For over 20 years, Jeff Rutstein, president of Feel Good Personal Fitness, has been providing personal strength training for a diverse population coping with a broad range of challenges:
Patients referred by their mental health counselor as part of a clinical treatment program, high profile professionals seeking to manage their everyday stress for greater productivity, adults, young and old, who are recovering from alcohol and drug abuse.
He works with physicians from Harvard Medical School and other Boston area hospitals. He was named Distinguished Personal Trainer by American Fitness, an Outstanding Fitness Leader by Reebok Instructor News, The Best Samaritan by American Health Magazine, and is a Master Level Personal Trainer certified by the International Dance and Exercise Association (IDEA). Jeff has shared his experiences and fitness program on ABC and NBC, in The Washington Post, Reuters, The Boston Globe, Natural Health and dozens of other media outlets.
Jeff took courses in psychology, exercise science and nutrition in college – useful in his job as a fitness specialist, but most of what he needed to know came from his life experiences. Jeff started drinking at age 12, and by age 22, was physically addicted to alcohol, several street drugs, and steroids. Trying to quit cold turkey, he was hospitalized when his pulse rate hit 144 at rest – heart attack level.
When Jeff stopped using drugs and alcohol, he found himself in a powerful depression; he was in a black hole that felt inescapable. Going back to his passion for weightlifting, but without steroids or other drugs, strength training played an essential role in his recovery and also led to his discovery of the techniques ‘mindful movements’. Jeff’s recovery, replacing depression with self-esteem and a new sense of physical and mental fitness, motivated him to share his method with others.
In 1990, he started a personal training center based on a complete mind-body approach to exercise that can be meditative while reducing stress, increasing self-esteem and total fitness. His efforts blossomed after a number of Harvard physicians and psychologists heard about his work and began to refer patients to him. Jeff’s program is the result of a lifetime of experience and Jeff’s deep desire to help the millions of others throughout the world who are dealing with every day stress or the more daunting prospect of recovering from depression and addiction.