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Workout from Anywhere Wednesday: Tabata Intervals

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Workout from Anywhere Wednesday: Tabata Intervals

It’s March in Pittsburgh, so if you’re smart you’re planning a trip to somewhere sunny and tropical in the very near future. If not, it’s a safe bet you’ll be traveling for work or to see family in the coming weeks. If you find yourself in a tiny hotel gym with nothing but a few dumbbells and some questionable cardio equipment, you may be tempted to just press pause on your workout routine for a while. Don’t give in! You can get in some intense training anywhere, and it doesn’t need to take up hours of your precious vacation time either.

Enter Tabata intervals. You can get a killer workout done in just 4 minutes if you’re willing to give it everything you’ve got! Tabata intervals were created by Dr. Izumi Tabata, an exercise physiologist out of Japan. These intervals are a type of high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT training burns a lot of calories in a short amount of time, and forces your body to keep on burning extra calories even after the workout is over! Studies have shown that HIIT cardio is even more effective than steady state cardio (think running at the same speed for an hour) at burning body fat specifically (check out this 2001 study for all the nitty-gritty details).

What you’ll do: pick a bodyweight movement that challenges you but can be completed for lots of reps, like air or jump squats. You’ll work as hard as you can for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat for a total of 8 intervals. Make sure to get a good warm-up and cool-down in too.

Here’s an example Tabata workout for you to try. If you’ve even taken our U.Fit Bootcamp class, you know how fond we are of burpees! Get creative with your movement choices! We’d love to see someone try a jumping lunge version.

Warm Up 10 Side Bends 10 High Knees
  10 Cat-Cows 10 Dead Bugs
Cardio 5-10 minutes of light jogging or cycling  
Tabata Burpees! :20 on / :10 off Repeat for 8 total rounds
Cool Down 5-10 minutes of light jogging or cycling Stretch!



Let us know how you do! If you’re in Pittsburgh and want to give HIIT a try, stop by our Sweat Equity class on Wednesday mornings at 6:30am. You’ll get a warm-up, 20 minute HIIT workout, and be cooled down and on your way out by 7:00. Did we mention it’s one of our free classes?? There’s no reason not to stop by and give it a try. We’ll see you there!

Getting ready for your first 13.1

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Getting ready for your first 13.1


As we enter the month of March, Pittsburgh running enthusiasts are buckling down and starting their prep for the Dicks Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon and Half Marathon. For many, including a few of our members at Union Fitness, this will be their first! Here are a few tips for beginners looking to make the most of the next two months of Pittsburgh running:

  1. Get yourself a plan.

    If you want your body to be ready to run 13.1 miles on May 7, you need to start getting acclimated to that kind of mileage now. There are tons of solid half marathon training plans that can be found online. The most important aspect of each of those plans is the weekend long run. If you do nothing else, always get in your long run!

  2. Your long runs will be slow.

    You shouldn’t be pushing yourself to run fast when you’re doing that long run. Stick to a pace that would let you maintain a conversation with a running partner. Even better, get yourself a running partner (or join a group like the Steel City Road Runners Club ) and put your pace to the test! Not every training run can or should be fast, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be extra slow in the race. You’re building your aerobic base and preparing your joints for a few hours of pounding the pavement in May.

  3. Use one of your shorter runs to get a feel for running at your “race pace.”

    Are you looking to finish the half in less than 3 hours? Less than 2? You can use this calculator to figure out your race pace. Once a week on one of your shorter runs, do a mile (or two or three) at that pace. Practicing that speed will help you keep the right pace through your whole race, especially in the first few miles. Runners that go out too hard at the start tend to slow up a lot by the end. “Slow and steady wins the race” after all. Learn your pace and you’ll find it easier to stick with on race day!

  4. Practice eating and drinking during your runs.

    When you’re running for upwards of 90 minutes, your body will reach a state of carbohydrate depletion. To put it simply, you run out of energy and “hit the wall.” To combat that, you need to take in some calories, preferably some sugary calories, during your race. This can be really hard on the digestive system if you’re not used to it, so start practicing during your training runs. Once you’re running 7, 8, and 9 miles at a time, you can start introducing food and drinks. Gatorade is a classic and will be provided during the race. I prefer getting a little bit of solid food in, like these “sport beans” that are really just jelly beans for runners with some added caffeine!

