It seems like often; we emphasize failure more than we do about celebrating success. If we changed the narrative and we celebrated failure the same way we do when we succeed what could happen? Imagine the drastic change that we would see in daily life. The fear would vanish, and people would do incredible things.

Some of the greatest people to ever live failed time and time again. When Michael Jordan was cut from his 9^th grade basketball team, I bet people didn’t think he would become one of the most influential athletes to ever live. Or how about when Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting while he was alive, now people pay millions. Albert Einstein couldn’t talk until he was 4 and couldn’t read until he was 7 years old. He then went on to change the way we view the world and shaped our own understanding of humanity. Three vastly different backgrounds but ended with the same result. No one could have imagined their impact.

No one thought they could become great because they focused exclusively on their failures. However, it is only because of their failure that they achieved something many only dream of. The greatness that is inside many of the people we look up to, can be found in every one of us. To become great at something you must be bad at it first. So the next time you fail, throw your arms up in excitement and celebrate and rejoice, its an opportunity to get better and take that step closer to achieving the impossible. I challenge you adopt this idea. No matter how big or small the challenges you face are it will always be okay to fail. Just continue to try and try again.

I leave you this quote from Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Dylan

Over the past six months, Todd and I have had the wonderful opportunity of working with a member who has been in town as a traveling nurse. When she first came to us, she was coming off of being two years removed from a training routine. She told us that her goals were to get back into the shape she was in before she took time off, and to build her strength with the hopes of hitting personal bests in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Each week, she showed up 4 times, and most days at 6am. Todd and I knew she was dead serious about her goals, and she proved it each session. So, we put together a plan and provided her the best service we possibly could.

After 6 months of not missing a single workout, she signed up for and competed in her very first powerlifting competition right here at Union Fitness. It was safe to say that she was extremely nervous and had no idea what to expect (just as we all are for our first one). However, she showed up, put her heart and soul into every lift, and came out victorious. That day, we witnessed so much growth in her, as she did herself, that we knew she could take on anything that was placed in front of her.

We recently asked her to write us a short blog on her experience. At first, she was hesitant, as she didn’t want to be the center of attention, and was worried about what other’s might think. So, we let her think on it for a few days before I decided to have a conversation with her. What she didn’t realize was that she had a beautiful story to tell. One that involved moving 6 hours away to a city that she had never known, by her self. Aside from this, she was working at a job where she knew absolutely no one. She walked into a gym that she knew nothing about after taking 2 years completely off of training. She signed up to work with two goof ball trainers who she hadn’t built a relationship with yet. She then chose to continuously show up at 6am four days per week to achieve her goals, while signing up for and competing in a competition that she had never even seen in person. All of this in just 6 months. What she didn’t realize at first is that there were people who were going through the same challenges, or maybe who were even too hesitant to take those chances, just as she once was. 

As I type this, I ask you to do two things. First, take the time regularly to reflect on all of the amazing things you have accomplished over your lifetime. This is something we don’t do nearly enough. Next, pass it along. This is our greatest gift as humans, and without the ability and action of helping others, what good is it to experience and achieve all of the wonderful things that we have? Because, you never know how your experiences and the things that you have to share could impact the lives of those around you.

– Curtis Miller

This past Saturday, Union Fitness hosted the 2022 Texas Power Bar Open which happened to be my first meet that I’ve competed in. I have spectated and volunteered at three other meets that were hosted here at UF, but never actually lifted in one.

I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by several “meet veterans” at UF who were able to help me prepare for everything in the months beforehand. Curtis, Todd, and Zain helped me stay ready and answered all questions that I had both during training and on meet day.

I learned so many new things about myself and powerlifting throughout my training. I was able to test my limits, hit some solid PR’s, and I learned how to successfully train for a meet.

Going into meet day, I knew next to nothing about weigh-ins, lift commands, or how the flights of lifters worked throughout the day. Thankfully, I had the UF team with me for weigh-ins to help me know what I needed to bring and how the flow of it all went. I started training with the lift commands towards the last weeks of training, so I was still a little rusty but ended up not missing any of them on meet day. As far as the flights of lifters went, I had Zain by my side all day to help me to know when I was going to step out onto the platform and also what numbers I would strive to hit on the next attempts.

I ended up going 8/9 on my lifts, which I was very happy with. And I also hit a huge deadlift PR, which I was very excited about! I couldn’t have made it through the whole day without Ava, Diana, and Miranda (who all three also competed and did awesome) helping to motivate me and we hyped each other up all day, Zain who helped me with everything from warmups to figuring out my next attempts to getting me platform ready, Curtis who helped with my training program for months and he shared all of his powerlifting wisdom with me, Todd who gave me some pre squat trap slaps to get me ready to lift and as I’ve said before he’s my everyday hype man, and last but not least my dude Malik who kept my muscles ready to make the gainz and hit my lifts.

Thank you to everyone who helped make my first meet experience a great one. I’m planning to do some more in the future, and I’m looking forward to it!

Toria

They blinded me with science.

Today let’s take a quick look at what happens inside our body when we start a weight lifting/ resistance training program. This style of exercise is called anaerobic training.  Anaerobic training is defined as high-intensity, intermittent bouts of exercise like weight training, plyometric drills, speed, agility, and interval training.

Anaerobic exercise results in benefits and increased levels of these functions listed below.

Cardiac output & Stroke volume: Heart can beat faster and harder to provide more oxygen and nutrients to active muscles.

Heart rate: Decreases resting HR & blood pressure.

Oxygen uptake: Increases ability to take in oxygen from the respiratory system and deliver it to the working tissues

Neural adaptations: Motor cortex activity increases when the level of force developed increases and when new exercises or movements are being learned. Aka learning new exercises will create a “muscle memory”.

Bone & connective tissue: Strengthens bones, tendons, ligaments and fascia.

Muscular growth: Muscle hypertrophy is muscular enlargement from an increase in the cross-sectional area of the existing fibers.

Strength & Power: Mean strength & power increases up to 73%  in untrained athletes.

Body Composition: Increases in lean tissue mass, daily metabolic rate, and energy expenditure during exercise are outcomes of resistance training.

Flexibility : Anaerobic training potentially can have a positive impact on flexibility, primarily if the individual has poor flexibility to begin with & completes the exercise with use of full range of motion.

Aerobic Capacity: Circuit training and programs using high volume and short rest periods have been shown to improve VO2max.

Motor Performance: Resistance training has been shown to increase running economy, jumping, sprinting, golf swings, throwing and hand eye coordination.

Come toss some weights around on a regular basis and reap all these neat benefits and gains with these adaptations to anaerobic training.

Get Bumpy,

CEJ