EVENING STANDARD – REVIEW

But London’s scene is old-fashioned compared with the offerings in Los Angeles, and its appetite for newness looks restrained when pitched against theirs. The Angeleno is a sunny, hewn creature: limbs long and corseted in skin-tight lululemon. He or she totes something greener than Eden and talks — breathily — about the latest trends in workouts and transcendental meditation.

Luckily, London cynicism will likely preclude us from becoming quite so earnest, though we’ll continue to borrow the workouts. What starts in LA makes its way — at high velocity — to London. These are the workouts to look out for. The Megaformer

The Megaformer sounds like a cutesy family nickname for the remote control. In fact, it is an imposing jungle gym on which you can prostrate yourself, tangled and perspiring, in order to lose weight (and self-respect, probably). It is like a high-octane Reformer Pilates machine — and is at the centre of workouts by Studio Lagree, an LA studio that opened a studio in the City at the tail end of last year. Kim Kardashian is rumoured to be a disciple of the studio.

Studio Lagree cannot promise your proportions will end up as confounding as hers, but the workout, which pledges to test your “core, endurance, cardio, balance, strength and flexibility … in every move” reportedly whittles the body. The machine places resistance on the muscles in order to work them to stretching point. (35-37 Chiswell Street, EC1, studiolagree.com)