About Jim Levy

Credentials

• Certified Personal Trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA-CPT)

• Shotokan karate black belt

• Creator and volunteer instructor of the weekly Karate & Fitness class at Braille Institute Los Angeles for blind and low-vision adults

• B.A. in Business and Japanese, Linfield University, McMinnville, Oregon

Jim has trained in weighted jump rope, strength and conditioning, and Shotokan karate for decades. He developed JumpIron as a weighted jump-rope performance-training system for improving conditioning, strength-endurance, and reactive strength.

Jim performing assisted Nordic hamstring curls at the park as part of his strength training. The exercise requires controlled technique and progressive development of hamstring strength.

Jim Levy’s letter was published in The Economist’s Letters section on July 25th 2026.

Working out

“How little exercise can you get away with?”, you asked (Well Informed, July 11th). The piece offered inactive readers an answer they may be too eager to hear. Running for a bus or hurriedly climbing steep stairs may briefly raise the heart rate, but incidental exertion should not be confused with a structured exercise programme that progressively develops cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, power, balance, co-ordination and mobility.

Your article cited the WHO guidelines that call for muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days a week. An occasional dash for a bus or climb up steep stairs is not a substitute for that. Nor should physically demanding industrial labour automatically be treated as health-promoting exercise. Physical exertion is not synonymous with exercise training, which is planned, structured and progressive.

JIM LEVY

Certified personal trainer

Los Angeles

Originally published in The Economist, Letters, July 25th 2026. Reproduced with permission.

Volunteer Experience at Braille Institute

Jim developed and launched the weekly Karate & Fitness class for blind and low-vision adults at Braille Institute Los Angeles in January 2024 and continues to lead it as a volunteer instructor.

This experience has sharpened Jim’s approach to precise verbal instruction, safe class organization, gradual progression, and adapting challenging exercises to a wide range of abilities.

JumpIron is an independent business and is not sponsored or endorsed by Braille Institute.