All posts by rnagy

July Events

Alcohol, Life Health, ,

My friends,

 

July is almost here and you’re gonna want to bust out your calendars for this month! We are pumped to bring you a packed schedule of events, from bootcamps to outdoor yoga, comedy shows and more. Below is a quick blast schedule of fun. Break out your markers!

 

Friday July 9th at 6PM

 

Bootcamp, yoga, and comedy show fundraiser benefiting OUT Athletics. All are welcome, not just Union members! Pride attire encouraged! OUT Athletics is a non-profit working to remove the barriers that block LGBTQ+ individuals access and participation in fitness, health and wellness. Register on the OUT Athletics website or scan the QR code on the flyer in the gym.

 

Sunday July 11th at 11am

 

We will be highly caffeinated and ready to kick start our Sunday Funday at Commonplace Coffee in the Mexican War Streets for a FREE bootcamp. We are asking for donations to the Central Northside Clinic. After the bootcamp, your first drink is on Union. Cheers.

 

Saturday July 17th at 10am 

 

We are coming back for our second bootcamp at Threadbare Cider House in Spring Garden. We are turning this one up to 11 with more adventures, challenges and games. This is a ticketed event that can be purchased on Threadbare’s website and will include the bootcamp, a first libation and 9.99% charitable donation to Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

 

Sunday July 18th at 12pm 

 

Outside on the Union lawn we will be hosting a FREE Yoga & Beer class. Come 1 come all and let’s get our Zen on.

 

Sunday July 25th at 10am

 

Wigle Whiskey’s revenge with our 2nd bootcamp at the Strip district location. Sign up on Wigle’s website to grab your ticket that includes the bootcamp, first libation and donation to our little friend Danny (who is raising money for a kidney transplant).

 

Also remember to go to Pgh City Paper and nominate UF for the best gym in town. You can vote every day till July 9th.

 

Stay tuned my friends and come down to party with us!

 

Cheers,

 

CeJ

Time=Love

Life Health

In my last post I wrote about lessons I learned from others. Today I want to spread some Aloha from St Simons Island GA. Yes, I am aware that St Simons is not any where near Hawaii, yet we can spread Aloha anywhere.

 

My good friend Hank McDonald was a strength coach at University of Hawaii and he brought me out to speak a few years back. I owe Hank and Tommy a huge thank you for that trip. To put it in perspective the other speakers came from The Ohio St University, Auburn, San Francisco Giants, former NFL strength coaches and some top private trainers. Then there was me, from the athletic giant Robert Morris University. I was lucky enough to learn about  Hawaiian culture from Keanue Reeves cousin (he is a professor at UH). Morale to the story, I was outclassed in every way possible and I learned that Aloha means many things including good vibes.

 

In my last job I worked with two men’s basketball coaches. The first guy was a good guy and I am still a fan. He was put in a position that he could not succeed, and he was let go not long after I arrived. The second coach Jamion came in and did his best to bring some good vibes to the team. He spread the aloha during my time there, and there was one thing he said (which I had heard before, yet stuck with me this time), Time=LOVE. Whatever you spend your time doing you love. I was also able to meet a man that became a good friend Greg Graber, Greg wrote the book, “Slow Your Roll.” We hit it off because he spoke a lot about meditating, and controlling the controllable. Greg reminded me to slow my roll and stop fighting loosing battles.

 

Time=Love is a simple idea. If you commit time to anything then you must love it. So why I a taking time from my vacation to write this? I am doing this because I do love spreading aloha.  I will probably not touch a barbell this week and doubt I’ll train, I also probably won’t answer your email :-). So take some time today to decide what you love, and give it your time.

Maggies Why?

Life Health

When coming to Pitt, I never thought about any other field except medicine. I spent most of my life fantasizing the idea of being a doctor because I convinced myself that was the only way I would be successful. However, I did not take the time out to learn what success meant to me. I could be successful at anything because I am a firm believer that what you put in is what you will get out of most situations. I just needed to figure out what I wanted to be successful in because clearly medicine was not it. *flashback to me crying in my large dunkin’ iced coffee in the middle of the library at 3am.

