Great blog post from Monica Woronick on Halevy Life: My Quarter Life Chaos

In my effort to experience new fitness programs in NYC I came across Halevy Life.  Halevy Life is a boutique gym in the Upper East Side.  I know the word “boutique” can sometimes be scary when it comes to the fitness world.  It can often be associated with snotty or expensive.  Let me assure you, I don’t do well with snotty and expensive and Halevy Life is anything but that. 

I scheduled my first appointment with Courtney.  She explained to me that there were two types of training sessions, private and semi-private.  The semi-private sessions never have more than four people.  Being a fan of energy when exercising, I tried out the group training.

I arrived Friday afternoon 30 minutes early as directed.  One of the trainers took a machine that looked like a huge ruler and did some measurements of my movements.  My biggest pet peeve when I try a new exercise program is usually that they insist on weighing and measuring you.  I think this is just a way to make clients feel bad and sign up for more sessions (believe me, I will know when I have toned up when my Reiss dress zips up again.)  The measurements here were more like posture and strength measurements.  They wanted to have a record of different strengths and movements of your body so they can adjust and personalize exercises to help you correct them.

The Founder of Halevy Life, Jeff Halevy then sat down with me and talked to me about his program.  Basically, Jeff designed a program of three times a week that varies day-to-day.  The neat thing is that they give you a heart rate monitor to wear and a paper with all of the exercises so that you can record the weights you use.  They then enter everything online and you can access all of your workouts.  Isn’t the digital world amazing???? 

After speaking to Jeff, it was time to show the gym my moves.  There was only one other person in my training class.  We began with a series of warmup exercises.  Next, they put us on the treadmill for sprints.  Don’t worry- they really aren’t that bad, you are on the treadmill for 40 seconds than off for 20.  Next we did two different strength circuits.  There are heavy, medium and light days (no this doesn’t mean hard, medium and easy).  This is designed so that some days you are using heavier weights and doing more reps while other days you are doing higher reps and lighter weights.  To finish we did a group of stretches.

I have been to Halevy twice and so far I am super impressed.  With good music and down to earth trainers, the vibe is more of a gym hangout than an intense fitness program.  I got a first time package which gives me about 6 sessions for 30 bucks a session and I have only had one other person in my sessions each time!  Where else can you find personalized training in NYC for that price?  There are morning and evening sessions.  The trainers are all super supportive and nice and there is a great sense of community and friendliness in the room.  Overall, this is not an intimidating enviornment at all and a great way to switch up your workout routine.

Try it and let me know what you think!