All posts by rnagy

Review of Muscular Tension

Training, ,

One of the best books one can read to understand training (IMO) is  “Science and Practice of Strength Training,” by Vladimir Zatriorksy. Dr. Zatriorsky was a professor at Penn State for years and I was lucky enough to meet him and spend time trying to understand what he was saying (he is really smart).

 

In the book he discusses the three methods to increase muscular tension. This is important to understand if you want to increase your strength levels. I have listed the three methods to increase muscular tension, I also added in descriptions and examples of each.

 

  1. Dynamic Effort Method- This is moving a light weight as fast as possible. This could be doing anything from jumping to throwing or doing any explosive lift. Louie Simmons made this popular with speed bench and speed squats. Dr. Fred Hatfield also helped grow this method in his book “Bodybuilding, A Scientific Approach.” He used the term Compensatory Acceleration Training (CAT). While I do not think these are 100% interchangeable I do believe they are similar enough that you can replace one with the other. Either way keep your reps between 3-6 and move something explosively.
  2. Maximal Effort Method- This is the exact opposite of Dynamic Effort. Now the intent is to move a heavy load. Velocity can, and often will, drop below .2 m/s. In lifter terms this is learning how to strain against a heavy weight. This is a very effective way to increase strength yet we must be cautious as technique will often break down and the opportunity for overtraining exists here.
  3. Repetition Effort Method- This is the method everyone knows. The goal here is to train a muscle until it fatigues. This could be done with 3×10 or for timed sets 3×45 seconds. One variation I believe we should highlight here is escalating density training. This is done by doing lower reps with very short rest periods. One could do pull ups for 20 sets of 3 with 10 seconds rest. This is a way to achieve huge volume and a ton of reps without letting technique break down.

 

This is just a short overview of these methods and entire college course could be taught on this yet I want all of you to have the basic understanding of what is going on. If you ever want to talk any further on this topic please stop me as I could go on for days. So maybe ask someone else as I wouldn’t want to bore you.

 

Hamer

Iron City Open Update

Uncategorized, ,

We at UF are proud of our connection to the local powerlifting community. As the GM I was lucky to step into a position that the great relationships were already built in the lifting community. First let me thank you for being such a big part of UF.

 

We had to make a decision on whether it was appropriate to host the Iron City Open. At this point we are moving forward with the meet. For those of you who want us to hold the meet I am sure this is great news. For those of you unsure, we are doing all we can to keep the meet safe and hold ourselves to a high standard. What I do believe is we can do this in a safe manner. Here is a list of what we are doing to keep this meet safe and of course fun.

 

  1. Weigh ins will be limited to lifter and official.
  2. Masks will be required by everyone (the lifter may remove it for their attempt).
  3. The barbell will be sanitized and cleaned between each attempt.
  4. There will be no chalk bowl (bring your own chalk).
  5. No spectators inside the tent.
  6. The meet will be inside the tent with warm ups occurring in our performance lab with the garage door open.
  7. Each lifter will only be allowed one person with them at the meet (a handler)
  8. Temperature checks for each person entering.
  9. UF staff will be here all day to make sure all rules are being followed.
  10. UF has the ability to end this meet or excuse anyone from the facility who is not following the rules.

 

We believe with these precautions in place we can hold a safe, fun and effective meet. We look forward to working with the USPA again and anyone who has anyone questions, comments or concerns should reach out to Todd Hamer.

 

Thanks and BE STRONG!

A Conversation in my Head

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Hamer and I were taking a break from some heated bocce ball matches after work one day and started having the old debate: low bar or high bar. Hamer stopped and asked the women next to us what they thought. They had no idea what the hell we were talking about. Something that we might think is so important and give each other a hard time about, this woman had no idea what it was and had never given it any thought. Something as simple as that stuck with me, where is my effort going? Is it going somewhere meaningful? What, in the big picture, what actually is strength, how is it shared, what the hell does it even mean? Does it actually matter? 