  5. Honor your rest days.

    When you’re nailing your training, it can be tempting to take on a “more is better” mindset. You may want to add in some extra miles, recovery runs, or extra cross-training. Don’t do it! Your body, and especially your joints and ligaments, need those rest days. What you can do is keep up with daily stretching, and even throw in some yoga classes. Stretching and yoga will keep your muscles and joints happy and let you run even harder on your training days. For a yoga primer, check out our Yoga Foundations classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

We’ve got less than 10 weeks to go until race day. We’ll see you at the GNC Live Well Pittsburgh Health and Fitness Expo during race weekend. In the meantime, our coaches are here to help you out during training season. Take these tips, train hard, and have a great first race!

PGH FRESH

Clean Eating, Nutrition,

Too busy for meal prep? Look to Pittsburgh Fresh.


A few weeks ago, we wrote about the many benefits of prepping your meals for the week. Nothing makes sticking to a healthy diet easier than being prepared! However, I’m sure quite a few of you wrote off that advice: “I’m waaay too busy to spend 3 hours cooking every weekend!” I get that, and I’m not here to shame you. Over the past few months, I found my schedule quickly filling up: more hours at work, attempts at a social life, studying for new certifications, plus trying to keep my house in order. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be if there were kids in the mix! Something had to give, and that something was starting to look like my weekly meal prep. Luckily, a local meal delivery company contacted me on social media, and I decided to give them a try. I am so, so happy I did!


Pittsburgh Fresh, (https://pghfresh.com/) based out of Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood, is a meal delivery company committed to providing their customers with food that is both healthy and truly delicious. They deliver meals to a number of locations in and around the city, and will even deliver directly to your home on Sundays! I got a chance to talk to Ling Wollenschlaeger, Pittsburgh Fresh Founder and Head Chef, about how the company got started, her feelings on healthy food and living, and her favorite place to eat in Pittsburgh.


Q: What inspired you to start Pittsburgh Fresh?
A: I wanted to help busy families and professionals maintain healthy eating habits and make eating healthy easy!!


Q: What is your healthy eating philosophy?
A: I try to eat everything fresh and avoid processed food.


Q: What is your favorite Pittsburgh Fresh meal so far?
A: Definitely the chicken bruschetta with spaghetti squash primavera.


Q: What services besides meal delivery does Pittsburgh Fresh offer?
A: We offer catering (corporate, weddings, etc.), as well as some grab & go items that you can pick up at Faster Pittsburgh in the Southpointe Town Center.


Q: Where else do you like to eat in Pittsburgh?
A: Easily the Strip District. It’s a place with a melting pot of great food.


Q: What’s your favorite way to work out?
A: I like to stay busy and active throughout the day and try new workouts: spinning, yoga, CrossFit, hiking, group exercises, and always having fun!!!


We are so excited about Pittsburgh Fresh and we want all of our members at Union Fitness to have a chance to try them out! On Tuesday, February 28, Pittsburgh Fresh will be in the gym doing a free dinner tasting after our 5:30-6:30pm #powerful class. Come in and give the barbell and some really tasty post-workout food a try! We’ll see you there.

Dolce Diet Week 2: CHEATER

Diet, Meal Prep, Nutrition, , , , , ,

Dolce Diet Week 2: CHEATER

 

Week 2:

 

Change is hard.  Ok, so I have a confession. I’m about to be as honest as Usher in the early 00’s right now. You know Eco Bistro right? Well on Thursday’s they have a Pittsburgh steak salad special. Although I grew up in Pittsburgh, I don’t have too many distinct Pittsburgh characteristics. I don’t speak Pittsburghese. I can barely name the three rivers. I’ve never had an Iron City beer. I’m not a Steelers fan, or Penguins, or what’s our other team again? BUT— I LOVE, and I’m talking an unhealthy-obsession-type-LOVE of French-fries on my salads. Lots of them. The more the better. I embrace this part of my Pittsburgh heritage wholeheartedly. Anyway, back to my confession. On Thursday, I broke from the Dolce Diet to indulge in one of those glorious Pittsburgh salads, with extra fries. (GASP!) The worst part? My coworkers managed to get photographic proof (see below). I was caught red handed.

