Category Archives: Life Health

New Year, New Strength, New Friends

UF and LEG1ON Training are excited to host our first ever combined bootcamp. On January 1st, 2021 UF and LEG1ON will come together on the UF outdoor turf to host a bootcamp that is free to all.

 

We have been trying to reach out and work with other local training facilities to offer Pittsburgh a better fitness and strength community. LEG1ON opened in 2020, and immediately gave us a gym that was open to working with us. Due to this relationship, we will be having more joint offerings in the future. The details of the bootcamp are below.

 

Time and Date: Jan 1st, 2020. 11 AM-Noon.

Location: Union Fitness, 100 South Commons, Pittsburgh PA, 15212

How do I sign up? Sign up on MindBody.

Is there a cost? This class is free to everyone.

What can I expect? You can expect two of the best gyms in Pittsburgh coming together with their best instructors, to give you a great workout to start the new year.

Will it be safe? Our outdoors space at UF is big, and we require masks at all times when on the premises.

 

We hope to see you here on Jan 1st to meet some new friends and have some fun.

 

Todd Hamer

 

Fill Those Sleeves. Holiday Edition.

As 2020 comes to an end let’s remember why we train. We all know we train to fill our sleeves. As my good friend Dr Jacked (Scott Caulfield) has often reminded me, a good deadlift is important yet big arms are important(er). With big arms in mind let’s review some old pump up exercises from yesteryear.

 

Curl the ladder– In order to curl the ladder all one needs is an empty barbell. Take the bar and hold it at 90 degrees for a ten count then do 10 curls, repeat this for reps 9-1. Be sure to get a good 10 count hold between each set of curls. Do not set the barbell down until all reps are done.

 

100 rep curl– Simplest pump ever, just grab a bar and curl it for 100 reps as quickly as possible.

 

Dip & push down superset– Slow controlled set of 10-20 bodyweight dips as soon as you complete these begin with 25 band pushdowns. Make this a drop set by decreasing dip reps each set while increasing pushdown reps.

 

Roney push up challenge– This is named after a good friend Jim Roney. We used to use this as a finisher after bench day. Set down a pair of dumbbells. Do 1 push then 2 push ups with hands on the dumbbells. Then make it 2&4, then 3&6… keep going until 10&20.

 

Surf the rack– This can be done with any exercise (curls, extensions, lateral raises etc.). Start at a weight you can do ten reps with (let’s say 45 lbs.). Do ten reps, set the weight down and go to the next set of dumbbells down the line, do ten with that weight and continue until you have touched every lighter dumbell.

 

I hope this has given you some good ideas on how to get a pump this holiday season. We all need a little different way to make sure we are still having fun with training.

 

 

 

 

 

CeJ’s Rock N Rolling Mobility

Union Fam,

 

It’s chilly, it’s dark, you might be stranded inside your dojo for the time being slamming away on your keyboard, or falling down the rabbit hole of tik-tok conspiracy theories. Have no fear, CeJ is here with some mobility exercises that can fire your day up and get you moving, grooving, and feeling right!

 

Run through 3-4 Sets of 5-10 Repetitions of each exercises 1-5 and repeat. (Rest as needed)

 

1) Sun Salutations.

2) Squat to stretch , add in rotations, squat to stretch with push back and rotation.

3) Inchworm to spiderperson to figure 4 and walk back.

4) Glute bridge with reach across, single leg glute bridge, Iso glute bridge with leg chops, Iso glute bridge with leg abduction/adduction.

5) Cannonball to V-sit, Cannonball to butterfly.

 

Make sure you breathe well during these exercises. Breathe deep into your nose, smooth exhale out of your mouth. Take your time with each exercise and work to increase overall range of motion as you go. Turn your favorite tunes on and get to rocking with some fun flow mobility exercises.

 

Thank you for reading and if you’d like to see demos of these exercises, they will be on our Instagram or just let us know and we can send you the videos.

 

Cheers,

 

CeJ

 

P.S. Who would be down for a mobility class taught by the Rock n Roll Wizard himself? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and let us know how you enjoyed these mobility exercises.

 

Outdoor Training, Online Classes, and Trying to Do What We Can

Now that we have had a weekend to fully grasp the new orders from our state government I would like to give everyone an update as to what we are doing. Our goal is to follow all rules and regulations,  while doing the best we can to serve each and everyone of you. I have listed here how we are trying to do this in these unique times.

