In this episode, Nicole had the opportunity to speak with Sebastien Lagree, the CEO and Founder of Lagree Fitness. Having designed a method that is now licensed by over 400 fitness studios worldwide and currently holding 97 patents, the Lagree technique is widely known and continues to grow in popularity. Lagree Fitness is now reaching a whole new audience with the introduction of their first in-home piece of equipment, The Micro.
Podcast Highlights
2:20 – How he was inspired to create Mega Former: “The reformer was the original inspiration to the Pro-former, which was the first generation of my equipment. And essentially, you know, Pilates is not a fitness program. It was never a fitness program. It’s your restorative and rehabilitative method. But the reformer is the best platform for a fitness apparatus. So when I decided to make my own machine in 2003, I looked at the reformer like, okay, what’s wrong with the reformer?”
12:50 – Spring-based system to strengthen the body: “Most of the natural strength curve that we have in the body is like a bell-shaped curve. The bell shape peaks differently, depending on the anatomy. But pretty much you can expect the body to start weak, increase in strength and then become weak again. So when you lift the dumbbells, the dumbbell does not accommodate that natural strength curve. And this is why a lot of people, when they lift weights, including myself cheat, we cheat the form so that we can overcompensate our weakness, the weak part in that range of motion. While the spring allows you to not cheat and not hurt yourself because when you cheat the movement, you cheat the form. When you cheat the form, you can induce a lot of damage to your spine.”
19:32 – Two types of users/consumers and how The Micro helps: “The reason why I made The Micro is because we have a huge list of people who want to buy The Mega, but most people cannot buy The Mega because they can’t fit The Mega in their homes. So I wanted something that was really short and compact and The Micro does that. There’s no assembly required when you get the base unit. And then basically you can do pretty much everything you want on that machine.”
25:00 – How Lagree is managing form during covid and ensuring instruction with Lagree at Home: “When I saw the really continued popularity of Peloton, I’m like, you know what? I really have to develop an at-home platform, but I knew that you cannot just sell a machine. You have to sell the program.”
28:00 – Candid thoughts on virtual coaching/teaching: “I really want people to know what is the perfect form? What is this? What is that? You know, there’s a lot of things when you do Lagree, not only just the form but the tempo, the alignment, the range of motion. It’s using the right amount of tension, then you have the right duration. So there’s just so many elements that need to be addressed, and taught.”
42:00 – The future of fitness/sensors/tech: “I’ve been working on these electronics since 2013. Spend millions of dollars figuring out what works what doesn’t because it’s the future.”
44:00 – Trainers and the problem in the fitness market regarding form: “Because there are still some trainers who are not teaching the Lagree properly, you know, I need to make sure that people know the right information.”
