2025 Spring Updates

5/18/2025

YOU ALL SURE SHOWED UP!

Our Spring Challenge ended just a few days ago and I have a big thank you for everyone that participated! I've never had the opportunity to count so many stickers!

And now the moment you've all been waiting for:

the winner for FIRST PRIZE - 20 CLASS PACKAGE along with a really nice prize goes to...
COURTNEY WOODWARD
and the winner for SECOND PRIZE - 15 CLASS PACKAGE goes to...
JESS PALOMO

There were several of you that really showed us what you are made of! One client had 49 stickers! That's a lot of climbing!
Congratulations to our winners. Your credits have been added onto your accounts to use for yourself or share with friends and family.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS, BRING YOUR FAMILY, BRING YOURSELF!

Check out our schedule each week and look for "Low Peak" classes. These are classes that have low sign ups. Our goal this summer is to keep our schedule in tact and cancel a class only when attendance is less than 5!

This is a great way to introduce your friends and family to Lagree at a discounted rate!

$10 Class Credits can be purchased on our App or on the Website.

Memberships are still valid for all classes, you do not need to purchase a $10 pass to attend a "low peak" class. Don't forget, you also have free guest passes included in your membership.

NEW INSTRUCTOR ALERT!

Please join me in welcoming Sunny to the CoreStrong Team! You can find Sunny on the schedule on Monday evenings at 6:40 and 7:45. She'll also be teaching every other Sunday at 11:10 and 12:15 starting in June.

We asked Sunny a few questions and here's what she had to say:

I fell in love with Lagree [when]... I did it for the first time! I thought it was so fun to be on the Mega and try all the different moves. I also loved that it was challenging yet rewarding and required 100% of my focus.
The move that gets me shakiest is... inner thigh squats and side lying cable press get me every time.
The workout is like nothing I've ever done because... no matter how much I come to class, it's always hard! The workout challenges my mind and body unlike anything else I've done.
When I don't feel like working out I tell myself... it's important to make good choices for myself and my health, especially when it feels difficult. I also remember that I always feel good after working out.
My advice to first time or new clients is... Stay consistent and keep showing up for yourself! I promise it will be worth your time and effort. I know learning the method and getting comfortable on the machine is overwhelming, so don't be afraid to ask your instructor for some extra help or clarification. It's what we're here for! Also, try the VersaClimber! I was skeptical at first, but it's so much fun and compliments my Lagree practice.
My advice to advanced clients is... Set an intention at the beginning of class so you are always improving and getting stronger. Some of my intentions are to focus on keeping my core engaged in every move, maintaining my slow pace (especially in arms and core), or transitioning quickly and efficiently. Setting these clear goals at the beginning of class has helped me level up my practice.

A monthly feature in our newsletter, thanks to our instructor Briana Crotinger LMT! Briana has a wealth of knowledge and loves to research and share her findings! With over a decade of bodywork, kinesiology, and pain management experience, she weaves her knowledge into her barefoot myofascial massage practice at Mend Bodywork.

My phone buzzed, vibrating the table and shifting the food wrappers next to it. A millisecond later, my watch buzzed, not once, not twice, but three more times. It was an email notification sent by a company I never subscribed to for a doodad I absolutely did not need. I turned my phone to silent and stashed it away. My watch went directly into my purse. It’s been six weeks, and I haven’t put it on my wrist since. It was the final act of “going dark” or “offline” as the kids say these days. I simply couldn’t take it anymore- the notifications, the endless doomscrolling, the constant battle for my attention.

