All posts by rnagy

Meet the Interns – Alicia

State of the Union

Hi everyone! 

 

My name is Alicia and I am a new summer intern here at Union Fitness. I am a senior Exercise Science student at Slippery Rock University and I am also in the process of becoming a NASM certified personal trainer. My long-term goal is to become a Physical Therapist and I will be applying to PT school this June! 

 

I have had a strong passion for exercise since a young age. Growing up I played softball and did gymnastics. As of now, I focus primarily on full body weightlifting and I would like to get into yoga in the future as well! Outside of the gym I enjoy reading, being outdoors, and going out with friends. I was born and raised about 40 minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh and I am a huge Steelers fan! 

 

 I look forward to meeting new people and increasing my professional skills as well as my fitness knowledge during my time here at Union Fitness! 

 

See you around! 

 

Alicia Maley 

The Importance of Stretching: Static vs. Dynamic

Fitness, Training

Stretching is an essential component of any fitness routine, often overlooked or rushed through. It not only improves flexibility but also plays a crucial role in injury prevention and performance enhancement. There are two primary types of stretching: static stretching and dynamic stretching, each serving different purposes and best suited for specific times in your workout routine. 

  

 

Static Stretching 

 

Static stretching involves holding a stretch for a prolonged period, typically 15-30 seconds. It helps improve flexibility by elongating the muscle and increasing its range of motion. Static stretches are best done after your workout or during a dedicated stretching session. They help relax the muscles and can improve muscle recovery post-exercise. 

 

Dynamic Stretching 

 

Dynamic stretching, on the other hand, involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed of movement, or both. Unlike static stretching, dynamic stretching involves active movements that mimic the activity you are about to perform. Dynamic stretches are great as part of a warm-up routine to prepare your muscles, joints, and tendons for the upcoming workout. 

 

 

Importance of Stretching 

 

  1. Improved Flexibility: Stretching regularly can improve your flexibility over time, which is beneficial for various physical activities and daily tasks.

 

  1. Injury Prevention: By improving flexibility and range of motion, stretching can help prevent injuries, especially muscle strains and joint sprains.

 

  1. Enhanced Performance: Stretching can improve your overall performance in physical activities by allowing your muscles to work more effectively.

 

  1. Reduced Muscle Tension: Stretching can help reduce muscle tension and soreness, especially after intense workouts.

 

  1. Improved Posture: Stretching can help improve your posture by lengthening tight muscles that pull areas of the body away from their intended position.

 

When to Stretch 

 

– Before Exercise: Dynamic stretching is best before exercise as part of a warm-up routine to prepare your muscles for activity. 

   

– After Exercise: Static stretching is best after exercise to help relax the muscles and improve flexibility. 

 

– Throughout the Day: Stretching throughout the day, especially if you have a sedentary lifestyle, can help prevent muscle stiffness and improve overall flexibility. 

 

 

Incorporating both static and dynamic stretching into your fitness routine can lead to improved flexibility, reduced risk of injury, and better overall performance. Remember to listen to your body and stretch within your limits to avoid overstretching or causing injury. Stretching should be a regular part of your fitness routine to enjoy its full benefits. 

 

-Grayson

Meet the Staff – Hannah

State of the Union

Hey Friends!

 

I’m Hannah, a NASM certified personal trainer. I am a Pittsburgh native and have over two years of experience with individual and group training within the city. As a coach I strive to help each person I work with to create their OWN version of a healthy and happy life. I am from an active household and was taught how important it is to live a healthy life through movement. I grew up playing softball and golf. When I’m not in the gym I still love to get out on the course in my free time and I’m always looking for new hikes to go on with my dog Quinn. My biggest piece of advice is to find a way to make training FUN!! It is a lifelong commitment to your health, why not enjoy it?

 

See ya around the gym!

 

Hannah

State of the Union, Training

Hello to all members of Union Fitness!! 

 

We have some very exciting class schedule changes happening starting this upcoming Monday, May 6th. Read on to find out what’s coming! 

 

We unfortunately are saying our goodbyes to all of the ryde classes, so the bikes are currently up for sale. If you or anyone you know may want one, please let us know asap! Since that class will no longer be offered, we are adding in some extra “mobility” and cardio lab classes! Here is the new weekly schedule below. 

