FITNESS TRIBUNE No 1 English

Back to the roots

Losing weight is a question of gaining muscles

“False doctrines” Strengthening muscles or strength training, i.e. a physical exercise with additional weights, has been and will be the best means for stimulating the body’s muscles. Aerobic activities such as walking, jogging, bicycling or cardio vascular training equipment, which are available at almost every gym, are excel lently suited for working the heart and burning a few calories, but they are not as effective as strength training. One of the most persistent myths regarding body fat elimination states that the best training method is aerobic or cardiovas cular exercise exclusively. It’s not that easy! While aerobic activities do have a certain impact on fat reserves, they are by far not the best method for losing fat and – most importantly – transform ing a person’s body. Just take a look at the thousands of people that regularly engage in such activities. Listen to their desperate attempts at improving their figure… Despite a sometimes grim and desperate effort on cardio equipment and in aerobic classes, they do not suc ceed in ridding themselves of their odious fat ripples! On the other hand, strength training is the most radical and fastest method to achieve this goal. Today, new scientific findings confirm that strengthening mus cles is more effective at eliminat ing body fat than cardiovascular exercise. The reason is that regu lar strength training increases the basic metabolic turnover by building muscles. “Building muscle to lose weight” The active metabolism refers to the energy consumption necessary for stay ing alive and being able to perform eve ryday activities. On the other hand, the basic metabolic turnover refers to the energy consumption when the body is at rest. Even when you are at rest, i.e. dur ing sleep, you burn calories. These calo ries add up to almost 75 percent of the overall calorie consumption required for living. The lower your basic metabolic turnover, the more you are prone to gain weight. Our metabolism is closely

You are ready to tackle your physical transformation. But before you rush forward without looking right or left, you should know how the machine, i.e. your body, works! If you understand the processes of your organism, you can better understand the practical advice of the Challenge Method. Therefore, let’s start with a little bit of theory... Over the course of 10 years, the number of obese people has quadrupled. About 35% of the European population is overweight. According to experts, 60% of the European population will suffer from obesity in about 30 years. Excess weight has become a serious problem for the health of the general population. Even worse, it has become a genuine epi demic. While it is true that the tendency to gain weight has genetic causes, which the medical profession has only just begun to research, our genes have not changed over the past century. Yet our ancestors were not affected by such an epidemic. This proves undeniably that our way of life is the main reason why we gain weight. Many different kinds of convenience and the absence of hard physical exertion are the causes for such a physiological disaster. Around the year 1900, there were no automobiles, eleva tors or escalators. Central heating or air conditioning systems and work equip ment in the form of computers did not exist either. But since we can not turn back time and such luxury also has its pleasant aspects, there is a remedy that can force the organism to burn its fat reserves: physical exercise. It is the one and only universally acknowledged means to achieve this goal! Intensive, regular exercise does not just use up calories but maintains or even builds muscle, and muscles use up a particularly large number of calories. Even at rest, muscles burn almost twice as many calories as fatty tissue! As a result, the fewer muscles you have, the more quickly you will gain weight. In addition, you should know that you lose about two kilograms of muscles per decade after the age of 40. So, what can you do to avoid this loss of muscle? Per form strength training!

Pascal Guzzo earned his diploma as a physical therapist in 1993. He worked as a physical therapist for the first Lausanne Hockey Club team from 1993 to 1995 and works with Daniel Gressier, physical therapist of the Swiss national soccer team. He was junior champion in the deadlift (270 kg) and the Swiss French champion in bodybuilding. Pascal Guzzo has served as a muscle training and nutrition consultant for several athletes, works as a physical therapist exclusively for athletes and teaches muscle training at the Uni versity of Lausanne.

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Fitness Tribune International 1