All posts by rnagy

What Stimulates Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy?

Training

When programming resistance training, it’s crucial to understand how skeletal muscle grows and how to use that knowledge to create a program that makes sense. For quite a long time, the main belief about muscle growth has been that it occurs through the creation of microtears in the muscle fibers, which are then repaired with adequate protein intake. As for programming, a widely accepted concept is that there are different rep ranges that will achieve certain results with resistance training. Common phrases include “lighter weights and higher reps for muscle growth, heavier weights and lower reps for strength.” While these schools of thought could make sense, current research suggests that there is a different driver of skeletal muscle hypertrophy called mechanical tension, which can help us understand different programming principles. 

What Is Mechanical Tension?

To understand mechanical tension, we have to first define it and then understand the force-velocity relationship. Mechanical tension is defined as the type of force that tries to stretch a material. Muscles experience this during training because there is resistance against shortening. The force-velocity relationship states that the force a muscle can generate is inversely proportional to the velocity at which it can shorten. So what does the force-velocity relationship have to do with mechanical tension? As involuntary contraction velocity decreases during training, the force against stretching that the muscles have to produce increases in order to shorten. Because there is increased time contracting due to slower reps, there are more myosin-actin cross bridges formed . We can conclude that muscles experience more mechanical tension as they approach “failure” (I put failure in quotes because the muscles aren’t actually failing, but that’s a discussion for another time.) When mechanical tension is experienced in a muscle fiber, mechanosensors send a signal to the brain saying that the muscle fiber needs to grow. In short; involuntary slowing of contraction -> more cross-bridges -> more mechanical tension -> more hypertrophy.

Why Is The Microtear Theory Wrong?

The microtear theory is based around the thought that muscle damage causes hypertrophy. Think about muscle damage and mechanical tension in a car analogy. Lets say your car gets damaged and you have a dent in the side. You take the car to a body shop, they fix the dent, and it looks almost the same as it did before. That’s muscle damage. While protein synthesis is elevated when a muscle is damaged, that elevation only goes toward repairing the damaged myofibrils by replacing them. It does not go toward the growth of new myofibrils. Now let’s say you want to make your car look a little bit better. You wouldn’t damage your car to get new rims right? You would just go and buy new rims. That’s mechanical tension.

Using Mechanical Tension to Program

The reality of programming is that your muscles do not “know” the difference between arbitrary rep ranges and heavy weight vs light weight. They really only respond to intensities, proximity to “failure”, and reps in reserve (these are all pretty much synonymous). Reps in reserve (RIR) is a way to define intensity by the number of reps an individual could have performed before “failing”. RIR 1 means that 1 more rep could have been performed, RIR 2 means 2 more reps could have been performed and so on. Higher reps with lighter weight and lower reps with heavier weight actually produce similar levels of hypertrophy as long as the sets are taken close to “failure”. So a set of 12 reps at RIR 1 will produce a similar amount of hypertrophy to a set of 5 at RIR 1. A theory that I think gives great direction to programming rooted in mechanical tension is called the Stimulating Reps Model developed by Chris Beardsely. Backed by clinical trials, it states that the only reps significantly stimulating growth in a set are the 5 before “failure”. In other words, the only sets that produce growth are ones that are programmed at RIR 0-4. This makes sense because we know that involuntarily slow contractions cause high degrees of mechanical tension. But wouldn’t it make sense to program in a rep range and an intensity where almost all the reps are slow? Beardsley also touches on this. As I said before, higher rep and lower rep sets performed at the same RIR produced similar hypertrophy, but the lower rep sets actually had the slight edge in the research. Beardsely says this is possibly due to the fatigue accumulation associated with higher rep sets that could affect motor unit recruitment levels. Given all this information, I have a few guidelines and recommendations.

