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It\u2019s 10 a.m. on a Friday, and the Sculpt Society\u2019s Nolita pop-up studio is full of women in their 20s and 30s wearing identical navy-and-burgundy Lululemon sets. Just before the workout class is set to begin, TSS founder Megan Roup shows up in a white sports bra, her long brown hair pulled back in a perky ponytail. Though most of the women there have only ever seen her on a screen, she greets each one with a hug like they are old friends. Oona, a 26-year-old who works in media, tells me she started doing TSS videos in her college dorm; now she does them in her tiny Upper East Side apartment. She stopped by Lululemon the day before to pick out her outfit from the brand\u2019s new \u201cMegan Roup edit<\/a>\u201d and can\u2019t wait to meet her: \u201cShe\u2019s like a celebrity. I feel like I know her.\u201d After Roup leads the room through the opening dance-cardio sequence \u2014\u00a0a fast-paced series of jumping jacks, leg kicks, and a step-clap she refers to as \u201ca cheerleader moment\u201d \u2014\u00a0the room breaks into applause.<\/p>\n Lately, Roup has been working overtime to grow her fitness empire, one that prides itself on being a friendlier \u2014\u00a0and more affordable \u2014 alternative to the boutique fitness world. While a single Pilates class in Manhattan can cost $50, a yearlong subscription to the Sculpt Society app is $300, which includes access to more than 1,000 pretaped workout classes, some as short as five minutes. Whether you\u2019re trying to get in shape for your wedding or strengthen your pelvic floor after having a baby, the app has a growing list of programs<\/a> designed for different stages of life. Roup has racked up endorsements from celebrity clients: This year, she helped Dakota Johnson<\/a> get in shape for her Calvin Klein campaign and posted the abs circuit<\/a> she did with Kate Hudson before the Oscars. Other TSS devotees include Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss, Emma Roberts<\/a>, and Zosia Mamet<\/a>. There\u2019s no shortage of women dying to take a class with Roup. She says her recent New York City pop-up sold out in minutes.<\/p>\n Roup is a classically trained ballerina and former dancer for the Brooklyn Nets. She got her start in fitness in the early 2010s, when she worked for Tracy Anderson, the celebrity trainer who takes credit for fixing Gwyneth Paltrow\u2019s \u201cproblem areas.\u201d<\/a> While living in New York in her 20s, the fitness world felt \u201cvery cutthroat,\u201d Roup says, \u201clike you had to be in the perfect workout set and have a dance background.\u201d Working out often felt punishing and all about burning calories. \u201cI was on every fad diet. I was overexercising,\u201d she says. \u201cI remember being at a Crunch gym on a treadmill running for hours and hating every second.\u201d When she launched TSS in 2017, when she was 31, she wanted her own classes to feel warm and inviting. Her signature workout featured a mash-up of Pilates and strength exercises along with short bursts of dance cardio designed to feel \u201clike a girls\u2019 night out,\u201d she says. \u201cIt should feel like a runner\u2019s high, without the dread of having to go for a run.\u201d<\/p>\n From the start, Roup was intentional about trying to recruit bigger-name clients. \u201cI would DM different models and influencers and celebrities and offer a private session for them to come to class,\u201d she says. Soon, supermodels like Elsa Hosk and Shanina Shaik and the influencer Arielle Charnas<\/a> were regulars. \u201cIn the early days, the energy was unmatched,\u201d says Bianca Gasparro, a content creator who lives in\u00a0New Jersey and has been working out with Roup for nearly a decade. \u201cIt just feels light and happy, versus some other instructors you go to and it\u2019s just \u2026 not that.\u201d (Roup\u2019s rise wasn\u2019t entirely without drama. In 2022, Anderson sued her<\/a> for breach of contract and copyright infringement, alleging that Roup had copied her choreography sequences; the copyright claim was ultimately dismissed.) Now TSS has more than 300,000 members.<\/p>\n Most of Roup\u2019s fans tell me they discovered TSS during the pandemic. Beth, who lives in Miami, says her college daughter introduced her to Roup\u2019s videos during COVID. \u201cA bunch of mothers and daughters would all do the workouts together on Zoom,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve been hooked ever since.\u201d Another mom tells me she started doing TSS\u2019s prenatal series when she was expecting her first child. Now that she has a toddler at home, the videos are the easiest way to fit in a morning workout.<\/p>\n A mother of two herself, Roup knows her clients are busy. She says we\u2019ve all been brainwashed to think that for a workout to be effective, it has to be long. The TSS app is full of five- and ten-minute \u201cquickies\u201d to help you squeeze in an arms or ab circuit. \u201cI mean, this morning all I did was 15 minutes, and I was like, And I\u2019m good,\u201d she told me on a phone call this summer. She claims she doesn\u2019t work out nearly as much as you\u2019d expect for someone whose entire brand is fitness \u2014 and neither do her high-profile clients. In an Instagram post<\/a> about how she trained Johnson before her underwear shoot, Roup emphasized that they never worked out for more than 45 minutes and always took one or two rest days a week. She doesn\u2019t believe in \u201cwasting your time and trying to get as sweaty as possible spending hours working out.\u201d Pointing to a picture of Johnson lounging by a pool wearing nothing but a bra, Roup says: \u201cI would say the results speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Roup says she wants women to focus on how her workouts make you feel \u2014 as opposed to how they make you look. She told me it was important to her to film herself working out while pregnant and postpartum to give women realistic expectations and push back against bounce-back culture: \u201cWho wants to see a fitness trainer with six-pack muscles when you\u2019re six weeks postpartum? I certainly didn\u2019t.\u201d Still, it\u2019s not as if she hides her six-pack; a recent viral video<\/a> of her doing deep-core exercises through her pregnancy ends with a shot of her rock-hard abs by the time she\u2019s two years postpartum. Following along in class in my matching two-piece set, it was hard not to notice that after two kids, my own stomach looks a lot different than hers.<\/p>\n For all her talk about how we don\u2019t have to take exercise so seriously, Roup\u2019s classes are still intense. After jumping around with three-pound hand weights, we went into a series of lunges, plank-abs, and rear leg raises, and it was clear the women in attendance knew what they were doing. But when the 30 minutes were up and Roup asked the room, \u201cDo you feel good?\u201d I couldn\u2019t deny that I did. My body felt tired but lighter, like something had been released. Everyone around me was wiping sweat, their faces breaking into smiles. Afterward, women lined up to take selfies with Roup and stuck around for complimentary matcha and ear seeding. Walking home in my new striped leggings, I told myself I should really do the videos more. Maybe with a few additional ten-minute ab circuits, I could look \u2014\u00a0or at least feel \u2014\u00a0a little more like Roup.<\/p>\n Stay in touch.<\/p>\n The latest in style, self, culture, and power in your inbox.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n