Jeff Halevy Offers Money-Back Fitness Program

Three Fitness Tips That Will Get You Back In Shape, Or Your Money Back

Put his tattoos and his muscles and his bit of Jersey boy accent aside — in his heart, fitness expert Jeff Halevy considers himself a mama’s boy. That’s why it burned him that he would see personal trainers accept money from clients and after weeks of training and no results, trainers place the blame on clients for their failed progress.

“I just imagined someone doing that to my mother,” Halevy said his office at Halevy Life, his private/semi-private personal training gym in New York City.

Charged with re-envisioning his business plan, Halevy decided to literally put this money where his mouth is. Halevy Life comes with a “Fitness Guaranteed” program promising results in three months – or your money back. To be eligible, clients must commit to a Halevy Life coach three times a week for 90 days and make 85% of their sessions at minimum. The program cost can cost between $33 and $45 per session for small group sessions or $7,215 total for private sessions.

Clearly, this isn’t your normal gym. And you can see that when you first walk in. The former art gallery space has 17-foot ceilings and gallery lighting. The first floor features Olympic lifting platforms, treadmills, bikes and functional training equipment. The lower level looks like a spa, with private full bathrooms and a yoga studio. Halevy himself is a certified fitness guru; recognized as an authority on behavioral health, nutrition and exercise science. He is a contributing fitness expert on NBC’s TODAY Show and the program designer for First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign.

Halevy employs five full-time coaches, who are all required to have a BS in exercise science or kinesiology. The gym also offers a registered dietician and physical therapy.

Now, his guarantee on improved fitness isn’t an eye-ball test. He gives each client five quantitative tests that measure strength, flexibility and mobility, cardio-pulmonary fitness and measure body composition using hydrostatic weighing, better known as underwater weighing, which is regarded as the gold standard for measure body composition.

There’s no standard for what exactly “improvement” means in terms of his guarantee but so far, Halevy has yet to issue a refund check and knows that even a somewhat vague guarantee is better not taking on any responsibility.

“Who else is guaranteeing anything?” he said.

Halevy is a success story all on his own. He overcame a drug addiction in his early 20’s and said he “stopped looking at the scale,” once he reached 260 pounds. He kicked the drug habit after a stay in rehab but traded it for an addiction to cigarettes. At 22 years old and overweight, his father challenged him to simply jog a mile together.

Halevy had been involved in athletics his entire life, from baseball to martial arts. But after about 30 seconds running with his father, he was on his hands and knees gasping for air. “I thought ‘I survived all this hard living and drugs and I’m going to die right now going for a run with my dad?’”

The experience forced Halevy to commit himself to a healthier lifestyle and it soon became a passion. He left a successful job in business development to become a personal trainer. In 2008, he opened his own gym.

“I knew this was what I was passionate about,” he said.

Jeff Halevy’s Three Rules for Getting Back in Shape

1) Don’t Expect Overnight Miracles

Halevy says often people will ask him in the spring for a training program that will have them ready for the beach in the summer. He almost always comes back with a program that will have them ready – for the next summer. Getting fit is a lifestyle change and results take time.

2) Think Subtraction Before Addition

When it comes to nutrition, before you start adding all the extra vegetables, juices and supplements, Halevy suggests finding at least one item that you can easily ditch from your diet. “Even if it’s just that pastry that you have at Starbucks every morning. Just taking out that one thing can make a big difference,” he said.

3) Don’t Go From 0 To 100

Making a commitment to the gym is great. Starting out with two-a-days, six days a week is not. Preserve your health and avoid injuries by holding back in the beginning. “It’s okay to leave the gym feeling like you could have done more,” Halevy said. “That’s good. Over time you can build yourself back into it.”