Maybe you should be! There has long been evidence about the life-extending benefits of calorie restriction, and here's the latest. Don't you almost wish it wasn't true!?
Calorie-Counting Monkeys Live Longer
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
What's the ONE MOVE that has helped fighters, dancers, golfers and tennis players?
There's one move that's a time-tested winner for improving performance in just about every sport; one that I've personally watched countless fighters, dancers, golfers and tennis players -- pro's to Joe's -- improve from: the lunge with rotation.
The lunge with rotation works just about your whole body, but the reason it helps improve performance in so many sports is because it teaches the body to disassociate the hips from the shoulders. Most of us tend to move like robots; if our hips turn, so do our shoulders and vice versa. Performance in any sport that requires rotational strength -- power generated by the rotation of the torso -- will be limited by our inability to create torque between our shoulders and hips. The more we improve our ability to twist our shoulders away from our hips, the greater the potential energy we're creating...and the greater the energy we're creating, the greater the impact on the end recipient of that energy: a golf ball, tennis ball, or someone's face!
Another benefit of this move is the hip and core stability and balance it creates: in a nutshell, it means it teaches our body to move and stay balanced. How many golfers have you seen get off-balance from their swing? And increased stability allows us to direct more force: Can you throw a ball harder standing on a balance beam or the ground? Exactly.
Beginners can start the lunge with rotation using their body weight alone or a lightweight object (eg a tennis ball), while the intermediate and advanced can begin by working with a medicine ball.
To perform the movement begin standing with your hands together or around a medicine ball tucked under your chin. Take a step forward into a lunge. As soon as you're stable in the bottom position of the movement, extend your arms straight out and rotate as far as you can to the side of the lead leg. Be sure to not let your shoulders and upper back round. Rotate back, bring your arms/the ball back in and return to the standing start position. Repeat the same process with your other leg. That's one rep.
Set and rep ranges depending on skill and weight of the medicine ball can vary from 2 sets of 15-20 reps using no medicine ball, to 3-4 sets of 8-12 with an appropriately heavy medicine ball.
Try this move out twice a week for a month or two and just watch your game -- regardless of which one it is -- improve!
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
The lunge with rotation works just about your whole body, but the reason it helps improve performance in so many sports is because it teaches the body to disassociate the hips from the shoulders. Most of us tend to move like robots; if our hips turn, so do our shoulders and vice versa. Performance in any sport that requires rotational strength -- power generated by the rotation of the torso -- will be limited by our inability to create torque between our shoulders and hips. The more we improve our ability to twist our shoulders away from our hips, the greater the potential energy we're creating...and the greater the energy we're creating, the greater the impact on the end recipient of that energy: a golf ball, tennis ball, or someone's face!
Another benefit of this move is the hip and core stability and balance it creates: in a nutshell, it means it teaches our body to move and stay balanced. How many golfers have you seen get off-balance from their swing? And increased stability allows us to direct more force: Can you throw a ball harder standing on a balance beam or the ground? Exactly.
Beginners can start the lunge with rotation using their body weight alone or a lightweight object (eg a tennis ball), while the intermediate and advanced can begin by working with a medicine ball.
To perform the movement begin standing with your hands together or around a medicine ball tucked under your chin. Take a step forward into a lunge. As soon as you're stable in the bottom position of the movement, extend your arms straight out and rotate as far as you can to the side of the lead leg. Be sure to not let your shoulders and upper back round. Rotate back, bring your arms/the ball back in and return to the standing start position. Repeat the same process with your other leg. That's one rep.
Set and rep ranges depending on skill and weight of the medicine ball can vary from 2 sets of 15-20 reps using no medicine ball, to 3-4 sets of 8-12 with an appropriately heavy medicine ball.
Try this move out twice a week for a month or two and just watch your game -- regardless of which one it is -- improve!
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Don't Don't Do, Do Do: The Importance of Stating Outcomes in the Positive
Many who have worked with me or heard me speak have been beat over the head with the necessity to state outcomes in the positive.
For those unacquainted with the concept, this simply means stating what you're committing to accomplish, not what you're committing to not do or stop doing. For example, someone who wants to eat better shouldn't create an outcome of "I won't pig out," but instead a 'juicy' emotionally-resonant "I'll only allow things that make me feel healthy and powerful to enter my body."