 

Once starting classes in the fall of my freshman year at Pitt, I quickly realized that my plan was not going to work out as anticipated. I wanted to choose a career that was going to lift me up rather than keep me in the ditch that I constantly found myself in. I was completely lost. I took classes that did not interest me, let my fitness deteriorate and my mental health took a toll. The perfect trifecta. That all changed once I took my first Intro to Exercise Science class. After entering that class, I was finally learning about something that piqued my interest and was able to prevent the diseases that I convinced myself I wanted to cure as a doctor. Wouldn’t it be a little less morbid if I dedicated my career to stopping them from happening in the first place rather than banking on these diseases to strike?

 

I had the opportunity to make connections and learn so much more about the field that I ever imagined. Having people around me who were willing to help me navigate my strengths and weaknesses was the key to knowing more about who I am and what I am capable of. I went into this major as someone who was far from who I am now. By far from who I am now I mean strides behind who I am now. In all honesty, I have only cried into my large dunkin’ iced coffee once this week so far. If that isn’t progress I don’t know what is. I was someone who was confident in nothing that she did, and believed that she would fail if she even tried. I came out of that major as a young woman who is confident that she can accomplish anything that she sets her mind to, with some hard work and elbow grease. I have so much to learn from those around me and I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have been extended to set me up to achieve my version of success. My time here at UF thus far has proven that to be true. 

 

I declared as a Health and Human Development major with a concentration in Exercise Science and have never even had a doubt that this was the right move. I fell in love with the science behind movement and how our bodies respond to exercise. I loved figuring out the “why” behind what we do as humans. Learning that everything is connected and how we treat our bodies in reference to exercise and movement effects every other part of us has become my why.

 

The main takeaway from my time in learning Exercise Science is simple: Exercise is Medicine. I carry that ideal with me every single day because living an active lifestyle can help solve many other health related issues whether that is mental, physical or otherwise. I am not saying that you need to train like an elite athlete to be healthy. That most certainly is not the case if any of you have seen me in the gym. I am simply stating that you must treat your bodies with the respect that they deserve. It is the only body you get and if you take care of it, it will then take care of you. Make exercise your medicine because it sure as hell has become mine as I have progressed from who I was into who I am and who I wish to be. 

Member Spotlight

Life Health

Here at UF we love our members so much it’s time we show you off and have CJ climb the incline like King Kong, he will shout your presence from atop of the highest point of Mt. Washington!

 

This week we’d like to shout out Hannah Miers.

 

Ladies & Gents, here is Hannah in her own words!

 

“I grew up in Elkhart, IN. I went to college at Indiana university then moved to Pittsburgh right after graduation. My Bachelors degree is in event management but had a career change right before the pandemic and am now an esthetician. My Fav lift is probably squats. The  reason I train is to feel strong/healthy physically and mentally. My favorite thing about Union is the coaches and the fun classes, plus I’ve learned so so much about lifting since I started coming to class.

 

If I had to pick a Celeb workout crew, it would be J.Lo for sure, Jen Aniston , and Kim K.

 

My favorite food, well I could prob eat Mexican food everyday and Margs of course. -Han”

If you see Hannah around the gym, please say hi!

More Lessons Learned

Life Health

I wrote a monthly column on elitefts for almost a decade. I am proud of much of my writing there, and I once penned an article entitled Lessons Learned. The point of this article was that none of us are self made and we all learn from one another. We must understand that none of us solely control our own futures. We must rely and lean on one another. This leads us to where we are today. What lessons have I taken away during my time as GM at UF? How are those lessons helping me to better serve each of you?