 

Recommendations

To maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, I recommend programming in a rep range where you feel comfortable but also one that doesn’t accumulate too much fatigue not caused by the agonist muscle. Personally, I prefer to program in the 5-8 rep range because I feel as if I don’t accumulate that much fatigue and essentially every rep is stimulating. I also recommend programming at RIR 0-2. There are benefits to all 3 of these RIRs. For RIR 0, there is no question that there were stimulating reps in the set, but the drawback is that excessively going to “failure” is associated with some muscle damage and metabolite buildup that may make it harder to recover for the next session. If you are someone that likes to go to RIR 0, I would adjust by programming less sets. RIR 1-2 are good because there is less damage and metabolite buildup associated with these intensities, but the drawback here is that gauging how many more reps could have been performed is sometimes challenging and can also take focus away from the set. Overall, you can’t go wrong with any of these intensities. To summarize, train in a rep range you like, train heavy, take your sets close to failure, and you will grow!

 

Thank you for reading, and train hard!

– Dan

Meet the Interns – Josh

State of the Union

Hello!

 

My name is Josh Daub. I was born and raised in Milton, PA. I am currently in my last semester at the University of Pittsburgh for a Bachelors in Exercise Science. In the fall of 2025, I will attend Chatham University’s Physical Therapy program.

 

I have a passion for exercise and physical therapy! This started because of my experience as an athlete in high school who dealt with injuries. My favorite form of exercise is resistance training with a hypertrophy focus. Outside of the gym I enjoy watching sports, playing video games, hiking, and kayaking.

 

I am excited to learn from the staff at Union and to get to know everyone this semester. If you need any help around the gym, don’t be afraid to ask!

 

Josh

The Benefits Behind Foam Rolling

Uncategorized

Hello UF! A topic that I found to be extremely interesting was the benefits behind foam rolling and how we can utilize it to obtain the best results. First and foremost, for those who may not know about foam rolling; it is a self-induced massage that occurs by rolling the muscles out on a foam cylinder. This practice is commonly done by athletes and others to reduce tightness/tension found in the muscles.

 

When your muscles feel tight and sore, foam rolling has been used to apply pressure to those areas to create a myofascial release. This occurs by stimulating blood flow to those areas which will ultimately lessen tension and any lactic acid buildup (contributing factor to soreness). Post-rolling, many people have found an increase in range of motion because of its ability to rid knots and lengthen those muscle spindles and fibers. Things to avoid when foam rolling include rolling over joints, which can increase inflammation in those tendons and ligaments in the surrounding areas. Also, avoid rolling over the same spot for too long or focusing too much on the same sore spot. Is it important to take your time and not use too much pressure.

 

After looking into various sources on how we can foam roll to avoid injury and get the most results, it is stated that foam rolling should occur prior to exercise and after a series of stretches were completed. These stretches include static or dynamic which will release any tension that is present allowing you to really lengthen those muscles out. Doing stretches beforehand will help improve flexibility, support recovery, and maintaining muscle health.

 

Thank you for using your time to expand your knowledge on my topic. I hope to see some of you trying this out!

 

Meech Butler

Meet the Interns – Jon

State of the Union

Hi! My name is Jon Rathfon and I recently started interning here at Union Fitness. I am also currently a senior Exercise Science major at Pitt in my final semester looking to enroll in Physical Therapy school in 2026.

 

As for a little background about me, I grew up in Monroeville, P.A. and throughout my entire life, I’ve been extremely passionate about various forms of exercise. Growing up, I loved nothing more than playing soccer, which is what sparked my interest in exercise. Around when I was 16, I started weight training to improve my strength for soccer, and this is where my passion really took off. I fell in love with the process of developing athletic qualities, and from that point onward it has been a lifelong goal of mine to expand my knowledge of fitness as far as possible. Since then, I have been exposing myself to as many forms of training as possible and over the past couple of years, Rock Climbing has become a newfound passion of mine and gave me another new training modality to learn and pursue.

 

Someday, I want to use all this knowledge of training I acquire to be able to help people achieve their physical goals, whether it is to improve athleticism for a sport or to be able to build and retain functional strength despite age/injury. Interning here at Union Fitness will give me the opportunity to gain valuable experience training clients in a variety of methods which will prepare me for the future and help expand my knowledge of the field. I am more than happy to be here, and if you see me around the gym, don’t be afraid to say hi!

