All posts by rnagy

Fitness, Fact, Fiction, & It Depends

Fitness

Too often in fitness people look for the easy answer. Rarely is it black and white. Most answers are “it depends.” Today I am going to take a look at some different beliefs and how true they are.

 

  1. Calories in vs calories out. It has often been said that this is all that matters. While clearly increasing calories tends to make you gain weight. Yet there are many other variables. The type of calories does matter. Marshmallows are not the same as an apple, also protein vs carbs make a huge difference.
  2. Knees over toes is good…or bad. Well it depends. For a time knees over toes was assumed to be bad. Then knees over toes was all the rage. As with anything it depends on the person. There is a time and place to train a vertical shin angle and there is also a time to force your knees forward.
  3. Behind the neck pulldown and presses are dangerous. This depends upon your anatomical structure. A third of the population have a very open shoulder joint and are fine with behind the back presses and pulls. Another third of the population will probably be able to get away with doing behind the neck work. The final third of the population tend to have an aggressive hook on their acromion process and should avoid these movements. How do you know which third you are? You won’t, so if these movements bother you, then don’t do them.
  4. Train your core. I personally loathe the word core. Too often this is just a catch all. I’ve too often heard, this person’s core is weak. How do we define this? Maybe their body is weak? We know there are movements that we should use to improve our strength and at times the rigidity of our midsection. Yet, saying core is unquantifiable and often unjustified.
  5. Stretching before you train. Are you tight? Then sure do some stretching. If you have hyper-mobilty, then no need to do the extra stretching before training. With all of that said it is important to move through full range of motion prior to training. So stretch, move, and exercise more.

 

This is just a short list of fitness ideas that may have some truth yet also need some explanations.  Be careful when anyone tells you the way things MUST be done as they are either selling something or full of crap.

 

Hamer

Mobility City Baby

Fitness, Life Health, Training

Within the past year, mobility has become a large part of my training. It started to become very prominent when training legs, due to tight hips, and back issues. Once I noticed the difference I felt during and after my training sessions, I started incorporating more and more mobility prior to exercising. So why should anyone care that I do mobility, and why should others start adding mobility into their workouts? The main benefits you’ll gain from increasing mobility is a decrease in joint pain, reduce risk of injury, and allow you to move easier throughout your day. 

 

Joint pain is one of the leading work disabilities in the United States. This type of pain can be caused by an array of reasons; majority of it pertaining to inflammation of the joint, or overworking of the tendons surrounding a joint (tendinitis). So how does mobility fit into this? We’ll have to look into the definition of mobility first. Mobility can be defined as the ability to passively move your muscles and joints through their full range of motion. The fun thing about your muscles is that they can be conditioned through lengthening (stretching) and by contracting (shortening). Conditioning of these muscles and tendons surrounding your joints will drastically improve the way you move inside, and outside the gym. The best way of completing this is moving all your joints through their full range of motion. Resistance can be added as time goes on, as your mobility and flexibility increases, in order to strengthen the muscles surrounding your joints to encourage joint stability.

 

 When starting mobility, everyone should be referencing their end range of motion, or the length of your passive range of motion. To improve your passive range of motion, you can begin actively training to where your body’s specific end is. The important thing to remember is that every body is anatomically different from the next. My mobility can be completely different from everyone else in the gym due to how deep/shallow my hip or shoulder sockets are, how high of a valgus angle I have, and the amount of joint stability I have. Taking your muscles and joints through their full range of motion on a daily basis can decrease joint pain and risk of injury because it allows everything to become accustomed to this movement and that way whenever the unfortunate happens, it’s not as much of a shock to the affected muscles or joints.

 

I have listed a few mobility exercises that can be completed in the gym or at home below: 

 

Wall/ floor angles 

90/90 hip rotations

Hip airplanes

Open books to windmills 

3 way lunge 

Scapular pushups 

 

If anyone has any questions about mobility or any additional stretches/ exercises they can do to increase their mobility and strengthen their joints, feel free to ask me!

 

Miranda/ Randi/Randell/Gard

 

New Olympic Weightlifting Class

Fitness, Life Health, Training

What to Expect in the New Olympic Weightlifting Class

 

Starting the first week of June there will be the first ever Olympic weightlifting class at Union Fitness. This class will be intended for anyone who is new to the sport and looking to learn the Olympic lifts. Here you will learn the snatch, clean and jerk along with accessory lifts to these 3 competition movements. Now you may be thinking, how exactly may these classes be structured? What exactly am I getting into?

