All posts by rnagy

Why Do We Need Protein?

July 26, 2023Life Health, Nutrition, Trainingrnagy

Proteins are large, complex molecules that play several critical roles in the body. They do most of the work within our cells and are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. Some call them the “building blocks of life.”

When it comes to protein, there are complete (essential) and incomplete (nonessential) proteins. There are 9 essential amino acids that the body can’t produce by itself. To get these amino acids, we must consume foods that contain all of them, making them complete proteins. Those foods that do not contain one of more of those 9 essential amino acids are considered incomplete proteins. We should strive to receive a majority of our daily protein from whole food sources, but otherwise you can supplement with a good ole reliable protein powder.

The standard Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein = 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. To show a quick example, I weigh about 77kg. So, for me: 77kg * 0.8g = roughly 62 grams/day. However, needs will vary depending on activity level and health status. Moderately active individuals may need closer to 1g per kg of body weight. Those who are more intensely active may need more than 1g per kg of body weight, so it all depends.

Most of us know and associate protein with building muscle. While this is certainly a key reason as to why we need it, there are several other reasons why we need protein to maintain good health:

Supports a healthy immune system
- The amino acids help turn our antibodies and other T/B cells into “germ fighters” that spot and kill harmful cells that enter your body before they can start an infection.

Builds and maintains muscle
- Muscle stress caused by exercise will damage the protein filaments in our muscles. As a result, our daily protein intake will help to rebuild those filaments and help the muscles stay functional.

Can help with weight management
- Protein takes longer to digest than other types of nutrients, so it can increase satiety and satisfy our hunger for longer periods of time.

Supports the growth, development, and repair of cells

There are many different food sources out there for you to get your daily complete and incomplete proteins in. Some of my favorites include beef, pork, eggs, and poultry for my complete proteins and nuts, beans, rice, and vegetables for my incomplete proteins. What are your favorites?

Toria

Food Rules

July 24, 2023Clean Eating, Dietrnagy

Throughout my career I have been lucky to spend tome with some of the best in the nutrition and diet world. I have broken bread with Dr John Berardi and Michael Pollan. Both of these men had a profound influence on how I eat and the idea I will share with you today. Michael Pollan has a simple method for eating.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan

If you followed those three simple rules you’d probably be healthier than you are right now. On the other hand Dr John Berardi has written books about his different rules and methods. I have devised my own simple plan that is based in many ways on the lessons I have learned from these two.

Figure out how many eating opportunities you have in a week. If you eat 4 times a day 7 days a week that is 28 opportunities.
Create a scoring system. You could use an excel graph with 28 squares or even use notes in your phone. It doesn’t matter, just track it someway.
Mark an X in meals that don’t pass the simple test (I am about to show you), Mark a checkmark when you do pass the test.
Follow this simple test. Does your meal have protein, fruit and or veggies, and water. If so then it passes, if not it fails.
At the end of the week score yourself. Maybe you hit 14 out of 28 meals. Then you have a starting point, aim for 15 next week.

A few notes about this is, be honest with yourself as you must know where you are starting. Also, don’t fret over where you are now. The only way us up, no human would score perfect (maybe a bodybuilder preparing for a show), so give yourself a break and just try to do better.

Try this out and as with any goal make slow steady progress.

Hamer

Meet the Interns – Maxwell

July 19, 2023State of the Unionrnagy

Hi! My name is Maxwell Goode. I’m from Williamsport, Pennsylvania and I am a junior student-athlete at Point Park University with a major of business management as well as minoring in psychology. I am also a member of the Point Park Track and field team with the events of long jump and Triple Jump. Throughout my life, I have been immersed in the world of sports. From a young age, I discovered a deep passion for athletics, participating in various sports and pushing myself to excel. The exhilaration of competition, the discipline of training, and the camaraderie of teammates became an integral part of who I am. After navigating the ups and downs of my own athletic journey, I have come to realize that I developed a passion in helping others achieve their fitness goals. This realization has led me on a path towards becoming a personal trainer.

