Category Archives: Life Health

Meal of the Month, It’s not a cheat month!

December 4, 2019Diet, Life Health, Nutritionrnagy

It is officially upon us the holiday season. This is the time of the year that stress levels tend to increase. We have family pressures, our time become less ours and more dictated by outside forces, we also have ample opportunity to eat poorly. I am here to tell you it’s ok and we will get through this better and ready to attack 2020! Here are 7 tips to make it through this holiday season guilt free and wearing the same pants size you do now (or maybe even an improved body).

Don’t let guilt win. When at the holiday party enjoy yourself. The extra calories are fine as long as you don’t do it everyday.
Don’t count calories at the party. Akin to the first tip, be a human and have some fun.
Know when you cheated and get back on the right path the next day.
Drink 1 gallon of water a day. Not only will it keep you full, it will also prevent you from consuming too many liquid calories.
Forgo on the flavored holiday latte flavor before the party. Like a caveman drink real coffee for a few days.
Keep track of weight and how your jeans fit. These two methods or measuring your stress levels have stood the step of time. If you see an unwanted increase don’t freak out just get back on track at your next meal.
At the holiday party be sure to start at the veggie plate. Fill your stomach with some carrots before going straight to the desert tray.

Bonus tip;

Create a chart with 7 days and 4 boxes per day, each box represents an eating opportunity. Every day put a check in a box when you stuck to your plan. Put an x in a box when you cheated on your plan. Score yourself out each week. Do not be too harsh. If you only followed your plan 50% of the time then just get back at it next week and aim for 60%. If you try to be perfect all the time you’ll only get frustrated and fail. So enjoy the time with friends and family, get some exercise and enjoy the sweets, just not all of them.

Guest Blog Post, Tim Cortazzo

December 2, 2019Fitness, Life Healthrnagy

Today we have a guest post from our friend and owner of FSQ sports, Tim Cortazzo. Tim trains athletes and non-athletes in Trafford, PA. I have been friends with Tim for many years and I have always respected the work he does with everyone he trains. So here is the post from our friend Tim.

“5 Things you can do RIGHT NOW to get on track to a healthier lifestyle”

What does the term “Healthy Lifestyle” mean to you? For some, it’s a strict, clean diet and 7 days a week at the gym. For others, it’s simply doing enough during the week to enjoy pizza and beer on the weekend. Either way is fine! However living a sedentary lifestyle where you don’t take care of yourself is not. Let’s be realistic, we all know the steps to follow to get on track to a healthier lifestyle. Its pretty simple, eat better and move more. I also feel like the majority of the population WANT to be healthier. But why don’t we all actually follow these simple steps. There is more information available today to help people get healthy than there has ever been. However, there are still over 90 million people in the US who struggle with obesity.

These numbers are even more staggering (according to HHS.GOV):

Less than 5% of Adults in America participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day.
Only 33% of Adults in America get the recommended amount of physical activity each week.
Over 80% of Adults in America do NOT meet the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities and more than 80% of adolescents do not do enough aerobic physical activity to meet the guidelines for youth.
Reducing the sodium intake in America by 1,200mg per day can save up to $20 BILLION a year in medical costs.
Reports project that by Year 2030, half of all adults in the US will be obese. 115 MILLION PEOPLE PROJECTED TO BE OBESE!!!

I’m not using this article and platform to spew out stats about how unhealthy we are. I’m also not using this as a way to revolutionize a movement against fast food chains and pizza shops. I simply want to figure out a way to help as many people as I can by getting them started on the right track to feeling better and taking control of their health.

“GETTING STARTED IS THE HARDEST PART”

I don’t necessarily agree with this quote. It seems that gyms are crowded with New Years Resolutioners each and every January. I think getting started is pretty easy. SUSTAINING is the hardest part. It’s the reason people fall off the wagon so quickly. Maybe the available health information is just overly crowded. It seems like a new diet, Netflix show, or workout fad hits the market each week. With this type of overload, I’m not sure people actually know where to start with their diets and training. Hopefully this article can help jumpstart your journey to a healthier life!

