Gwyneth Paltrow, Harry Styles and Emma Stone are fans of this online fitness class. But will it pass the test of us mere mortals? Claire Cohen signs up for the exercise \u2018therapy\u2019 sessions famed for making celebrities laugh, burp and cry.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Actress Emma Stone admits to feeling \u201cterror\u201d the first time she tried it. Gwyneth Paltrow says it\u2019s \u201clike 10 hours of talking therapy in just one hour\u201d. Drew Barrymore does it sitting tearfully on her carpet, letting out long burps and laughing hysterically.<\/p>\n Welcome to The Class, Hollywood\u2019s favourite workout. Designed to unite body and mind and to help \u201cprocess emotion\u201d, it\u2019s a cross between a fitness regimen and a spiritual experience. And what was once available only to those able to attend its sold-out Los Angeles or New York classes has now gone global, with a digital studio broadcasting it to 71 countries so that we mere mortals may suffer.\u00a0<\/p>\n I first heard about The Class when my Instagram algorithm began \u201cserving\u201d me its new adverts, in which its celebrity devotees rhapsodise about it. There have also been collaborations with Alicia Keys and Harry Styles. Its non- famous attendees are similarly evangelical, with one saying it is \u201clike a slow breakdown\u201d, which, to be fair, is how I feel about most group exercise.<\/p>\n So what is all the fuss about? After being shown Stone\u2019s advert for what seems like the 100th time, I signed up for a free trial of the 60-minute \u201csignature\u201d workout \u2014 Paltrow\u2019s favourite, I\u2019m told. Which is how I find myself in my living room, essentially dry-humping my gym mat.<\/p>\n Like what you see? Sign up to our\u00a0<\/i>bodyandsoul.com.au newsletter\u00a0<\/i>for more stories like this.<\/i><\/p>\n The Class is a mish-mash of yoga, Pilates, meditation and mat-based exercises such as burpees and jumping jacks. There are also less-traditional elements such as freestyle dance cardio (yelp), grunting, sighing and weeping, more on which shortly. It costs about $60 a month for access to the digital library and live-streamed classes with names like \u201cBurn Off Fire\u201d and \u201cTapping for Emotional Freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n The Class was founded in 2013 by Taryn Toomey, a former Dior executive, whom I speak to over Zoom. It was after having children with her financier ex-husband, Mark \u2014 the couple have two daughters aged 11 and 13 \u2014 that Toomey decided to shift direction. She visited Peru to study \u201cceremonial work\u201d under the guidance of a shamanic healer and trained as a yoga instructor, adding other elements such as breath work and cardiovascular moves.<\/p>\n She began teaching in an annexe room of her New York apartment building, for friends and other residents, charging $100 a month for three classes a week. Within two years it had become a word-of-mouth hit, with supermodel Gisele Bundchen a regular. In 2017 Toomey opened her NYC studio, which has healing crystals embedded in the floor. A Santa Monica outpost followed in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the reason people love The Class so much is because you just come with whatever you have [to deal with] that day,\u201d Toomey says. \u201cThe teacher will take you through a journey. You can celebrate, you can contemplate, you can express \u2014 it\u2019s the difference between taking it out on someone and getting it out of the body. It\u2019s just a different form of therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n If some of the language around The Class sounds as if it could have come from the Duchess of Sussex, with its talk of authenticity and manifesting, it\u2019s perhaps not a coincidence. Toomey was one of about 20 friends to attend Meghan\u2019s New York baby shower in 2019. It\u2019s unclear how they met \u2014 Toomey wasn\u2019t at Harry and Meghan\u2019s 2018 wedding \u2014 but their friendship has made headlines. In 2019 the couple were criticised for promoting The Class in a post about mental health awareness on their official royal Instagram page. Then, in 2021, a few days before that Oprah interview, the duchess was pictured wearing a $2,000 lapis lazuli necklace from Toomey\u2019s jewellery brand, which The Class website says aids \u201cin the revelation of one\u2019s inner truth\u201d. Powerful stuff, clearly.<\/p>\n \u201cA friend actually gave that to her. That was not me,\u201d Toomey says, taking a deep breath when I ask about their friendship. \u201cI very, very much believe in the power of women staying together when they are in the centre of their heart and compassion and alignment. So I don\u2019t know how to answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure how to understand that answer. \u201cI really respect people\u2019s privacy,\u201d she continues. \u201cWhen you lay your head down at night you want to feel good about the things that you did. I don\u2019t want to spend time regretting my actions.