As a child, I was naturally drawn to physical activity, spending hours playing sports with friends and family. Soon enough, I found myself enrolled in organized sports programs, where I discovered my passion. Whether it was sprinting down the football field or down the lanes of a track, I thrived in the competitive environment and dedicated countless hours to enhancing my skills. Athletics became a way of life for me, molding my character and teaching me invaluable lessons about discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and goal-setting.

I chose Union Fitness for my choice of internship because not only do they help me and my team get better on the track, but they help so many other people whether they are athletes or not, become the best version of themselves.

Maxwell

Freaky Five Mobility

July 13, 2023Life Health, Trainingrnagy

If movement is medicine, then mobility is the WD40 for our body!

Many times, we skip over our warmups because they aren’t as spicy as our main exercises. Well today, I’m going to give you that level 10 Sichuan peppercorn spice. The kind of heat that makes your tongue numb and your backbone sweat, but it’s so invigorating you can’t stop this freaky five mobility.

1) The Tall Reaching Inchworm. Standing tall, reach your hands high to the sky, even getting up on those tippy toes. From there exhale and fold down to the floor, using your hands to walk out into a top push-up position. Take a deep breath and drop under the fence to an up dog, exhaling next into a down dog space. From there walk your hands back to your feet, inhale, stand tall and repeat.

2) Squat to Stretch with T-Spine Rotation. From a standing position, fold over to grab your ankles or feet. From there pull your butt down into the bottom of a squat while you drive your chest up and back proudly. Hold this position for a breath leaning side to side and making sure your feet are planted flat on the ground. From here leave one hand on your ankle/foot and let the other rotate to the side and up to the sky, letting your eyes follow. Repeat on the other side then drop your head down and your tushy up to get a mighty nice stretch from your calves through your hammies and even up to your lower back. Pull yourself back to the starting spot and go again.

3) Lateral Squat to Windmill Rotation. Starting with your feet wider than your shoulders preform a lateral squat. As you do so, take your inside hand (opposite hand of the direction you’re squatting) and reach to that sides foot, while the same side hand is rotating up and away to the sky. Then flow back to center and repeat on your other side. Take your time to increase your depth and range of motion.

4) 90/90 with Rotation and Reach. Start seated with your front leg at a right angle along with your back leg behind you in a right angle, hence the 90/90. If your right knee is in front take your left hand and reach over and across that knee as far as you can, bringing your chest to that knee or close to the spot. Now imagine your feet are stapled to the ground and you take your knees using your hips and fold to the other side (you can use your hands for assistance). Once you get to the other side, repeat the reach step and make sure you’re using quality breath at each stop.

5) Glute Bridge with Reach Across. Start this mobility on your back with your feet planted in the start of a glute bridge position on the floor. Now using your bum and hammies, squeeze your hip up into a top glute bridge position. Now using your upper back and head to pivot, reach your arm up and across your body, turning your hip and stretching your lats, do this on both sides and then return to the bottom of your glute bridge.

These are my go-to spicy more bang for your buck mobility exercises that help keep me mobile, springy and of course bumpy. I’d recommend doing these exercises every day or every other day for 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps and slowly increasing your range of motion on each repetition. Psssttt I’ll give you one more of my favorite mobility exercises and that is the wonderful Spider-Man with rotation.

Come hop in powerful class or meet up with me to get these magical freaky five +1 mobility exercises rocking. Always remember, moss don’t grow on a rolling stone.

Cheers,

CEJ

Meet the Staff – Caroline

July 12, 2023State of the Unionrnagy

My name is Caroline Mullineaux and I’m from Frederick, Maryland. I recently completed my Bachelor’s in Health Sciences at Saint Vincent College, and am currently completing my Doctorate of Physical Therapy at Chatham University. I am passionate about physical fitness and sport performance and have always had a sport-oriented lifestyle. I played collegiate lacrosse during all four years of my undergraduate education, and I also enjoy running, strength training, and hiking. While I’m not training or working, I enjoy watching the Pittsburgh Pirates and spending time with family and friends.

While at Saint Vincent, I worked closely with the Football and Men’s and Women’s basketball teams as a student strength coach. I’m excited to be involved in UF’s personal training and class services because they will allow me to continue to grow as a personal trainer and to gain experience with a wide variety of members. I look forward to learning new styles of training and variations of traditional strength exercises. I’m thankful for the privilege to help others achieve their fitness goals and to make personal connections with each member I meet here at Union. Thank you, everyone, for this opportunity!

