Category Archives: Life Health

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

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

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

Ham’s Breakdown of Classes

Fitness, Life Health, , ,

One of the coolest things about UF is the diversity inside our gym. We have diversity of clients, classes, and employees. I never know what I am going to get from one day to the next. This week I want to break down our classes, (in a light hearted way) and the diversity of the classes. So I hope we can all laugh at ourselves.

  1. Blitz- I am going to start with my class. This class was founded back in 2020 for the busy office worker (clearly I am terrible at predicting the future). It is a class perfect for people like me (want to train, but come on let’s not work too hard). Seriously, though the class is meant to be short, fun, and a little bit of everything. So no need to sweat so hard, just come and get a little lunch sweat.
  2. CardioLab (the classic)- These classes are OG’s of UF. They have been around forever and I tell everyone here the goal is to burn 500 calories, as painlessly as possible. Warning, burning 500 Kcal is never painless. Make sure you take Steph’s class for extra pain.
  3. Powerful- Powerful is by far our most popular class. Imagine training for a sport that scores of people throughout the US train for, this is powerful. Yet, somehow the crew makes powerlifting look cool in this class.
  4. Ryde- Ryde is our indoor cycling class. Similar to CardioLab classes, Ryde will burn some serious calories. The Ryde instructors are also great DJ’s as they all have their playlists set far in advance. This is the newest group here at UF, and they have brought their own flair to the gym,
  5. Yoga- Haley and her devoted yogi instructors do a great job, on a rare occasion you may even find me twisting my body up with this crew. Plus, they do cool events like heavy metal and whiskey yoga.

 

There it is our classes in a nutshell. Now go take a class or two and have some fun.

 

Hamer

CVASPS Review

Life Health

UF was proud to host the CVASPS event this weekend. For those of you who do not know what CVASPS is, CVASPS is the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar. It was started at the University of Richmond by Jay Demayo. Jay has year in and year out brought together some of the greatest minds to speak on sports performance.

 

This year we had people from Penn St, University of South Carolina, Coaches with Olympic Medals, Quinnipiac University, as well as many others in attendance with tons of great experience. We would not be able to host such an amazing event without being here at Nova Place, and having Alloy 26 right behind us. These facilities give us the opportunity to host some of the best continuing education clinics and seminars in the country. In addition to all of this Mike from Slider Vibes and The Yard came through with some quality food for everyone.

 

We host a seminar without somehow involving a deadlift. We are very lucky to have Curtis Miller, a world-class deadlifter working here at UF. Curtis spent time with seminar attendees going over all things deadlift. Without Curtis, we would not be the gym that we are and we all owe him a huge THANK YOU.

 

We are trying to bring more educational opportunities to everyone here at UF. So be on the lookout for more.

 

Hamer

Tips to Make Exercise a Habit

Fitness, Life Health

It can be hard to find the motivation to make it into the gym or to try to get our bodies moving somedays. We’ve all had those days where we just don’t feel like exercising or even moving off our couches. Even though we may not feel like doing anything, it is important to remember how beneficial it is to exercise and to make that a part of our weekly routines and daily lives. It takes about 30(ish) days to form a habit and about 90(ish) days to make it a permanent lifestyle change. Here are some tips that may help you to make exercise a true habit in your lives:

 

  1. Set both short-term and long-term goals to help motivate you to stay on track during your fitness journey. For example, it may be difficult for you to find motivation go out on a long run just for fun. By setting a goal such as signing up for a half-marathon or a 10k a few months from now, you are more likely to hold yourself accountable and stick to a routine which will help to enforce the habit. The same thing goes for those who are looking to get into Powerlifting. If you sign up for a Powerlifting meet in the upcoming future, it will more than likely motivate you to work hard and stick to it.
  1. Find a great gym to train at. I know a great gym in Pittsburgh that you all may or may not have heard of ;-). With that being said, Union Fitness is the place to be. We are known to have a very welcoming and friendly atmosphere that may help you find that you actually want to come into the gym more often and make it a habit to be there.
  1. Find a training partner or a group that you enjoy working with. This may help you with accountability, encouragement, and added motivation to your training sessions.
  1. Have a gym bag packed and ready the night before your planned trip to the gym. When everything is already laid out for you and ready to go, you may find it more difficult to say no to making a training session happen that day. 
  1. Start small and go up from there. If you’re not used to doing 60 minutes of exercise, don’t try to start there just because someone told you to. This could lead to burnout and a lack of motivation to commit to exercise. Start small by doing something along the lines of 20-30 minutes of movement at first and then continue to progress from there.
  1. Make exercising a convenient and flexible thing for you so that it doesn’t feel too much like a chore. Life happens, but don’t let it get in your way of being active. Find some nearby walking trails or maybe even choose to take the stairs instead of the elevator every day.