 

Jon Rathfon

What Being In Bands Has Taught Me About Programming

Fitness, Training

I only got into the coaching world maybe 15 years ago and training in general a little over 20 years ago; and no, this isn’t going to be me talking about the good old days. Before all that, I started drumming in bands at the age of 14 and I played my first show ever at 15. For me it has been a little over 25 years of writing music and today I realized how much that is like writing training programs. A lot of the music I wrote early on was awful, I didn’t really know what I was doing, some never even saw the light of day but over time and with lots of practice I wrote music with my bands that has taken me from LA to Helsinki to Auckland. So, check it out.

 

When I first got into punk and hardcore I had mentors, I was lucky enough to have people 5 and 6 years older than me take me under their wing and explain to me the culture of music and take me to shows. These were the people I later went on to play in bands with. In regard to my coaching career, I did the same, I found someone who had already been in the field coaching, and I learned from him. Just like my older friends taught me about the music culture, he taught me how to coach, what to read and a lot of the history of strength training.

 

I started interning at that coach’s gym, understanding his programs and coaching athletes through his workouts. This was the same as learning covers as a band. They aren’t your songs, but you can begin to understand what makes them good. During this time, I kept reading and expanding my knowledge much like as a drummer I kept listening to music and practicing my chops.

 

Eventually, it was time to go off and do my own thing and time to write my own programs. Just like some of the early music I wrote, my programs were just rip offs of ones I was already familiar with. It wasn’t quite plagiarism, but I had yet to really grasp programming and make something truly original. It is tough though, just like music and there only being so many riffs you can write, beats you can play in training there are only so many exercises and so many ways to organize them. You may not mean to copy something but when you go back and look at things you realize “damn it, I knew I recognized this from somewhere”.

 

As time went on with both my music and my training, I kept reading more, kept listening to more music, kept practicing and then finally it all started to come together. I started finding all the parts of music I liked; I found the drummers that inspired me and began to write original music I was proud of, and training has worked the same way. I began to find coach’s whose message resonated with me, I found training modalities that made sense to me and worked. I began to realize just like writing a song, writing programs is the same thing. It is a combination of all your inspiration and talents/knowledge that makes a program your own.

 

Ethan

Mastering Exercise Progressions and Regressions

Fitness, Training

Whether you are just starting your fitness journey or you are a seasoned gym member, understanding the concept of exercise progressions and regressions can significantly enhance your results. These tools allow you to adjust exercises to match your current fitness level, ensuring you’re constantly challenged without risking injury. Today, we will break down the importance of progressions and regressions, how to use them effectively, and provide examples to help you get started.

 

What Are Exercise Progressions and Regressions?

  • Progressions are ways to make an exercise more challenging over time. These adjustments might involve adding resistance, increasing your range of motion, or making the movement more complex to stimulate growth and strength.
  • Regressions, on the other hand, make exercises easier and more accessible, which is ideal when you are building foundational strength, dealing with injuries, or learning a new movement pattern.

The beauty of progressions and regressions is that they allow for continual improvement while reducing the risk of injury. Whether you are aiming to get stronger, more flexible, or just more confident in your movements, they can ensure you are moving safely toward your goals.

 

Why Use Progressions and Regressions?

  1. Personalization
    Everyone’s fitness level is different. Progressions and regressions help tailor your workouts to match where you are, ensuring you are always challenged but not overwhelmed.
  2. Injury Prevention
    Pushing too hard too soon can lead to injuries. Regressions allow you to ease into a movement while strengthening the muscles required for more advanced variations.
  3. Consistency and Motivation
    Progressing gradually can keep you motivated. Small wins, like mastering a new exercise or lifting a heavier weight, can give you a sense of accomplishment that drives you to keep going.
  4. Build Confidence
    Regressions let you learn an exercise with proper form at a level you are comfortable with, which builds confidence before progressing to harder variations.