 

  1. We are offering outdoor activities to the best of our abilities for all of our members. Our turf area is mostly covered and we are going to do our best to keep it warm and snow free.
  2. We are offering online classes for free via instagram. We decided against using zoom as we don’t want to charge anyone for this service. So please log on and do some training with us. We have broken the classes into four categories. 1. Bodyweight class. 2. Class with weights. 3. Educational class (this will be more lecture based).      4. Yoga. Please feel free to sign up for any of these.
  3. We are loaning equipment up until the week that we will be permitted to re-open.
  4. We are spending this time reviewing our classes and schedules to best serve our members.
  5. We are also moving and cleaning under, over, and around all equipment. When we re-open we hope to be the cleanest gym on earth.
  6. While operating our normal hours we will be closing the outdoor training area from 6-7 AM&PM for powerful class. Anyone who is interested in taking this class we will upgrade you for the next 3 weeks free of charge.
  7. We are offering a 25 dollar 3 week membership to anyone who belongs to another gym. The one condition is that you keep your gyms membership. We do not want to take members. We understand that we are very fortunate to have our outdoor space, and want to offer people a place to train if they currently don’t have one.

 

This is our list as of now. As with everything we do we are always open to hear what you have to say. If there is anyway that we can serve you during this shut down please reach out. As stated early we will follow all the state rules and regulations, and will still do what we can to offer you a great place to train.

Catering for the Pandemic Nurses at AGH

Hello Good People of Union Fitness,

 

The UF staff wants to give a huge THANK YOU to all of you that have donated and/or contributed to all of our charities and events we  have had in 2020!  None of the impact that we have made, would be possible without the generous help from you!

 

We are asking for your help one last time in 2020.  We are starting a GoFundMe page to raise money to provide lunch for the first responders at AGH. (Allegheny General Hospital).  During these times we MUST not forget about the people that are putting their lives and their loved ones lives at risk to serve our sick.  

 

We here at UF want to show our support and let the first responders know, that our community is behind them in all their efforts in fighting this pandemic.  We will be using Erin’s Deli to do the catering for us.  Erin’s Deli located in the bottom of the K&L building in downtown Pittsburgh has been effected by the pandemic and we want to help her out as well.

 

We are ALL in this together.  We must continue to support our friends, our community, and our neighborhood.  We must show them that, they’re people that cherish their hardwork and sacrifice.  Supplying them a lunch is minimal but, it means a great deal to them.  

 

So let’s end this dreadful year with some positivity by showing our gratitude to the people that are doing their best to make people feel better.  We owe them a piece of joy during this holiday season!

 

Matt Grayson

Holiday Tunes to Get Bumpy to

It’s time to crank up the volume to 11 with these 10 songs to get you in the Holiday spirit, while you smack some iron around!

 

“CeJ’s Top 10 Holiday Tunes to Get Bumpy To”

 

1) O Come All Ye Faithful- off of Bad Religon’s Christmas Songs Album. Punk rock and holiday jams really speeds things up.

 

2) Carol Of The Bells- off of August Burns Red Sleddin Hill,  A Holiday Album. Tune the guitars to drop D and get to shredding. They just dropped a new Holiday album, go check it out.

 

3) You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch- By Small Town Titans. The Grinch + Metal = Bumps.

 

4) The Hanukkah Song- Adam Sandler rocks this live version.

 

5) Things I Want- Jack Black, Tenacious D & Sum 41 join forces to melt your merry faces off.

 

6) The Season’s Upon Us- off of Dropkick Murphys Signed & Sealed in Blood. This song will make you sway back and forth with some nog in hand and family in a headlock.

 

7) Sock It To Me Santa- By Bob Seger & The Last Heard. If this song doesn’t get you moving, you might be a mean one Mr. Grinch.

 

8) All I Want For Christmas Is You-  By My Chemical Romance off of The 20 Songs that Keep Giving Album.

 

9) Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)-  By The Darkness. We’ve all hit the high note in ” I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, now let’s belt out some cheer here.

 

10) Making Christmas- By Rise Against is a cover from Danny Elfman’s (From Oingo Boingo) Nightmare Before Christmas score.