MAKE A PLAN FOR SUCCESS

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Yes goal setting is an important part of this. But if you don’t have the road map, it will be a lot tougher to get to your destination. Take your time planning out your journey and refer back to it often! Set realistic short-term goals and write down the necessary actions you must take to reach these goals. Also set a timeline. If you don’t have a timeline, then your plan will be a free-for-all. Celebrate (but not too much) every time you hit a milestone! Use these short-term goals as a path to your larger, long-term, ultimate goal. Another important part of achieving your goals is developing the habits and skills necessary to reach the goal. For example, if you want to lose 10lbs, you must acquire the skills necessary to lose 10lbs. These skills may include “Meal Prepping,” “3 Days a week at the gym,” etc… To acquire these skills, you must develop the habits necessary to get better at that skill. “Waking up on time,” “Consistently getting to the grocery store,” etc… I find a flow chart to be the best way to accomplish the tasks at hand. This basically gives you a step-by-step guide to navigate. Here’s an example of a flow chart you can follow to start crushing your goals:

MAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF

We are all limited to 24 hours in a day. If you add it all up, we have 168 hours each week. How we choose to spend that time varies. If you can spend just 1 hour each day working on improving your health, you will more than likely be setting yourself up for success. 7 HOURS A WEEK!!! Make these 7 hours a priority. Let’s check out an average time breakdown for a working adult and see where we can fit these 7 hours. Feel free to plug in your own schedule.

-56 hours of sleep (average 8 hours each night)

-50 hours of work (commute included)

-14 hours of eating (assuming 2 hours each day spent eating)

– 5 hours of personal hygiene (hopefully at least that…)

– 7 hours of working on your health!

1 hour of planning

2 hours meal prepping

4 hours of physical activity

That’s a grand total of 132 hours each week doing the absolute necessities. That leaves you 36 extra hours to be spent doing whatever else you’d like to do. It should not be difficult to carve out 60 minutes each day to invest in your health. Here are some more tips on how to do this:

DELETE YOUR APPS. There’s an app for everything nowadays. More apps = more time spent on your phone. Delete your pointless apps that are eating away at your “you time.” Social media isn’t the devil. In fact social media can be a great tool to stay connected to our friends and the world around us. However, aimlessly scrolling on social media will destroy your productivity. Try to limit your time spent on pointless scrolling and use that time to do something productive for your health.
Set up “out of office hours” for yourself. I understand that people get busy with work. And depending on what you do for work, you may need to be attached to your phone all day. However answering emails and calls all day long will make you feel busier than you actually are. Prioritize the urgent messages and calls and shut it down! It’s ok to set the phone down for a few hours and limit how often you respond. Set up your “out of office” message and enjoy some time disconnected from the world. Just for the record: Absolutely no phone is allowed during your time working out.
Workout early in the morning. Lay out your workout gear right before you lay down for the night. Get to sleep an hour earlier than you normally do the night before. Sleep the same amount of time. Wake-up an hour earlier in the morning. Working out in the morning will be a great jumpstart to your day. Training early can boost your metabolism, improve your mood, increase your focus, and improve your energy for the day ahead. You will also feel accomplished after completing your first big task of the day.

HIRE A COACH

Now this one can be tough! There are a lot of snake-oil salesmen out there right now in the training/nutrition industry. However, there are plenty of really good coaches both online and in gyms that can be a huge asset for your journey. Coaches, whether its for your diet or training, provide structure! They will hold you accountable for showing up on time, working hard, sticking to your plan, reaching your goals, and ultimately sustaining your goals. Here are a few tips for hiring a coach:

Ask your trusted friends for recommendations
Check online for trusted reviews
ASK QUESTIONS!!! How long have you been helping people? What are your professional qualifications? Where did you receive your education and what was your area of study? Do you have any progress pictures or testimonials from clients? What will this process be like? HOW CAN YOU HELP ME?
Make sure they are a good fit for you. The worst thing you can do is hire an educated, experienced professional with great reviews IF you don’t really like them as a person/coach.
Check for certifications. This one can be tricky because not all certifications are the same. And with that being said, being certified doesn’t necessarily mean they are qualified. Holding a certificate doesn’t equate to being a good coach. But it does give that coach some credibility and can give you, the client, a piece of mind. Some of the more respected certifications include:

National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA)

National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)

American Council on Exercise (ACE)

American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)

Precision Nutrition (PN)

JOIN A PRIVATE GYM/STUDIO

Lets face it, private coaches can be expensive and may not fit into your lifestyle or budget. That’s fine! There are plenty of other ways to get the most out of investing in your health. The big, general public gyms can be intimidating. There’s a lot going on. People everywhere, tons of different machines, no structure especially if you don’t know where to start or what to do. Private gyms and studios are a great option to avoid this! Joining a private gym or studio provides a great sense of community. A positive attitude community with motivational coaches can provide accountability and structure to keep you on task. The clients at these training facilities have similar goals and are on similar journeys! There are plenty of different private facilities out there with different types of fitness. Same rules apply as hiring a coach. Ask friends where they workout, check reviews, look for professional qualifications, etc… Most importantly, find what you enjoy! There are facilities that specialize in strength training, yoga, cycling, CrossFit, even pole dancing? (The pole dancing one isn’t for me but hey!!! Whatever gets the job done for you) Try a couple different places and find the best fit for you.

STOP WAITING… START RIGHT NOW!

Don’t wait for Monday, don’t wait for next month, start immediately. Procrastination is your enemy. If you don’t start right now, you run the risk of never starting. The second you finish this article, use your newfound motivation, and go start planning. I promise you wont regret it!

Turkey Burn Week

November 25, 2019Life Healthrnagy

Welcome to Thanksgiving week. We at Union Fitness hope that this holiday is filled with many good times with friends and family. We also understand that this season can be stressful for many reasons. Balancing the different personalities can be more stressful than preparing a great meal. With this in mind here is a short list of ways to escape the stress of the holiday and relax.

Come to our Turkey Burn workout and bring a canned good to donate to those less fortunate.
Use our get your headspace app and meditate for ten minutes.
Use or get your MetriLife app and track your stress to see how far you have come and how you can improve.
Before or after your meal take a family walk.
Before or after your meal take a walk alone (sometimes we need this).
Do not worry about calories on thanksgiving day. Just be sure to eat healthy the rest of the week.
Do some volunteering this week. There are many great groups who need help as the winter closes its grips on us so help the needy.

This is a very short list of different ways that you can help others and yourself. Also, remember on this holiday that helping oneself does not need to be a zero sum game. We can volunteer and still help our mental state or exercise and empower those around us to exercise as well.

Happy thanksgiving week our friends!

Meal of the Week (burn your turkey edition)

November 20, 2019Clean Eating, Diet, Fitness, Life Health, Nutrition, Trainingrnagy

This week for our Meal of the Week we are going to change things up just a bit. We are now 8 days out from Thanksgiving. We all know that this is the ultimate “cheat day.” Here at Union Fitness we truly believe in helping each and every one of our members in and out of the gym. You may spend 1-10 hours a week in Union Fitness and we hope to empower you during that time to be your best self and live your best life. Too often as strength and fitness professionals we all lose sight of the end game, a better life. So with this in mind we are preparing to stuff ourselves on Thanksgiving day with friends and family and invite you to do the same and feel no guilt about enjoying your day.

The other thing we want to do is take care of yourself and others. On Thursday November 28th we invite you (and friends, member or non-member) to come down to Union Fitness and join us in our biggest class. We have named this class the Turkey Burn. If you are using our discount and running the Turkey Trot with our friends at the YMCA we will let you slide on this one. If you are free come down and join in the superclass. All we ask of you is three things:

Bring a canned good so that we may donate to those less fortunate than us. Don’t worry there will be coffee for after the workout.
Bring your Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) and maybe some friends or family to raise their holiday spirits too.
Sign up for the class online so we know how much coffee to bring. We have already added more spots to this class three times so let’s burn some turkeys.