 

I was watching Neat:The Story of Bourbon last night and they dove into how the whisky is made and  its history of it. They then dove in a bit deeper, to what it means to drink bourbon, to enjoy it with the people you are with. I found it paralleled strength quite a bit in my life. Getting strong is great, getting strong with people you care about is better. Often,the most important training is just getting under the bar with a loved one or pushing some sleds with a brother/sister. Sometimes numbers aren’t always the most important unless we’re in competition. But going through the day in day out of training next to someone else gives meaning to those numbers. I still want to chase  a 700lb deadlift before I go 6ft under, but I know I’m plenty training sessions away from that. However, by saying the numbers aren’t as important I mean when you’re training, I train with a guy that isn’t as physically strong as me, but mentally is so much more. On “those days” he knows he has to step in and get me out of my head and back under a bar. 

 

The other thing that has added meaning to my training is this; the harder I train, the more disciplined I am, the harder I train, the more compassionate I find myself feeling. I hear this alot in the combative sports, that the more time you spend training, getting choked out, the more compassionate and peaceful you find yourself outside of training. I think the same is true for lifting. My rack is where I can be aggressive, angry, whatever the hell I want to be, push my training partners and get after it, with any and every four letter word I  want. but as soon as I step away, I’ve found a peace. 

 

Which brings it back to the struggle. We always usually have a struggle, and the people we go through that struggle with are the ones usually closest to us. Training fosters that as we usually choose our struggle and our training partners are crazy enough to join us in  it everyday. Struggle teaches us to enjoy the hard work  with those we care about. One of my favorite training sessions wasn’t a heavy single (although we all know those are the best) but it was a barbell and a few hundred pounds of bumpers in the middle of a dirt road before a buddies wedding while we had a couple of beers and cleaned. Strength came down to this for me: it’s not about the barbell, it’s about the lives you touch and the people you meet. Strength is just a byproduct of a good relationship and like good bourbon takes time,the hard parts can’t be skipped and it can never be rushed.

 

Chef CeJ

Clean Eating, Diet, Life Health, Meal Prep, Nutrition, , , ,

Hello Union Chefs

 

Today it’s time to get on the line and run a dish on the fly (chef jargon).

 

Here is what is on the menu at Cafe de Union;

 

Fresh As Heck Cucumber & Tomato Salad

 

Quiche Me I’m Irish…Maybe

 

Pineapple Express & Spicy Shrimp Battle Spears

 

Shake Shake Shake Shakshuka 

 

FAH Cuc & Tomato Salad Recipe

 

I’m a big farmers market fan and do my best to get the majority of my produce from these cool pop up markets. Thankfully Union’s own Big Cod “Farmer Fran” Miller brought in some of that fresh fresh produce.

 

Ingredients: Cucumber, Tomato, Hot Pepper, Green Pepper, Garlic, Olives, Onions, Olive Oil, Wine Vinegar, Salt , a weeee bit of Suggaa. Slice, dice, pour, mix, clap your hands and just like that you have yourself a Fresh As Heck Salad!

 

Quiche me I’m Irish…formerly known as Quiche By A Rose Recipe 

 

I like pies and I like breakfast things, so we put it all together.

 

Ingredients: All the Veggies you like, Hot Peppers, Sweet Pepper, Onions, Garlic, Tomatoes, Parsley, Fan Favorite Cheese, Eggs, Heavy Whip It Good Cream, Salt, Pepper, Pie Crust.

 

Sauté up the veggies while the pie crust is baking in the oven and then toss those veggies into a bowl with the eggs, cream and whip it up real good. When you’re ready, pour the mixture into the pie crust and let that puppy bake for about 20-30 minutes. Slice it up and enjoy.

 

Spicy Shrimp Battle Spears Recipe

 

Sweet heat on a fresh Summa Day!

