Category Archives: Life Health

Cayt’s Meal Of the Week

Clean Eating, Diet, Life Health, Meal Prep, Nutrition

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

Life Health, State of the Union

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.

  1. Have a positive mental attitude.
  2. Create a great community by being a great teammate.
  3. Enjoy what we are doing and make it fun.
  4. Educate those around you while continuing your own education.
  5. Be under the bar and compete in something.
  6. Never forget that perception is reality, and never forget that those around you perceive you differently than you perceive yourself. 
  7. 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

Fitness, Life Health, Uncategorized

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!

Getting the Most Out of Your Training Program: Part II

Fitness, Life Health, Training, Uncategorized

by Lindsey Pogson

Part 2: Trust the Process

 

Welcome to part two in this series on getting as much out of your custom training program as you possibly can. If you didn’t read part one (on providing detailed feedback), head on over that way now. Done? Great.

 

Now that you and your coach are on the same page as far as how the weights are feeling and what work you’re actually doing, you’re ready for the next step. You need to decide to put your trust in that coach and actually follow along with the program as written.

 

When you started with your coach – whether it’s one of us at UF, another in-person coach, or an online coach – you almost certainly had a chat about what you wanted to achieve with the program. Those goals are the backbone of your program’s design. If you came into your goal-setting meeting with the objective of losing 10lbs over the next two months, your program will reflect that. If you went in with the goal of doing your first powerlifting meet, your program will be designed to prepare you to compete in that sport. If you wanted to run a sub-20 minute 5k, your program will be put together with the intent to get you there.

 

Seems obvious right? Your coach puts together a program to help you reach your specific goal. So with that in mind, it’s in your best interest to FOLLOW THE PROGRAM.

 

At the beginning of every program, this is easy. You’re excited, you’re learning some new things, you’re fresh, it feels good. A few weeks in, things start getting a little harder. Suddenly you’re doing a lot of single-leg accessory movements and you’re bad at them so you hate them with a passion. Your coach is programming 3 minutes of rest between sprints and you don’t feel like you really NEED it and think you’d be better off resting less. You asked for a 7 day per week 2-a-day program because you want to do MORE but your coach put you on 4 days per week and you think you’ll just throw in some extra classes here and there because you sleep plenty and recover just fine. Your coach programmed a heavy single at 205 but 225 isn’t THAT far off so that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

 

I get it. I’ve been there too. That attitude sucks and is not helping you actually reach your goals.

There are a few hard truths we all have to swallow when striving towards big things. The first and hardest is that we don’t know everything.

On some level we understand that, since we decided to go to a professional for help in the first place! But when things come up that we don’t like, we can sometimes start to question that professional.

 

“No one knows me like I know myself, and I KNOW that I can handle more work than this.”

 

And you may very well be right! But fortunately/unfortunately, reaching a goal isn’t an exercise in running yourself into the ground. There’s some strategy involved. And often that strategy involves doing things you don’t want to do – be that training more, training less, training movements you hate and are bad at, doing more cardio, doing NO cardio, etc.

 

You went to a pro, so trust that pro. But know that you can ALWAYS ask questions. And you should! If your coach can’t give you a thoughtful reason for what they programmed, they’re not doing their job.

Hard truth number two: to reach one goal, you need to put all the others on the backburner.

If you go into your goal-setting meeting and tell your coach that your primary objective is to lose 30lbs by the end of the year, expect your program to actually reflect that over everything else. That means strength gains are NOT the priority, and will NOT be the focus of that program. Your coach will likely want to maintain your strength but isn’t going to push you to test for new maxes.

 

Conversely, if you go in saying you want to hit a 1000lb total by the end of the year, you’d best expect to see verrrrrry little cardio on your programming sheet.

 

Changes like these can be uncomfortable. It sucks to not be able to “do it all.” But it’s really more accurate to say that you just can’t do it all RIGHT NOW. Take 4 months to prioritize weight loss, then take a break from your deficit and the hard supersets and spend 2 months really working on strength while eating to maintain. If you can do that instead of trying to half-ass everything, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Hard truth number three: you’ll be tempted to go off track. You get to choose what’s more important – instant gratification or actually achieving your long term goals.

