Dr. Vincent (Ben) Bocchicchio has worked professionally in the fields of fitness and health for nearly 40 years and has been an acknowledged leader on a number of fronts for 35 of those.
Dr. Ben was an award winning athlete in high school and college level and was involved personally and professionally in professional and international athletics. He was awarded degrees in the fields of Health and Exercise at the undergraduate, Masters, Doctoral and Post Doctoral levels.
In 1973, Dr. Ben founded Sports Conditioning in Staten Island. The initial objective was to condition professional and world class athletes for their chosen endeavors. Soon thereafter, he was approached by a wider scope of clientele seeking fitness and conditioning advice and program development.
Using the same principles that had proven so successful with the athletic population (Slow MAximum Response Training), Ben
became involved with developing programs for weight reduction, cosmetic enhancement, general fitness and health and rehabilitation. He was called upon as an expert by professional and college teams, TV, radio, screen and stage personalities, medical institutions and corporate entities.
Dr. Ben owned and supervised a number of private fitness and health centers from the early 1970’s until the present
time. He also developed and owned spine and cardio vascular rehabilitation centers. In all of those entities Dr. Ben instigated revolutionary use of his Slow MAximum Response Training (SMART™) method.
In the early 1980’s Dr. Ben founded Cardio Management Systems and used resistance training as an intricate part of Phase 2 Cardiac Rehabilitation. This was the first documented, formal use of such exercise in the industry, and is now commonplace protocol.
In the mid 1980’s Dr. Ben became the exercise physiologist for Lehrman Back Centers in Miami Beach. Florida (an international, multi-phased, medical rehabilitation destination). Again, Dr Ben instituted his training protocol (the first such use of this type of resistance training).
Dr. Ben became one of the leading consultants in the area of Corporate Fitness during the late 1970’s and throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. His resume includes the consultation to Cardio Fitness Centers, headquartered in Manhattan and founded by Bill Horn (a friend and co-alumnus of Dr. Ben’s from Ithaca College). Cardio became the largest and most successful corporate wellness entity in the nation and was later sold to the Heinz Corporation for many millions of dollars.
Dr. Ben also consulted and initiated programs for The Vista Health Clubs for corporate fitness projects (The most notable facility was located at the top of the World Trade Center next to the famous Windows of the World Restaurant). NY Health and Racquet Clubs, Gold’s Gyms and World’s Gyms International were also clients of his.
Dr. Ben was also commissioned by a number of teaching hospitals as the exercise physiologist for Health, Wellness and Weight Loss programs (including Lutheran Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital among others).
In addition to these endeavors, Dr. Ben Became associated with the famous weight loss program owned by Sandoz Medical called “Opti Fast” (made popular by Oprah Winfrey). Dr. Ben developed an adjunct exercise regimen called “Opti Fit”. In fact, Dr. Ben used Opti Fast patients as subjects in his second doctoral dissertation clinical trial. In that work, Dr. Ben established for the first time in the scientific literature that no long term weight loss could be accomplished without the incorporation of exercise. His paper on “The Development of Obesity and Fat Related Disorders” (1989) still stands as one of the only documents that accounts for the multi dimensional nature of obesity and fat problems and addresses the proper application of exercise in every instance of origin.
Dr. Ben was also commissioned as the first legally accepted Expert Witness in the fields of fitness and exercise by TASA (Technical Advisory Service for Attorney’s) and has been qualified in court in many states (NY, NJ, CA, AZ, FL and many more) as a bona fide expert in those fields.
Dr. Ben has continued his work in the fields of Fitness, Wellness and Health to this day and has patented his program under the name “The FIRST Exercise System” and trademarked his SMART–Ex system (Slow MAximum Response Training) and its license has been used throughout the world.
The owner and operator of numerous health and fitness facilities throughout the nation, Dr. Ben currently maintains a private fitness and health practice in Phoenix, Arizona. This successful business includes medically managed weight loss programs that comprise prescription medications, nutritional counseling and supervised exercise.
Recently Dr. Ben has conducted studies in the fields of exercise and health and has presented and published those to International Meetings of The American College of Sports Medicine and The American Physiological Society.
In his sixties, Dr. Ben continues to train regularly using his revolutionary SMART™ training system. This enables him to maintain a high level of strength, significant
muscle mass, and single digit body fat. He continues to be a much sought after expert and consultant to corporate, educational and individual clients.
