{"id":273391,"date":"2026-02-08T06:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/273391\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T06:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:21:08","slug":"lagree-method-founder-on-why-theres-no-beef-with-pilates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/273391\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagree method founder on why there’s ‘no beef’ with Pilates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pilates<\/a> and Lagree are frequently compared, but the founder of the latter says the debate misses the point, as the two serve different purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really no beef. I don\u2019t see them in competition,\u201d Sebastien Lagree tells The National during a recent trip to the UAE, where the toning fitness technique is establishing a firm base, with more studios opening. \u201cDubai\u2019s personality matches mine. People here like things bigger and better. Most of the craziest things I\u2019ll do will probably happen here first,\u201d says the French-American Lagree founder. <\/p>\n

Pilates<\/a> focuses on restoring balance and improving mobility, while Lagree is designed to push muscular endurance and strength through sustained, high-intensity movements. While both draw on reformer-based principles, they are built for different outcomes and are often used together rather than interchangeably.<\/p>\n

\u201cPilates is a restorative technique. When you look at the creation of Pilates, you look at the early 1900s, when Joseph Pilates started to put together his reformer. And the original machine looked very different from what you see today,\u201d adds Sebastien, who is also the inventor of the Megaformer machine on which Lagree Fitness is performed.<\/p>\n

Sebastien adds that much of the comparison drama is driven online rather than in studios. \u201cPeople who have never done Pilates or Lagree chime in, but they are misinformed. So to the Pilates community: I love Pilates. I do it on the Megaformer myself, so I believe in a combination of the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alternative to weightlifting <\/p>\n

For Sebastien, the distinction matters. His method was never intended to replace Pilates or even sit alongside it as a rival discipline. \u201cPilates started as a healing method. Joseph Pilates believed a balanced body is a healthy body. That is the premise of Pilates, and I agree with this. I\u2019m not doing that because Pilates is already doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why Lagree came to be is because in 1998, when I was teaching Pilates, I realised within 30 days that a lot of people were complaining that they were not getting enough effort in the class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastien noticed a growing interest in something more physically demanding, especially among female clients. The wider fitness landscape of the era helps explain that shift. He says that, at the time, women typically didn\u2019t go to the gym to lift but rather do cardio. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were not doing weight-lifting like today. Today a lot has changed. Thirty years later, women are working out just as aggressively as men,\u201d says Sebastien. <\/p>\n

However, he says, back then, strength training carried its own stigma. \u201cA lot of women thought that weightlifting would make them bulky. So I knew they needed the intensity of weight-lifting without taking them into the weights room.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, the answer lay in rethinking the reformer itself. \u201cI picked the reformer because it has the most application fitness-wise,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I decided to essentially use bodybuilding exercise and training techniques. But instead of using weights, I used the reformer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response was immediate. \u201cIt didn\u2019t wait a year, two months or even a month. It just took off,\u201d he says. \u201cThe first week, I was maybe teaching 12 to 15 hours. Within three weeks, I was doing 60 hours a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that growth came attention from beyond the studio. \u201cI had the press coming in, celebrities were coming in. Everybody was curious about this method.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, the style didn\u2019t even bear his name. \u201cAt the beginning, I didn\u2019t call it Lagree. I called it Pilates-plus,\u201d he says, adding that fitness was not his original career plan. \u201cWhen I moved to LA, my intention was to become an actor. I didn\u2019t move to do fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n

That period was followed by a series of professional setbacks that ultimately pushed Sebastien towards forging his own path. After the studio where he was teaching changed ownership, he was asked to leave, largely because his classes no longer aligned with traditional Pilates.<\/p>\n

Not long after, he found himself shut out of other studios across Los Angeles, effectively unable to teach as his approach fell outside established definitions of the discipline. \u201cSo, I opened my own studio, started to develop my own method and eventually decided to make my own machine,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Evolution is the name of the game<\/p>\n

From there, the method continued to evolve, a process Sebastien says is far from complete. \u201cI\u2019ve never stopped evolving the machine and the method,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

He describes the current iteration as part of a longer journey. \u201cI\u2019m still at about a 40 per cent completion rate from the original vision that I want,\u201d he says. \u201cSo you\u2019re going to see a huge innovation, a huge evolution of the machine and the method.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will extend beyond hardware into how the workout itself is structured. Sebastien says new movements are constantly being developed in collaboration with other instructors. \u201cI work with different teachers,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll put it on the machine and explore new movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those explorations have already resulted in four new training series: flying, floating, leading and hinging. <\/p>\n

Technology is also playing an increasingly central role in shaping what comes next. While the movements may look familiar to seasoned clients, the way resistance and intensity are managed is shifting. Sebastien says that Lagree 2.0 and 3.0 are expected to be released this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cLagree 2.0 is about muscular insurance,\u201d he says. \u201cTo do that, you need the remote control that allows you to change the springs wirelessly.\u201d The aim is to keep people in motion longer. \u201cIt\u2019s like doing a drop set, but I\u2019m dropping the weight for you. You keep moving.<\/p>\n

\u201cLagree 3.0 is about time under tension, but also anti-inflammation. Because if I have you stay in a movement longer, I don’t want the additional time to create inflammation in your joints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future versions will continue to build on that principle, introducing other forms of resistance and eventually exploring different planes of motion, he says, describing his vision of machines that tilt during exercises.<\/p>\n

For Sebastien, the method\u2019s trajectory is not just physical. \u201cWhen you start to do this, then come other parts of mental health. We go more into the mind aspects of the workout. So there\u2019s a whole evolution planned out.\u201d <\/p>\n

He says while variety is important in fitness, the ability to progress intensity is even more so. \u201cI don\u2019t understand people who today do routine A, tomorrow do routine B, then routine C and repeat. The body doesn\u2019t work that way. If you want to continue to improve, you have to challenge your body in new ways. That\u2019s why I\u2019m pushing the evolution of this method.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pilates and Lagree are frequently compared, but the founder of the latter says the debate misses the point,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7893,565,57467,111,139,69,1177,427,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-273391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-lifestyle-team","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-story","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}