Kiss your diet good-bye. Amira El-Noshokaty puts you on the latest fitness strategy Integrated body mechanics (IBM) is the latest fitness exercise that promises to deliver what months of regular exercises usually fail to do. "I started out by researching 'functional training' but people did not like it that much," says Karim Strougo, the creator of IBM, as well as the Egyptian founder and managing partner of the Step Academy for Fitness Education (SAFE), who has been researching and developing IBM for more than three years. It is the first internationally accredited fitness centre in the Middle East, and has its own designed curriculum. According to Strougo, who first introduced IBM to Egypt, functional training is based on the principle of training individuals by using movements they perform every day, such as pushing open doors, sweeping the floor, moving objects and so on. "It was not so popular at first. Little by little I started changing the concept," he says. If the client is a homemaker, Strougo points out, she spends her days doing housework, so during the very little time she has for herself she is not likely to welcome performing an imitation of her domestic exercise. That was probably why it seemed so boring. Gradually Strougo created a unique and unusual exercise built on the integrated movement of the muscles. This is similar to ordinary movements, yet without the limitation imposed by the usual exercise machines. IBM works on the core stability of the body, while at the same time exercising various muscles in a more harmonious way than other stationary methods. The process of integrating body mechanics in the same exercise increases the metabolism and helps lose fat in a very short time, with no added dieting. "My aim is to improve daily functions in general and to increase the metabolism, which will allow the burning of the maximum amount of calories other than in group muscle workouts," Strougo says. The results are stunning. At the green area that marks SAFE in the Pyramids district of Cairo, Al-Ahram Weekly encountered Dalia Badreddin, a tour guide and mother of two and one of the centre's 25 IBM clients. She had previously tried regular exercise routines to shed the extra pounds she had gained in her second pregnancy, but over the course of a year she lost only a few kilogrammes. "When I heard about the IBM programme I signed on, and the results have been stunning," a delighted Badreddin told the Weekly. "In four months I have decreased in measurements and, gone down two dress sizes without even dieting, and with my weight fixed. I look healthier and have more energy to get through the day. I have noticed the difference from the first month. It's as though I have shrunk." "You are not supposed to diet with IBM. If you do, IBM does not work," warns Strougo. IBM drastically increases the metabolism rate so that if one is on a diet at the same time the body will switch into "shut down" mode. "It holds on to fat because by then you will be putting too much stress on it, so the fat stays. It only works if you continue to eat. You do not lose weight, you lose fat which is not the same thing," Strougo says. A kilo of fat is about 10 times the size of a kilo of muscle, so while the scales show the same amount the size is dropping quickly. "It is a bit different in Egypt, because people here pretty much hang on what the scales say," Strougo says. "But you should forget about the scales and keep track of your measurements." Strougo was the first Egyptian instructor to bring structured choreography to the aerobics arena in Egypt. He obtained his first fitness certificate as a local fitness instructor, followed in 1997 by an international certificate as a group exercise instructor from the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA). A year later he obtained an international degree from AFAA as a personal trainer, which qualified him to help those with physical and medical problems to overcome their specific difficulties through exercise, a system known as post- rehabilitation intervention. With the use of very light weights, gravity and using only the cable cross machine, IBM -- which was registered under the American College of Sports Medicine in 2005 -- has been successfully practised for the past year at the SAFE academy and other gymnasiums where personal trainers have studied IBM. The importance of general exercise: As the human brain seems bent on creating devices that minimise our physical movement, our bodies pay the price, as Strougo puts it. Exercise has immense benefits, among which the following are only a few: - It helps prevent cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease. - It helps prevent osteoporosis, which particularly affects women. - It helps and sometimes cures austerities.