 

  1. I am not strong. One of the biggest pluses and minuses of working at UF is seeing so many strong people everyday. It reminds me that we all must work harder and it takes a whole team to make one stronger.
  2. Diversity makes me/us stronger. UF is one of the most diverse populations of humans in the city and I love it. On any given day we see powerlifters, business professionals, runners, cyclists, a few random cross fitters and even a bodybuilder or two every so often. I haven’t even mentioned the age, sex, sexual preference, race, and religion differences that makes all of us better.
  3. Everything works as long as you work hard. I have seen many people have great success here at UF. Some have lost weight, increased their strength, increased mobility, and just generally move better. The amazing part of seeing all of this is that I’ve seen numerous of ways to achieve these goals. I don’t care what your goals are I just care that you reach them. I learned that you can reach them in many different ways.
  4. Consistency is all that matters. I love watching Jared Caroff lift. Not only does he pull 600+ at 148 lbs, but he is also very consistent in his training. I recently spoke to him about his training and there is very little fancy yet he just shows up everyday and does the work. So I ask you to show up tomorrow and do the work to reach your goals.
  5. Final lesson for today is to enjoy the gym. I was meeting with a new member last night and we were intreruppted a few times by members saying hello. She mentioned how much she liked the positive vibe of the gym; a community of different people coming together as a family. I was reminded that we all feed off of one another and when one of us brings positive energy it is a gift that we all can feed off of and pass it on.

 

I hope some of this got you thinking and I thank each of you for what you bring to our little world. It is appreciated by more people than you could imagine.

 

 

 

More Bootcamps More Drinks More Causes

Uncategorized

Union, the party don’t start until YOU walk in!

 

Thank you to our friends at Threadbare Cider in Spring Garden for hosting us last weekend. We had a blast working out at your House of Cider and raising a glass or two after a fantastic bootcamp. To all of those who attended thank you for bringing the thunder and you certainly partied hard, because the sweat showed. We slammed some battle ropes, tossed some medicine balls, crushed some body weight exercises and even took a tour of some local stair cases. Your efforts also helped donate some money to Pittsburgh Local Parks Conservancy. Cheers to you and we hope to see all of you again.

 

Are you sad that you missed out, well well now, have no fear, there are 5 more boot camps coming your way.

 

Our next boot camp is at Wigle Whiskey in the Strip on June 27th. This boot camp will include a badass workout sweat session with CeJ & a special guest coach, a free Highball Cocktail and a percent of each ticket will go to (Children’s Organ Transplant Association) COTA Daniel Strong. This charity has already raised $19,000 and is looking to reach $50,000. Daniel is in need of a Kidney transplant.

 

To sweeten this deal, CJ will include a free week of unlimited classes to any new or non-member of Union and to our current members, you can pick a time and date to train/workout along side CJ. How freaking fun!

 

Let’s get together and party some more! To sign up for our next boot camp, go to Wigle Whiskey’s website and grab your tickets on their event page. I can’t wait to raise a glass or two with YOU!

 

 

Cheers,

 

CeJ

The Importance of a Good Coach

Life Health

Well, I kept my promise from my very first blog (I know so many of you were knocking down my door to hear this one).  I am going to talk about why I stopped playing the game I love. As I have stated before I had the best basketball coach in the world growing up. However, he was not my only coach. I also had the worst coach in the world. What a nice balance I have had in my life. Going into high school I was more prepared than ever to go into try-outs and make varsity as a freshman. Me, along with two other freshmen, made it.  To this day, I wish I had not. 

 

I am happy to have the experience to speak upon now, but I can honestly tell you that it was a horrible experience at the time. I like to think I am a pretty positive person. I know many of you see this ray of sunshine and think, “How could this burst of cotton candy and rainbows ever be sad?” *cue rolling eyes*. But, yes, I was downright miserable. Let me elaborate on why that was. 

 

Freshman year I did not expect to play in any games. I knew I had to pay my dues and hopefully get a chance to show what I had. I had to earn her trust. This coach did everything in her power to make sure that I regressed as a player and she sure as hell succeeded. I went to her on multiple occasions asking what I could improve on because at the time I valued her opinion. She kept coming up with stuff that I could do better. I fixed the problem and once I did she would come up with something else. I get it, I had a lot to work on. But, when someone is just constantly telling you that you are not good enough to even get a chance, it takes a toll on your mental image of yourself. Especially someone who is “supposed” to do the opposite; someone who is supposed to be your “coach”. 

