All posts by rnagy

Summer Sledge

Fitness

As the great poet of our time, Limp Bizkit once said ” And if my day keeps going this way, I just might break something tonight”. 

 

Well another way to keep that energy rolling in a more productive manner, why don’t we try incorporating the sledge hammer into our training. Sledgehammer training will put your strength, power, coordination, endurance and chutzpah to the test. From a 4lbs sledge to a hulking 65lbs sledge, there are various movements to utilize this tool. A classic staple is the tride and true slam to tire, but you can use the sledge to complete a “KB ” like flow series, mace movements and other functional everyday movements. Completing these movements will not only improve your overall performance from your head to your toes, but it will leave you feeling like one bad mother, shut your mouth. Sledgehammer training offers an array of benefits no matter what type of athlete you may be. Include them in your circuit training for an intense cardio session to elevate your heart rate and improve aerobic capacity and metabolic conditioning or use it as a tool to build strength, power, and explosiveness. Incorporating sledgehammer movements into your training will naturally strengthen the forearms, improve wrist mobility, and increase grip strength. Sledgehammer training uses full range movements which will improve functional fitness, coordination, and agility. My personal favorite combo with the sledgehammer is when I build the exercise into my metabolic conditioning circuit day. For example, I will use the sledgehammer to hit a tire for :30 seconds, alternating sides of the swing, then farmers carry to my next exercise, hit my roulette ab pick of the training then jog back to the top and start all over. This quick blog is just to get you thinking of how you can add variety and spice into your exercise routine. If you’d like to try any of these sledge movements, please ask me and I would love to show you how. We can have a Summer sledge party.  

 

-Sledge On  

CeJ 

Meal Prepping When You Are Busy or Feeling Lazy

Clean Eating, Meal Prep, Nutrition

Everyone has those days or weekends where we do not feel like meal prepping, whether it be constraint in time, money, or motivation. However, having adequate nutrition after training hard is crucial to make new gains or to lose pounds. So today, I will write about how to plan out super simple prepped meals so you can reach your goals in the gym.

 

First meal is a crock pot chuck roast. The ingredients you need are: chuck roast, obviously, I like to get it from Aldi as they have the cheapest option. 1 table spoon of olive oil for searing, salt and pepper – season roast with a fair amount of salt, otherwise it can taste a little flat. 1 yellow onion, cut into strands, 1 whole peeled garlic – be sure to use fresh garlic for the best flavor here. 1 can of beef broth, Worcestershire sauce for seasoning, 2-3 Yellow/gold potatoes 2 big carrots, and corn starch if you want a thick gravy like broth.

 

Sear both sides of the chuck roast on a big pan by heating up the 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a pan. After searing the chuck, pat it dry with paper towel and set it aside, use that same pan to sauté the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes with beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. Now put all the goodies in the crock pot, the layer goes: beef-onion & garlic-potatoes-carrots. Set that bad boy aside for 8-9 hours on slow cook option, and now you have yourself a protein rich meal ready to go the next day.

 

Second meal is called “I don’t want to cook at all chicken and rice combo,” which is my go to meals when I don’t want to cook, at all. You need a rice cooker and Kirkland brand canned chicken from Costco, or their famous $5 rotisserie chicken. Literally just cook the rice (please wash them, it’s the honorable way), put your chicken on it, and top it off with some bagged spinach or sauce. Is that the most college kid like meal ever? Yes, but it is healthier than a cup of instant noodles.

 

Thanks for reading my blog, perhaps one day I’ll bring some crock pot roast for everyone to try!

 

Hanson

Meet the Staff – Mary

State of the Union

Hello everyone! My name is Mary Howski, and I am a new trainer at Union. I am a student at Pitt, studying Exercise Science. About 90% of the people in my program want to pursue Physical Therapy, but there are a few of us, myself included, who want to follow a strength and conditioning route.  

 

There are two main things that led to me choosing this career path. First, I grew up playing year-round, super competitive volleyball for school and for club teams. I was a libero as well as the person who chose the warmup music and gave the pregame pep talks for my club team. This team is the reason I first started being involved with sports performance as we had several sessions per week of lifting, conditioning, etc. to help us excel at our sport. It was difficult, but also very rewarding and enjoyable. I loved the time spent in the weight room and on the turf because I loved our great coach-player dynamics and bonding with my teammates and best friends. 

 

Second, I have always had an immense passion for exercise and health in general. Since grade school I’ve been active, and I began to enjoy it more in high school when I started lifting. During my freshman year of college I studied psychology at Boston College, but I decided to study for my personal training certification. Throughout this process I realized the real extent to which I love training. I thought that my personality, passion, and desire to learn would make me well suited for a career in sports performance. So, I transferred to Pitt and have absolutely loved school since then. I love working hands-on with physical activity and general health, whether that means learning from a professor, another coach, or the other ExSci majors. I absolutely crave figuring out all that I can to help athletes perform at an excellent, efficient level.  