The workout will consist of some cardio class, some lifting as well as a special Powerful with CJ workout. We will have the entire gym to ourselves so should be a great day of training. The workout will begin at 9 AM and wrap up at 10 AM, just in time to check your burnt turkey at home.

If you have any questions please ask any of our staff members. Now let’s empower each other for greatness.

Meet the staff Monday

November 18, 2019Life Health, Trainingrnagy

Happy Monday to all of you and let’s get this week started right with a Meet the staff Monday. We are doing our best at making sure our staff knows all of you and you know our staff. We appreciate you coming to Union Fitness and we also realize that we are what you make us. So with that said we are going to introduce you to our staff. Please feel free to speak to our staff with anything you need. Even if we are training we are still here to serve each and everyone of you. Now Catlyn will take the mic.

Hey folks,

Welcome to this week’s edition of Meet the Staff Monday! My name is Catlyn Brooke and you can catch me in the Strength Lab Monday/Friday for 6:30a #powerful and Tuesday/Thursday for 6:30a Bootcamp.

I started at Union Fitness 2 years ago as a training client with Lindsey, at the times I was 6 months post hernia repair. I had a foundation in strength training from CrossFit (not how I got the hernia), and I wanted to learn how to squat “right” before lifting heavy again. After training for a few months with Lindsey and getting some women’s #powerful classes under my belt (you get it?), I decided Union Fitness was the place to continue my fitness and coaching journey.

I have met so many amazing, hardworking, bad-ass people here who are my IRL #fitspo. The members who have come into my life in the past few months and have broken me out of my lifting slump. I was pretty much indifferent to training, not sure if I ever wanted to do it seriously or compete again. BUT! I have been convinced (aka hyped up) to do a meet in March with them. So now, instead of just seeing me teach classes or greeting your lovely faces at the desk, you will also see me lying on the floor after a set of 20 belt squats programmed by none other than our new General Manager and all-star beard grower, Todd Hamer.

What do I do when I’m not at UF? I spend the majority of my time at ASCEND Pittsburgh as the Events Director and a personal trainer. I also spend a lot of time singing annoying songs to my cats, baking, and reading.

Come see me in the morning if you want to hear more about my cats (no, I won’t sing their songs to you) or if you would like to request a certain baked good(s). If morning isn’t your thing, you can find me at ASCEND in the afternoon, probably lying on the floor there too after slipping off a climbing hold.

See you soon!

Catlyn

PS – ((Warning: Shameless self-promotion.)) I post about my cats a lot on Instagram. @catlyn_

Meet the Staff Monday

November 11, 2019Life Healthrnagy

This Monday we introduce you to another one of our staff members. This week we bring you one of our personal trainers as well as our finest musician on staff, Mr. Ethan Raese. Ethan is one of the early trainers here at Union, he has been here for a few years now. Speak to any of his clients and you will see that he is as committed to seeing improvement in each and every person Ethan meets.

Here is a short list of some of what Ethan has done in his life.

9 years working in collegiate strength and conditioning.

7 years teaching olympic style lifting.

6 years working with Carnegie Mellon University.

Degrees in Psychology/Anthropology, Temple and Exercise Science, Pitt.

CSCS and USAW Certification.

Now let’s delve into the fun, Ethan has over 20 years as a touring drummer. Ethan began his first tour at the age of 15. Ethan has toured the world as a drummer for numerous bands. If you want to see him on tour search for one of his current bands Steel Nation. Why do I care so much about this? I want all of you who are reading this realize that we are more than what we see in the gym. Our goals here at Union Fitness is to empower you everyday to be your best and with someone like Ethan your can see that your best may occur inside the gym or outside the gym either way we are here for you.

To close this blog let me say Happy Veterans Day to all of our veterans!

CJ is ready to compete…will you join him?

November 1, 2019Life Health, Trainingrnagy

Hello to all my Bumpy friends,

For those of you who don’t know me, I am CJ and I teach #Powerful w/CeJ on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 5-8pm. I have been a college strength coach for 7 years and a Union Fitness coach for over 2 years. I’ve worked with the New York Mets, Ohio State Football, various universities (Slippery Rock, Robert Morris, Morehead State and Youngstown State) as well as youth athletes and weekend warriors. I have a passion for educating others and myself while motivating people to achieve their health and life goals!