 

Ingredients: Shrimps, Pineapples, Zucchini, Squash, Onions, Sweet Peppers, Mushrooms, Jalapeno, Garlic, Olive Oil, Lime, Red Pepper Flakes, Salt and whatever else you want to toss on the stick. Toss it in foil or right on the grill and let the magic happen.

 

Shake Shake Shake Shakshuka Recipe 

 

A meal all in 1 cast iron skillet.

 

Ingredients: Onions, Garlic, Peppers, Tomato Sauce, Tomatoes Diced, Eggs, Paprika, Chili Powder, Salt, Pepper, Cilantro & Parsley. Sautee all the veggies and sauce in the skillet. After about 10 minutes use a spoon to make a pot hole to crack 1 egg per hole in. Cover the skillet for a few minutes (depending on how “dippy” you like your eggs) Then garnish with the herbs, wipe the drool off your mouth and feast my friends.

 

As always, have fun cooking and devouring new meals! Stay spicy my young Chefs.

 

Cheers,

 

Chef CeJ

Training Optimally and Recovering Efficiently

Fitness, Life Health, Training, , ,

In one of my recent blogs, I touched on understanding the basics of a training program. I discussed the areas of main movements, assistance work, accessories, volume, and intensity. Today I’m going to dive in a little bit deeper and go over a few more areas that will have a major impact on the overall success of program.

 

With any training program, the goal should always be to train optimally. This means that we are always looking to do the correct amount of work in order to produce the stimulus necessary to make progress, but without doing so much that we risk stagnation or injury. The biggest area that has an affect on this is our ability to recover from our training sessions. With recovery, there are many things that need to be taken into consideration. Things such as nutrition and hydration, sleep, stress, stretching, and mobility work are all essential to focus on outside of the gym in order to recover properly and continue to make progress.

 

However, when we consider our physical presence inside of the gym, we often overlook aspects of our training sessions that play a major role in how well we do or do not recover. The first is our training frequency. Frequency refers to how often we are performing a given workout, exercise, or movement throughout the training week. There are many different philosophies when it comes to this. Some people have great success with performing a particular session only once per week, while others prefer 2-3 times per week. Either way, it’s important to take all factors into consideration when deciding training frequency. If your life outside of the gym is hectic, then you may not be good with a higher frequency. If you are managing your time with proper sleep, nutrition, etc., then a higher training frequency might suit you well. 

 

The second thing to consider is your training duration. This refers to the amount of time that you are physically performing each training session. Depending on your goals and level of experience, your training session can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. The thing to remember is that you want your sessions to be as efficient as possible. You should only be taking as much time as needed to complete your exercises and sessions. The longer that you are in the gym, the more time you are taking away from your recovery, and giving less time to things such as nutrition, relaxation, sleep, etc.

 

The third area to consider is your training intensity. This is something I touched on in my last blog, but today I’m going to explain it in terms of RPE or “Rate of Perceived Exertion”. When incorporating RPE into your training, it is portrayed in the form of a 1-10 scale in order to measure overall difficulty of the previously performed set. For example, an RPE of 10 would mean maximal effort, and no more reps could have been performed. An RPE of 9 would mean that one more rep could have been performed, and 8 would mean that 2 more reps could have been performed, and so on. Although tracking RPE is not absolutely necessary, it is a very easy and beneficial way to track the difficulty of each movement and exercise within a training session, and can help you understand the balance needed within each program. Your intensity or “RPE” should be optimal for your specific goals. If you are always pushing the limits, then it will become harder to recover, and you risk the chance if injury. Frequency, duration, and intensity all go hand-in-hand and play a major role in overall performance. Putting a little extra emphasis on these areas will help to keep you strong, healthy, and progressing within your program.

He Blinded Me With Science

Uncategorized

Attention Attention!!

 

Toss on your goggles because you’re about to be blinded by science…SCIENCE!

