Page 24 – Ottawa Jewish Bulletin – July 23, 2012
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JCCs encourage wellness and healthy living (Continued from page 21)
“KILLER. This workout kicked my butt,” reads one online comment that seems representative. In case you’re more of a slacker than Metzl when it comes to working out (I’m no couch potato, but just watching Metzl’s video made parts of my body ache), I checked with Nimika Patel, my trainer at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of MetroWest in West Orange, New Jersey, to see if there are a lot more like me in the Jewish athletic world or whether they are all Metzls. It turns out that there is still room at the gym for those of us who aren’t triathloners or even weekend warriors. Patel’s clients come in not necessarily to train for their next competition, but because of “osteoporosis, depression, fibromyalgia – you name it,” she said. “They all want to look good, of course, but there is always another reason they’re here.” Like Metzl, Patel emphasizes what’s called functional fitness, which helps bodies get stronger at everyday tasks. Steve Becker, vice-president of health and wellness
Dr. Jordan Metzl’s latest book, titled “The Athlete's Book of Home Remedies.” (Rodale Books)
services at the JCC Association, the North American umbrella for the Jewish commu-
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nity centre movement, said fitness facilities are moving away from cavernous rooms with one strength machine after another to offering more open space for people to train in a way that improves quality of life, using equipment like resistance bands and medicine balls. “Being fit is about more than the one rep max or seeing how much you bench press,” Becker said. “It’s about lifting up grandchildren or schlepping luggage across the airport.” Becker said those in charge of fitness at JCCs, whose members include nonJews as well as Jews, “are looking at what everyone else is looking for, the newest and best, but also something a little more.” JCCs are featuring boot camp classes, yoga, Pilates, small group training, Zumba – “you name it,” he said – but also encouraging their members to look more broadly at wellness and healthy living. Writing a book for athletes aside, Metzl, too, be-
lieves that you can be fit even if you’re not an Ironman enthusiast. “If you’re 8 or 85, get off the couch,” he said. “The benefits kick in if you do half an hour of walking every day.” Sure, do extreme sports if you like them, he said, but what’s most important is finding something you’ll enjoy, that you’ll keep doing. Growing up, Metzl skied and backpacked with his parents and brothers. Today his mother gravitates toward ballroom dancing, his father toward biking. “If there were a drug known to reduce blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, self-reported pain of arthritis, increase longevity by five years and improve quality of life by every metric, a doctor who didn’t give it to every patient would be committing malpractice,” said Metzl, with the intonation of one who has recited this speech many a time. “We have this drug, and that drug is exercise.”