So yeah, I had something not so healthy. I “cheated” on my diet. Did I punish myself with endless, sweaty hours on the treadmill? Nope. The elliptical? Nope. Did I starve myself for the rest of the day to make up for it? Not a chance. Did I at least berate myself a little bit, maybe lament at my inability to stick to the plan? Never. What did I do then? I smirked at my coworkers and enjoyed my French-fries topped with lettuce. The end.

You see, if you know me or have ever come to one of my classes, you hear me talk about balance a lot. And not just necessarily in yoga poses when we balance on our heads. It applies to life too, including our well thought out diet and training plans. Balance is key because we are HUMANS, and we are vastly imperfect. We can’t always stick to the perfect plan. We can’t always be perfect parents or perfect friends or perfect exercisers. We can, however, balance it all out at the end. So, if you had something unhealthy, balance it out with some extra veggies. If you lost your temper and yelled at your kids, give them some extra kisses and snuggles. If you thought negatively about yourself, look in the mirror and say something kind.

I strive for balance but when days like this Thursday (read: French Fry Indulging) roll around, it’s important to leave the guilt and judgement out of it. There is no space in the Dolce Diet, or my life, for demeaning thoughts or feelings of shame. Practice kindness. Practice balance. So, for now, I’m back to my regularly scheduled Dolce Diet plan as I try not to tip the scales too far into French-fry land…until next Thursday, then all bets are off!

Dolce Diet

Clean Eating, Diet, ,

Dolce Diet

 

Week 1:

 

Change is hard.  Adjusting to something new, whether it’s a new schedule, new workout routine or a new nutrition plan, has many unique challenges. Today I’m about halfway through my first week of the Dolce Diet and if I’m being completely honest, it’s haaaard.  To put it simply, I’m riding the struggle bus—I’m tired, irritable and outright haaaaangry! Just ask my coworkers, they’ll tell you. (Sorry Linds & Casey!!)

As a weightlifter, I’m used to eating CARBS.  I’m talking white rice, whole grain breads, tons of veggies, and yeah, the occasional Rice Krispie treat or ten. I’ve also been known to take down a whole pizza in one sitting, like every Friday night to be exact. In the Dolce Diet, aside from the morning oatmeal, there are minimal carbs. Definitely not as many as I’m used to— so cue the Carb Cravings and the Carb Crash.  If you’re unfamiliar with the Carb Cravings (lucky you!), I’ll try to explain it to you.  Imagine your favorite carb, be it pizza or Rice Krispie treats.  Then imagine that every single person you see morphs into that favorite carb.  Literally just slices of pizza walking around everywhere! You can smell the gooey dough. You can almost taste that salty first bite of cheese. Everything is so real and your brain is telling you to “EAT PIZZA NOW.” That drool inducing phenomenon is what I call the dreaded Carb Cravings. The Carb Crash on the other hand is when you’re knocked back into reality and realize, “Nooooo, they are just people. You can’t eat them. That’d be weird and most definitely highly frowned upon.” The crash is harsh.

So how do I deal? Deep breaths. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.  Savor the food I do eat. Focus on the good, nourishing aspects of my food. Focus on the change. Focus on the end goal but enjoy the process. Focus on my health.

I’ve also realized that I need to heed my own advice.  I often tell my clients to find a balance between the edge of old habits and the challenges of the new, slowly making progress step by step.  I tell them to learn to be comfortably uncomfortable because that’s where we see the greatest changes. I’ve never told anyone it was easy though. Change is hard but I’m not giving up.

My Meals:

 

  • Breakfast for the week: Steel cut oatmeal with chia seeds, hemp seeds, raisins, almond butter and frozen blueberries.
  • Lunches for the week: Egg scramble with turkey bacon, spinach, peppers and tomatoes cooked in avocado oil.
  • Dinners for the week: Wild Salmon with spinach, kale, peppers, and asparagus cooked in coconut oil. 

