For the initial location of his Pure Conditioning training clinic, Daniel Pachter shared space with a small group of instructors a few blocks over from the Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan. For his second location, he built a weight training “solarium” at his own home in leafy North Stamford.
He believes there are more to follow.
On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pachter is holding an open house for his Pure Conditioning training solarium at 129 Shelter Rock Road in North Stamford, just off Long Ridge Road north of the Merritt Parkway. Rather than securing commercial space, Pachter said he chose to build the facility at his own home with his wife’s blessing in order to be able to spend more time with their two young children.
The couple moved to Stamford two years ago, with Pachter continuing to commute into Manhattan for daylong training sessions there with a client base he has built up over more than 15 years after graduating from Penn State University with a degree in exercise and sport science. He said it took him about 16 months to gain city approval for the facility and complete construction.
“In New York City I was doing 15 to 20 sessions a day, which is long,” Pachter said. “I want to be here for my kids. … One of my friends gave me the idea.”
The Pure Conditioning program is structured around weight training in which each someone extends and eases each repetition over a pair of controlled, 10-second cadences. Pachter said the slower motion forces muscles to put in more work by maintaining tension and eliminating momentum that can lessen load on muscle tissue. Pachter said the technique also reduces the risk of injury compared to standard regimes in which someone pumps out repetitions at a faster pace.
Pachter has modified several weight machines he has installed to allow him to assist or add tension during a repetition as required during workouts.
The “super slow” idea was developed in 1982 at the University of Florida’s Osteoporosis Project and was a basis for the later evolution of hypertrophy training by a Utah man named Brian Haycock. Pachter said the Pure Conditioning philosophy is to continually evolve by staying up to date on the latest theories in training. “It’s not static — once you get stuck in a static mind set, then you are already behind,” Pachter said. “You are always learning, you are always adapting, you are always improving on (the) methodology.”
Pachter said his clients age in range from 18 years old to 80, adding the program would be appropriate for high school athletes, many of whom he believes do not structure workouts as effectively as they could in training for their various interscholastic sports.
Pachter charges $800 for a 10-session block of Pure Conditioning, with each lifting session lasting a half-hour and scheduled twice a week. He says he can accommodate up to 100 clients at his new Stamford studio. In time, Pachter foresees moving out of the home fitness solarium and into a commercial fitness location; and says he can envision Pure Conditioning becoming an extended chain.