 

How to Use Progressions and Regressions in Your Workouts

How do you know when it’s time to progress, or when to take a step back? Here are a few tips:

  1. Listen to Your Body
    If an exercise feels too easy, it might be time to move on to a more challenging variation. Conversely, if you’re struggling with proper form or feel pain, it may be time to regress until you are ready to move up.
  2. Focus on Form
    Before you progress, ensure that your form is solid in the current variation. Moving too quickly to a more difficult exercise can lead to sloppy technique and increase the risk of injury.
  3. Gradual Adjustments
    Progressions don’t always mean making drastic changes. Small adjustments like adding weight or increasing the number of reps can have a big impact over time.
  4. Assess Your Goals
    Your goals should dictate when and how you progress or regress. If your goal is to build strength, you may progress more quickly by adding weight. If you’re working on mobility or stability, you might focus on perfecting your form with less intensity before adding complexity.

 

Example Progressions and Regressions

Let’s break down a few common exercises, showing how to progress and regress each one.

  1. Push-Ups
  • Regression: Start with knee push-ups to reduce the load on your arms and chest.
  • Progression: Once you can do 15–20 knee push-ups with good form, move to full push-ups. Then, you can progress by elevating your feet or adding a clap for a more explosive variation.
  1. Squats
  • Regression: If bodyweight squats are too challenging, try squatting to a chair or box for support. This limits your range of motion and provides a safety net if you struggle with balance.
  • Progression: Add resistance with dumbbells or a barbell, or try single-leg squats for increased challenge and balance training.
  1. Planks
  • Regression: Begin with the plank on your knees to reduce the load on your core. If this is still too difficult, try holding a modified forearm plank.
  • Progression: Once you’re comfortable with a standard plank, increase the time, add leg raises, or try side planks to further challenge your core.
  1. Lunges
  • Regression: Perform stationary lunges or step-ups, which reduce the dynamic movement and give you a more stable position.
  • Progression: Once you’ve mastered stationary lunges, add weights or move to jumping lunges to increase intensity and coordination.
  1. Deadlifts
  • Regression: Use a kettlebell or dumbbell for a sumo deadlift (wider stance) instead of a traditional barbell to reduce the range of motion.
  • Progression: Once your form is solid, you can increase the weight or add tempo variations (e.g., slow eccentric lowering) to challenge your muscles further.

 

When to Progress or Regress?

  • Progress when:
    • You can perform the exercise with good form and control.
    • You’re no longer feeling challenged by the current variation.
    • You want to increase intensity to push your limits.
  • Regress when:
    • You can’t maintain proper form throughout the exercise.
    • You experience pain (not just discomfort) during a movement.
    • You feel fatigued or overwhelmed, leading to compromised technique.

 

Final Thoughts

Mastering exercise progressions and regressions is essential for building a sustainable and injury-free fitness routine. It’s not about pushing yourself to the max every workout—it’s about knowing when to challenge yourself and when to take a step back. By listening to your body and progressing at your own pace, you’ll stay motivated, keep making progress, and enjoy a long-lasting fitness journey.

Remember: consistency is key, and small, gradual improvements will add up over time. So, whether you’re regressing to improve form or progressing to take your fitness to the next level, you’re always moving forward.

Happy training!

Toria

Meet the Interns – Kaitlin

State of the Union

Hello! My name is Kaitlin, and I am a new intern at Union Fitness! I am currently in my senior year at the University of Pittsburgh receiving my Bachelor’s in Exercise Science! I am planning on getting my Master’s in clinical Exercise Physiology, and my Doctorate in Physical Therapy. I’ve lived in Pittsburgh for the last 3.5 years for school, but my home base is in New Jersey.

 

Growing up I played soccer and have now gained interest in weight training, running, cycling, and other forms of exercise. In my free time I like to read books, cook, and spend time with my family and friends! I am excited to begin my journey here at Union Fitness as I am interested in teaching group fitness classes and programming my own classes. I am also interested in personal training and believe this opportunity will provide me the steppingstones to start that journey. I am so excited to gain many skills and a lot of knowledge to further my ability to excel in my profession! If you see me around say hello!

 

Kaitlin

Feel Powerful at Union Fitness

Fitness, Life Health, Training

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025,

 

 

I’m very appreciative of everyone who has made this gym a community of support and a home of strength. If you are new to the neighborhood and want to join our party of strength, you will be welcomed with arms wide open. Everyone deserves a place to train, with professional coaches, supportive members and overall unmatched vibes. As we all know, the people make the place, and for that I thank yinz. This is a very special group of humans and I’m happy to share this time in history with you.

