Category Archives: Life Health

Thermometer vs. Thermostat

Life Health

Let’s get our brains bumpy today!

 

I’ve got a question for you. Are you a thermometer or a thermostat?

 

Thermometer: you react to the temperature around the room. When it’s hot, it reads hot. Think of this as a knee jerk reaction to a situation. Usually when tension is high, these people lose their cool and become irrational and act on impulse. In a leadership position, thermostats won’t inspire trust or commitment.

 

Thermostat: regulate the temperature/ monitors the environment of the room. These people have a pulse for the energy of the room. When things get too hot, they can cool us down and think calmly. When times are good they give us that needed kick in the bum to press towards our goal. These leaders build trust & confidence with educational, thought out responses.

 

Which type of person are you, are you both at times and which would you like to be more of?

 

Stay cool my friends,

 

CeJ

Table Time Project

Life Health

I am excited to announce a new option I will be offering for massage here at Union Fitness and I hope you are excited as well! If you have been interested in trying massage for your first time or you are a regular but a specific area starts to bug you in between sessions, this is your time!

 

Here are the details: 

 

When?

This will be starting the first week of May on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 4-7pm. The dates will include May 4th, 6th, 11th, 13th, 18th, 20th, 24th, 27th, and 31st.
Sessions will be available at 4pm, 4:30pm, 5pm, 5:30pm, 6pm, and 6:30pm.  Each session can be a max of 20 minutes, providing at least 10 minutes transition time for the following client.

 

What is the cost?

Sessions will be $1 per minute.

 

Why?

Very specific work on an area bothering you
Experience Massage Therapy for your first time!
Less time commitment.
Less financial investment.
Easy scheduling
.

 

How to sign up:

At the start of the week a sign up sheet will be posted at the front desk.  You may also contact me, grab me in the gym, or simply sign up a few minutes beforehand if something is bugging you during your workout and the time slot is still open.

 

Cayt 🙂

20 Years and 20 Lessons

Fitness, Life Health, Training

I have competed in one form or another in powerlifting for over two decades now. It may be a bit longer but I ain’t counting. No matter how long it has been here are a few things I learned along the way.

 

  1. Consistency is the only thing that works in any program.
  2. Stop looking for a coach and start looking for training partners.
  3. Know that you don’t know and learn from everyone.
  4. Somedays it is best to throw the program out and train with the group.
  5. If your gym doesn’t allow chalk, find a new gym.
  6. Find those stronger than you and follow them.
  7. Respect the IRON.
  8. Respect others training around you.
  9. Be patient, results take time and return to lesson one, consistency.
  10. Ride the wave. Somedays you are not in control and that’s OK.
  11. Don’t throw out the program because of one failure.
  12. What works today may not work tomorrow.
  13. What may not have worked in the past may work tomorrow.
  14. Over time how you approach each lift may change (this could be mental or physical).
  15. There is only three reasons you aren’t getting stronger (fear of pain, fear of weight, fear of injury).
  16. The pendulum will always swing too far. Whatever you think is right today will be assumed to be wrong tomorrow.
  17. You have two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak.
  18. Most deadlifts aren’t missed they are given up on.
  19. Quitting is OK. If you don’t love it don’t do it. If you love it then keep fighting.
  20. Make this a team sport. Enrich your life through the sport.

 

This is my short list with an assist from Curtis Miller.

 

Hamer

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, and HFCS

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

The good old American diet, quick and assessable greasy fat or sugary foods. YUM, am I right? In America, there is heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and an obesity epidemic. There is room to point fingers at a lot of reasons but in this, we’ll focus on added sugars like high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  

 

HFCS was invented in 1965 and in the 70s it was being marketed. Over the years, this has been used more often for food and drink products. Which is found in most of the foods and drinks we consume (e.g. bread, soda, juice, canned fruit, cereal, & coffee creamers, etc). This has become a common ingredient because it is cheap and easy to manufacture. 

 

High-fructose corn syrup is an artificial sugar made from corn syrup. HFCS needs to be broken down into glucose, glycogen, or fat by the liver before being used as fuel. In America, the increased sugar consumption per person per year has greatly increased. This increase consumption can cause serious health issues mentioned in the beginning. Glucose will stimulate the area of your brain that controls appetite, whereas, fructose does not, which means you could eat more than planned. Are you wondering what overeating can lead to? Well, have you heard of visceral fat? It is the most harmful type of body fat. HFCS will promote visceral fat build-up on your major organs such as the liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines, and heart. This can increase your risk for heart disease, stroke, artery disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

 

I’m not saying avoid HFCS or sugars at all costs. These sugars are everywhere and can be hard to avoid, especially in our more sedentary, grab-and-go society. Just try to be mindful of what you are putting into your body. 

Tis’ the Season for Outdoor Bootcamps

Fitness, Life Health

Good people of Union, the sun is shining and so are we!