 

I have experience in personal training, teaching group exercise, and shadowing/working with teams. This summer I will have the privilege of working with Pitt Men’s and Women’s Basketball, and I could not be more excited to be in the weight room with their very hard-working coaches and players.  

 

Outside of the gym, I love to read, go to concerts, and discover new music. I’m also a huge fan of long walks, painting my friends’ nails, and figuring out how to meditate. I am also a massive Cleveland Cavaliers fan. After finals week is over, I’m planning to spend some more hours at Union with all of you extremely dedicated and impressive people! I’m so grateful to be here! 

 

Mary

Keeping Up the Speed

Fitness, Training

Human beings have been able to move bipedally for thousands of years, a little fun fact is that humans can outrun cheetahs, wolves and even horses when it comes to long distance running, but when it comes to speed we are some of the slowest animals out there. Today, I’m going give you some programming to help you increase your speed and maybe you will be able to outrun a wombat (25mph) or at least at Black mamba (14mph).

 

First, we want to start with a warm up. Sprinting is tough on the body, especially if you are going 100% speed – you have to make sure your body is ready for impact. Here is an example warm up:

 

  1. Light jog, skips, shuffles, backwards jog – get those joints moving and lubricated
  2. Dynamic stretching: hamstring scoops, quad pull reach, World’s Greatest Stretch, single leg supermans, straight leg skips, carioca, bwd reachbacks (run backwards reaching with your legs)
  3. Primer: ankle and calf dribbles, double leg and single leg POGOs, A-Skips (or regular skips), high knees slow to fast, 10yd accelerations, 20yd sprint buildups.

 

I would recommend doing 10yd for the dynamic stretches and 20yd for the primers.

 

After a long and focused warm up your body should be ready to start some sprinting! Below is a 3 day program of sprint work that I’ve put together for everyone. Make sure you take into account that if you haven’t sprinted in a long time that you should start a little easy then ramp up as your body gets more accustomed to the constant impact.

 

Day 1

1a) BW Prowler Push @100% BW x 4-5sets 10-15yd

1b) 2 point acceleration 10-15yd

2) Sprint Buildup 4×2 build on 30-40yd

3) Broad Jump(DL-SL-SL) 2-3x2ea

4) MB Counter Movement Granny FWD Toss 2-3×4

 

Day 2

1a) Light Sled Sprints 20% BW 15yd Build/ 10yd Fly x 3-4sets

1b) Fly In 15yd Build/ 10yd Fly

2) Hurdrle Hops (Skip) @4-5 hurdles x 3-4sets

3) MB Counter Movement BWD Granny Toss 3-4×3

 

Day 3

1) MB Vert Scoop Toss 3×3-4

2a) MB Punch Runs 2-3x20yd

2b) Wickets 2-3x20yd

3a) Float-Sprint-Float 90%-95%-90% x2-3sets (if that is too much bring it down to 80%) 10yd-10yd-10yd

3b) 20yd Buildup to 10yd sprint

 

When doing this program make sure to pace yourself, especially if you haven’t sprinted in a long time, and as the weeks go by try increasing speed and/or sets/reps. I have done this program myself and I am currently doing it. If you need help with any of the drills on here or you just want a partner to do sprints with please feel free to reach out! Now get out there and out run some wombats!!!

 

Dahveed Jorge

2024 UF Push/Pull Recap

State of the Union

Hello Friends of Union Fitness!

 

This past weekend we hosted our fourth annual Push/Pull fundraiser competition. It was a huge success, and we were able to see some awesome lifts from all our participants. There were some lifters who had participated in powerlifting meets or the push/pull in the past, and there were some who had never stepped up on a platform before. It is always so great to see everyone try their hardest to crush some PR’s and celebrate even the small wins. We also raised a little over $500 to donate to HEARTH. An organization that provides a range of supportive services and housing that empowers homeless families, who are survivors of domestic violence or other trauma to become independent, self-sufficient, and adequately housed; to foster housing opportunities to prevent homelessness and encourage safe, affordable housing.

 

I would like to take a moment to say thank you to every individual who helped us out that morning, and put their best effort forward.

 

CJ – thank you for killing it on the mic and for keeping the morning flowing.

 

Jen – thank you for being an amazing judge and helping select bench rack heights for all of the lifters.

 

Jared – thank you for also being an amazing judge and helping with weigh ins for the gentlemen.

 

Ward & Dahveed – thank you both for the stellar spotting job throughout the morning. You guys were sweating the most out of everyone from working so hard.

 

Ava – thank you for being an amazing photographer, we appreciate all of the hard work you put in.