Wellness Retreats Near and Far

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Wellness Retreats Near and Far

You know the drill – New Year’s Resolutions prompt us all to be better, look better, feel better. We join gyms, declutter and meal prep. But once January ends, motivation can stagger when we’re faced with 11 more months of commitment. Instead of being swayed by the easy way out, be your strongest YOU by taking part in a wellness retreat.

Studies show (https://www.spafinder.com/blog/spa-travel/why-you-should-go-on-a-wellness-retreat/) that wellness retreats, detoxes, yoga and meditation have the power to give mental and emotional healing by helping you make changes from within. You can set your reset button, bask in a beautiful location with delicious food, learn something new and take home positive memories.

Wellness retreats can help you find a great balance, and luckily there are a handful of locations offering retreat packages near Pittsburgh.

  1. Nemacolin Woodlands Resort

    Distance from Pittsburgh: Farmington, PA (1.5 hour-drive)
    Types Offered: Holistic Living Package, Healing Art of Massage, Universal Love Retreat, Fitness and Adventure Retreat, Longevity & Brain Health, Diet and Nutrition, Yoga & Meditation, and a Rise Up Retreat for Entrepreneurs.

  2. Himalayan Institute Pittsburgh

  3. Distance from Pittsburgh: Mt. Lebanon (30 minutes from Downtown)
    Types Offered: Learn to Meditate, Getting a Good Night Sleep, Breath Awareness Practice, and Ayurvedic Yoga Consultations

  4. Ayurveda Integrative Wellness Institute

  5. Distance from Pittsburgh: Robinson Township (30 minutes from Downtown)
    Types Offered: Holistic Healing Spa Therapies for Perfect Wellness and Panchakarma Detox Herbs and Oils

Interested in venturing further away from Pittsburgh? Here are some top-notch retreats (http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/23/travel/wellness-retreats-2017/) around the USA.

    1. Glow Wellness

Distance from Pittsburgh: Princeton, NJ (5 hour-drive)
Types Offered: Relax, Cleanse & Glow Weekend Retreat, Healthy Weight Loss Weekend Retreat, and The Total Cleanse Weekend Retreat

    1. The Wellness Collective

Distance from Pittsburgh: Ranchero Santa Fe, California (6-hour flight)
Types Offered: Movement & Fitness, Attitude & Perspective, Nutrition & Toxicity, Sleep & Respite, Relationships & Connection and Stress & Balance

    1. The Arrigo Programme

Distance from Pittsburgh: New York City (1.5 hour-flight)
Types Offered: Biodynamic medicine, breath work, precision bodywork, Tibetan pulsing and a psychological-astrological hybrid

Or, Try out Union Fitness!
Union Fitness is more than just a gym. It’s more than a place to lift weights, take yoga and spin, run on a treadmill and climb an elliptical. At Union Fitness, we strive to deliver a holistic fitness experience that will help you disconnect from everyday responsibilities and reconnect with your inner self to accomplish your goals. In itself, a membership or class pack at Union Fitness can lead to a stronger, healthier you.

Planning to Succeed: How to tackle meal prepping

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Planning to Succeed: How to tackle meal prepping

I reached the point in my training where I realized that if I wanted to see real results, I had to deal with my diet. We’ve all been there: working out harder and harder each week, but never seeing a big change on the scale. The missing link is almost always our diet, and one of the best tricks for sticking to a healthy eating plan is learning to meal prep. Once or twice a week, make the time to get in the kitchen and pre-make a few meals. The easiest way to start is by prepping your lunches. That way you know your workday meal meets your nutritional needs and you don’t get stuck buying expensive (and often unhealthy) takeout. So, without further ado, my list of practical meal prep tips.

Shop with a list (and stick to it).

The most important aspect of meal prep success is having a plan! If you anticipate cooking on Sunday afternoon, take some time on Saturday to map out your meals for the following week. This sets you up for a successful shopping trip to buy all the things you need (and none of the things you don’t). Mini-tip: never go to the grocery store hungry. That’s how you end up with a cart full of chocolate and not much else.

Buy the right tupperware.