 

Sophomore year, I got to a point where I had proven myself in a game situation, so much so that the parents and spectators came up to me after the game and congratulated me on how well I did in the short time that I played. She even gave me a shoutout in the locker room herself. I finally thought this was my chance, that I earned her trust in me as a player. The next game came around and I sat in the same seat for 4 quarters only standing to cheer for my teammates. I had just done so well in the previous game, why did she not take another chance on me to prove myself further? It made absolutely no sense. 

 

Again, I approached her after practice one day and asked what I could do to be better. I thought I was doing a great job, but of course, she had something to say. “Your body language is just horrible and you need to work on that”. You must be freaking kidding me. My body language? Really? Sorry, my bad, let me sit up a little straighter and stick a corny smile on my face real quick while you continue to rip me apart in practice and sit me for 3 games at a time while I work my butt off for you. Then will you let me do my job as the big bad post player you brought me on the team to be? 

 

I was so frustrated because I knew that she was treating me like this simply because of our lack of connection as coach and player. She did not respect me as a player and it showed in the way she addressed me during practice. She praised one of the other freshmen because of the publicity she brought to our team through our local news. They happened to catch a game where she threw up a sloppy shot and it happened to go in.  From then on she was our pig and we had to feed her the ball despite her track record of being a lazy player aside from throwing up outside shots. This coach only cared about how she looked to the public and was shoddy at best. She was political in the way that she let parents suck her into letting their kids play over the rest of us. It was abundantly clear that she didn’t like me for one simple fact; I wouldn’t let her bully me. I would not suck up to her and I would not BS her. I honestly got to the point where I did not respect her because she did not coach for her love of the game or her love for us. She coached because she loved having people who she didn’t even know admire her. 

 

Halfway through my sophomore year season we had already had two players quit because of her incompetence as a coach. I threatened to leave because she stole my love for the game. I would spend hours crying after games and practices and for what? It was not serving my life in the way that it once was and it killed me to come to that conclusion. I finished out the rest of the season because I had thought it was the right thing to do. The day after our season ended I called my coach. I told her that my success as a person was not determined by her and that she had ruined the game for so many people. She should be ashamed for taking away so many players identities and I went on for about 5 minutes telling her that. I might have gone a little overboard, but I was fuming. 

 

I told myself I would not let her ruin the game I loved so much. I became a coach for a youth girls basketball team through my local church and shared my years of knowledge with them. I loved teaching these girls and seeing them succeed through the sport. I saw the passion in their eyes and it brought back the love in mine. I look back at this experience with pride that I had the strength to walk away from something that once brought me joy, but didn’t anymore. I knew that my happiness was so much more important than what this horrible woman thought of me as a person and a player. I refused to let what anther person thought of me determine what I thought of myself.  I wanted to be a better coach to young girls than she ever was to me. Never let anyone steal your shine, most of the time they are doing it because of the dullness in their hearts. Be better than that, you never know whose life you might change in the process of standing up for your own light. 

 

Happy training, 

 

Mags

Thank You

State of the Union

One of our members recently said to me, “Pittsburgh does not have a good gym culture.” As a guy who runs a gym this made me sad, yet as one who has lived in 7 different cities I can’t say I disagree. I do believe that we here at UF are trying and working to change that fact, and make Pittsburgh a good gym town.

 

How are we making this town a better gym town?

 

First and foremost we are serving our members to the best of our ability. Whether you use one of our personal trainers (they are great), take our classes, or use the fitness center we want to be the best gym culture in town, and make you and our town stronger and better.

 

Additionally, we work with many different groups in town to make our city a stronger and more welcoming place. We have worked with the Urban League of Greater Pgh, local food banks, Hillman, Wounded Warrior, Pittsburgh Parks, as well as doing our weekly street cleaning in the Northside.

 

I do want put a focus on a group that many of you helped us raise money for recently. A portion of the entry fee at the Iron City Open went to a donation for Veterans Place.  

 

Veterans Place is a local organization that works with veterans by offering housing, education, job placement, a food bank and many other services. Please consider donating or offering to help this great organization out. We were happy to be able to donate 500 dollars to this organization yesterday. This small act is one step in creating a better “gym culture” thank you for being a part of this.