 

Each class will start with a short warm up, I do however encourage coming in a little bit early to start a warm up on your own before class begins. After a warm up, one of the 3 lifts will be discussed. Next, technique of that lift will be practiced before moving to the actual training of the session. The goal for these classes is to learn proper execution and technique of each lift. This is not something that will be accomplished in a single session; however, it will be what these classes work towards. After the technical training, each session will finish with complimentary lifts to the snatch, clean and jerk. These will be movements such as squats, dead lifts, overhead pressing and so on.

 

As mentioned earlier, the goal of these classes is to teach the Olympic lifts to athletes new to the sport of weightlifting. Rome wasn’t built in a day nor is a weightlifter, but with effort and commitment these lifts can be learned by anyone. Whether you are looking to compete or just learn something new to add into your own training, Olympic lifting is a nice compliment to add to anyone’s training toolbox.

 

Ethan

Your Reason/Motivation

Fitness, Life Health, Training

Your Reason/Motivation. – Elias (Get Better Today)

 

What is it that got you started on our fitness journey? All of us have some reason behind why we decided to sign up to join a gym, compete in an event, or start to move to push ourselves and better our health. For some of us we may have wanted to look better, feel better, prepare for an event (whether it be an athletic event or competition, or a vacation or wedding). Whatever the reason may be, we all are typically motivated by something that happened to us that got us to do what we are currently doing.

 

For myself, going back about 8 years ago, I probably started lifting and working out in high school to just get in better shape. Is there anything wrong with that reason? Absolutely not, and just like many people I wanted to look better. As time passed, my goals and motivation would change from time to time. Yes, everyone wants to look better, or be stronger but eventually I stumbled across the phrase “Get Better Today.” I came across this brand/phrase through a YouTuber/Powerlifter by the name of Russel Orhii back in 2016. To this day this has stuck with me, and personally I believe it is a great saying that can apply to everyone. To me it means that each day we all have the opportunity to find something to get better at and better ourselves.

 

Regardless of your goals (strength, speed, appearance, improving nutrition, body composition etc…) each of us can do something each day to get better and ultimately be one step closer to our goals. Therefore, my reason/motivation for why it is I do what I do day in and day out is to get better each day.

 

Think about what your reason/motivation is and remember today YOU have the opportunity to Get Better Today (I believe in you)! – Elias 🙂

Toria’s Tales

Fitness, Life Health, Training

Most of us have a natural aversion to change. Change occurs even when we don’t want it to or expect it to.

 

Speaking of change, for those of you who may not know me, here’s a quick background on how I ended up where I am today: I had started working part time at UF back in June 2020 up until around April 2021. I then decided to make the move across the country to Denver, Colorado to pursue a career in clinical research. After about only 3 months of living in Colorado, I began to feel very sick and very unlike my usual self. Several months later, and several hospital visits later, I had finally met a team of Physicians and Cardiologists who recognized that I have a heart condition called Supraventricular Tachycardia, more specifically Atrial Tachycardia, which is the least common of its form. This is a condition where my heart will randomly beat abnormally and rapidly for no particular reason at all, which causes me to feel very tired, confused, and a little bit scared.

 

When I had first found out what was going on, the news hit me hard. I had been about 3 years into a successful and consistent fitness/training journey, and all of that came to a halt because I was afraid of having “episodes” while exercising. This was all new to me, and I didn’t want to push myself and see what my limits might be without knowing the possible outcome of the situation. I even worked at a local gym in Denver for a while and didn’t train there even once.

 

I ended up taking way too much time away from exercising, and I basically became a couch potato. As I mentioned before, I was scared, and so I didn’t really want to change my lazy habits. I then made the move back to the Burgh in late December 2021 and had started a full-time position here at UF in January. I became surrounded by colleagues and gym members who all come in to UF every day with the same goal in mind: to be better. Whether that be a better lifter, or even just a better person, it still involves being a better you. This helped me to overcome my personal resistance to change and begin adding lifting and training to my weekly routine again. I want to give a special shoutout to Curtis who allowed me to jump in on his training sessions back in January when I had first started up again. Also, a special shoutout to Todd who allows me to jump in on his training sessions and some of his weekly bike rides around the city to keep me accountable for adding some cardio into my lifestyle. And finally, shoutout to CeJ, Miranda, and Fawn who have all trained with me along the way and have helped me stay accountable (also a big S/O to the rest of the Team at UF for being an awesome crew to come in and work with everyday). I’m happy to say I have hit some personal PR’s within the past month, signed up for my first meet, and I feel great about it. I’m excited to continue to build those numbers up in the future.