 

Union….this has been hiding in the shadows for far too long. Buried deep in the sarcophagus of time, repressed from the world. Adventurers young & old, from far and wide have spent their lives in pursuit of this historical relic. Some call it the fountain of youth, others believe it’s a transcendent pilgrimage of enlightenment. Your personal Swashbuckling Nick Cage (National Treasure reference) has found the X and unearthed these dark secretes.

 

TEACH ME TUESDAY is coming back! The goal of TMT is to provide a wide range of knowledge and education on health, overall wellness, training and many more dope topics. If you have anything you’d like to learn about please comment below of just let CeJ know what is up. Thank you for your time and lets Get Bumpy on this exploration of endless mental wisdom.

 

Train your Brain and get your Mind Bumpy!

 

Cheers,

 

CeJ

Enjoy the Ride/State of the Union

Life Health, State of the Union, , , ,

Happiness Quotient (HQ) is the level of happiness one has achieved in their lifetime. How much happiness do you generally have in your life? This is a simple yet important question and in today’s blog I’d like to help you move your HQ up a notch or two. In addition to becoming happier you may even learn something about our cool little gym.

 

Most people are stuck at a certain level of happiness. If they won the lottery they would (within a year or two) fall back or climb back to where they were prior to being rich. On the flip side if they were to have a terrible accident, within a year or two they would return to approximately the same level of happiness they had prior to the accident. With a quick google search you will find a few books on this topic. I first read about this idea years ago and it changed my life, my training and my work. Decide how happy you want to be and then be that happy. I understand that I am writing these words during a major shift in our society. I believe that makes these words that much more important.

 

Union Fitness

 

I spent twenty years as a strength and conditioning coach at the collegiate level. I have had the ability to work with olympians, pro-athletes and some of the finest humans I could have ever encountered. I truly enjoyed all of what I did as a strength coach and I am proud of what I did as a coach. When I took over at UF in October I was taking over an extremely successful gym that did not need an overhaul. I saw myself as the luckiest man around. Then a pandemic hit and we shut down. I tried to be proactive, we shut down a few days before others. I believed it was the right thing to do. Initially I thought it would be a few weeks and things would be back to normal. Well almost three months later we re-opened our doors. During those three months here are some things we did to try to keep our community together.

  1. We hosted over 200 online “classes.”
  2. We offered suspension, cancelation as well as deferring payments for anyone who asked.
  3. We lent our equipment out to anyone who asked (including non-members).
  4. We increased our blog posts to daily.
  5. We did the best job we could keeping in contact with our employees and members.
  6. There are a few other things we did that you’ll have to ask me to tell you. But, we tried to help.

 

This list is how we tried to keep some normalcy. When we returned our membership dropped about 35%. Since then we have tried to do what we can to ease people back into the gym. We have offered some free classes, outdoor activities and done our best to keep a clean and healthy training enviroment. I know for a fact even with all of our trying we failed some of our members, and I am not happy about failing anyone. Yet, I know we tried and that makes me rest well at night.

 

So let’s enjoy the ride together. Knowing that we have some members who are still suspended, some that have left us and others that are nervous to return, I have made you a short list of other groups you can try until you are ready to re-join us at UF. This is a list of companies in the area that host outdoor events and will be perfect to talk to while the weather is still warm, and when the cold returns and you are ready to come back inside come see us at the gym. Until then find ways in this strange time to raise your HQ.

 

  1. Stand up PGH
  2. Venture Outdoors
  3. Pittsburgh Parks
  4. Bike Pittsburgh
  5. Trail Pittsburgh

 

This is just a short list that I have either personally worked with or I know people who have. Go to their sites support local and enjoy the outdoors. When you are ready to return to the gym we will be here for you to come back inside. Unless you are training for a meet or a bodybuilding show then don’t worry about the weights they will be here when you return.

 

Until then raise that HQ and enjoy your ride, hike, walk or whatever.