And now research supports this NLP principle; in a nutshell, if you try to *not* do something, the likelihood of it happening may likely INCREASE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/07mind.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
Monday, July 6, 2009
KISS, KILL, HIIT®: The Three Secret Pillars to Fitness
Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be sharing the some of the basic principles of my fitness philosophy from my upcoming book, due out next year. I'm going to kick it off with three SUPER-EASY-TO-REMEMBER principles that 99% of us can use to transform our bodies seemingly overnight: KISS, KILL, HIIT®. So, without further ado, here's the first!
KISS: Keep It Simple & Standing
Unless you’re an elite-level bodybuilder who “needs” to hit a muscle from every conceivable angle (and I do question that “need”), keep your movements simple. There are only so many ways that our joints can move – and every conceivable exercise movement variation comes down to the few simple ways a joint can move. So don’t waste your time with that so-exotic-looking-it-must-be-great biceps curl your buddy showed you – stick with a straightforward movement: a curl – barbell or dumbbell.
And stand. Why? For most of us, it is in our best interest to recruit the assisting and stabilizing capabilities of the body to increase our real world strength (life happens on your feet, not a padded seat, right?); burn maximal calories and fat in our time at the gym (more muscle working = more calories burned); and train our core – yes, work on a six pack – to support our movements. Any movement performed standing is going to challenge the core muscles.
Good examples of keeping it simple and standing are military presses; bent over barbell rows; deadlifts and squats.
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
KISS: Keep It Simple & Standing
Unless you’re an elite-level bodybuilder who “needs” to hit a muscle from every conceivable angle (and I do question that “need”), keep your movements simple. There are only so many ways that our joints can move – and every conceivable exercise movement variation comes down to the few simple ways a joint can move. So don’t waste your time with that so-exotic-looking-it-must-be-great biceps curl your buddy showed you – stick with a straightforward movement: a curl – barbell or dumbbell.
And stand. Why? For most of us, it is in our best interest to recruit the assisting and stabilizing capabilities of the body to increase our real world strength (life happens on your feet, not a padded seat, right?); burn maximal calories and fat in our time at the gym (more muscle working = more calories burned); and train our core – yes, work on a six pack – to support our movements. Any movement performed standing is going to challenge the core muscles.
Good examples of keeping it simple and standing are military presses; bent over barbell rows; deadlifts and squats.
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
Monday, June 29, 2009
Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?
Over the years I've assured many of you that my various forms of "torture" (as *you* call it!) have scientific grounding. Here's a related recent article from last week's New York Times:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Shooting! Know someone who needs help?
As many of you know, we're about to start shooting a show on my life coaching
practice (though I still call it personal coaching!).
The show will focus on virtually overnight transformations using advanced rapid-change technologies, like Neuro-linguistic Programming.
We are about to start casting, but before the official call I wanted to personally reach out to you and ask if you know of anyone at a point in their life where serious problems -- substance abuse/depression/chronic over-eating/etc -- are preventing them from living a happy, fulfilling life, and putting them in a position of potential major loss -- a marriage/job/etc -- or their life.
If you know anyone who MUST change NOW, who can't go on much longer the way they currently are, please reach out to me and let me know.
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
practice (though I still call it personal coaching!).
The show will focus on virtually overnight transformations using advanced rapid-change technologies, like Neuro-linguistic Programming.
We are about to start casting, but before the official call I wanted to personally reach out to you and ask if you know of anyone at a point in their life where serious problems -- substance abuse/depression/chronic over-eating/etc -- are preventing them from living a happy, fulfilling life, and putting them in a position of potential major loss -- a marriage/job/etc -- or their life.
If you know anyone who MUST change NOW, who can't go on much longer the way they currently are, please reach out to me and let me know.
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Halevy Fitness in the NY Daily News 5 Times this week!
As part of the NY Daily News Diet & Fitness Hotline, Halevy Fitness was featured FIVE TIMES -- including three large ads -- this week. I don't have the ads but here's a link to two of the articles:
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/05/21/2009-05-21_hundreds_of_daily_news_readers_are_seeking_weightloss_help_on_hotline.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_heavy_call_volume_we_wanna_lose_those_pounds_say_nyers_phoning_news_hotline.html
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/05/21/2009-05-21_hundreds_of_daily_news_readers_are_seeking_weightloss_help_on_hotline.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_heavy_call_volume_we_wanna_lose_those_pounds_say_nyers_phoning_news_hotline.html
Jeff Halevy
www.HalevyFitness.com
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