 

These are only my top 6 tips. There are so many other ways out there that may help to make exercise a habit for you, so don’t just stop here! 

 

Stay healthy my friends.

Toria Crispin (Tordawg)

Set Some Goals, Reach Some Goals, and Fail

Fitness, Life Health, Uncategorized

Back in January I decided to set some goals for myself. It is now April, the year is 1/3 over and I am no where near reaching my goals. This could easily be seen as a bad thing, yet I could not be happier at how this year has turned out. The goals I set assumed that life would not happen and stand in the way of me reaching my goals.

 

Flashback.

 

January stared strong and I was feeling good. Then I had my first injury in years. When i say injury, I mean can’t train injury. I have had run of the mill bumps and bruises. This was the first time in about 5 years that I was in bad enough shape that I had to change everything that I was doing. The beauty with this injury was that I was able to look at what I was doing, look at my goals, and decide where I needed to go from there. I am very lucky to have people much smarter than I am to bounce ideas off of as well. 

 

As I look back at this injury it was the best thing to happen to my training in years. I have not competed in years and needed a new focus. This led me to being able to work on movements and weaknesses that I have not addressed in years. 

 

As for my goals?

 

I reached none of my January goals. Well, I did reach my reading goal, yet that was never really in question. As far as movement goals, I was not even close to any of them. My question for you is, do you think I would have been better if I had reached my goals and not be injured? I know what my thoughts on this are. 

 

I have never been a person who says, everything happens for a reason. I have twisted this saying to my own view, I believe, wise people learn lessons when things happen. The world and all of its happenings can be random and if we try hard enough then we will learn lessons from all these happenings. 

We can do it all this week if we

Now go out, set some goals, fail, learn, growth , and set some new goals. Fail better and maybe one day you will reach those goals. Whether you reach your goals or you don’t does not matter as the journey is really what matters and you’ll remember the struggles more then the goals. 

An Introduction to Massage Therapy

Life Health

There comes a time in every human’s anatomical experience where they have a tension they can’t relieve, a motion they have issues moving through, or the like. Time goes by; you hope it solves itself. Eventually, it comes down to, “I cannot get this out,” whatever it is. To find relief, we take an aspirin, or apply cold or heat to the area, and these remedies can and will work in a lot of cases. But what do you do when this discomfort becomes recurring, chronic, and these tools don’t get the job done? You seek professional opinion. When you can’t fully figure out why you have dysfunction in your tissue, it is the time to ask for help.

 

The human body is resilient, and it can do a ton, but not without a conduit of some sort. Massage therapy, when it comes to soft tissue dysfunction, is that catalyst, stepping stone to more functional muscle. Conditions such as carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, a frozen shoulder, shin splints, and tight neck are obvious reasons to get bodywork done. This list of injuries continues. It is also beneficial to get work done if you are doing consistent motions, be you a warehouse worker, a bodybuilding athlete, or desk worker; bodywork maintenance will help you avoid injury and extend the life of your physical prowess. Healing and recovery are crucial parts of any person’s lifestyle. With my time in the fitness/wellness field, I profess massage therapy as an essential tool for every person, not because I want to have work (duh), but that I have produced and seen its benefits.

 

These benefits, though often can be seen soon after the session concludes, really only flourish and stick when sessions have regularity. Determining with what regularity is always a conversation between client and practitioner, based on therapist and client availability and severity of dysfunction. To give a standard, most healthy athletes I work with get seen once a month, mostly as a check. If the two of us have a project or a goal in mind, the frequency may increase to twice or three times a month. I am spoiled and think everyone deserves one every week. The more often you see a licensed massage therapist, the more your soft tissue will thank you in power and mobility.

 

The more honest and informative you can be with your massage therapist, or other adjacent practitioners, the better they can assume the skills that will most benefit you. The massage practitioner has a duty to create a beneficial, yet ultimately safe and welcome space for their clients. Tell the therapist about your past injuries and surgeries. Tell them about skin conditions you may have or relevant medications you’re taking, like NSAIDs or muscle relaxants.  No judgment is ever passed in my massage room. Everybody’s journey is different and I just want to make sure people get helped along the way.

 

Humans must do. We must play, we must work, we must do. In this ‘life of do’, we may not always know what we did to create tension in the body, or why it hurts here, or how things got this way, but there are ways to be better, to find yourself in a better position. There is no shame in asking for help to get there.