Studio Lagree

Carm Perrelli had been working for almost two decades as an investment advisor in Toronto when he experienced a midlife crisis. Was this what the 6’4” 345-pound ex-Varsity jock wanted to do with his life? The answer was no, but no one would have imagined where he’d end up—least of all Carm himself.

“I was questioning everything so I left it all and went travelling,” Carm recalls. That’s when he first heard about a fitness phenomenon that was the hottest workout on the West Coast. For Carm, it was a game-changer. In February 2013, he and his business partner, Pino Gagliardi, opened Lagree Fitness Studio in Forest Hill Village. The 3,600 square-foot space is replete with 14 Megaformer Pilates machines designed by none other than Sebastien Lagree, former Hollywood trainer to the stars.

Dubbed “the workout for the stars” —it’s endorsed by the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Michelle Obama, Sofia Vergara and a host of NHL players—the Lagree fitness method challenges everyone, young and old. While about 75 per cent of the studio’s clients are women who seem to glide through the workouts after some practice, the men end up sweating buckets until they get going, Carm says.