The Solidcore Workout

It's all the rage of the Washington D.C. area, and Michelle Obama's favorite workout, and now Solidcore is starting to catch on nation wide.

Solidcore is a 50-minute workout built around a device known as a Megaformer, which resembles the love child of a spring-loaded Pilates reformer machine and a medieval dungeon's rack.  The device offers a high-intensity, low-impact routine based upon the Lagree Fitness method. This exercise philosophy stresses a complete total-body workout every session, not the “arms on Monday, abs on Tuesday” approach of many trainers and facilities. Cardiorespiratory, muscular endurance, strength, body composition, core, balance and flexibility moves are incorporated into each workout.

Unlike most workouts with which you may be familiar, Solidcore routines involve slow and controlled movements. Of course, the debate between “slow” and “fast” workout adherents continues to rage on, but Solidcore fans swear by their slow pace. They believe that faster weight training takes an unfair advantage of a barbell's or weight machine's momentum. After all, it's a lot easier to bench press quickly than slowly.

Solidcore trainees exercise to the point of muscle failure at each class. Each muscle group is worked until no more reps can be made. Again, there is some controversy and conflicting studies. Research out of Eastern Illinois University indicates that too much training to the point of physical exhaustion can create long term performance problems, but a study done at the University of Tsukuba in Japan found “training to failure” to be effective.

Because slower movements create more tension, a greater number of muscle fibers are tapped as you work through each movement. This more evenly distributes the force through your musculature, which Solidcore trainers believe results in fewer injuries and a safer workout on the Megaformer when compared with knocking back quicker reps on a traditional weight machine.

Another important aspect of the Solidcore workout is variety. Even though every session works the whole body, trainers make a point of utilizing the Megaformer in such a way as to make every workout different. It has long been held that such variety not only increases the enjoyment of the workout, but also makes it more likely that the trainee will stuck with the program.

The Solidcore website says the company plans on being in 50 locations by the end of 2017.