SalemNews.com, Salem, MA

Focus

Focus: Working out in groups works out for the body

By Benjamin Amirault
Correspondent
Published: April 15, 2008

With summer right around the corner, it's time to shed some winter weight before heading to the beach.According to some fitness experts, the latest trend in fitness is the "power in numbers" approach.

Instead of hitting the gym alone, more and more people are getting into shape with friends, colleagues or classmates, said Brandi Dion of BNS Fitness.

Dion and her husband, Steve, run Boot Camp programs all over the North Shore for various recreation departments, YMCAs, cooperate groups and private groups.

The Boot Camp program, which the Dions began in 2001, is a four-day-a-week attack on the entire body that is spurred on by camaraderie and encouragement from peers. Monday and Wednesday are devoted to strength training that targets all the major muscle groups. Tuesdays and Thursdays focus on core and cardiovascular health through obstacle courses, plyometrics and abdominal exercises.

Workouts are kept to a small area — no long-distance running — so groups can stick together and cheer each other on.

"The boot camps keep growing," said Dion, who most recently heard from a group of Swampscott moms who wanted to start a program.

For those who need competition to get motivated, Biggest Loser Competitions may be more their style.

Chris Lovasco, executive director of the YMCA of the North Shore, has been running and also competing in such a competition among four North Shore Rotary Clubs. In a twist on the popular TV show by the same name, teams representing Salem, Beverly, Marblehead and Danvers have been hitting the gym together in hopes of losing the most body fat.

Lovasco said much of the program's success is due to the team dynamic.

"I think we live in a society where people do for others before they do for themselves," Lovasco said. "People don't want to let the team down."

The emphasis of the Biggest Loser isn't to simply lose weight, Lovasco said, it is to lose "bad weight" — fat. Each participant's fat weight is calculated and monitored, not their total weight, so putting on muscle will not count against people. Considering lean muscle weighs more than fat, calculating total weight wouldn't make much sense.

Also, in the interest of fairness, the competition doesn't simply reward for most fat lost. Teams are tracked on the percentage of fat lost. So someone who has 10 pounds of fat and loses 1 pound is equal to another person who loses 10 pounds of their 100 pounds of fat.

"If we do this again I want to call it the 'Best Loser'" said Lovasco, "because people are losing only the best kind of weight to lose."

Photos