 

From this experience, I have learned to cultivate a mindset that embraces the changes within ourselves, acquire a positive attitude towards change, and adopt a personal growth mindset.

 

 

Toria

State of the Union, Summer 2022

State of the Union

Summer is quickly approaching and we have some fun events planned as always at UF. As always our goal is to not only be a great place to train, we also want to be a place to build a stronger community. We are changing some of our class schedules as well as hosting some special events. Made you a short cheat sheet for our changes below.

 

  1. New Olympic lifting class added with Ethan. Tues and Thur at 7 AM in the performance lab.
  2. Run group reforming in mid-June. Watch out for details with our all star runner Katie Jones.
  3. Allegheny City Brewery bootcamp. May 28th 11 AM.
  4. Iron City Open is back! June 18th all day here at the U!
  5. July 16th Out Athletics bootcamp.
  6. July 24th special workout with two other gyms… Details to come soon.

 

This is just a short cheat sheet of events and changes coming to better serve each and every one of you.

 

Hope to see all of you soon for one or many of these events.

 

Hamer

Schedule Changes

Fitness, Life Health, State of the Union, Training

It’s a strange time right now in Pittsburgh. The sun is shinning, the birds are chirping, and the Pirates have been winning some Baseball games. Here at Union Fitness, we are making some seasonal changes as well in order to better suit our members and to bring them some new additions. Beginning on May 31st for the month of June, we will be adding a new class to our line-up, along with some adjusted hours and locations for our current classes.

 

Beginning on May 31st, we will be temporarily removing our 7am Powerful class from the schedule and replacing it with an Olympic Weightlifting class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This class will be coached by none other than our resident Olympic Weightlifter, Ethan Raese. If you’ve been in the gym while Ethan is training, then you know how much he enjoys Olympic lifting, and how dedicated he is to the craft. As with all of our classes, there are always modifications and progressions for each movement and exercise. So even if you have never tried Olympic lifting, you will have no problem getting into the swing of things even after one session. Be sure to sign up online or stop by the front desk to reserve a spot. 

 

Also beginning in June, our evening Cardio Lab class will be moving from 5:30pm up to 5pm to ensure that all of you have more time to enjoy these beautiful spring and summer evenings. In addition to this, our evening Yoga classes will be moving to the Cardio Lab area immediately after Cardio Lab class is finished at 6pm. On the weekends, our Saturday and Sunday our 10:30am Yoga class will be taking over the indoor and outdoor space over at our Performance Lab location. By doing this, you will have a chance to enjoy the refreshing outdoor space provided by that section of our gym.

 

As always, your first class in on the house. We would love for anyone interested to try out our classes to see how you like them. For more information on any of our classes, please check out our website. For all information regarding times, locations, and instructors, check our schedule on our website or on the Union Fitness App. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone there!

 

Curtis

Member Spotlight, Matt Wylie

Uncategorized

I grew up in a small town called Chippewa which is very close to Beaver Falls, PA. I graduated from Edinboro University and after living in the Strip District and Bellevue, I now reside in Mt Washington with my fiancé, 6 year old son, and a miniature dachshund named Finn. Since graduating college in 2011, I’ve been an active musician for a little over a decade. I’ve played guitar in a lot of original bands and have done just about every genre of cover band that you can think of from 80s, 90s, nu metal (a gig’s a gig, right?), and everything in between.

 

My professional background is in sales and I work as an Account Executive for a SaaS company based out of Boston, MA where we offer financial planning & analysis automation solutions. I get to work remote 100% of the time and haven’t met an actual coworker in about 3 years.