It Goes Beyond the Gym

Clean Eating, Diet, Fitness, Life Health, Meal Prep, Nutrition, , , , , , , ,

You’ve probably heard it before, “ you can’t outwork a bad diet.” I mean you can try but at some point you’ll either hit a plateau with your goals or you’ll start feeling “blah” and those are things that happen when either you’re not eating enough or you’re not fueling your body with the proper nutrients it needs to perform simple daily tasks.

 

If you’re an athlete within your respected sport or a member of Union Fitness coming in at 5:30PM to get bumpy with CJ in #Powerful, you’ve probably more than likely heard someone or our staff briefly mention anything in regards to nutrition. Not only do we want our clients to perform to the best of their abilities but we also want them to feel good in their everyday life. This all starts and ends with the basics of good nutrition. Good nutrition can be defined as eating whole and nutrient dense foods. Generally in a good diet we want to look for foods that contain vitamins, minerals, complex carbs, lean protein and healthy fats. These foods include, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and lean protein (when prepared with little to no saturated facts or added sugars/sodium).

 

So back to the all defining phrase, “you can’t outwork a bad diet.” For example, let’s use an early 30’s female, who works a full-time job, eats out a lot, workouts 1 hour a day and likes to enjoy a glass of wine before ending her evening – This would be what her day looks like.

 

6AM Wake-Up

 

Breakfast: breakfast sandwich from fast-food chain + coffee

Heads into work for 9AM

Lunch: chicken salad with ranch and a diet soda

Afternoon snack: greek yogurt with granola + water

Leaves work at 5PM

Takes CJ’s 5:30PM #Powerful

Dinner: burger and fries + glass of wine

 

Now let’s break this down a little, overall she’s not eating terribly but we can nit pick at a few things. First, she’s not eating enough and more specifically she’s not eating enough whole and nutrient dense foods. Secondly, her fast-food breakfast sandwich, diet soda and a burger/fries will eventually leave her feeling the “blah” sensation at some point (if her eating is consistently like this). Her water intake is also very low and my overall observation is she just needs to replace a few things that would fuel her body better.

 

Let’s take a look at the same woman but with a better understanding of eating well.

 

6AM Wake-Up

 

Breakfast: glass of water, breakfast wrap (homemade) + coffee

Heads into work for 9AM

Snack: greek yogurt with granola/blueberries + water

Lunch: glass of water, chicken salad with balsamic dressing and a soda water

Afternoon Snack: Protein bar, banana + glass of water

Leaves work at 5PM

Takes CJ’s 5:30PM #Powerful

Post-Workout: Protein shake + granola bar

Dinner: Seafood pasta + glass of wine

 

After she has learned the basics of good nutrition she implemented a few things, increasing her water intake, increasing her protein intake, choosing drink options that are healthier and making sure her meals are portioned and opting for more homemade meals and whole foods. She is eating more and fueling her body for the simple things like daily tasks whilst getting the nutrients she needs to help her get through a PM workout.

 

The goal here is to understand that regardless if you want to gain muscle or lose weight, you’re going to need to eat but what your nutritional plan looks like is going to be specific to your own goals and your genetic makeup. While we’re at it too, diet culture has long engrained in us that we need to eat less to lose weight and thats not necessary the case (but thats another blog post for another time).

 

It all comes down to fueling your body for daily life and working out. So, whatever your goals may be keep in mind whole and nutrient dense foods are the answer, shop the perimeter of your grocery store and allow yourself to eat the things you love in moderation.

 

Much love,

 

J

Being a Female in a Male Dominated Industry

Fitness, Training, , , ,

I get many questions related to being a female in the strength and conditioning world. Often times it is related to how I work with other male coaches (sport coaches or strength coaches) and/or male athletes. Further, I am often asked how I train females differently than males. From a general sense I truly believe it does not matter if you are male or female in this profession, as long as you are confident in who you are as a coach and are able to connect with the people you are working with. Working with any athlete comes down to can you teach the movements you have programmed, and can you motivate the athletes to achieve their highest potential related to what you are working on each day. I find it is almost easier to coach males from a technical stand point if you know what you are talking about. If you give them a coaching cue, they try it and it works, they usually realize you know what you are talking about and are ready to respect and work with you – regardless of being male or female. Females tend to be a bit more skeptical at first and inquisitive as to why they are doing the movement in the first place. Male coaches and strength coaches more often then not value having a female to work with to create a more well-rounded staff. Again, if you know how to do your job there should really be no problem. 

