2:1 in the battle of the EMS twins

Patrick Bardelli

26.10.2020

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Pictures: Thomas Kunz

How effective and efficient is electrical muscle stimulation, or EMS? Identical twins Yannick and Simon are on a mission to find out for Galaxus. For three months, one of them will be working out with electricity, the other without. Here’s a half-time analysis.

Yannick Heibei from Küttigen near Aarau will be wearing a Fortis EMS suit during his workouts for the next three months. His identical twin brother Simon will undergo the same training minus the suit.

Apart from their love of strength training, the student brothers share a passion for Bayern Munich.
If this were a football match, the half-time results would be 2:1. Although Yannick started with slightly better values, Simon has managed to make up for some of the disadvantage over his brother in the meantime. Or, to keep things football, he climbed up the table.

The starting position

At the start of the three-month test, Yannick and Simon were thoroughly examined at the Höferlin Institute in Basel. The main focus was on two parameters: body fat and active body cell mass, or BCM for short. BCM contains all metabolically active areas of the body, including skeletal muscles. Overall, this is where Yannick did slightly better than his brother:

• Yannick: 15.7% fat / 33.2 kg BCM
• Simon: 17.2% fat / 32 kg BCM

Half-time

After six weeks of training, Simon’s caught up with his brother. This is not surprising, as he had a little more potential at the start. Currently, the values are as follows:

• Yannick: 14.5 % fat / 33.7 kg BCM
• Simon: 15.3 % fat / 32.7 kg BCM

The training programme brings a significant fat reduction and muscle growth. For the time being, Simon is benefitting more without an EMS suit than Yannick, who’s working out with the help of electricity. Having said that, he still has better values than Simon.

The all-decisive second half

Yannick enters the second half of the three-month training phase with a slight advantage over his brother. He’ll continue to use the EMS suit three times a week for 20 minutes per session. Simon will be following the Höferlin Institute’s workout plan without being electrically enhanced. Both of them will have to stick to a healthy diet for the next few weeks to avoid dehydration or malnutrition caused by the tough workout. We’ll be blowing the whistle at the end of November and taking stock.

Patrick Bardelli

Senior Editor

Patrick.Bardelli@digitecgalaxus.ch

From radio journalist to product tester and storyteller, jogger to gravel bike novice and fitness enthusiast with barbells and dumbbells. I'm excited to see where the journey'll take me next.

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