\u201d<\/p>\n What Toomey will say is that she has become friends with many of those who have taken The Class, because \u201cthey feel like they know you\u201d. \u201cIf you take my class you can probably feel the rawness of who I am. I\u2019m vulnerable to a fault,\u201d she explains. \u201cI really had to learn how to put some healthy boundaries in place in my life because I share everything. I think what really gravitated this global community together is that it\u2019s a space that\u2019s, like, \u2018Come as you are\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Or, as Paltrow put it in an interview with her pal Toomey for the Goop website, \u201cIt helps me so much to process my emotions in a way that\u2019s so visceral.\u201d<\/p>\n The bit that Paltrow admits to having found \u201cdifficult and embarrassing\u201d at first are the sounds you\u2019re encouraged to make during the workout. It does feel cringe-worthy to adhere to Toomey\u2019s instruction to \u201clet it out . . . yawn, burp, yelp\u201d as she bounces around \u2014 grunting, sighing and making \u201cbrrr\u201d noises. The 30-odd people in the studio following her in a free dance are throwing their arms around like toddlers: shaking, stomping and whooping as Toomey tells us to be \u201cunique, funky and original\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s total Hollywood bonkersness and yet, when I do manage it on the third attempt it feels freeing \u2014 well, as free as you can be when you\u2019re worried about the neighbours spotting you through your front window.<\/p>\n Toomey is well aware that this particular feature of her class is the one that raises eyebrows. \u201cSometimes people talk about The Class like: \u2018Oh, it\u2019s the screaming and crying class.\u2019 We\u2019re actually not screaming. We\u2019re just using different sounds to move pockets of energy from inside your body to the outside. There\u2019s a release that happens,\u201d she says. \u201cOnce you get some of the pent-up energy out of the way, sometimes what you realise underneath it is that there\u2019s just a little bit of grief or sadness, or weeping with joy. And crying is such a cathartic thing. Crying is how a heart heals.\u201d<\/p>\n And cry they do. \u201cI think that there\u2019s a lot of healing that goes on around people\u2019s bodies, that they understand the body is a sacred temple, it holds their soul.\u201d<\/p>\n Ah, the sacred temple. This is a refrain Toomey uses often during the meditation sections, as we place our hands on our hearts and abdomens and attempt to \u201cmove into the sacred temple of the heart\u201d. Looking at the Americans on screen, utterly absorbed in what they\u2019re doing, I wonder whether I\u2019m being way too stiff about it all. \u201cThere\u2019s no one who is too repressed for The Class,\u201d Toomey says with a laugh.<\/p>\n As for me? In the hours after my session I feel relaxed but achy \u2014 something my regular Pilates class doesn\u2019t achieve. I even find myself being drawn back for another class, curious as to whether I can let go a bit more next time. Perhaps that\u2019s the secret.<\/p>\n Gwyneth Paltrow and Victoria Beckham are fans of the Tracy Anderson Method (Paltrow loved it so much she once invested in the business), which involves dance-based classes using body resistance and very light hand weights. The online program includes a new weekly workout, as well as access to existing classes, a digital magazine and meal planning guides. It\u2019s at the upper end pricewise at $136 per month, but you get a 14-day free trial and a discount for annual membership.<\/p>\n Chris Hemsworth launched Centr back in 2019, featuring world class trainers including his own PT (and best mate) Luke Zocchi. The app includes 20- and 40-minute sessions of HIIT, Pilates, yoga, boxing and guided meditation, plus recipe ideas, a meal planner and stress and wellbeing support. It\u2019s offering a free seven-day trial, and starts from $8 per month.<\/p>\n If your goal is to get stronger this year, you can\u2019t go past Cass Olholm\u2019s new app. The Cairns-based fitness influencer, with 360K fans on Instagram, has created structured training programs incorporating weight training, strength and conditioning and HIIT with on-demand classes for $22 per month.<\/p>\n With fans including sprinter Usain Bolt, actor Hugh Jackman and comedian Jimmy Fallon, the cycling classes have a cult following for those prepared to pay from $1845 for the spin bike, plus $35 a month subscription for unlimited classes. You don\u2019t need a bike though \u2014 the Peloton app offers thousands of videos from $17 per month.<\/p>\n It\u2019s little wonder that Adriene Mishler has more than 11.5 million followers on YouTube \u2014 she\u2019s relaxed, builds your confidence and explains her moves in a way that even the most yoga-phobic can understand. New classes land on her free channel every month, in sections such as \u201cbeginners\u201d and \u201cback pain\u201d.<\/p>\n The LA-based trainer Ashley Borden honed Ryan Gosling for his 2016 role in La La Land, as well as Reese Witherspoon and Christina Aguilera. Her 21-day strength, cardio and core programme needs no equipment and includes recipes and meal plans, all for $40. Ashleyborden.com<\/p>\n A list like this wouldn\u2019t be complete without our Health of the Nation ambassador Sam Wood. His app 28 features at-home workouts for all fitness levels, meal plans and daily live messages from Sam. It\u2019s $22 per month for the first three months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
7 other fitness classes to do at home<\/h2>\n
Tracy Anderson<\/h3>\n
Centr<\/h3>\n
Train with Cass<\/h3>\n
Peloton<\/h3>\n
Yoga with Adriene<\/h3>\n
Ashley Borden<\/h3>\n
28 by Sam Wood<\/h3>\n