I can guarantee one day you’ll be in the gym doing what you’re supposed to do and someone will suggest you throw it all by the wayside and max out that day. Sometimes that will be a training partner or someone else in class, but often it’s that little voice in the back of our head asking “Is this actually working? Am I actually stronger/faster, or am I just spinning my wheels?”

 

At that moment, you have a choice. You can go for instant gratification – test a new bench rep max, or finish your long slow run as fast as you possibly can. You’ll feel good in that moment, with proof that you CAN do that thing. But consider now that you just did something extremely taxing, that requires recovery. You did it at a point in your training cycle that didn’t ACTUALLY make much sense and may make the other things you need to do that day/week/month a little bit harder. You might have a competition coming up, an event where you really needed to be peaked and ready, but that max attempt threw your schedule off a little.

 

Were you really doing that for yourself and your goals? Or did your ego need a boost? That’s your call.

 

Ultimately, it’s your program. They’re your goals to achieve. Your coach is there to put together a guide to help you get there, using all of their knowledge and training. You can choose to trust that guide or continue doing what you’ve always done. Know that it’s a choice, and the choice is yours.

Curtis’ Health Maintenance Tips

Fitness, Life Health, Training, Uncategorized

When it comes to taking care of our bodies, most of us put a good amount of time and effort into making sure that we are checking off all of the boxes. We do our best to make sure that we exercise regularly, eat balanced meals, stay hydrated, and get adequate sleep, just to name a few. These are without a doubt necessary for living a healthy life. But what if I told you that there are other areas that you may be missing out on? Areas that most people will overlook until it’s too late, and then they become necessary in order to get back to their previous level of health. Let’s take a look at a few areas that can improve upon your health and keep you strong and active for years to come.

 

I will begin by mentioning that I have personally used all of the services which I am about to discuss, and I have found each of them to be beneficial in their own way. I am in no way stating that it is necessary to use these services in order to live a healthy life. I’m simply giving my personal opinion and insight on a few things that I have found to be beneficial towards my overall health and performance. 

Below are 5 professional services that I think every individual, regardless of age, level of fitness, or personal goals, could benefit from.

 

1) Massage Therapy: This is the most popular and well known out of the group. Massage Therapy is a type of treatment in which a professional manipulates the soft tissues of your body including muscle, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments and skin, using varying degrees of pressure and movement. The benefits of massage therapy include: 

  • reduced muscle tension and pain
  • improved flexibility and range of motion
  • injury prevention
  • reduced recovery time from physical activity
  • improved connective tissue healing
  • increased sleep & relaxation. 

The most popular forms of massage therapy are:

  • Swedish massage: This is a gentle form of massage that uses long strokes, kneading, deep circular movements, vibration and tapping to help relax and energize you.
  • Deep tissue massage: This massage technique uses slower, more forceful strokes to target the deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue, commonly to help with muscle damage from injuries.
  • Sports massage: This is similar to Swedish massage, but it’s geared toward people involved in sport activities to help prevent or treat injuries.
  • Trigger point massage: This massage focuses on areas of tight muscle fibers that can form in your muscles after injuries or overuse.

Here at UnionFitness, we are fortunate enough to have a great group of Massage Therapy professionals on hand who each specialize in their own unique approach while doing a great job of accommodating to each individual’s specific needs. Contact us today to set up your appointment and see the benefits for yourself.

 

2) Physical Therapy: Physical therapy is a branch of rehabilitative health that uses specially designed exercises and equipment to help patients regain or improve their physical abilities. Although this is often thought of as a method used primarily for those who are injured and/or elderly, there are many benefits for individuals who are young, healthy, and active. Those benefits include:

  • Assess & address movement deficits and musculoskeletal pathology
  • Prevent and/or address muscular imbalances
  • Decrease pain without use of medication
  • Improve balance and coordination
  • Help to identify other underlying health-related issues

I am very fortunate to have a good friend named Jared Caroff who is a great Physical therapist, as well as an employee here at Union Fitness. He has recently helped me to diagnose some issues I was having in my right hip and ankle for over 2 years and has helped me get back on the Powerlifting platform. You can find him covering the front desk in the mornings from 5am-7am. 

