Hello UF Team!

I don’t know about you, but January flew by in my opinion. I can’t believe there’s only 1 week until it’s February. It is that time of the year when everyone is starting to focus on hitting their 2023 goals and worry about whether they are on the right track to do so.

I’m here to tell you to take it easy on yourselves when it comes to worrying about those goals. Sure, achieving everything that you had set out for yourself is a great feeling, but so is stepping back and taking a break for yourself. Just because you decide to step back for a period of time doesn’t mean you won’t hit those goals; it just means you are slowing down and taking your time to do so.

I have learned that it’s important to take mental, physical, and emotional breaks. The benefits are endless. I have listed ways and tips for how I personally take the time to focus on these below:

Tips to take a break mentally:
1. Take some time to meditate alone, and work on some deep breathing while doing so.

2. Go outside and walk, bike, hike, skate, run, swim (maybe not in January actually). The weather may be dreary, but still try to get out and move and enjoy the beautiful outdoors!

3. Put the phone down. I have recently started to turn my phone off for a few hours at a time on the weekends (during the hours that I don’t need to be available to answer our staff here at UF). This allows me to be present and not feel like I need to be on my phone scrolling through social media.

Tips to take a break physically:
1. Sleep away – sleep is so underrated. Try to get to bed a little earlier than usual or hit that snooze button (just once, maybe twice) in the morning.

2. Take some time away from exercising. I personally took a week off from lifting recently just to have a sort of physical reset. But that’s just me… Maybe you only need a day or two off and then you’ll get right back into it.

3. Going off the point above – maybe try out a yoga class here at UF to still get you exercising, but also allow you to relax, move, and breathe.

4. Get a massage and/or have a spa day. Use this to help you feel relaxed and maybe even have your muscles feel like brand new.

Tips to take a break emotionally:
1. Read a new book or a book you have been meaning to read. Disconnect yourself from reality for a little while and enjoy by reading away.

2. Try to do absolutely nothing – even if it is just for a little bit of time. I know this is easier said than done, but you never know until you try!

3. Take some time to bring out your creativity and maybe do something like build a puzzle or paint/draw something to express yourself.

I hope that these might grow on you, too, and I also hope that you have some ways of your own that you could teach me!

Toria

As some of you may know, I play for the women’s professional football team for Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Passion. Last year was my rookie season and I quickly realized I was stepping into a whole new world of sports. At this level I did not realize the impact I was going to have on young girls in sports. After my last home game of the 2022 season, I was walking out of the facility and a mother with her two daughters stopped me. The two girls had their hair in double braids with colored extensions added (just the way I wear my hair every game day.) And the mom told me I was the girl’s favorite player and they wanted to wait for me to get pictures and autograph their shirts. This interaction hit me a little different than other fan interactions/autographs that our team does because they were only just fans of the team, but they looked up to me and they had been watching me. It gave me more motivation and a larger sense of purpose when it came to my role and the movement of women’s sports. I want those young girls to know I am doing everything I can to pave the way for them to have it easier than my generation of female athletes.

I wanted to start with that story because it shows how much of a positive influence we can have on people without even realizing. Somebody may be following your story, and your progress, so it’s so important to keep moving forward and realize that whatever you are doing in this life, you are not only doing it for yourself but for others too. I will give Curtis at Union a shoutout because with him announcing him moving on from his position at Union Fitness, so many members started expressing the impact Curtis had on them throughout his time here. He probably never even realized how many people he helped, because he always led by example and by being himself. When people see how hard he works and his dedication, they naturally follow.

So here is our call to action: see yourself as the force you are. We are all going to have an impact on this world, so make it a positive one. And, if somebody else is that motivator for you, don’t be afraid to tell them. They may need that. I know that my interaction with those two young girls and their mother changed everything for me as an athlete and as a person.

Maria

I was a columnist writing for elitefts.com for about a decade. During this time I wrote a column monthly covering topics surrounding strength and conditioning. I am proud of the writing that I had done and it was an honor to share what I had learned from my years as a coach. One article I wrote that I often think about what entitled, “Know YA.” YA stood for Your Audience. Since coming over to Union Fitness I have struggled to understand our audience.

Who makes up Union Fitness?

When people ask me what I do for a living I say I run the worlds most unique gym. We have at any time 30-100 competitive lifters, we have over 100 people taking classes and growing through class, we have around 50 people doing personal training. We also have people who come here just to use a treadmill or do some basic lifting. On top of all of this we oversee the training of more than 400 collegiate student athletes. This means we are diverse, and we have diverse goals. With this in mind I have done some soul searching and figured out one way that I have failed each and everyone of you. I have not given the basics of training in a form that could help you.

Today I will try to not fail you with a list of things you should know about training. Here are some basics that I hope helps you.

1.  3500 calories equals one pound. So if you want to gain one pound you must find an extra 3500 calories and if you want to lose a pound then you have to find a way to burn 3500 calories.
2. The human body has three energy systems. The first is ATP/PC and is for sprinting and lifting (it lasts about 7 seconds of all out effort). The second is glycolysis this is sets of 20 reps and running a 400 meter sprint (this can last for almost a minute and this is the one that burns). The final energy system is aerobic, this is when the body is functioning smoothly (sleep is 100% aerobic).
3. A calorie is not a calorie. Remember 3500 calories is a pound. Here’s the rub, if I eat 100 calories of celery and you eat 100 calories of donut then we will each have a very different outcome. The thermogenic effect of food is huge. Celery will use a lot of energy to breakdown, whereas the donut has very little thermogenic effect. In basic terms this means you get 100 calories from a donut and 50 from the celery (those numbers are not factual, yet you get the idea).
4. Muscle burns more calories daily than fat does. This is simple and often stated with some random number assigned to each. I can tell you there is not magic formula. Just remember muscle=good.
5. Water is the single best supplement. The human body is made up of mostly water. Dehydration affects our ability to burn fat, it also affects more processes than I could list here. Remember that drink your 8 glasses of water rule, well it was a made up number. Even knowing that it is a fictional number I still recommend it, as it can’t hurt.
6. 10,000 steps a day is another made up number. So what! The rule of thumb is still this, walk more!
7. Whatever your goals are there are only two things that matter. First is progressive overload, do more, better, faster than last time. Second is SAID principle, Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. This is simple, the body will adapt to the demand placed upon it so make it specific to your goals.
8. Last one! Set point theory. If you weighed the same amount for a long time then yes it will be harder to change that number. The body gets comfortable and finds its equilibrium when you have stayed at a consistent weight. This means that if you want to make a change you may need to make a drastic change in order to see the scale move up or down.

I hope this helps each and everyone of you with some basics of training, health, and generally being better.

Todd Hamer