Most people want to live for as long as possible while also remaining healthy.
Longevity, which refers not only to the number of years a person lives but also to the number of years they stay healthy and active, is an increasingly important and popular topic today.
This phenomenon has also reached Israel, where fitness and nutrition professionals focus on helping people stay as healthy as possible in body and mind for as long as possible.
‘More protein, more resistance training, and enough calories’
One such professional is Ruty Fiszon, a nutritionist, running coach, and personal trainer based in Jerusalem.
She started getting into nutrition and fitness almost 16 years ago, after the birth of her second child, as she had a difficult pregnancy, birth, and recovery period, and started looking for ways to heal herself. She changed her nutrition and began exercising, which led her to study nutrition and fitness so she could help others.
Today, Ruty has four different running groups in Jerusalem and works with private groups and in one-on-one sessions. Her niche is working with women over 40, although she also offers classes and running groups for girls.
While her exercise classes are solely for women, she also provides nutritional advice to men and offers online Zoom workshops and group sessions several times a year.
Ruty recommends starting the day by drinking water or herbal tea. Coffee drinkers should wait an hour after waking up to drink their first cup of coffee, and should drink coffee no later than six hours before bedtime (something that would definitely be a challenge for me!). She also recommends sitting outside in the sun for 20 minutes in the morning, if possible, including in the winter, as even in Israel, where the sun shines the majority of the year, people are often Vitamin D deficient.
Ruty emphasizes the importance of not skipping breakfast, as it is the most important meal of the day (I was pleased to receive confirmation of this, as I can’t function without a cup of coffee and breakfast); of limiting processed food; and of eating 25-30 grams of protein per meal. In addition, she said fats shouldn’t be avoided, as they are an essential part of our diet, but should come from healthy sources such as olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, and fish.
Alongside the importance of maintaining a healthy diet, Ruty stressed the importance of exercise, with a focus on bone strength and running, particularly for women as they get older, stating that “women often focus on eating less as they get older, when in reality they need to focus on eating better – more protein, more resistance training, and enough calories to preserve muscle and bone.”
One of the strongest predictors of longevity is cardiorespiratory fitness
RA’ANANA-BASED Adam Ezekiel is a certified sports nutritionist and the founder of Soul Active, an online fitness community designed to help build lifelong health through six 15-minute workouts each week.
Adam has a degree in kinesiology (exercise science) from Canada and has been coaching people for 17 years. Alongside his online sessions, Adam also provides one-on-one sessions for clients – primarily CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business professionals – and small-group training.
He suffered from chronic back pain for 12 years, which led to him looking for ways to cure his pain. He started stretching and getting fit, which thankfully made his back pain disappear.
Adam’s fitness would once again stand him in good stead when, in July 2024, while on a tour of the West Bank, he was shot at a lookout point over Nablus. All of a sudden, he felt an intense pain soaring through the right side of his body and thought he might be having a heart attack or a stroke, until it dawned on him that he had been shot.
The doctors told Adam that it would be too dangerous to remove the bullet, which was approximately a millimeter from his lungs, as this could risk damaging his nerves, and that his fitness and his chest muscle had prevented the bullet from penetrating his lung and doing further damage.
The experience of being shot fundamentally changed Adam’s view of health and made him realize that while no one knows how long they will be on this earth, they can influence how healthy, strong, and capable they will be.
This sharpened his sense of purpose in helping people build bodies that allow them to live full, meaningful, and enjoyable lives for as long as possible.
In Adam’s opinion, one of the biggest misconceptions about longevity is that it is just about living longer, whereas Adam firmly believes that longevity is about living longer while remaining healthy, independent, energetic, and capable, and that health span, rather than lifespan, is the ultimate goal.
Adam stressed that sleep is the most important foundation, as this is when the body repairs tissues, regulates hormones, strengthens the immune system, and supports recovery from exercise.
Adam recommends that every adult should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep a night, a number that fills me – and I imagine many other adults – with dread. (Sadly, I don’t sleep anywhere near this number of hours, and this is definitely the issue that I struggle with most – an issue that has not been helped by two bouts of war with Iran during the last year and frequent missile alerts at all hours of the day and night.)