 

 

Honorable Mentions:

 

x) Run Rudolph Run-Lemmy

x) What Christmas Means To Me- Stevie Wonder

x) Happy Holidays, You B- Blink 182

x) I Saw 3 Ships- B.E. Taylor

x) Christmas Christmas- Cheap Trick

 

 

Let me know some of your favorite Holiday songs to Get Bumpy to and drop them in the comments. Hope you enjoyed this list and found some new bangers.

 

 

Happy Holidays,

 

 

CeJ

Top Ten List: Dumb Things Lifters Do

For this Monday’s blog we are taking a humorous look at weird things we all do as lifters.

 

  1. Bug squasher squats. For the last few years I have noticed many lifters who unrack the bar and then do the bug squasher dance. Not sure when this began yet it makes zero sense and is funny to me (special shout out to Daniel McKim for the name).
  2. Slamming warm up sets. We all know that your 135 and 225 warm ups felt light. What we don’t need is a new divot in the deadlift platform because of your slam dunk warm up.
  3. While on deadlifts let’s talk about your set up. Barking at the bar while raising your arms to the heaven will not help you lift the weight. Settle down and lift the weight.
  4. Living on “pre-workout.” We all need a pick me up at times, yet if you cannot lift without one maybe you need more sleep, not more chemicals.
  5. Over-concerning yourself with records. We have all been to a holiday party (well before 2020) and heard, “my cousin’s friend is a world record holder.” Our “sport” has a record for everything so just get a PR and have fun.
  6. Making fun of CrossFit. Yes, it is an easy target yet if you can’t walk a flight of stairs maybe some CrossFit could help your GPP.
  7. Acting like bodybuilders are ego maniacs while we are humble. Sorry, reality check time. We all have egos and began lifting to feed that ego. It’s okay, and we can learn from those guys and gals in their string tank tops.
  8. RPE scales. Too often I see a video when the lifter says “RPE 8.5.” C’mon! First off, do we really need decimals? Secondly, when you miss your second rep the RPE is a 10. All joking aside with this one, be humble. It is fine to say that your set was really much harder than it should have been.
  9. Instafamous. Yes, we all know that you lifted today, and social media is a great way to learn from those around you. If you spend more time editing your videos than you did training then did you train?
  10. Missing life because of lifting. After these last 9 light-hearted comments this one is serious. Lifting is a lot of fun. Take it from a guy who has competed in more than 20 events. I have had some of the best lifers come up and offer to help me without me even asking. I have also seen people helping those who they are competing against. What I am begging of you is to live your life. See your family. If you miss a lift, it will be okay. If you have to shorten a lift to go see friends and family then do it. If 2020 taught us anything it is that none of us are islands. When I get my vaccine I will stop my lift early to buy any and all of you a coffee or beer.

 

Todd Hamer

 

Meet Recap and Reflecting Back

I recently competed in my 15th full powerlifting meet. My goal for this meet was to step on the platform healthy and achieve a 2000lb total. This is a goal that I have been working towards for a very long time, and with the help of a great support system, I was able to do just that. It didn’t go exactly as planned (although it never really does), but I was able to stay focused and under control, and managed to walk away with a 804lb squat, a 430lb bench press, and a 766lb deadlift. As I sit and reflect, I can’t help but think about the journey and how I got to this point.

 

April of 2013 was my first powerlifting meet. I totaled 1310lbs at 190lbs bodyweight. To some, that isn’t a lot. To others it is. To me, it was neither. It was simply a starting point for my journey going forward. Even though the sport of powerlifting is judged off of how much weight you can lift, for me, it has never been just about that. Each time I walked into the gym, my only goal was to be better. Yes, sometimes this meant lifting more weight. Sometimes it meant learning something new about my technique. Other times it meant failing. But even when we fail, we have the ability to grow and become better if we have the right perspective. In my eyes, even a setback or a failure was a victory, because I learned something. I knew that if I kept this mindset and continued to accumulate the small wins, then I was progressing towards my goals and continuing to grow as an individual. Small wins over the period of weeks, months, and years add up into very big victories. 

 

This doesn’t just hold true for me, but for anyone. With the same mindset, any goal is attainable. The important thing to remember is that progress is never linear, whether it’s lifting weights or in life. There will always be setbacks, let downs, failures and achievements, road blocks and detours, but the most important thing is that you never give up. Could we do things more efficiently and be smarter with some of our decisions? Of course. But every single decision we make and experience we have leads us to this point where we are at this very moment. That’s living, and that’s how we grow. 

