For information on submitting an obituary, please contact Reading Eagle by phone at 610-371-5018, or email at obituaries@readingeagle.com or fax at 610-371-5193.
Most obituaries published in the Reading Eagle are submitted through funeral homes and cremation services, but we will accept submissions from families. Obituaries can be emailed to obituaries@readingeagle.com.
In addition to the text of the obituary, any photographs that you wish to include can be attached to this email. Please put the text of the obituary in a Word document, a Google document or in the body of the email. The Reading Eagle also requires a way to verify the death, so please include either the phone number of the funeral home or cremation service that is in charge of the deceased’s care or a photo of his/her death certificate. We also request that your full name, phone number and address are all included in this email.
All payments by families must be made with a credit card. We will send a proof of the completed obituary before we require payment. The obituary cannot run, however, until we receive payment in full.
Obituaries can be submitted for any future date, but they must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. the day prior to its running for it to be published.
Please call the obituary desk, at 610-371-5018, for information on pricing.
Consider the fall season to be a good time to reset your workout routine after going off the rails over the summer, between vacations and kids at home, that may have impacted your level of consistency.
One thing you want to make sure of, in these months leading up to the new year, is that you are doing things correctly at the gym before setting new fitness goals. If you avoid making some of the most common mistakes, you are more likely to be successful in reaching your goals.
Two fitness professionals from Chester County, equipped with master’s degrees in the realm of physical fitness, weighed in on what they see as the top five mistakes people make at the gym and offered remedies for them.
1. Prioritizing cardio training over strength training
When many people go to the gym, they’re intimidated or don’t have the knowledge base to do strength training and end up doing cardio, according to Adam Lieb, owner of Chester County Training in Pughtown, who holds a master’s degree in exercise physiology and is also a personal trainer and educator.
“This is why so many of the large gyms have such a significant area dedicated to cardio equipment,” he said, adding the reasons strength training is important to factor in.
“Strength training has numerous benefits, including increasing muscle mass, increasing bone density, increasing metabolism, improving mental health, and also decreasing your chances of injury.”
Lieb said that if you’re trying to set yourself up for future success, strength training is “far superior to cardio training.”
2. Inadequate intake of protein and poor nutrition
Many clients Lieb and Hoffman work with at Chester County Training struggle to get adequate amounts of protein.
Austin Hoffman, a personal trainer at Chester County Training, who holds a master’s degree in sports performance and trains athletes at the collegiate level, emphasized that individuals typically either overconsume or underconsume calories.
”In both scenarios, almost all will fall short on protein,” Hoffman said. “Protein is the building block of muscle and much of our bodies’ tissues. Protein helps maintain and recover muscle, while also fueling the ability to grow.”
Hoffman said a simple way of incorporating more protein into your routine is to “form all meals and plates around protein.”
“In order to know how much protein you should eat, there are many tools available to us. Tracking your food intake by measuring is always the best form of ensuring you know what you’re actually eating,” he said.
3. Lack of intensity in workouts
Lieb said that many people who go to the gym are unsure of how hard to push themselves.
“To actually see a result from strength training, it takes a well-designed program, including progressive overload,” he said, further explaining, “Progressive overload means slowly, but surely, increasing your weight so your body makes an adaptation resulting in an increase in muscle mass and bone density.”
4. Adherence to a workout program and setting realistic expectations
According to Lieb, one of the most common mistakes is people not working out often enough.
“To see a noticeable change, people should at least do a challenging total body strength training routine twice a week,” Lieb said. “Your body needs to be exposed to that stimulus so that it causes a change.”
He added that results from strength training are a slow process, but when done over weeks, months, and years, you can have ”enormous results that will greatly improve your quality of life.”
Hoffman added that our bodies need frequent and consistent stimulus in order to change and adapt.
“This is usually where the accountability of having a personal trainer comes in. It’s too easy to tell yourself I’m not going to work out, but when you have someone keeping you accountable, then you get it done,” he said.
5. Lack of recovery
Prioritizing sleep and recovery are some things that are often overlooked.
“Many people have extremely stressful and busy lives, which makes sleep and recovery difficult, Lieb said. “When you engage in a strength training workout, it becomes even more important to make sure you’re getting adequate rest.”
Hoffman added that the period of rest is when the body can recover, adapt and grow.
“Simple steps that can help improve sleep are things like no screens one hour before bedtime, creating a cool environment, since our bodies sleep better when cooler, and starting and keeping a bedtime routine since our bodies are a creature of habit and this will help the mind know it’s time for resting,” he said.
Different fitness goals
At Chester County Fitness, their personal training clients range from age 9 to 90, each with different fitness goals.
“Our largest demographic is individuals who find that they want to maximize their life and feel good in all daily activities, whether it’s for a sport or a hobby like gardening, pickleball or hiking; or a parent or grandparent trying to keep up with young ones and stay as involved as possible to create lasting memories,” Lieb said.
“Our goal is to provide the best training, motivation, accountability and friendship in order to create the healthiest version of each individual.”
Chester County Training is a personal training service that offers one-on-one, partner, group, Zoom, or FaceTime training sessions designed to meet specific exercise, strength, sports, and nutritional goals. Chester County Training is located at 2317 Pottstown Pike, Pottstown. For more information, visit www.chestercountytraining.com or call 484-269-3220.