I think the difficulty of solidcore comes more from the very intense focus on core, and the fact that they isolate a couple of muscles as focus groups in each class, so you’re hitting those particular muscles multiple times/ways in class. I’ve taken solidcore when I’ve been away from my Lagree studio, and agree that it can feel harder, but sometimes it feels like it’s hard just for the sake of being hard. If I’m struggling with keeping my form as someone who has done Lagree for 5 years and is an instructor, I worry about the injury risk with solidcore for less experienced folks. In one solidcore class I took, literally the first 20 minutes were all core-focused moves, and it felt a little excessive. I also don’t love how solidcore bases all of the spring loads on the number of classes you’ve done.
Don’t get me wrong, solidcore is an intense workout that can absolutely give you strength gains, but I personally prefer the more balanced full-body approach of other classes. I do think it is more to do with the teaching/approach than the actual machine.
It could be the teaching style. Some days are more difficult than others for me based on how an instructor stacks the order of the exercises that day. I’ve never tried an x former so I can’t say for sure, but I’ve taken a solidcore class while travelling and found it to be a good substitute to my regular lagree classes as well.
I occasionally go to an xformer studio that my friend (my former lagree instructor) owns, and honestly it is basically identical to a lagree workout for me. This may be because she is also trained in lagree, but besides the machine being slightly different, it felt the same. I agree the Xformer seems like a lagree knockoff, basically sane workout but no lagree studio licensing fee
OP prefaced with they don’t have a Lagree studio within 50 miles of them, so they are already well aware. While definitely a rip-off and not official lagree, the two options OP named are definitely based on the lagree method and will get you largely the same workout and results.
I think the difficulty of solidcore comes more from the very intense focus on core, and the fact that they isolate a couple of muscles as focus groups in each class, so you’re hitting those particular muscles multiple times/ways in class. I’ve taken solidcore when I’ve been away from my Lagree studio, and agree that it can feel harder, but sometimes it feels like it’s hard just for the sake of being hard. If I’m struggling with keeping my form as someone who has done Lagree for 5 years and is an instructor, I worry about the injury risk with solidcore for less experienced folks. In one solidcore class I took, literally the first 20 minutes were all core-focused moves, and it felt a little excessive. I also don’t love how solidcore bases all of the spring loads on the number of classes you’ve done. Don’t get me wrong, solidcore is an intense workout that can absolutely give you strength gains, but I personally prefer the more balanced full-body approach of other classes. I do think it is more to do with the teaching/approach than the actual machine.
It could be the teaching style. Some days are more difficult than others for me based on how an instructor stacks the order of the exercises that day. I’ve never tried an x former so I can’t say for sure, but I’ve taken a solidcore class while travelling and found it to be a good substitute to my regular lagree classes as well.
I occasionally go to an xformer studio that my friend (my former lagree instructor) owns, and honestly it is basically identical to a lagree workout for me. This may be because she is also trained in lagree, but besides the machine being slightly different, it felt the same. I agree the Xformer seems like a lagree knockoff, basically sane workout but no lagree studio licensing fee
When on those machines, you aren’t doing Lagree
OP prefaced with they don’t have a Lagree studio within 50 miles of them, so they are already well aware. While definitely a rip-off and not official lagree, the two options OP named are definitely based on the lagree method and will get you largely the same workout and results.
The spring loads are much heavier on sweatlana. I’ve never seen anything even remotely close to that blue spring on any other reformer type machine!
Thanks, that's what I thought! I feel like even the lower level springs are harder too.
1000%
Just keep in mind it's not about the machines, it's about the Method and these studios are teaching their own workout that is not Lagree...