 

Sandhya – thank you for keeping me in line and ensuring all the flights and lifts were recorded correctly. Also, for being a great videographer.

 

For those of you who competed, we are all very proud of how far you’ve come in your training and are excited to continue to watch your progress. Congratulations on competing in either your first push/pull or your second/third/fourth. Looking forward to next year!

 

Toria

Comfort: Our Own Worst Enemy

Life Health

From an early age most of us have been taught or programmed to think that comfort equals happiness and that we should take the path of least resistance. While comfort can help with unwinding after a long day and may give temporary relief, it can do more harm than good if comfort is the only thing you seek. Comfort is like a drug, and once you have it, it is extremely difficult to change that habit. What can tend to happen is that we bleed our dopamine system dry of happiness through constant scrolling, drugs, alcohol, binge watching tv or gambling because it gives us that temporary comfort or happiness. We stop doing the things that we used to do and instead focus on getting our dopamine fix to feel somewhat happy for a very brief period of time. This then creates a habit that prevents us from growing professionally, spiritually, or socially. This lack of growth, whether we realize it intrinsically or not, creates the real root of our unhappiness. We realize we are not pursuing the best version of ourselves and this makes us restart the never ending cycle of getting our dopamine fix to only wake up the next day with bitterness. We repeat this constant cycle over and over again to the point where we can become bitter, depressed, or discontent with life. However, in saying all of this above, the good thing is that this can all be prevented! From my own opinion, the pursuit of something bigger that makes us uncomfortable is actually what makes us happy. Basically, forcing ourselves to be uncomfortable and doing extremely difficult tasks makes us feel better about ourselves because we are growing in some type of manner. This gives us a sense of purpose, confidence, some control of our lives and ultimately allows us to create our own happiness. So after reading all of this, I challenge you all to be more disciplined, to set goals, to be your true self, and strive for growth rather than comfort. It is 100% okay to unwind here and there with whatever makes you feel comfortable but just don’t make it a habit that consumes your life. The people that choose an easy life tend to have a hard or unhappy life but the people who choose a hard life tend to have an easier or happy life. The same way that dogs need physical activity to be happy, humans also need mental stimulation and problem solving to be happy. Get comfortable being uncomfortable and always strive for growth UF fam!

 

Gainz out!!

What I have Learned at Union Fitness

State of the Union

Hi Union Fitness Team! As many of you know, I have spent the past couple months interning here at Union Fitness to broaden my knowledge of and grow my skills in the fitness field. With my internship sadly nearing its final weeks, I would like to highlight some of the important lessons I have learned throughout this experience, as well as sincerely thank everyone for the pivotal role you all have played in my growth as a fitness professional.  

 

One of the most prominent things I have learned during my time at Union Fitness is how many different ways we can move our bodies to achieve our fitness goals. Through joining different classes, I have learned so many new and creative exercises that target all the same muscles without having to stick to the same repetitive routine or conventional movements. This keeps exercising interesting, as performing the same movements each week can become a very monotonous and mundane experience which can make it difficult to find excitement and motivation when entering the gym. Switching up your routine every now and then by trying new exercises or focusing on different modes such as cardio, plyometrics, weightlifting, yoga, etc. can keep exercising an exciting experience! 

 

A key aspect of reaching your fitness goals is the type of environment you are surrounded by. As I have seen here at UF, a supportive environment can help you PR, reach your fitness goals, and boost your mood more than you think. Many times I have witnessed members and staff supporting each other throughout their workouts, ultimately pushing each other to achieve what they set out to pursue. I have both seen and experienced the difference that a supportive environment can make when it comes to lifting heavy weight or completing another set when it feels super difficult. The supportive environment fostered by UF has helped me learn just how important it is to cheer each other on and how far that support can go. 

 

This experience has taught me how important it is to take care of your body when it comes to exercising. While this sounds like a given, oftentimes we forget to properly warm up our bodies and stretch out after completing a challenging workout. Warming up your body correctly through performing mobility exercises and dynamic stretches prior to beginning a workout can make or break your performance. Taking the time to stretch out your muscles post-exercise is also imperative to keeping your body moving at its best. Coupling these practices together, while also listening to your body and giving it what it needs in terms of fuel and rest, is essential in preventing injury and keeping your body healthy. Rest is just as important as exercise! 

 

Lastly, one of the biggest lessons I have learned during my time at UF is not to be afraid of asking questions, asking for help, and trying new things. This is how you learn and build your confidence! Through asking questions and jumping into new experiences, I have learned so much about not only the fitness field, but myself as well. The welcoming community at UF has helped me feel comfortable and confident in my journey through learning and growing as a fitness professional, and I am grateful for everyone who has played a part in my experience! 

 

Over the course of my time at Union Fitness, I have learned and grown so much in so many aspects. I am excited to continue throughout my last few weeks here and look forward to what else there is to learn! 