 

We are excited to announce that our Summer Weekend Pop-Up Boot-camp classes will be popping up at locations near you very soon. We are looking forward to joining forces with local businesses in the Northside and Pittsburgh community to give you a little fun in the sun, explore Pittsburgh and support our local small businesses. These boot-camps will be open to members and nonmembers of all fitness levels. Our Bumpiest Coaches will be there to make sure you have fun, stay safe, get sweaty and make some new friends. We plan to make every boot-camp have some charitable donation to give back to the community that has given us Pittsburghers so much. Have no fear, we will give you enough of a heads up to come and crush these weekend (Saturday) bootcamps with us and who knows, there might even be a few prizes or drinks at the end.

 

We have a few places in mind but if you know of a local business that you want to support or a cool place you would like to have a pop-up at, please let us know and we can work to make that happen! Let’s get excited, shout this news from atop of the Mount Washington Inclines, get your friends and get Bumpy with our Summer Boot-camp series.

 

The very first bootcamp will be May 1st with our friends Allegheny City Brewing. ACB has been a good friend of UF for years now and we are excited to kick off our outdoor season with them.

 

Cheers,

 

CeJ

Does the Weather Control You?

Life Health

If you are reading this then odds are you live in Pittsburgh and know much about clouds and grey skies. We all know that Seasonal Affective Disorder is a real thing and affects many of us in this region with long dark winters. No matter how much you try to not allow the weather to affect you, it does. This is basic science, long dark days are not great for your health.

 

Now we are in spring time and the sun is back above our heads, the clouds are clearing and we are beginning to see the pandemic coming to a close. This is the time for consistency from you. Today will be sunny, warm, and the perfect day to train. Get outside, get into the gym, sweat, bike, run, walk, hike, just do something. These are the easy days to use the weather to motivate us. I commend you for doing this. I also now ask you to not rely on daily motivation, rely on your discipline to create consistency.

 

As I type this I can see one of our hardest working members jogging slowly on the treadmill. Jessie Theisen committed to doing a show over a year ago. The pandemic hit and she saw a huge hurdle before her. She did not allow that hurdle to slow her down. She decided to jump over it and keep on running. This is consistency at it’s best.

 

Now back to the weather. A strange thing happens anytime it rains, less people attend our classes on these poor weather days. I now ask you, if you want to reach your goals are you going to allow the weather to control your decisions? Too often we look outside and see the rain, and this is just the excuse we need for not coming to the gym. Let’s all help each other and support one another so that we can overcome this and help hold one another to a new standard of consistency.

 

Now with today’s perfect weather go do your conditioning outside. Skip the gym today, get your vitamin D.

 

Trying to be your sunshine on rainy days.

 

Hamer with support by Matt Grayson.

 

Massage Frequency

Life Health

This is one of the most commonly asked questions I receive as a massage therapist. Now the answer won’t be the same for everyone. Depending on what training cycle you’re in or whether you just need to relax, the answer will vary. If you are someone who just wants relaxation, once a month to six weeks is probably a good fit for you.

 

Depending on your training cycle, if you were going really hard in training or getting ready to compete, your body is going to need a bit more recovery. You may have areas that bother you often or areas of tightness, and that’s going to require more focused work and that takes time. My suggestion for those clients is that we spend an entire hour working on the problem areas and that they come back every 2 to 4 weeks. If you feel like “I just can’t give up an area of the body” I would suggest going for 90 minutes so that we can have time for focused work but also allowing the whole body to receive the benefits of massage. After a competition or a race it may take multiple sessions for the body to get back to homeostasis so to speak.

 

In the recovery session the therapist would use lighter strokes paying attention to how the tissue responds to pressure. Using modalities, such as Swedish massage encourage blood flow and toxin removal through lymph drainage and improved circulation. This really helps to alleviate soreness in the muscle. A more focus session or deep tissue session involves applying sustained pressure using slow, deep strokes to target the inner layers of your muscles and connective tissues. This helps to break up scar tissue that forms after an injury and reduce tension in muscle and tissue. This modality can promote healing by increasing that all important blood flow and reducing inflammation.

 

The body has a mind of its own and after exercise induced trauma the muscles may only allow so much work from the massage therapist. Make sure you are having these conversations with your massage therapist. That way you both can be on the same page about your expectations and the goals For each massage session.

 

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the massage therapy staff here at Union Fitness and we can help to get you started feeling and moving your best.

 

Sarah Paladin

Sweep the Sheds with CeJ

Life Health

Unioners, remember that you are never too “big” to do the “small” things.

 

The title of the blog “Sweep the Sheds” comes from a mantra of the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team.  The All Blacks are one of the most known and winning organizations in sport with a win percentage of over 75% (in the span of 100 years). The All Blacks leaders believe in humility, taking responsibility for their own actions, and leaving their entitlement at the door. After every victory, lose or practice the All Blacks stay back and clean up their locker room to make it look as good or better than it did before, even though it is not their specific job. This may seem like a small detail but an important attribute in building a team that works together and shows pride and respect for their organization.