I was in Morro Bay when I decided enough was enough. I have lived online full-time since 2019- merely a few months before a global pandemic catapulted us all into living online for almost two years, forever changing how we interact with the world and others around us. At the time, I was running my massage clinic up north and nurturing a rapidly growing illustration business on Instagram. If I wasn’t working with my hands, then I was “working” by responding to comments, making content, etc etc upwards of six hours a day, not accounting for my doomscrolling. It didn’t take long before social media became a full-blown addiction, conveniently hidden behind my “need to run a business.” And while life passed before my eyes, I was never looking at it- just this stupid 4x6 inch pocket rectangle that became the tyrant over my time and attention. The constant need to keep up with the algorithm and meet expectations crippled my love of art. My business collapsed in on itself like a dying star, and in 2023, I went a full year of doing near zero illustration. This vacation, however, I wanted to experience the now, in my favorite place on Earth with my favorite person and two dogs.

While there, my phone stayed on silent, imprisoned on its charger. My sketchbook became my “image feed” and I spent four blissful days of drawing, drinking coffee, and existing in the real world. When I got home, my watch stayed off my wrist, and my phone was banished from my bedroom. I unearthed an old analog alarm clock to make sure I still rose with the sun (though that turned out to be unnecessary as my dogs are especially talented time-keepers). And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I logged off of instagram, and my last social media platform, for the last time.

It seems ridiculous that clicking the “log out” button would be such an act of rebellion, but in a world where the most precious, battled-after, and manipulated resource is your attention, it feels like the only act of rebellion. A quote that stuck with me over these last six weeks is- “Modern-day threats no longer look like threats.” And it’s true. Even 30 years ago, a threat to our nervous system still looked like a threat- a bear, a reckless driver, an angry boss. But now? Now threats are more subversive. My biggest predator is that 4x6 rectangle that clings to me every place I go. Every ding, every chime, represents an urgent task demanding me immediately. Every chirp is a hot poker to my fight or flight system. Maybe you can relate.

When I tapped the “log out” button for the last time, it felt like someone switched off a loud stereo. My life got uncomfortably quiet almost immediately. When you search “going offline” or “leaving social media” you’ll find quite a few inspirational stories, and the most honest of them will tell you that the first few weeks without social media- without your phone- is incredibly uncomfortable. While our phones and the apps that fill them keep us in a constant state of fight or flight, we reciprocate with a serious case of Stockholm syndrome. We happily hand over our time, attention, and data to companies that promise “greater connection.” But the reality is, we are the product, and we accept this for a few crumbs of dopamine and an escape from reality.

I would be lying if I said I never reached for my phone and was immediately cured. With the social media apps gone, but the reflex still very much there, I think I checked my weather app about twenty times an hour. I did not like feeling out of the loop- something these big companies bank on to keep you scrolling. But as the weeks passed, and I started waking up to the reality I lived in, not the one shown to me with beautiful filters, life changed. Suddenly I found myself with more time than I knew what to do with. I started reading a little more. I started sketching again. When I talked to my friends, I was even more invested in what they were up to because I truly had no idea what was going on in their lives since I last saw them. I started feeling a little more connected. I started allowing myself to be bored, and in that boredom, I started feeling my creativity blossom.

But the best payoff? My anxiety dropped off a cliff. That’s not to say it isn’t there- it’s just the size of a chihuahua and not a dragon. The constant overstimulation, comparison, fake-validation, time-wasting, artificial intelligence, bad-news stream that I was allowing into my life was gone, and thus, the natural reaction to such a constant stream of garbage was gone too. And the lie that you’ll lose connections if you log off social media? Hogwash. I text my friends even more now. And the connections you do lose weren’t meant for you in the first place. I found being off of social media clarified it for what it really is- a weird kind of mutual voyeurism. Most of what goes on there is either an advertisement or none of your business.

In honesty, I could write a full-length novel of the lessons I have learned as I’ve phased out various social media apps over the last two years, but it’s an experience only appreciated by the doer. I have an entire catalogue of thoughts and opinions on the digital world, having experienced it from the earliest days of dial-up, to Myspace to now. But thoughts and opinions only have weight if they are bolstered by actions, and so, I’ll continue safe-guarding my own mental health and living in the real world. My phone will continue to live in my office and my brain will continue in the analog world.