 

I like to think we’ve gotten past this issue in 2020, yet there are still some people out there that would probably disagree. There are no exercises that a female cannot do that a male can and vice versa. A barbell will not make a female big and bulky. I lift weights at least 5x a week and still look do not look like a bulky man. A female can bench press a bar, just like a male. From a very general perspective exercises can be done by both females and males. It is important to note that there are some difference in programming that could be applicable to create the “best” program for a male vs a female. For example, the Q angle of female hips can make them more susceptible to certain injuries, and thus we can program accordingly to attempt to reduce that risk. I may do more hamstring and posterior chain work with a female than a male, yet the exercises I choose are still possible to be effectively done by both sexes. It is also very possible for a male to be deficient in posterior strength, putting him in the same injury risk category. At the end of the day programming should be designed based on the human needs not a broad category such as male or female. 

 

From a career perspective it is important to note that within strength and conditioning it is easier to get a job as a female than as a male when you are first starting out. However, that changes when it comes to progressing in the field. A male is much more likely to progress to a higher title such as associate director or even director faster than a female. That is a very real frustration in this male-dominated field. I am incredibly grateful for the women who have been in this field way longer than me and have fought for their career progress. There are several female directors of strength and conditioning that are doing great work. This is just something to be aware of and to fight for your worth in the field.

 

Overall being a female in strength and conditioning has its challenges just like any other career. If you know how to do your job, are confident in who you are as a coach, and understand how to motivate people, you will be fine. At the end of the day I focus on why I got into this career – to help people (any gender) get better. 

Bootcamp and Beers Review

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In today’s Blog, we will be highlighting our 1st offsite UF Workout.  At UnionFitness we are striving to be a bigger influence in our community. We want to be a positive and uplifting part of Pittsburgh.  In order to be influential, we feel it’s important that we start in our own backyard, which is the Northside.  We wanted to get our faces out in the community, so we picked a local brewery to kick off our offsite workouts.

 

We ventured 4 blocks over to Allegheny City Brewing (ACB).  

 

This neighborhood gem is in the heart of Deutschtown on the Northside.  The owners of ACB, Amy and Matt welcomed the idea with open arms and allowed us to “GET BUMPY” (the words of one of UF’s prolific trainers and management staff, CJ).

 

“WITHOUT TRIUMPH, THERE IS NO GLORY”

 

With the new restrictions imposed on bars and Restaurants this past week due to Covid-19, we all were a little worried if we would still be able to have the workout.  BUT, we didn’t let the restrictions or the threat of rain stop us and we GOT IT DONE!!!  8 people came out and got sweaty before we all enjoyed the tasty suds of ACB’s Craft Beer.  There is something about struggling through a hard workout with people you know and don’t know, and then sharing a beer with them, that is good for the soul.  We want to continue to promote that feeling and meet new friends along the way.  I believe this is true outreach!  Doing things that bring people together, that can share their backgrounds with each other, is how we can promote community equity.

 

This was a GREAT kickoff to our offsite workouts and community outreach.  Our goal is to have one of these a month in our community to continue to show our neighbors that we are here, that we want to help, that we want to be a part of the change that is going on in our city, and that we want to continue to be a positive resource for our community.

 

Special Thanks to Amy and Matt of ACB and to the warriors that came out for the workout!!!

 

If you ever want a great place to have tasty beer and a fun atmosphere, please checkout @alleghenycitybrewing or www.alleghenycitybrewing.com

 

For our next offsite workout, check our Instagram @unionfitnesspgh.

 

Matt Grayson