 

It’s hard to put into words exactly what this meet and this achievement means to me. All I can say is that every time I grab a barbell or walk into a gym, I am extremely grateful to be healthy and to have the opportunity to do something that I love. Having my wife there to experience it with me along with some of my closest friends was legitimately a dream come true and something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Powerlifting has given me more than I could ever give back. It has taught me lessons, helped me grow and mature, and has introduced me to some of the best people I’ve ever known. For that, I am forever grateful. 

3 Pup’s Hidden Holiday Movie Gems

Happy Holidays to my Merry friends at Union,

 

With the winter weather blowing and covid keeping us a little more hibernated this holiday season, the pups and I have debated and compiled an entertaining drop down of movies that are sure to put you in the spirit…of something.

 

We all know the holiday movie bangers, Jim Carrey’s Grinch, Will Ferrell’s Elf, Christmas Vacation and of course The Nightmare Before Christmas but let’s bust out some deep cuts.

 

Top 5 Hidden Holiday Gems; Movie Edition 

 

1) Jingle All The Way(1996): Arnold Schwarzenegger is a workaholic dad who has continuously let his son down and promises this Christmas, that he will get him the Turbo-Man action figure, the most coveted toy of the holiday. Arnie has to battle Santa, evil villains and even Sinbad for the toy.

 

2) Scrooged (1988): Bill Murry takes on a Charles Dickens rendition of A Christmas Carol. A cynical TV executive lives out a wild variation of the 1843 classic and is visited by ghosts on Christmas Eve to help him find his Christmas spirit.

 

3) Die Hard (1988): Bruce Willis battles terrorists at a Christmas Eve work party and saves the Holidays. “Ho Ho Ho, he has a machine gun).

 

4) The Night Before (2015): Seth Rogan and his 3 lifelong amigos spend the night in pursuit of the ultimate holy grail of holiday parties. They immediately remember that they aren’t as young as they used to be.

 

5) Gremlins (1984): An 80s gift gone wrong. Feed them after midnight of a mischievous holiday tale.

 

Honorable Mentions:

 

Batman Returns (1992): Micheal Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer & Christopher Walken star in this gothic action-packed holiday thriller.

 

The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992): Jim Henson, Michael Caine, Kermet and the gang take on Charles Dickens.

 

Extra Slice of Pie:

 

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987): John Candy & Steve Martian star in this hilarious Thanksgiving holiday classic as they battle holiday travel to get home to their loved ones.

 

Shout out and comment some of your favorite holiday movies, deep cut or not so others can enjoy some of your go-tos.

 

Cheers my frosty friends!

 

-CeJ

Monthly Challenge

For the month of December we are offering all of our members a chance to challenge yourself, as well as us here at UF. There will be 4 different options and scoring sheets are hanging outside of our cardio lab. With these challenges you can complete them in the gym or tag us on instagram and we will put your score up for you. The winner of each challenge will receive a free massage. For those of you who are not ready to come back to the gym we can save your massage for a later date. Here are the challenges.

 

Challenge 1, Erg 2k Challenge.

 

For this challenge the goal is to do as many 2K’s on the Erg (rower) as you can during the month. The rules are simple. Row 2000 meters and that is 1 point. Row 4000 that is 2 points  etc. If you row 3000 today and 3000 tomorrow that is still only 2, 2 k’s. So please be honest as we are on the honor system.

 

Challenge 2, Bike 3 mile Challenge. 

 

For this challenge you just have to ride 3 miles on an airdyne bike. Similar to the first challenge you will just be asked to do the ride, then record it. Also, similar to the first challenge this must be done in 3 mile increments.

 

Challenge 3, Ski Erg 2k Challenge.

 

Read challenge one and do the same thing on a ski erg.

 

Challenge 4 Pull Up Challenge.

 

This is the simplest challenge. The goal is to hit as many pull ups as you can in the month of Dec. These can be done anytime and anywhere. Just record how many you have done.

 

As I stated earlier the scoring sheets are posted in front of the cardio lab. Some of our staff will participate in these challenges as well. If you do any of these challenges at home just tag Union Fitness and we will add your score in for you. If you do anything here just record it on our score sheets.

 

Now let’s get back to training!