When a workout gets mistaken for Pilates but has Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, and Alessandra Ambrosio in its corner, you know there’s more going on. Enter Lagree—a high-intensity, low-impact training method created by Sebastien Lagree, the French-born fitness innovator who engineered the system to deliver maximum muscle burn with minimal joint strain.

Combining high-intensity, low-impact strength training with slow, controlled movements, Lagree uses patented equipment like the Megaformer and Microformer to push your body to the limit in under 45 minutes. It’s not Pilates—it’s harder. And while the machines might look similar, the method is fundamentally different: think deep muscle shakes, time under tension, and a full-body burn that leaves even pro athletes humbled.

So what exactly makes this method so effective and why are A-listers and elite performers choosing it to stay sculpted? We caught up with founder Sebastien Lagree to find out.

Let’s set the record straight—what’s the biggest misconception people have about Lagree being “just another form of Pilates”? People often judge a book by its cover. When they see the visual similarity between the Megaformer and a traditional Pilates reformer, they frequently assume that Lagree is either an offshoot of Pilates or somehow based on it. However, that misconception has steadily diminished. Since 2012, we’ve been actively educating the public on the distinct differences and unique benefits of the Lagree Method. The global expansion, now with over 1,000 licensed locations, has played a significant role in reshaping that narrative. Today, the majority of people recognize that Lagree and Pilates are entirely separate and fundamentally different methods.

For someone who’s done reformer Pilates, what would they notice immediately in a Lagree class that feels totally different? The shakes. You don’t shake in Pilates. Pilates is a low impact restorative method with the sole mission of circulating the blood for repair and healing. You must keep in mind that Joseph Pilates was a nurse above all. Lagree is a muscular strength and endurance workout. The complete opposite. It is my observation that people who practice Pilates cannot keep up with a Lagree workout. They lack the endurance, hence the intense shaking

We’ve seen everyone from A-list celebs to pro athletes trade in their usual workouts for Lagree—what’s drawing them in? Lagree is a workout. It is engineered to strengthen, tighten, and tone. We use bodybuilding training techniques that are engineered to strengthen, tighten, and tone. That’s why people are switching to Lagree: the results. I encourage everyone to try the Lagree method and see for themselves 

You’ve worked with some incredibly fit, high-performance people—what results are they seeing with Lagree that they weren’t getting elsewhere? People come to me to achieve the impossible: people with an already perfect body who want an even more perfect body. I had to engineer the method for a very demanding clientele. These women (and men) were perfect in every way but they wanted more tightness, more definition. I used my knowledge of bodybuilding and combined it with the low impact quality of the spring resistance based equipment. 

Lagree is often described as “Pilates on steroids,” but there’s more science to it than that. Can you break down the method’s core principles—and why they work? The Pilates on Steroid was started by SLT, a licensee of mine circa 2011. The reference was meant to be cute and a joke; but it caught on with writers and editors who kept using and reusing that reference over the years. The reference was meant to convey how intense Lagree really is. Because, when I came into the picture, Pilates was taught at a very slow and boring pace. Lagree is based on principles like time under tension, super slow speed training, and isokinetic training, progressive overloading, to name a few. Plus new training techniques as we are evolving the drivetrain.  Its usage has diminished a great deal in the past 5 years. I don’t see that reference used much nowadays. Lagree has grown in popularity and now people can see for themselves that the reference is pointless and doesn’t mean anything.