I didn’t realize the importance of this until I had disorganized mounds of randomly sized tupperware literally falling out of my cupboards and drawers. Having a set of uniform tupperware will take a little bit of stress off when you’re right in the middle of cooking up all your food. You’ll thank me later. You can find lots of tupperware options on Amazon; this one is my favorite.

Crock pots will save you heaps of time.

Included in this tip are rice cookers, pressure cookers or any other tech gadget that does the hard work for you while you leisurely sip coffee on the couch or do other fun things like nap. You can cook up whole meals in the crockpot, bulk prepare rice, or just prep all of your protein for the week with this ridiculously simple salsa chicken recipe.

Frozen veggies are your friend.

While fresh produce is delicious, let’s be real: it’s Pittsburgh in the winter and that stuff just isn’t looking that good. Frozen veggies pack the same nutritional punch as fresh produce, but they’ll stay good for much longer and if you shop carefully, you’ll end up spending a bit less too. Frozen produce is picked at peak ripeness and immediately flash frozen, meaning it’s going to be even more fresh than what you find at the front of the store this time of year. Another bonus, it’s easy to mix and match frozen veggie options, so you’re not stuck eating broccoli all week long.

Know when to ask for help.

Have you been working on your meal prep skills for weeks and feel like you’re spinning your wheels? It’s probably time to call in the experts. Many of your Union Fitness staff members utilize nutrition coaches and we encourage all of our members to do the same! That’s why we made sure to include a personalized diet plan with for our 8-week challenge participants. Mike Dolce works with some of the country’s most successful athletes on their diets, and he’s putting a plan together for Union Fitness members that are tackling either the Strength Project or the Steel Revolution Spin Challenge. There’s still time to sign up for a challenge and get access to all the training and nutrition tools you need to meet your goals this year.

Take these tips and jump right in! We’ll be adding some of our favorite meal prep recipes to future blog posts, so keep an eye out. See you in the gym!

Wounded Warrior

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Wounded Warrior Project

At Union Fitness, our primary goal is to build a community where our members are passionate about fitness, but we also aim to foster a mindset of giving back to the community outside of our walls. We were fortunate enough to host our first (hopefully of many) events with the Wounded Warrior Project.

First, I’d like to thank Luke Koval for reaching out to set the event up with us. Second, I’m honored that we had about 10 veterans show up for the event. Some were experienced lifters, others hadn’t touched a weight since leaving the service or since their injury, and others had never done any strength training. It was a challenge for our staff, but a blessing as well. If it were easier to get stronger… if the weights lifted themselves… we would never learn any lessons from pushing ourselves and digging deeper to find out what we’re really made of. Well the same goes for coaching. If you explained it once and your members got it, then how would you ever get better. Fitness in general is one big puzzle. We’re just trying to put the pieces, very individualized pieces, together.

The second blessing was the fact that due to these veterans’ sacrifices, we were able to spend a peaceful afternoon together going over training, recovery, rehab, and techniques for mental clarity. Lifting, running, spin, yoga, or whatever you gravitate towards is as much or more for your mental health than it is physical.

To summarize, everyone started to filter in around 1pm. As I said, we had ten veterans, but about 20 people in total. Some girlfriends joined us as well as other training partners and friends for moral support. Our coaching staff gave a brief insight into who we are, what we do, and our philosophies at Union Fitness. Then we flipped the script and had the veterans share with us whatever they were comfortable with- training experience, branch, reasons they were here, injuries, goals, etc. It can be a therapeutic experience to discuss some of these openly, but we have to understand that in order to support these men and women sometimes, especially early in their recovery, they don’t want to share much if anything at all.

We let them guide the afternoon, and they really just wanted to get some input on their strength training and technique, so we moved on to coaching the squat, bench, and deadlift. Even some of the guys that had never squatted before were looking really comfortable under the bar after about a half hour of coaching. There were a couple that squatted over 400lbs, a handful that benched over 300, and some really good looking deadlifts too!

Afterward everyone chowed down on some food that the Penn Brewery donated for the event. It’s nice when the local community supports a new business, all for the sake of giving back to our troops. Our next event is already scheduled for January 31st. Stay tuned for updates! And email us at join@unionfitness.com for any details or if you’d like to make any donations for our veterans!