 

Monday 

6:00-7:00am #Powerful 

7:00-7:30am Cardio Lab 

7:00-7:45am Candlelight Slow Flow Yoga in the Alloy 26 auditorium 

12:00-12:30pm Blitz 

5:00-6:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-7:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-6:45pm Cardio Lab 

 

Tuesday 

6:00-7:00am #Powerful 

7:00-7:45am Mobility 

12:00-12:45pm Cardio Lab 

5:00-6:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-7:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-6:45pm Mobility 

 

Wednesday 

6:00-7:00am #Powerful 

7:00-7:30am Cardio Lab 

12:00-12:30pm Blitz 

5:00-5:45pm Cardio Lab 

5:00-6:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-7:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-6:45pm Mobility

 

Thursday 

6:00-7:00am #Powerful 

7:00-7:45am Mobility 

12:00-12:45pm Cardio Lab 

5:00-6:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-7:00pm #Powerful 

6:00-6:45pm Mobility 

 

Friday 

6:00-7:00am #Powerful 

7:00-7:30am Cardio Lab 

12:00-12:30pm Blitz 

5:00-5:45pm Cardio Lab 

 

Saturday 

9:30-10:30am Cardio Lab 

10:30-11:30am Yoga:Yin 

 

Sunday 

10:30-11:30am Yoga:Vinyasa 

 

All the #Powerful classes will also be undergoing a slight change! The old programming schedule was Monday/Wednesday lower body and Tuesday/Thursday upper body. The brand-new schedule will feature Monday as bench press day, Tuesday as squat day, Wednesday as overhead press day, and Thursday as deadlift day. Friday’s will not be altered. It will stay the same full body mobility/strength with Jared. 

 

Stay tuned for a Summer variation of our “Strength Project” to get these new classes and class times rolling! Let’s have a great rest of our week and weekends. We’ll see everyone to start the new schedule this Monday! 

 

Please let us know if you have any questions/comments/concerns. We love to hear feedback! 

 

Best, 

Team UF 

Easy High Protein Recipes

Clean Eating, Diet, Meal Prep

Hey everyone!

 

With summer rolling around, I thought I would share with you all a few fairly easy high protein foods that I like to cook when I meal prep.

 

  1. Spicy Salsa Chicken- Dense in protein, low in fat, and is a good mix up if you are tired of eating plain grilled chicken.

Ingredients- 1-2 cans/glasses of salsa. 1 Franks hot sauce, salt and pepper. 1 package of chicken breast

  1. Get a crock pot and throw in the pack of raw chicken breast.
  2. Season it as you would like while it is in crock pot.
  3. Dump all the salsa into the crock pot and ensure all the chicken is covered.
  4. Add as much Franks hot sauce as you would like
  5. Cook on low heat for 8 hours

 

 

 

  1. Grass Fed Steak- Everyone loves a good steak. High in protein but moderately high in fat.

Ingredients- Grass Fed Steak, Goya Adobo Seasoning, Olive Oil

  1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Season steak on both sides with adobo seasoning and tenderize by beating the steak
  3. Heat up Olive oil on pan on high
  4. Once pan has heated with the olive oil, place steaks on pan for 30-45s on each side. This is done to get a nice pan sear on each side of the steak
  5. After each side of all steaks are seared, throw them onto a baking sheet and cook for 6-8 minutes in the oven. Check to see if your steak is done by using a thermometer or by cutting into it. May need to throw steaks back in if they are too rare for your liking!

 

  1. Ground Turkey and Grass Fed Beef Burgers- High in protein but moderately high in fat. Can substitute for all ground turkey instead of ground beef to lower fat content.

Ingredients- 2 lbs of 93-7 Ground Turkey (or leaner), 1 lb of 80-20 ground beef, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, Olive oil

  1. Combine ground beef and ground turkey together in a bowl. Mix together for a few minutes to get a solid mixture of the two meats.
  2. Add 3 T of Worcestershire sauce along with desired amount of salt and pepper to the ground turkey and ground beef. Mix well again.
  3. Preheat olive oil in pan on medium-high
  4. Make 12 patties with the 3 lbs of raw meat by rolling meat into balls and forming them to make a burger size. I use a pampered chef burger press.
  5. Once pan is hot, throw the patties onto the pan and cook for 4 minutes on each side on medium high heat. The trick is to only flip the burger ONCE.
  6. Now you have fairly high protein burger patties. Feel free to add bread or lettuce as a bun and whatever condiments you would like!

 

If you end up using any of these small recipes then please let me know! I think they are all pretty tasty but the Salsa Hot Chicken is probably the easiest to make!

 

-Zain

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