The new year presents a time for fresh starts, making it an ideal opportunity to set resolutions. A resolution isn’t just a goal; it’s a clear, firm intention to act. For many, these resolutions are health and fitness-oriented, often inspired by a desire for improvement. As an exercise physiologist, I work with clients who commit to meaningful health changes, driven by a vision of their best selves.
In summary, success with resolutions is about taking deliberate action, allowing for change and adjustment, and being kind to your- self through setbacks. The necessary key to achieving success in 2025 and beyond is to take action on your resolutions, create a structure that supports accountability, and course correct as needed. With a commitment to flexibility, perseverance, and long-term thinking, you’re setting yourself up for sustainable success.
Article originally published in Stamford City Lifestyle Magazine in the January 2025 Health & Fitness Issue.
1,000 calories of "Skittles" and 1,000 calories of grass-fed steak do not have the same macronutrient or micronutrient profile, glycemic effect, effect on appetite, mood and quality, quantity, and frequency of calories all play a major role in whether you burn glucose or fat for fuel and whether your cells have the raw materials needed for repair.
Here are three tips to consider for fat burning over sugar burning:
Article originally published in Stamford City Lifestyle Magazine in the October 2024 Food & Drink Issue.
Finding things that children both enjoy eating and are healthy can be a challenge.
As an Exercise Physiologist, people are often asking me for actionable strategies to help them achieve their best selves both physically and mentally. Here are some tips, habits and products that one can implement into their lives in order to create a healthy lifestyle.
Kids love snacks. Fruits and veggies are always a great choice. Here are some other "better" versions of kid friendly snacks.
HEALTHIER CARBS
HEALTHIER PROTEIN
Article originally published in Stamford City Lifestyle Magazine in the August 2024 Kids & Pets Issue.
As an Exercise Physiologist, people often ask me for action- able strategies to help them achieve their best selves both physically and mentally.
Finding novel ways to increase growth hormone naturally Is a key factor in our efforts to slow aging, lose body fat, build lean muscle mass and sleep better. Aside from the king of hormone regulation, strength training, other practices that help to increase growth hormone include:
Intermittent Fasting:
Eating all your calories for the day in a shorter window of time (ex. 11:00am-7:00pm) has huge increases in both the frequency and magnitude of growth hormone release during the fasting period and while sleeping.
Avoid Late Night Eating:
Beyond the fact that the calories we eat at night often lead to fat gain, cating within 3 hours before bedtime also disrupts your sleep and blunts the normal rise in growth hormones during the first several hours of sleep.
Limit Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates at Night:
Spikes in blood sugar give rise to insulin secretion in order to lower blood sugar which inhibits growth hormone production.
Article originally published in Stamford City Lifestyle Magazine in the June 2024 Gentlemen’s Issue.
Tucked away in the woods of beautiful North Stamford is one of the most unique workout settings you will ever find.
After successfully building and growing Pure Conditioning in midtown Manhattan since 1999, Stamford resident and personal trainer, Daniel Pachter opened Pure Conditioning at the Solarium in his house … yes, his house … in 2016. And yes, the workout facility is in a specially built solarium, replete with custom re-engineered and modified exercise equipment, a cold plunge tub, and an infrared sauna.
In full transparency, Daniel convinced me a few months back to put my faith in his hands, and he promised to transform my body and mind with his unique training method. I, like many people, need the structure and “push” to get myself to work out. The fact that the sessions are personalized, customized, and are just 30 minutes twice a week was extremely appealing to me. I was skeptical that working out only twice a week would produce results. Boy, was I mistaken. In just a few months, the results are real. I maximize my valuable time doing practices that produce measurable and sustainable improvements in strength, flexibility and cardiovascular efficiency, while in my pursuit to increase longevity and decrease the chances of injury.
Pachter has 28 years of training experience, starting in 1995 when he was an assistant strength coach for five Division 1 sports teams at Penn State while receiving his degree in Exercise Science. Daniel has always seen the interconnectedness between exercise and nutrition. His mantra is “Work harder and smarter, not longer”.
Daniel and his friendly, skilled trainers take you through a series of movements and exercises that are carefully monitored, tracked, and controlled. Pure Conditioning has integrated several time-efficient, safe, and effective methods, all of which allow you to work harder, safer and achieve optimal stimulation of the body in a 30-minute session. Pure Conditioning goes further by incorporating other modalities such as Kaatsu (a training method that was developed by a Japanese physician over 50 years ago), infrared sauna therapy, cold plunge, and nutrition advice that collectively produce superior results with less time commitment than conventional approaches.
Daniel’s methodology is adaptable to all ages and body types and custom-designed to meet each client's needs and goals. Pure Conditioning's clientele ranges from 10 to 87 year olds, and from over-weight couch potatoes to triathletes and weekend warriors. The methods and modalties practiced at Pure Conditioning are the Solarium, coupled with professional instruction from a team of experts and precise tracking, are the building blocks on which Pure Conditioning builds superior results.
