Troup High soccer player Chris Hogg showed up for an after-school workout figuring he’d breeze through it.

He is, after all, a fit high-school athlete, so he didn’t anticipate having much trouble making his way through a workout routine that has become part of the soccer team’s regular training regimen.

For three years now, the players have participated in a Pilates program offered by local trainer Holly Cadenhead.

Pilates is a wide-ranging fitness program that is designed to increase strength, flexibility, coordination and so on.

It is, as Hogg found out, a whale of a workout that requires the body to do some contorting and twisting that is a test for anyone, no matter their level of fitness.

“When I showed up the first day, I was in for a real shock,” Hogg said after Tuesday’s Pilates workout. “The guys warned me. It’s tough. I didn’t really believe them until I actually got into it.”

After the workout was done, Hogg said he “went home, took a shower and took two Tylenol. That’s about all I can.”

Cadenhead, owner of Body Control Pilates Studio in downtown LaGrange, leads the Troup High soccer players, for both the girls’ and boys’ teams, through the Pilates workouts.

She does it with a smile, but she pushes the athletes to the limit, and maybe a little bit beyond.

She said the Troup athletes have come to appreciate the benefits of the workouts.

“I don’t think they ever actually love doing it, but they do start to see the benefits,” Cadenhead said. “It’s one of those things where you don’t look forward to doing it, but once you do it, you’re like, OK, I’m glad I did that.”

Troup soccer player Jeff Boyington, who has been doing the Pilates workouts for three years now, said he can see the positive aspects of Pilates, but that doesn’t mean the workouts don’t still kick his butt.

“You’re just sore everywhere,” he said.

Still, he added “you can see the differences for real. You see the results. I run cross country also, and you can see the difference carry over to that. You stay in shape, and you run a lot faster and you just feel a lot better. You perform better.”

Troup soccer coach Mark McCloud thought it would be a good idea for the players to take the Pilates classes, so he set it up with Cadenhead.

McCloud felt that it would “be big for injury prevention,” and that it would help the overall fitness level of the players, and he believes that’s been the case.

For her part, Cadenhead said she has loved the willingness of the athletes to embrace something new.

“They’re awesome,” she said. “And they are absolutely picking up on it.”

Pilates has become a popular workout for athletes on all levels, and Cadenhead said “it definitely helps them.”

“There’s less risk for injury,” she added. “We try to keep the hamstrings flexible and things like that, because that’s a main area for injury. And then their core, that builds their balance. Everything that has to do with core in anything, whether it’s soccer or anything, it’s going to enhance the way they train or perform.”