Regarding nutrition, Adam recommends that the majority of our diets come from foods that are as close to their natural form as possible, with a focus on vegetables, fruit, healthy fats, and protein, with the latter being especially important as we age, as it helps preserve muscle mass, which is linked to independence, metabolic health, and reduced frailty.
Adam poetically said he encourages people to eat the rainbow, focusing on eating as many different colored fruits and vegetables as possible, to absorb as many vitamins, minerals, and types of fiber as possible, while reducing ultra-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages to an occasional treat rather than a daily staple.
He stressed that the purpose of exercising is not solely to build muscle or to lose weight.
He compared physical fitness to building multiple Lego towers, with each tower representing a different physical quality: strength, cardiovascular fitness, balance, stability, coordination, agility, mobility, flexibility, power, speed, endurance, posture, and recovery.
As we age, each of these towers shrinks, which is why it is important to build them as high as possible while we are young to help us stay healthy and active for as long as possible.
According to Adam, one of the strongest predictors of longevity is cardiorespiratory fitness, and he recommends doing the Norwegian 4X4 interval protocol once a week, consisting of a warm-up, four minutes of high-intensity training, and three minutes of recovery, four times in a row, before cooling down, alongside regular strength training and moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise.
Developing strength, balance, flexibility, and daily mobility
KAREN FEIBUSCH of Modi’in changed careers at 40 and studied at the Wingate Institute to become a fitness trainer and healthy living coach. She understood that her body was going through a change, but it took her a while to grasp that she was perimenopausal (premenopausal).
At the time, she felt that there was no real response to her questions about what to expect from menopause and how best to navigate the menopausal years, which motivated her to delve into the subject in depth and later supplement that with training to become a menopause coach.
Today, Karen specializes in training women aged 45 and over and coaching them through their menopausal years and beyond.
Karen offers tailor-made, private workouts for up to three women per class in a studio in her home. Alongside this, she also offers combined packages of fitness training, lifestyle coaching, and menopause workshops to groups of women living around the country, including workshops on Zoom.
Although she mainly works with women, she will help men improve their longevity if requested.
Women may be living longer today, but they are not necessarily living healthier lives, which is something that Karen strives to change. She stresses that everyone can exercise; the trick is finding the right workout for each person.
Karen decided to focus on working with middle-aged and older women, as understands their needs and can provide workouts that match their fitness levels, to help develop strength, balance, flexibility, and daily mobility.
One of the most important focuses for women is maintaining their muscle mass and their ability to pick themselves up from the floor, which becomes increasingly important as we get older.
To maintain this ability, it is important to be able to do push-ups, deep squats, glute bridges, half-kneeling stand-ups, and sit-ups. Combining strength training and aerobic exercise helps maintain women’s existing muscle tone and bone mass.
Healthy living and longevity don’t begin with exercise and nutrition. One of the first questions that Karen asks women when she starts working with them is how they’re sleeping and where their stress comes from. Factors such as managing careers, caring for children or elderly parents, running one’s home, and working on screens late at night can all contribute to stress and affect sleep.
Karen stresses that there is a direct connection between lack of sleep and weight gain, as sleep loss increases ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and lowers leptin (the satiety hormone), meaning people who don’t get enough sleep are never really full and spend their days looking for high-energy food.
Insufficient sleep also raises our stress hormones, which in turn promotes fat storage, particularly around the belly area.
She recommends doing high-energy classes earlier in the day, and yoga, Pilates, and stretching classes in the evenings, particularly for those who have trouble sleeping, as aerobic and heavy exercises raise our levels of cortisol (a high-energy hormone) and lower our levels of melatonin (the hormone that helps us fall asleep).
Alongside focusing on sleep, nutrition, and exercise, Karen stresses the importance of women meeting up with friends, going on long walks, and making time for themselves, all of which can help reduce stress and make them feel better.
Not just exercise: Healthy living means healthy habits, nutrition, and sleep
BELGIAN-BORN Jonathan Choynacki has worked as a fitness instructor for the last 30 years, studied in Belgium before making aliyah 20 years ago, and continued his studies at the Wingate Institute.
