You’ve been there before: You’re scrolling through your Instagram feed when you see your favorite celeb post about their favorite new product — a face serum, vitamins that will make your skin brighter, or a specialty food service. You can’t help but want to be like the stars, but are the products worth it? In Elite Daily’s new series, I Tried, we put it all to the test. We’re trying those products as well as celebrities’ health and wellness tips, recipes, and life hacks. We’ll do the leg work and tell you what living like your fave star is really like.
I was 19 years old when I signed up for my very first gym membership. Walking out of the fitness center with a tiny, plastic ID card looped around my key ring, I looked down at the yellow receipt in my hand and thought, “Ah, this is it, this is when I start getting healthy.” I’ll admit, I’ve come a long way since then, and one important lesson I’ve learned is that you definitely don’t need to belong to a gym to get your body moving. To prove it, I tried Khloé Kardashian’s DB Method workout from the comfort of my living room for a week. I figured, if Khloé can grow a booty at home, why can’t I?
In case you didn’t know, Khloé Kardashian is a huge fan of hoarding gym equipment in her home for customizable workouts she can squeeze in whenever her schedule allows for it. Back in January of 2017, when all of those new-year-new-you resolutions were in full swing, the 33-year-old uploaded a blog post to her website all about creating an at-home gym to prove to her followers you don’t need clunky treadmills or a rack full of weights to get active.
“There’s a ton of small, relatively inexpensive equipment you can buy to create your own home gym,” she wrote. “I keep most of mine in my garage!”
From there, Kardashian went on to list a few of her sweat-sesh staples, one of them being The DB Method Machine, which she described as a “booty sculptor that you can easily fold up and store out of sight.” A compact piece of equipment that would build and define my nonexistent booty without taking up too much space in my closet of an apartment? Sign me up.
My experiment began with a quick tutorial from none other than The DB Method founder herself, Erika Rayman.
I knew going into the experiment that The DB Method could work wonders for my booty (I mean, have you seen the glutes on Khloé Kardashian?!), but where did the idea even come from for this contraption? According to Rayman, The DB Method was born after a personal trainer taught her how to isolate her glutes.
"Using the [glute] techniques he taught me, I noticed a huge difference — and it changed my body and my workouts forever," Rayman tells Elite Daily. "I switched jobs, and my schedule made it difficult for me to continue with my trainer, but I couldn’t stop thinking that someone should build a device to use at home to mimic what I did with my trainer… and so that someone became me."
Generally speaking, when I commit to an experiment like this, I’ll search around the web for reviews, watch video tutorials, and jump into the workout from there. This time around, though, my experience was going to be one for the books, as Rayman actually drove all the way from New York City to my New Jersey apartment on a Sunday afternoon to hand-deliver the equipment herself. She arrived at my doorstep with the folded-up DB Method Machine strung over her shoulder like a backpack. I invited her in, and we set up shop right in my living room.
Now, you know those blow-up bouncy houses that look small, until they’re inflated to full size in a matter of seconds? That’s basically the concept behind The DB Method Machine’s build. It’s designed to be easily compact, so when you’re done, all you have to do is fold the device down and store it in a closet, or slip it under your bed.
Once it was all set up, Rayman adjusted the seat to match my height and proportion. From there, she showed me how to straddle the seat guide bar, how to position my feet on the foot ramps, and the correct posture to hold when squatting. Her tutorial only took about 10 minutes tops, and when she was done, I was more than eager to hop on and work it out for real.
For my week-long experiment, Rayman suggested I follow The Founder Fave tutorial on The DB Method website.
Once you’ve purchased The DB Method Machine, there are two workout videos available online you can follow along with for free: The Founder Fave and The DB Cardio Sculpt. Seeing as how I was brand new to the workout, Rayman suggested I stick to The Founder Fave to get my bearings, as Cardio Sculpt is a little more advanced.
The best way I can describe The Founder Fave is that it’s basically a five-minute workout made up of squatting intervals. The first minute is considered your warm-up, where you perform “high zone” pulses, pushing through the heels, focusing on the glutes, and trying your best not to let the machine hit the highest point at the top for resistance. The second minute focuses on mid to high zone pulses, forcing you to dip a little lower. Minute three makes you drop it real low, and you perform full-range squats, while the fourth and fifth minutes are where you really feel a burn, because they’re comprised of subtle, yet challenging low zone and mid zone pulses.
The entire five minutes counts as one round, and Rayman instructed me to do a total of three rounds. It kind of felt like I was performing 15 minutes of Tabata squats, which are fast-paced, time-measured intervals that focus on strengthening your lower body. I was definitely feeling something in my legs and upper thighs at the end of each workout, but TBH, I wasn’t getting that intense glute stimulation I was expecting. I tried adjusting my seat a few times, and I watched the “Tips On Form” clip over and over again to make sure my posture was correct, but despite my best efforts, my booty just wasn’t feeling the burn.
I decided to give The DB Cardio Sculpt workout a try, and I was thrilled by how well my body responded to the exercise.
Even though The DB Method Machine is new to me, I’m very used to high-intensity exercise, so when I still wasn’t feeling much after four days of the beginner workout, I decided I should give The DB Cardio Sculpt a fair shot. If it turned out to be too much for me, I thought, I could always go back to The Founder Fave for the remainder of my experiment.
From the second the instructions were given for the first interval of the workout, I knew I’d found the perfect fit for me. Every movement in The Founder Fave was meticulous and slow, so that you could really feel your muscles working. Personally, though, slow exercises just don’t do it for me. I like to pick up the pace and really work up a sweat, and that’s exactly what The DB Cardio Sculpt delivered.
I definitely agree with Rayman that starting with The Founder Fave until you’re comfortable with the machine is a good idea because, let me tell you, Cardio Sculpt is a serious challenge, and it requires you to let go of the handlebars and push down on the seat without any assistance beyond your own body weight. It’s also more challenging in terms of your footing when, halfway through the workout, you’re instructed to turn your heels outward for a plié full squat.
When it comes to working out, whether you’re at home, in a gym, or at a studio, the key really is to find what works best for you. For me, working out like Khloé Kardashian was a blast, and I especially found my stride with The DB Cardio Sculpt routine. I’m happy to say I’ve found a workout that’s not only effective, but genuinely makes me feel good, too. Booty or not, that’s a win in my book.
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