Caroline

State of the Union

July 10, 2023State of the Unionrnagy

A few times each year I review what we have been doing and what we will be doing in the near future. Today, I want to take you on this trip to the past and future with me. UF has been busy as always, CeJ has run a few of his beer bootcamps already, we have hosted another successful powerlifting meet and our classes are busy as usual. Below I will touch on some of the other things we have done or are doing.

Donations

As always we are doing the best we can to donate to local charities. Here is a short list of charities we have either donated to or worked with so far this year.

And we have more to come in 2023.

Events

Pride Night. Join us this Saturday July 15th at 4 PM for a fun bootcamp style workout. This will be followed by local comedians, taking the UF stage. Pride night is always one of our best events all year.

United Not Divided. We are proud to again host this event. We work closely to plan this event with Leg1on on bringing together 7 gyms from the region for a fun day of workouts. Come by for this fun day of training, food trucks, and other special activities.

New Vending

In 2022 we added smart vending machines. We were the first gym in the country to use these machines, and they have been a huge hit. Now we have added one more with meals, chilled coffee drinks, and more beverage options.

That’s a brief review of what’s happening at the U. As always if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please bring them up to us.

Yours in strength,

Todd Hamer

What is Your Favorite Form of Exercise

July 5, 2023Fitness, Trainingrnagy

We all know that exercise is good for us. It is good for the soul, brain, heart, etc. It can help us lower our stress levels, sleep better, reduce heart disease and other risks, and feel better overall. In my opinion, the greatest thing about exercise is that there are so many ways to do it. It is almost impossible to become bored with it. You have options anywhere from running to climbing to weightlifting and all the things in between.

I asked some of our trainers here at UF about their favorite form of exercise, and I wanted to share those answers with you just for fun!

Ethan – “Weightlifting because with this you can accomplish a little bit of everything (mobility, cardio, etc.)”

Dahveed – “Swimming is my favorite. I wish that I could do it more.”

Jared – “Weightlifting because I enjoy getting stronger but also striving to push myself and hit new numbers.”

Dylan K. – “My favorite form of exercise is ever evolving. However, I always enjoy a good pump, so hypertrophy training is my favorite form of training.”

CJ – “Making the average exercise weirder. And walking with my dogs.”

Zain – “Weightlifting because I don’t like running.”

And finally, myself – My favorite has to be hiking. I love everything about it. Especially the views that come after a difficult climb, and how accomplished you feel afterwards.

Thank you to all our trainers who participated in this brief and very broad survey and thank you to those of you who tell us what your answers are!

Toria

New Class Alert, CardioLab Blitz

June 29, 2023Fitness, Trainingcardiolabrnagy

CardioLab Blitz

Hello everyone! We are am writing this blog to inform you all about our brand new class.

This class will be called Cardio Blitz and it will be held on Tuesdays and Thursday at 7am. The class will be for approximately 30 minutes and will be very similar to Cardio Lab. We started this class to allow our powerful class members to get a solid cardio workout in after their class, and to allow anyone else to come in for a quick 30-minute workout. The Cardio Blitz will consist of high intensity interval training, weightlifting, running, plyometrics and more. The aim of the class will be to get the participants heart rate up, and put everyone through an efficient and difficult workout. The first Cardio Blitz will be on July 18^th. We hope to see you all there!

Team UF

Intuitive Movement

June 22, 2023Fitness, Life Health, Trainingrnagy

Earlier this month, I received a deep dive into intuitive movement during a weekend retreat with Bobbie Marchand, professional modern ballet dancer turned yoga instructor, and Nami Soga, master reiki healer and yoga instructor. The experience was both magical and inspiring.

Coming from a bodybuilding background, my approach to movement has historically been goal-oriented, strategic, structured, and rigid. I spent years training my mind to override the messages of my body, messages of no thank you, I’m tired, not that exercise, not today. If it was on the plan, I did it, regardless of what my body said. The cumulative result of this training was a work ethic and physique I was proud of — along with exhaustion, chronic injury and a general inability to relax.