 

Everyone gets a little more hyped up to do the right thing when people are watching and the lights are on but  true character can be shown when they don’t know people are watching. Leadership, community and basic good qualities can be built and are on display in our everyday actions. Every interaction can be a job interview as some old gray bush once told me.

 

So remember to tidy up after yourself, say hello to people you walk by, hold the door open for someone and be nice…until it’s time to not be nice (and that’s a blog for a different day).

 

Can anyone name that movie?

 

Cheers,

CeJ

Let’s Celebrate Our Women

Life Health, Uncategorized

March is women’s history month and we here at UF are home to many strong and awesome women. I would like to take a few minutes to highlight just a few of our awesome female members. This is a very short and incomplete list, but please take a moment and celebrate these (and all the other women of UF and all other places in our world).

 

Kelsey Garonzik– If you have not met Kelsey you should. She is the superhero of UF female lifters. She is one of the finest lifters and a very nice person. One warning is Kelsey has one of the best dry sense of humors in the gym.

 

Madison Fitzgibbons– Our own west coast transplant. Madison shows her hard work through her consistency at UF.

 

Ashley Koltonski– Ashley brings a ton of positive energy every time she arrives at UF. She is our own bad ass, yoga, weightlifting lady. We are better for having Ashley at the gym.

 

Isabella Mustane– Try to keep up with Isabella, I doubt you can. Isabella is business in the gym. She could be outside doing handstand push ups or squatting big weight, either way she is probably outworking me.

 

Emily Twargowski- Emily is the model of consistency at UF. Emily never misses a class and we are always impressed by how she is always willing to try new things.

 

Diane Johnson– I am kind of nervous typing this as if I mess up Diane might fight me. In all seriousness Diane comes in daily to work hard and is committed to improvement daily.

 

Rachel Davis– Rachel is one our hardest working cardio members at UF. Coming back from Covid shut downs cardiolab classes have not been busy. We have all seen Rachel in there taking a class by herself and working hard.

 

Give each of these ladies a hand and your respect for showing strength and dedication daily. I personally thank each of you as without you UF would not be what it is.

The Little Things Matter

Fitness, Life Health

Why am I not getting stronger?  Why am I not losing weight? Why am I not feeling recovered?  Why am I so tired? Have you caught yourself asking similar questions, maybe even as a slight whine or complaint?

 

I hear these thoughts from others and I catch myself thinking it from time to time. While there is a possibility that the answer is more complicated, that is not my point with this blog.  More often than not the answer is so simple – so simple that we don’t even want to be reminded that the change needed is completely in our control.

 

When these thoughts start to pop up, it can be easy to combat that with the thought of quitting altogether. Sometimes that even sounds sensible in the moment. However, I know we are all logical enough to know that lashing out will not lead to anything productive.

 

There are two things that I have found to help bring back logic to my thoughts, refocus my plan of daily actions, and provide grace in the other areas of my life.  Before even mentioning the two tips, I must preface with something cliche.  You MUST know what you want and why you want it so badly.  Without a clear destination it will be challenging to determine the steps needed and the motivation to complete those steps on the difficult days.  Once you do know what you would like, it becomes easier to dial in on the little things.  So here are two things to think about:

 

  1. If you are following a program and beginning to experience a plateau, stick to the plan. There will come a time when it is appropriate and necessary to adjust, but if it has only been a short amount of time since the initial start or a recent adjustment, continue to follow the plan.
  2. This second part is a little bit harder. Be completely honest with yourself – writing it down or saying it out loud to someone helps me to think WHOOPS, yeah I am definitely not doing everything I can.
  • If it is about weight loss/weight gain, there is more than likely a minor adjustment that will be so apparent once you write it out. Are you eating five times the serving of nuts instead of one? Aside from your training session in the gym are you living more of a sedentary lifestyle than usual?
  • If you are not recovering, are you doing your recovery work or saying “ehh I’ll do it tomorrow”…everyday?
  • If you are feeling tired, what does your bedtime routine look like? Are you watching a few extra shows or maybe drinking caffeine a little too late?

 

As stated in the beginning, troubleshooting generally leads to these little things but there may be a time that you really are doing everything in your power.  If you find that is the case, I like to follow up with analyzing how I am prioritizing my time and effort.  Expecting yourself to succeed in every area of life at the same time is too much for anyone.

 

Once you know where your focus is at the time (your physical health, mental health, a project at work, a new season of life) these can be good ways to narrow down what needs to change and help provide peace of mind. That season will eventually change and life will hand you a new component to prioritize (or you will choose something else), which is perfectly fine.  New phases will certainly come again and you will soon have the chance to switch roles of effort and practice grace for the others. 

 

Cayt