 

 

For the next few weeks in our #Powerful class we will be focusing our training for the April Push Pull Charity Event. (Tentative date for the event is April 5th, 2025). The goal of our #Powerful class is to improve our technique , strength and confidence in our bigger barbell movements; squat, bench & deadlift. We will then be using smaller movements to build muscle, improve body composition and have some damn fun! As long as you show up and apply yourself, I can guarantee you will see and feel the results of your efforts. On Mondays and Wednesdays the training will be upper body focused, whereas Tuesdays and Thursdays will emphasize lower body movements. Friday, will be led and programmed by our 1 and only Dr. Jared, the strongest Physical Therapist this side of the Mississippi. I program the Monday through Thursday training days and, if you stop in on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, you’ll even get to hang out and throw weights around with me and the Crew…they are awesome. We Want You To Join #Powerful!

 

 

If you’re not interested in the Push Pull event, #Powerful will still be a badass class for you if you’re looking to train with a community, build confidence in the gym, have fun, push each other, and learn old & new exercises. We are currently running a special on classes for the month that you can check out on our website and as always, the first class is Free. If you have any more questions on anything, please reach out and I would be so happy to assist.

 

 

Come on out and join us and let’s crush some weights in 2025 and have some fun!

 

 

Always Get Bumpy,

 

CeJ

Olympic Weightlifting at Union Fitness Update

State of the Union, Training

So, with just a little over a week and a half away before I try to do this Olympic Weightlifting thing at Union Fitness here are a few reminders:

 

First off, the intro class, seminar, whatever you want to call it will be on Feb 1st at 10 am till around 12… Could be longer we will see how it goes. This will be for those people who have never done the lifts before or would like to maybe brush up on some coaching. I highly recommend coming to this because when the classes get rolling there won’t be real time to teach the lifts.

 

Next topic, to partake in the class it will be 100 dollars, just 25 dollars added onto the Strength Lab membership. If you are doing Unlimited classes and want to try, then it is cool. The first week will be free to see if you are feeling the vibe.

 

Third point to bring up; it is wintertime and there is snow and salt on the ground. Please bring a pair of shoes to train in so you are not tracking everything outside to inside of the gym. We don’t want puddles of water where you are lifting.

 

Fourth is just a reminder that if you just want to do your own thing and just lift with other people that is cool too. You don’t have to do the provided program. If you want some feedback on what you are doing feel free to ask but if you are just doing your own thing, I won’t interrupt your training.

 

As far as the programming goes, it will all be very general with the key being getting better at Olympic lifting. It will not be about peaking for competitions however, there will be a general direction to get comfortable with heavier lifts. Each workout will consist of some plyometrics, some of the competition lifts, then some general strength training movements.

 

I think as of now that is it. The plan is to give this a try, see how it goes and if people are having fun, then it will keep going and grow. If you know some people that Olympic lift and just want a new vibe, they are more than welcome to come for free for a few sessions.

 

Ethan

Meet the Interns – Daniel

State of the Union

Hi, everyone!

 

My name is Daniel Comer. Some of you may recognize me from the front desk at Union. I am a senior Exercise Science major at the University of Pittsburgh. Next fall, I will be a Doctor of Physical Therapy candidate at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. I am from Syracuse, New York, so whenever Pitt isn’t playing them… go Orange! Outside of fitness, I like to [sadly] watch the New York Jets, play chess, read, and hang out with friends.

 

I love just about anything exercise-related, especially physical therapy and resistance training. I enjoy powerlifting-style training, and I coach 9 competitive powerlifters not including myself. My passion for physical therapy came at a young age when a couple of my family members were diagnosed with immunodeficiencies and metabolic diseases. My desire to treat people like them combined with my developing interest in human movement, allowed me to see that physical therapy is the way I can make the biggest impact on the lives of others!

 

I am excited to intern at Union as it will provide unique insights into a broad range of fitness professionalism from strength and conditioning to group fitness to personal training. The staff are super knowledgeable, and I hope to pick their brains and be a sponge!

 

Daniel