 

 

Fixing Maggie

Fitness

Since you guys can’t seem to get enough of me, this blog is going to consist of multiple parts. A series if you will, with my progress and we will call it “Fixing Maggie”. Quickly after I started working at Union I was told that my mobility is complete and utter trash. I always knew that I tight hips, but I was just convinced that it was because of the way that I am built. As you all know from past blog posts, I spent most of my life playing basketball. In basketball, your ankles and hips are meant to be stable and we did not focus on flexibility for those parts of our body. We were meant to be strong in a wide position especially as a post player. As my coach liked to call it, “taking up space”. That is why I am way more comfortable in a sumo stance when doing lifts, rather than conventional or narrow stance. I was trained to take up as much space as possible #justgirlythings. 

 

After a quick ankle mobility test that Curtis told me to do, I was shocked to find out that the immobility in my ankles was affecting the mobility in my hips. My knee is supposed to be able to touch the wall in the photo shown, but as you can see it is nowhere near it and trust me I am pushing hard. I was also honored to be named the worst ankle mobility of all time as Curt so proudly stated. This photo was taken about 4 weeks ago and I have been doing about 30 minutes of hip and ankle mobility exercises 4-5 times a week since then. Focusing on this is important for me to become a better lifter and minimize injury as much as I can. I am also curious to see where my potential is as a lifter because I have been enjoying it a lot. If I have better range of motion I will be able to handle heavier loads and progress in my strength which is the ultimate goal. So far, there has been a noticeable change in the way that I squat. Don’t worry photos will be coming soon; I know you are all itching to see. 

 

My mobility program consists of hip and ankle banded distractions, hip airplanes, spiderman stretches, calf release, banded floss, 90/90 stretch, and tempo goblet squats. I do these before my squat days in order to warm up those mechanisms and have a more successful squat day in terms of range of motion and stability. I have also programed different forms of squats into my split during the week that include pit shark, box squats and back squats. When I approach the bottom of my squats, it was almost like my hips were locking and I would stick coming out of the hole. That ½ second was confusing especially when it was not a lot of weight and the rest of the squat was smooth. I mean maybe it wasn’t the smoothest being that I am still new to this whole weight lifting thing, but smooth for me. Since starting this mobility program along with my training program, I have noticed less locking and pain in my hips and ability to add more weight while staying as smooth as I can. If you would like to talk to me more about it or if you want to follow my journey to a better squat let me know! 

 

Happy training, 

 

Magz

Sunday Threadbare Bootcamp

Life Health, Training

Party people of Union and all of our friends, it’s time to raise a glass to Summer Boot Camps! We are very excited to kick off our 3 part boot camp series at Threadbear Cider House & Meadery.

 

Say What?

 

We’re partnering with our Neighbor Threadbare Cider on a Summer Boot Camp Series once a month at the Cider House! The workout will include various bodyweight, medicine ball and banded exercises in a timed circuit style training with a cardiovascular & mobility group warm-up, cool down and even a fun butt kicking finisher. These sessions will be led by CeJ & some special guest Coaches (Skylyn, Cej’s Partner in Crime is in for this weekend) who will be able to modify exercises and motivate all participants to make exercising fun & support our Pittsburgh community. 9.99 % of your $20 ticket benefits Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and includes a one glass of cider to enjoy at the Cider House after class! The Cider house has tasty brunch & fire pizza for some post workout fuel.

 

Where do I go to party?

 

Threadbare Cider House

1291 Spring Garden Ave

Pittsburgh, PA 15212

 

When?

 

This Sunday June 13th at 10am.

 

Who can come?

 

This event is ticketed but members of Union, patrons of Threadbare and any one who wants to get their sweat on for a Sunday Funday can come join the party. Tickets are available on Threadbare’s website under the events tab.

 

There are still tickets available and Skylyn & I would love to see you get sweaty this Sunday and cheers a glass or two of Cider with us. If you have any questions, please reach. We will see you this Sunday, my party people.

 

Pitter Patter,

 

CeJ