Today he lives in Givat Koah, a moshav (agricultural community) near Shoham, and offers fitness and nutrition exercise classes for both women and men.
His classes take place in person, and he mainly works with one to two people at a time in his studio, although he also works with groups on occasion.
Jonathan offers a few online classes, which he is interested in developing further, although, as stated above, most of his classes take place in person.
Although Jonathan’s background is in boxing, including competitions in Brussels, he realized that Pilates is just as important as boxing. Today, Jonathan also offers mat and Reformer Pilates classes, which he believes both help people get fit and prevent injuries.
He tailors his programs to meet people’s individual needs and stresses that psychology plays as much a part in working with people as exercising with them. He stresses the importance of not being too tough on people or setting unrealistic goals, but also that people need to want to become fit for it to work.
Alongside exercise, Jonathan also focuses on people’s habits, nutrition, and sleep, all of which he believes contribute to longevity.
When it comes to fitness, age is just a number
LONDON-BORN, Modi’in-based Jane Sendak Marcus didn’t grow up particularly fond of sports, but as an adult started going to the gym.
After deciding to retrain in 2007-2008, she studied at the Wingate Institute, where she earned certificates in outdoor fitness and personal training. Jane also qualified as a precision nutrition expert and a menopause athlete coach.
She used to work with women one-on-one, training them in their homes, but after COVID hit, she launched her online coaching program in January 2021.
During COVID, Jane started offering two classes, three times a week, which she developed into a 12-week online program consisting of workouts, nutrition guidance, mindset coaching, and weekly live coaching calls to provide support and answer questions.
People are encouraged to participate in the classes live, with their cameras turned on. (I prefer to have my camera off during meetings, and so working out live on camera sounded terrifying to me, alongside the fact that my dogs would probably be clambering all over me while I exercised. But Jane reassured me that she has seen both family members and dogs participate in the classes!)
Every participant receives a recording of the classes, available for a week for those who can’t join in real time.
Although Jane works with women of all ages, her main focus is women over 40 and “helping menopausal women fit into their jeans.”
Jane takes great pleasure in helping women become fit and strong, and while this can be more challenging as we get older, she stresses that age is just a number and that anyone can start getting fit regardless of their age or fitness level.
‘Work hard and play hard, with a strong shot of scotch at the end!’
MEIR CHARASH of Jerusalem is a social worker, a certified fitness trainer, and a Thai massage therapist. He worked as a community worker and social worker until 2007, when he was ready for a new direction beyond the office and decided to switch to fitness training.
Today, he offers one-on-one or couples sessions in the well-equipped garden of his Jerusalem home.
Meir believes in integrative fitness and incorporates elements of strength, flexibility, and cardio endurance into every session.
He places great importance on combining high- and low-intensity exercises in workouts and on being aware of increases and decreases in heart rate and pulse to exercise effectively, which can be measured easily with sports watches today.
In his opinion, the popular focus on walking the now infamous number of 10,000 steps at the same pace is less effective than walking using the interval method of alternating walking quickly and slowly, which causes your heart rate to increase and decrease throughout the walking session.
Meir is himself a keen cyclist and part of a riding group, which not only keeps him fit but is also an emotional and spiritual activity that has soothed his soul and enabled him to live fully after the pulverizing loss of his son Ariel, of blessed memory, to suicide. Cycling helps Meir “ride through with his life with his loss and despite his loss,” and it shows that he continues to live his life with joy.
Alongside working out, Meir stresses that nutrition and sleep play an equally important role in longevity. He recommends increasing protein, vegetables, and fats while decreasing carbohydrates, fruits, and sugars; and, contrary to what most people do, breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day, while dinner should be the lightest.
As someone who enjoys an occasional drink and recommends “work hard and play hard, with a strong shot of scotch at the end!” he emphasizes that the aim is to reduce the intake of less healthy foods and drinks rather than eliminate them entirely.
I spend too many hours sitting in front of a computer and do not sleep very well, but interviewing the trainers for this article has shown me that it’s never too late to make a change and take up a new form of exercise! ■
For more information, find the practitioners mentioned on Facebook.