As I’ve transitioned into yoga, I’ve found a more compassionate and healing way of interacting with my body. Still, my physical approach to classes has tended to follow an anatomical goal, whether increasing hip mobility, targeting the transversus abdominis or engaging the pelvic floor. My time with Bobbie and Nami invited me to shift my inquiry from What can I achieve? to What do I feel? To move from a performance mindset to one of playfulness, non-judgment, and curiosity.

We spent time rolling on the ground, feeling the grass beneath our feet and the heat on our skin as we moved through sun salutations to the East, West, North, and South. Our spines waved like serpents in an organic flow, and I watched my body improvise according to music, which changed every minute to a different genre. I felt the natural impact of sound and rhythm on movement, and experimented with the energy-shifting practice of Qigong. I moved through familiar shapes in new ways. I bounced, flailed, shook and sang. And my habitual energy began to shift.

Bobbie believes that, since the pandemic, our bodies have been stuck, almost frozen in time in response to fear and extended sits on our sofas. Moving creatively, intuitively and without regard for what something looks like can help us move into new spaces, not only physically, but mentally as well. New movements mean new neural pathways, and new neural pathways mean new possibilities. Giving ourselves permission to shake the bones of our body like a dog after a swim not only can shed tension, it can shift our nervous systems.

Bobbie’s nervous-system approach to movement also manifests in stillness, in healing practices of self massage and meditation that carried her through cancer treatment. In transitioning from energetic jostling to quiet rubbing of the earlobes and neck, I felt my whole being stabilize within my skin. I felt light, open, authentic and free.

This month, I am flowing with the theme of intuitive movement in my classes here at Union Fitness. Experience new ways of moving in vinyasa 6-7 AM Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, or discover dynamic stillness in yin 10:30-11:30 AM on Saturdays. I am so grateful for the lessons I received from Bobbie and Nami, and can’t wait to share them with you!

Haley

Hiking For Health

June 15, 2023Fitness, Life Health, Trainingrnagy

Hello my lovely explorers,

As the great lyricist Mungo Jerry once said ” In the summertime when the weather is high. You can stretch right up and touch the sky. When the weather’s fine, you got hiking, you got hiking on your mind. Have a drink, have a drive. Go out and see what you can find.” Or something like that.

So today I will be teaching you about the benefits of hiking. Close your eyes and imagine the crisp warm sunshine lighting up your soul, the sounds of the gentle water trickling down the creek, wind flowing through the trees above and the cool soft earth below your boots. Dang does that sound peaceful or what?! This imagination can not only become a reality but also provide some wonderful physical, mental and emotional health benefits.

Hiking is a great way to exercise, no matter what type of trail or stage of your wellness life you are in, you’ll get a whole body workout. Some physical benefits of hiking are; building stronger muscles and bones, improving your sense of balance and proprioception, improving overall cardiovascular health and decreasing the risk of certain respiratory problems. Being outside has shown to increase life expectancy, improve sleep quality and decrease cancer risks. Natural outdoor spaces are more enticing for physical activity and are more likely to motivate people to exercise leading to advanced levels of overall physical fitness. Studies have even shown that being in nature is relaxing, something we all could benefit from is relaxing more. This helps reduce our stress, cortisol level, muscle tension, heart rate, calms anxiety, leads to lower risk of depression and improved stress recovery, how lovely. Being in nature can help open your senses to your surroundings and increase sensory perception, bringing you focus and attention. Also you do not have to trek alone, lace up your friend, family member, neighbor or dog’s boots and hike with a partner or group. This is a marvelous way to strengthen relationships, increase quality time and increase the distance and motivation of your hike.

Go get away, step outside and take in the sights, smells and feelings of nature.

Whether you’re climbing up the steepest peak in the Rocky Mountains or trotting down a winding dirt path, hiking is a superb opportunity to get a workout. For the hikers out there, what have been some of your most enjoyable hikes from your adventures? A few of my favorite places to hike have been Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Rocky Mountain/Estes National Park & El Dorado State Park in Colorado, Glacier National Park in Montana, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, The Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Hikes in Asheville North Carolina and probably a few more that I am missing. Send me your favorite hikes and let’s go explore.

-CeJ