TESTIMONIALS
“Barry has been at the forefront of learning what he can do to get results and keep people and athletes productive and healthy. He was eager to learn IMX Pilates and soon became a leading imx Pilates instructor with the Mets players in 1997 when I trained him.”
-Elysse McNegney, Founder and CEO IMX Pilates.
"Barry uses an integrated approach to fitness that is unmatched and he was committed to helping the players to be successful and achieve optimal performance."
- Bobby Valentine, Former Manager of NY Mets and Chiba Lotte Marines
"Barry’s fitness program was successful in preventing injuries and for keeping and getting the players on the field feeling healthy and confident."
- David W Altchek MD, Co-chief Sports Hospital for Special Surgery and Medical Director of NY Mets
“Barry is the best at getting one healthy, in shape and strong.
While he was with Mets as Director we had lowest injury rate in baseball.”
-Jason Craig, Director of NY Mets Minor League Conditioning
“I would have never played my senior year soccer season due to knee injury at Harvard in which we won Ivy League championships and I was Ivy League MVP without him.”
-Charles Altchek, Harvard Captain, and 2 year Ivy League MVP
“Barry helped me come back from a serious ACL tear and surgery to become more confident, stronger, faster and healthier than ever before.”
-Jonathan Stewart, Marist College Running back
"I am in my early fifties and have always been very active in sports as well as nutrition conscious. Last June I had arthroscopic knee surgery to remove a malignant growth on the inside of my knee cap. I started PT immediately and was unable to play tennis all last summer (my favorite sport). After I completed my PT, I met Barry Heyden at HSS. I have been training with him 1-2 times per week for several months. He is fantastic at what he does! He assesses your strengths and weaknesses and puts together exercises and workouts tailored to your specific goals and sports interests. I have not felt this strong and fit in a very long time. He introduced me to the Alter G and I am hooked! I just ran at 11 mph with much of my body weight lifted and it is an incredible workout without soreness. Because my weight is lifted, I can achieve full range of motion while my upper body is upright. This is a wonderful way to increase performance and endurance without stress. I have done almost every kind of exercise in the past 30 years and this is, by far, the winning combination! My flexibility, strength, fitness level, muscle tone, physical performance has all improved dramatically."
-Susan Nappa NYC
"I began playing basketball when I was eight years old. My ultimate goal was to obtain a full basketball scholarship to a large Division I program. After many hours spent working diligently to achieve this goal, I signed a national Letter of Intent to attend Michigan State University. The countless hours of pounding on hard wood floors, cutting and running took its tool on my body. This ultimately led to seven right knee surgeries. After the fifth surgery, my doctor suggested that I give up running and “take up biking.” As a woman in her twenties, I highly disagreed with his position that my days of running and playing basketball were over. My desire to continue to run and play basketball led to two additional surgeries. Finally, after the seventh surgery, my physician and I reviewed my MRI together. The damage that I had caused was irreversible. My only option to avoid additional pain was to give up running and basketball. I was completely deflated and devastated after I heard this news. I truly expected to receive news that I would be able to return to running. So, I returned to the gym, completely set on proving my doctor wrong. Unfortunately, my knee refused to cooperate with my plan. The pain and swelling was becoming too much. So, I started using the elliptical and stationary bike. But, I never quite felt like an athlete. I felt like a sedentary weekend warrior type individual instead of a former elite athlete. My frustrations continued to mount as I searched for an activity that satisfied my desire to feel like a “real” athlete again. Until, I met Barry Heyden and he introduced me to the Alter G. Barry pushed me further than I had been pushed in years. He didn’t focus on my limitations. Barry was able to get me running at 10 mph! I’m not sure that I was able to run that fast on land. Well, maybe for a very short time frame! He firmly believed that the Alter G would be perfect for me. The Alter G restored my ability to run, albeit with quite a significant percentage of body weight reduction. I felt the burn and soreness in my hamstrings after working out on it, just like I felt after a good, long run. I couldn’t be happier that someone thought enough to make the Alter G because for individuals like me, it gives me the feeling of being back to my “old self.” And to me, that’s priceless."
-Alana Burns, NYC, May 19, 2008
"The World Class combination of the Alter-g and trainer Barry Heyden resulted in the best workout I have ever experienced in 30 minutes in my life! I am confident that continuing to practice Barry’s training program on the Alter-G will not only strengthen my knee it will extend my life! I am an active 50 year old who enjoys playing basketball, baseball and jogging. I had right knee arthroscopy for a meniscus tear at The Hospital for Special Surgery in 2003. Despite strict adherence to the specified rehab program, the soreness never completely subsided and my range of motion was severely reduced. I was unable to run without pain for only a few minutes at a time. Recently Barry introduced me to the Alter-G. Under his guidance I performed various lower extremity strength exercises as well as agility, plyometric and cardiovascular drills that were safe, fun, challenging and pain free! I had not completed a sub 6-minute mile in over 10 years! I was able to perform butt kicks for the first time in many years. My flexibility increased over 10 inches (Quad to Glute) in my right leg and over 4 inches in my left and Thank you Barry for introducing me to the Alter-g! The exercises you taught me will assist me in returning to the activities I used to enjoy on a daily basis. I have yet to stop talking about the Alter-g and will continue to recommend this incredible machine for a long, long time!"
-Terry, Fairfield, CT
"I strongly recommend you seeing Barry! I’ve been an athlete my entire life…played D-1 football and have since been a fairly serious jogger for the past 15 years…I’ve run numerous marathons and a handful of ultras. Even though I was able to fully recover from micro-fracture surgeries (’01 & ’02) on both knees and compete in these races, I had a bad “flare up” this past February. After 60 days of stair-steppers and stationary bikes, my doctor recommended I see Barry and try out the Alter-G…and I can’t say enough great things about them both! I’ve been to see Barry 2-3x per week for the past 4 months and have benefited greatly. I am slowly getting back to jogging outside and have been relatively pain free. Barry has taught me so much about the benefits of stretching – pre and post – and functional lifting, both of which I’ve incorporated into my daily workouts with great success. The Alter-G is an unbelievable machine…along with the obvious reduction in overall pounding; you will still receive the majority of the cardio benefits one would expect from a training run. It is actually the perfect tapering tool for you this close to your race. All told, Barry and the Alter-G have a permanent place in my workout plan!"
-Lance Aldridge
"Dear Alter G, I'm a 53 year old male and I wanted to share my experience using the G trainer. I came to the Hospital for Special Surgery's Sports Performance Center with a chronic groin injury that prevented me from exercising, and thus, about 25 pounds overweight. Two months of prior conventional physical therapy were helpful, but the groin pain persisted, and I was still not able to get back to the gym. But over the past 5 weeks training under Barry Heyden C.S.C.S. on the G Trainer I've made dramatic improvements in my condition. I'm running again, doing twice weekly strength and conditioning workouts, losing weight, and getting into better than pre-injury shape. Thanks so much for making my recovery possible. All best."
-Michael Rosenblum
“We are thrilled to not only add Bear Method NYC, a world class fitness and sports performance business as a customer, we look forward to the results we will gain through the efforts of The Bear Method and Barry Heyden being a leader in establishing positive outcome oriented programs using it.”
-Lars Barford , Former CEO Alter G