Fitness programs help campus rabbis shape up

Gray, the director of a Jewish center at Dartmouth College, hits the high-intensity core strength and conditioning program five days a week.

At Gray's urging, an international outreach organization for Jewish students launched a pilot program last fall to help campus rabbis and their wives get in shape.

The 30 participants started by getting medical checkups and creating fitness goals, and Chabad on Campus offered online support groups and subsidized half the cost of a personal trainer for six months.

Becoming a self-described "fitness freak" after years of inactivity wasn't easy: when his trainer challenged him to do 96 burpees in eight minutes, Gray managed 27 of the squatting and jumping exercises before he vomited.

After an initial survey found 41 percent of those clergy members were obese, compared to 29 percent in the state's overall population, the initiative created a two-year program that provides $500 grants, health coaching by phone and online help with stress management and weight loss.

Researchers are still assessing the results, but in general, every group saw a decrease in risk factors associated with heart attacks and heart disease, stroke, diabetes, said Rachel Meyer, the initiative's director for program development and operations.