I am currently 1 week out from a powerlifting meet in Canton Ohio that 11 other Union Fitness Crue members will be competing in (come out and show some love). This will be my second powerlifting meet and I am excited to crush my Squat, Bench and Deadlift personal records and make the UF Crue proud. Since I am 1 week out I will be reloading (we don’t deload, we reload) and working on recovering and prepping my body for the meet. I plan to do some light Squat, Bench and Deadlift work and then lighter bodybuilding movements just to get new blood flow to my muscles and work out any aches, pains and kinks I have in the old body. Heck, I might even get a massage from one of our great massage therapists at UF and I definitely will do some mobility.

My excitement is building as we creep closer to “show time” (Beetlejuice voice). The motivation and training environment at UF with the Crue have been amazing for months now and we’re about to show Canton Ohio all the work we put in. I will say I am more confident and stronger than before and I can contribute that to all my training partners. November 9^th is soon approaching and then it’s time to Get Bumpy.

Stay Strong My Friends,

Saturday Squat Training:

1a. Dynamic Warmup-Mobility-Band Glute Activation

2a. Speed Squats 3×3 Work on Technique

3a. Fatbell Reverse Lunges 2x8e 3b. Fatbell Single Leg RDL 2x8e

4a. GHRs 2×10 4b. Hanging Leg Raise 2×10

5a. Band Ankle & Lower Body Stretch 5b. Donnie Thompson Hip Series 5c. Body Tempering

6a. Recovery Shake & a solid meal

Cayt’s Meal Of the Week

October 30, 2019Clean Eating, Diet, Life Health, Meal Prep, Nutritionrnagy

For those that may not know, powerlifting is a weight class sport and in hope to maintain the theme of the upcoming meet, I am going to talk about my mindset going into weigh-ins this meet. This may be my first full power meet that I don’t try and cut weight to make a weight class. The thought alone messes with my head a little for a few reasons, but I am trying to find peace with it being an option. I am slightly above weight so once we reach 7 days out I will decide if it is something I can and want to manage.

For someone with a past of eating disorders, I am very aware of my own triggers. I am still learning how to entirely combat those feelings, but I am also learning to accept that it will be a process of good and bad days and even better and worse moments. Leading into this meet, I am acknowledging that a few of my personal triggers are developing and when this happens I have to prioritize those that I can control and cannot control.

With that said, for the time being, my goal is to eat enough to regain energy, to train and recover as necessary, and to COMPETE well.

I made a big pot of chili over the weekend for one of my meals. I rarely use measurements and tend to use my eyes as a judgment call for recipes like this. However, these are all of the ingredients:

93/7 ground turkey

90/10 ground beef

Black beans

Light red kidney beans

Dark red kidney beans

Carrots

Celery

Onion

Green, yellow, and red pepper

Tomato sauce

Diced tomatoes

Chicken broth

Hello from Hamer

October 21, 2019Life Health, State of the Unionrnagy

New Challenges and New Goals.

For those that do not know me I am Todd Hamer, and I’m the new general manager here at Union Fitness. I have been working in collegiate strength and conditioning for most of my career. Most recently, I was the Director of Strength and Conditioning at The George Washington University. During my time in the college setting I was lucky enough to be able to train very successful athletes. I have been a part of a final four basketball run, trained olympic medal winners, and have seen many other great successes. The reason I am joining Union now is after twenty years working with college students, I have realized that while wins are great, improvement in yourself is better. I am here to help each and every one of us achieve our own goals.

Success only builds upon itself, so when one of us wins we all will win. One of the first things I did was sit down with our staff to define what makes us Union. I would like to share with you what our staff came up with, and what they will hear from me over the next few weeks. I ask that you hold us accountable for this, as these are the seven tenets that we have come up with that will make us successful.