 

Union Fitness has become my home away from home since I began my fitness journey. I started in February of 2021 and didn’t have a clear goal in mind but I knew that I wanted to get into great shape and make positive lifestyle changes.  I am the type of person that needs to be learning something and to have the ability to apply it in order to stay motived. With the help of my old buddy CeJ (T-luv, Tito, Uncle Tito, etc) he introduced me to the #powerful classes and the other fantastic trainers here at UF. I hadn’t even looked at a weight in about a decade and I had never done a squat or deadlift a day in my life prior to this so we truly started from the bottom. The #powerful classes created a positive environment for me to be able to learn how to lift properly and the workouts created by the instructors will get anybody going towards where they want to be. The results I’ve seen in the gym have been great, but the results outside the gym have been massive in my personal and professional life.

 

Fun facts:

 

  1. A self proclaimed beer connoisseur (this is why we’re here).
  2. Learned to play guitar by taking formal jazz lessons and by learning songs from my favorite metal bands.
  3. Played hockey from childhood to end of high school.
  4. I like all foods and I like to cook a lot at home – avid griller.

 

Thank you to T(CeJ), Curtis, Dave Jackson, Dahveed, Todd, and all of the other great people at UF!

 

Matt

It’s Concert and Cycling Season

Fitness, Life Health

Pittsburgh is well known as one of the rainiest cities in America. We all know that the winters can be long, and not very vibrant. Now is the time to get outside, enjoy the sunshine, and the free Vitamin D that it offers.

 

Vitamin D.

 

Vitamin D has been written about often and I will not bore you with more details on this micro-nutrient. What I will say is you must remember that your body needs sunlight, your body needs Vitamin D, and Vitamin D needs sunlight. Most Americans are Vitamin D deficient due to lack of exposure to sunlight.

 

Concerts and Cycling.

 

One of the best things you can do for your health is get outside. As many of you already know I love mountain biking. I love it for a multitude of reasons, not the least being that I get to be out in nature. When I do solo rides it is not unusual for me to stop and just sit in the woods. The Japanese call this shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. This can also be translated to absorbing the forest atmosphere. The point is to get out in nature, get some free sun, and some exercise with minimal added stress.

 

Now for the concerts side of this coin. I have performed music my entire life and I love many types of music. Most Americans stop learning new music by the age of 30. This is just as scary to me as when I read most Americans don’t read books. One cannot separate the arts from movement. Humans need both to grow mentally and physically. This takes us back to Vitamin D, I know this Saturday Tenzing and I will be sitting in the sun listening to the amazing Adia Victoria.

 

Find what moves and motivates you. Find ways to get sunlight, discover new things, and find growth. Get Vitamin D, cycle, walk, and jam to some new tunes. Reduce your stress and collect the free Vitamin D.

 

Hamer

Meet the Interns, Elias Dimitrakopoulos

Uncategorized

My name is Elias Dimitrakopoulos, and I am from Harrisburg, PA. This past year I completed my Bachelor’s in Exercise Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and currently I am completing my Master’s in Clinical Exercise Science at the University of Pittsburgh as well. Along with my master’s program I am working as a Graduate Student Assistant where I teach classes and work as a personal trainer at the University’s fitness club. My future goals are to continue to expand my knowledge as an exercise professional and work as an exercise physiologist or in a performance-based setting.

 

Other things you should know about me are that I love lifting and pushing myself to get better. Usually in the gym you will see me performing a hybrid style workout geared toward powerlifting and bodybuilding as I love improving my strength as well as performing volume and hypertrophy style training. My favorite clothing brands are Inaka Power and Get Better Today so you will probably see me wearing them a lot. In terms of other hobbies, I like sports, anime, going on walks, food, and just overall doing things that I enjoy and push me to get better as an individual. My favorite sports teams are the New York Giants, New York Knicks, and New York Yankees. Some of my favorite athletes are LeBron James, Patrick Mahomes, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (as he is Greek). I do take pride in being Greek (as my family is from Greece) and always root for Greek athletes and sports teams as well. My favorite anime is probably Naruto because I love the story, his hard work ethic, and it was the first anime I watched. Currently, I am watching One Piece, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, and have also seen quite a few others.

 

I chose Union Fitness as my internship site for this summer as I love the atmosphere and believe I will be able to learn a lot from the trainers here. I want to expand my exercise knowledge and add new styles of training and workouts to what I already know. I believe I always have something to learn regardless of how much I have done, so I know I will gain a lot from Union Fitness. Finally, I believe my purpose and goal is to help others achieve the best versions of themselves, and I truly believe exercise is something everyone can benefit from, and I want to show others that health and wellness are a way of life and everyone has the opportunity to get better every day.