually prevent me collapsing as I try to perform a moving side-plank — a manoeuvre that requires abs of steel — I see the attraction. This class is exquisitely, thrillingly tough.
Presently, the Megaformer and I aren’t friends. It’s exposed me as having ideas above my station. But I suspect I could learn to love it in time.
‘It’s very customisable,’ says Sharlene, ‘appropriate for all ages and all fitness levels. And we offer beginners’ classes to give people who know nothing about the method or the machine a thorough introduction.’ These classes focus on key, simple exercises, performed at a slower pace, to build confidence and understanding.
‘We’d do lunges, for example, and focus on good form. For the upper body, we might do a chestopener and build from there.’
even if you’re not particularly fit in midlife, if you start by learning the basic moves, the Lagree method is an effective, way of gaining strength, vital for maintaining bone density, preserving muscle mass, and increasing resistance to disease as we hit our 50s and beyond.
As Sharlene says: ‘As we age, we don’t want to put undue stress on our joints and ligaments. This is an exercise that’s low impact, but still delivers a high intensity level of training, so it’s really effective.’
She says it’s popular with women in their 40s and 50s. Several clients are in their 60s.
And, I say, it doesn’t hurt that one Megaformer fan is about to marry Prince Harry. ‘It’s kind of fun,’ agrees Sharlene. ‘I hope that when she’s settled into her royal lifestyle, she will come by.’
Well, if my muscles have stopped shaking by then, I’ll see you there, Meghan.
Visit studiolagree.com/uk. An introductory class is £15, and there are special offers (e.g. 20 classes for £420.) A single class costs £30.