Article originally published in Stamford City Lifestyle Magazine in the January 2024 Health & Wellness Issue
Whether you’re a self-described gym rat or relative fitness newbie, these plans take the guesswork out of getting results. By Molly Calhoun
WHEN IT COMES TO workouts, everybody has an opinion on the best ways to torch calories and burn fat, fast. But we found four local coaches and trainers whose exercise programs produce real results and are grounded in biomechanics and exercise science. Even better, these work-outs are accessible to people of all fitness levels, from rookies to veterans. Full disclosure: They require, dedication, focus and a get-serious-or-go-home mentality. But don’t be intimidated. While these trainers may seem hardcore at first, they’re as supportive as they come.
Daniel Pachter has worked as a personal trainer and nutrition consultant in Manhattan for more than 15 years, and he recently opened Pure Conditioning in a sun-filled solarium in Stamford. The gym features traditional equipment that’s been modi ed and re-engineered to “enhance the level of muscular stimulation.” In a 25-minute workout, clients are led through a series of movements such as leg presses, pull downs, chest presses, and weighted planks, while trainers carefully monitor the controlled lifting and lowering of weight. “We track the number of seconds you engage the muscle tissue, not repetitions,” Pachter says. This is because, he says, muscles change and become stronger due to tension placed on them. “We do the least amount of exercise that gives you the greatest benefit. It’s not ‘more is better’, but ‘less is more’,” says Pachter. Pricing is $800 for 10 one-on-one sessions.
Article originally posted on Serendipity Social. To read the original article, please click here.
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.
For someone like myself, with the daily commute that I have, plus everything that comes with my Monday-Fridays, finding time to workout can be incredibly tricky. With the warm weather in full effect, and beach season coming with that, we are all looking for ways to make ourselves look great in our bathing suits, no matter what our size. Luckily, there is a program right here in New York City that can solve both of those problems, and do it in under a 30 minute time frame. This is Pure Conditioning, with its NYC location based at 532 Madison Avenue.
Pure Conditioning, with a dual location in Connecticut, offers private personal training that utilizes their proprietary, safe and time efficient exercise methodology, custom re-engineered equipment, professional instruction and a serene environment. Each PC workout takes only 30 minutes, 1-3 times/week and produces better results than programs requiring hours longer. That should be an easy fit for anyone’s schedule, and in doing so can make you more fit.
Daniel Pachter, who is the founder of Pure Conditioning, has this to say about the revolutionary new program: “Pure Conditioning’s Nutrition program combines science with practical applications. It is structured yet flexible to allow for eating enjoyment and the actualization of long term goals. It has pioneered the nutritional advice now being recognized in the major media”. Daniel has a vast background in the health and workout field, as he received his BS in Exercise and Sport Science from Penn State University and worked as an Assistant Strength Coach for 5 of Penn State’s Division 1 sports teams. He was a Personal Trainer for Penn State’s doctoral program at the Center for Sports Medicine during the “US Army Study”. He has over 15 years as a personal trainer and nutrition consultant, and would be a great person to train with as this program becomes bigger and bigger.
Some of the benefits that you will receive in doing this program include increased strength and endurance, decreased body fat, improved body shape, increased cardiovascular efficiency, and so much more. What’s to lose? I definitely recommend you trying this place out as soon as possible, as the benefits are ample and you will go into the fall season feeling and looking great. For more information, check out their official site.
Originally posted on Manhattan Digest, click here to view original article.
Ever walk into a gym and instantly feel intimidated by all of the hefty machines and macho men around. Well walking into the Ultimate Training Center, I had those same anxieties, minus the spectators.
I was immediately captivated by the many heavy weighted instruments and started pondering to myself “Where are the cardio and elliptical machines?”, “What am I suppose to do on these?”
Located in East Midtown, this training center is very unique in its class. Their approach to getting people in shape is completely different when compared to anything I experienced.
The trainers Daniel and Will gave me an extensive briefing about the facility and exactly what Pure Conditioning is and how it is more effective than the normal workout we do. Pure Conditioning allows the person to meditate and focus more while exercising at much slower and steady pace.
Yes I know this sounds crazy right , why would we want to exercise slow, but it actually makes sense. The slower you move while weight lifting the harder your muscles are working. “Static holds” and “negatives” are some of the techniques used while using the weight machines, like shown in the picture below.
Furthermore, that is exactly what my body experienced. I never knew that I could lift anything over 50lbs, however using the Pure Conditioning techniques of breathing and focusing, I was able to lift 3x that amount.
With each new exercise I experienced a feeling of shakiness of pushing myself simultaneously with a sense of pride of actually pushing myself.
This ideology of pushing yourself to the limit is the exact basis of Pure Conditioning which is why some people prefer it.
If you’re ever interested in stopping by The Ultimate Training Center, see Daniel Pachter, he is very attentive and communicative while pushing you and your body. For more information on Pure Conditioning, check out their official site.
Originally posted on Manhattan Digest, click here to view original article.
