Home US The ‘hardcore’ exercise class responsible for Sydney Sweeney’s toned body…and why some say it’s the toughest workout they’ve ever done

The ‘hardcore’ exercise class responsible for Sydney Sweeney’s toned body…and why some say it’s the toughest workout they’ve ever done

by Jack
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Sweeney burst into popular culture with her role as Cassie Howard in HBO's 'Euphoria'

Actress Sydney Sweeney just revealed the secret of how she maintains her world-famous body.

She’s participating in an intense Pilates-inspired workout that’s taking the nation by storm.

‘I like this place called SolidCore. It’s a high-intensity full-body workout but with a reformer, and it’s been killing my butt. I love it’ said the ‘Euphoria’ actress The Wall Street Journal.

SolidCore was founded in 2013 in Washington DC by Anne Mahlum, a former nonprofit worker turned entrepreneur. She created it to be “core pilates workouts redefined.”

Sweeney burst into popular culture with her role as Cassie Howard in HBO's 'Euphoria'

Sweeney burst into popular culture with her role as Cassie Howard in HBO’s ‘Euphoria’

As of December 2023, they have expanded to over a hundred studios across the United States, from California to North Dakota to New York.

But it’s not cheap: Individual classes cost $43 and a six-month unlimited membership costs $367.94 a month.

The class takes place on a machine Solidcore calls a ‘swetlana,’ which is essentially a larger version of a Pilates reformer. This longer length makes certain moves more challenging.

You can adjust the strength and tension of the coils attached to different parts of the machine to create more or less resistance as you progress through different exercises in the class. Using these types of resistance exercise machines is said to improve posture, balance and add additional tension to challenge the muscles.

But there are key differences between Solidcore and reformer Pilates.

Solidcore focuses more on building muscle and endurance, while Pilates encourages slow, deep breathing and a gentler workout.

The pace is also much faster, similar to a spin class.

Newcomers are expected to arrive early to class to be oriented to this machine, which to beginners might seem like a torture device.

Once the 50-minute class begins, the lights dim and the music starts blasting, not unlike cult spin classes like SoulCycle or Orangetheory.

While the music plays, the instructor shouts instructions through headphones connected to the speaker system, explaining to participants a total of 25 different exercises, from planks to lunges, squats and bicep curls.

Solidcore classes are held on a machine called a 'sweatlana', which helps increase the challenge for your muscles.

Solidcore classes are held on a machine called a 'sweatlana', which helps increase the challenge for your muscles.

Solidcore classes are held on a machine called a ‘sweatlana’, which helps increase the challenge for your muscles.

Instructors instruct participants to hold each pose for long periods of time while performing small, slow contractions or stretches, pushing toward “muscle failure.”

This, the Solidcore team said, will help you build lean muscle endurance by stimulating slow-twitch muscle fibers.

‘Slow-twitch muscle fibers are resistant to fatigue and are used for activities that require endurance. By progressively increasing resistance over time on our Pilates-inspired reformer, muscles gradually become stronger,’ they explain on their website.

In normal people’s language, the class is designed to make you shake.

scientific literature agrees that to develop slow-twitch muscles, people should perform slow resistance exercises to the point of muscle failure. For example, marathon runners tend to have very strong slow-twitch muscles.

Sweeney is far from the first person to be “killed” by this intense training.

‘With every step, I was shaking. Needless to say, SolidCore is no ordinary Pilates,” one TikTok user actually shared. in a video sharing his first experience.

‘This is the hardest class I have ever taken in my life. I have never felt so honored,” said user Lavishlana on another video.

In response, the official SolidCore account commented: “The shaking means it’s working!”

I TRIED SOLIDCORE ONCE AND I HAVE NEVER RETURNED

DailyMail.com wellness reporter Maiya Focht says the class was the most challenging exercise she’s ever done…

I tried Solidcore one weekend, in November 2023, and within the first ten minutes of class I wanted to quit.

I foolishly thought I would breeze through the class as I had taken many Pilates classes in the past so I didn’t prepare as much as I should have.

The ‘swetlana’ machine was more intimidating than a normal Pilates reformer, due to the confusing numbers and markers on the sides, which I later learned indicate where to put your hands and feet.

The hardest part of the class was the plank series, which in my case was how we started and ended the class. Your legs are placed on a moving platform that you move in and out while keeping your body in a plank position.

I started shaking pretty violently when we got to the lunge portion of the workout. The leg that was placed on the moving platform felt so unstable that I feared I would fall off the machine, but I kept my balance.

The term “muscle failure” started to make a lot of sense at this point in the class. I felt like my muscles were failing and I had lost control over them.

Throughout the class, I frequently looked at the mirror walls to see if other people taking the class were struggling as much as I was. In many cases, it seems that people were.

I definitely felt elated when I finished. I felt like I had just survived some sort of small death and was triumphantly sore for a full week after class.

So it makes sense to me that the company doesn’t recommend that newcomers attend more than three classes a week.

I guess I would go again, but I would have taken some time to stretch before class and hydrated better.

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