Have a positive mental attitude.
Create a great community by being a great teammate.
Enjoy what we are doing and make it fun.
Educate those around you while continuing your own education.
Be under the bar and compete in something.
Never forget that perception is reality, and never forget that those around you perceive you differently than you perceive yourself.
Be THE presence. Do not allow others to go unnoticed. Be a presence for everyone who enters our area.

If we can follow through on these seven tenets, I do not see how we cannot all be successful. As we move forward I would love to hear from more members. How can we serve you better? Our goals are all the same, and we will do what we can to make everyone that enters our doorway better.

Yours in Strength.

Todd Hamer

Frequently Asked PT Questions with Jared Caroff, DPT

October 7, 2019Fitness, Life Health, Uncategorizedrnagy

As a physical therapist, I get asked a lot of questions about pain and what to do about it (both in and out of my office) and I love being able to use my background and knowledge base to help guide people in the right direction. I figured that this would be a good way to go over some of the most common questions I’m asked and hopefully help guide you if these are questions or issues you have dealt with. To preface all of this, I want to say that if you are dealing with an injury it might be a good idea to be assessed by a medical professional in person first. Nothing beats a hands-on assessment with someone’s undivided attention to see what the underlying issue may be. With that being said, let’s dive into some of the common questions I’m asked!

“How can I get rid of my low back pain?”

Low back pain can be very complex based on your injury history, how long you’ve had it, what the symptoms are, etc. Again, I recommend that you get assessed by a physical therapist or a physician. That being said, here are some of my recommendations to start helping you help yourself. First, you need to get enough sleep and make sure you’re hydrated. Pain levels can increase with a lack of both of those two things. Do those two things first, then you can keep reading… You need to keep moving! Although you’re having pain, find ways to exercise or just move that are relatively pain-free or that don’t provoke the symptoms as much. For example, if a barbell back squat causes low back pain, try doing a high box squat, goblet squat or safety bar squat. Change it up, but don’t give up squatting (or whatever the movement was) altogether if you can work around it. If you stop moving altogether to “rest”, there is a lower chance your pain is going to go away. This might sound simple but find out if there are any positions that feel good and positions that don’t (like sitting or standing, bending forward or backward, etc.). Try to avoid staying in positions that aggravate your pain and go into positions that don’t hurt. For example, if bending forward and sitting increases your pain, try changing positions in your chair at work every 10-20 minutes, get up and walk, and use a lumbar roll against your back while you sit. You could also try laying on your stomach or propped on elbows when you get home to extend your spine and stay away from the nagging position. In summary: sleep plenty, stay hydrated, don’t stop moving and/or exercising, work around your pain (not into it), and try to stay away from positions that make it mad and go into positions that don’t. Be patient, and over time you should start to notice improvements.

“What can I do to make my knee pain go away?”

Again, not to beat a dead horse, go get assessed… Now, some of the things I notice in people with knee pain are weak and/or immobile hips and ankles and a weak core. The knee primarily acts as a hinge joint and is meant to be stable. Because of this, if there are mobility restrictions or weaknesses in the joints above and below, excess forces can be placed through the knees and begin to cause irritation. If you’re unsure what is weak or immobile, try performing some of these: half-kneeling soleus stretch, hip 90/90 stretch, banded hip abductor walks, sidelying clamshells, Copenhagen adductor exercise. See what seems to be difficult and keep working at it. If the knee pain is more of a tendinitis issue, I do recommend using isometric (static holds) and/or eccentric (the “down” part of a movement) exercises for the quadriceps and hamstrings. This can be with a squat or deadlift, RDL, quad extension, hamstring curl, etc. Just don’t let the exercise increase your pain levels more than 2-3/10 from where they started. Again, these are only some of the recommendations. In summary: get your ankles and hips both strong and mobile and don’t be afraid to load the knee but do it safely and without increasing your pain too much. There are a million reasons you can have knee pain, however, just working through some of these movements may help.

I hope that this little “FAQ” was beneficial. If you ever have any questions feel free to find me around the gym (either working front desk in the early morning or attempting to pick up objects and place them back where I found them) or just shoot me an email (jaredcaroff@gmail.com). Stay strong friends!