 

Amanda Giunta 

 

Celebrating Women in Sports

State of the Union, Training

Hi Union Fitness Community, Coach AD here!

 

I wanted to take time today to write this blog and talk about a few cool things going on within Women’s Sports and here at Union Fitness!

 

So everyone knows that it was March and in the college Basketball world it means it is time for madness… Both Men and Women’s Basketball teams qualified for the March Madness Tournament. This year is special though, especially for the Women’s Basketball World and World of Sports.

 

As many have came to realize many Women’s Sports are getting much more recognition and FaceTime across the board but most definitely for the Women who play division 1 basketball. Icons such as Kaitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Buckers, Juju Watkins and many more have started to pave an iconic path for this sport. As these women are known from their High School tapes/social media and for the elite skill level on the court, they have helped do something this year that has never been done before for their sport. The Women’s officially had been given the logo of “March Madness” on the center court! Before this year only the men’s tournament was officially called March Madness, but that has changed with the hype that has surrounded these women and the sport of Women’s College Basketball!

 

To see great things happening in the World of Women’s Sports proves and shows that Women’s Sports has been nothing but on the uprise of respect and recognition around the world.

 

With that being said, I would like to also celebrate and welcome our Point Park Women’s Basketball Team back to Union Fitness for Off-Season Strength and Conditioning! We are excited to have these Women back and to help them achieve all their goals with the help of their hard working mindsets!

 

Oh and how can I forget…… Let’s Also Congratulate Zain and Jamie on their new Puppy Comet, seen here with the Point Park Women’s BasketBall Team

 

AD

The Power of Music

Life Health, Training

As you prepare to go to the gym there are a couple of essentials that you always bring with you. Phone, wallet, keys, water bottle, airpods (or headphones), and other lifting equipment. While you are beginning your lift, you put on your headphones and choose the music you want to listen to as you begin your lift. It seems so routine and a natural part of getting ready to lift that it is often overlooked. Think about the days that you forget to bring your headphones. The lift doesn’t feel as exciting and it is hard to really lock in and focus. You may also feel like your lifts are not as strong as they usually are.

 

Whenever I get to the gym before I do anything else, I put on my headphones and choose a song depending on the mood I am in and what I will be hitting. If I am in a sad mood, I will often turn to my sad playlist. If I am ready to attack my workout and have an intense workout, I will usually turn to rap first to warm up and then to hardstyle/remixes. Whether I am in a sad mood or in an intense mood, the music amplifies those feelings immensely. I have seen research done saying that music actually does increase your power output by a certain percentage. Now, I don’t really know the validity to that particular study, however, when working out it almost certainly feels that way.

 

Music has a way of tapping into your mood and being able to explain it through a song that words can’t really explain. It allows you to really feel the emotion that you are feeling to the max which in turn allows you to have a better workout. I feel like many gym members can attest to this because a nice jazz song is not going to really tap into your emotions and allow you to feel that while lifting (for most people). There are definitely song genres out there that do not allow those emotions to be tapped into.

 

Let’s try to think about it another way. Imagine you are going for a PR on a squat, bench, or deadlift. You are in a gym with a couple people around doing their own workout/exercise. You have no one around to hype you up or any music playing. This makes the PR much harder for some reason that cannot be explained. Now, imagine going for a PR on a squat, bench, or deadlift. You are surrounded by many people yelling, encouraging, and hyping you up. You have that PR song in your headphones or playing from the speakers. While going for the PR, the extra sound and motivation from others allow you to push a tad bit more to hit the PR. It is unexplainable, but there is that motivational factor that music and surrounding yourself with others that pushes you that extra mile to hit the PR.

 

Music is such an important contributor to the lifting community. Having something to listen to while you lift really allows you to push that much further for another rep or another set.

 

Ricky Cho

Reminder to Celebrate the Small W’s

Life Health, Training

As we set grand and lofty goals, we often lose sight of our reasons for pursuing them.

 

Many of us are inherently ambitious, setting our sights on challenging goals that give us purpose. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fitness community. Individuals strive to achieve milestones like adding 200 pounds to their squat, shedding 50 pounds to slim down, or breaking the barrier of a sub 5-minute-mile. While these objectives provide motivation even on the days we lack enthusiasm for working out, they can also lead to tunnel vision, where nothing matters but reaching these benchmarks. Activities that once brought joy and excitement can start to feel burdensome, akin to a job. This tunnel vision can be detrimental, causing individuals to overlook the progress they’ve already made and ultimately diminish their enjoyment of fitness pursuits.

 

It is essential to reflect on where you began and acknowledge how far you have come. Gratitude for your health and celebrating small victories are crucial. Above all, cherish and relish your fitness pursuits while you still have the ability to engage in them.

 

Yuheng