 

3) Chiropractics: This is a system of diagnosis and treatment based on the concept that the nervous system coordinates all of the body’s functions. Chiropractic includes manipulation and adjustment of body structures, such as the spinal column, so that pressure on nerves coming from the spinal cord may be relieved. The benefits of chiropractics may include:

  • reduced back and neck pain
  • improved mental clarity
  • reduced joint pain
  • improved organ function
  • surgery prevention

4) Acupuncture: Acupuncture is a complementary medical practice rooted in traditional Chinese medicine that entails stimulating certain points on the body by using a needle lightly penetrating the skin in order to alleviate pain or to help treat various health conditions. These needles are inserted into points along meridian lines. These lines represent the body’s organs, and they are based on ancient Chinese medicine that includes balance and restoring proper flow of energy throughout the body. The main benefits of acupuncture include:

  • Reduced Stress
  • Reduced Back Pain, Neck Tension and Relieve Joint Pain in the Hands and Arms.
  • Relief from Headaches.
  • Improved Immune System
  • Enhanced Mental Clarity and Increased Energy.
  • Relief from Digestive Conditions.
  • Allergy Relief.

5) Dry needling: Dry needling is a skilled intervention that uses a thin filiform needle to penetrate the skin and stimulate underlying myofascial trigger points, muscular, and connective tissues for the management of neuromusculoskeletal pain and movement impairments. This differs from acupuncture in the sense that the needles are inserted into trigger points or tender bands of muscle located within larger muscles. When the needles are inserted into the trigger points, they elicit a response that releases the trigger point, therefore restoring normal function. The benefits of dry needling include:

  • Relief from muscular pain and stiffness. 
  • Improve flexibility and increase range of motion.

Although this practice is not legalized for use by Physical Therapists in the state of Pennsylvania, I was fortunate enough to have access to it while living in Maryland. This was one of the most beneficial procedures that I have found for recovering from muscular injuries, along with increased mobility and range of motion. 

 

In short, be sure to take the time and do your research to see which of these services are right for you. We only get one shot at taking care of our bodies. Invest in it, and it will be good to you for years to come.

Importance of Bedtime Rituals

Life Health, Uncategorized

By Alexa Ferri

 

Sleep… How much sleep did you get last night? Was it less than the recommended 8 hours? If you were asked to name three bedtime rituals that you practice every night, could you? Before we dive into a few things to set ourselves up for success, let’s talk about the importance of it all.

 

When we were young, our parents did something for us. We probably didn’t realize what it was at the time, but they created a bedtime routine for us. “Did you finish all of your homework?” “It’s 7 o’clock, get your jammies on.” “No more sugar, it’s getting close to bed.” “How about you go brush your teeth and floss.” “Can you read to me before bed?” All things we heard or said as a child at some point. As we grow into adulthood the structure our parents put into play, no longer exists. Now, we let life get in the way, school, work, gatherings, thoughts, cell phone screens, iPads, nightcaps, late night caffeine, etc.

 

We neglect ourselves from the importance of a system that is conducive to getting quality sleep. And why is quality sleep so important? Well most of us reading this are probably interested or into some form of exercise. Sleep is when most of your recovery takes place so that you can continue to train and train efficiently. Sleep is when our brain encodes new information, stores memories and allows us to make logical decisions so that we can score well on tomorrow’s test or remember our grandma’s birthday or function in any aspect of life, really.

 

Sleep is also crucial for glucose regulation. The pancreatic cells called beta islet, secrete insulin, and when sleep is low our beta islet cells are less responsive to glucose. This leads to other hunger hormone malfunction i.e. leptin and ghrelin thus, creating a spiraling effect and potentially leading to weight gain. Sleep is needed for a proper functioning metabolic state.

 

Last interesting fact, the brain’s emotional center called the amygdala becomes 60 percent more reactive when sleep levels are scarce. Something to think about when we are acting emotionally irrational with fear and rage, it could be the 2 hours of sleep we got the night before.

 

So, after hearing some of the importance’s of getting a good night’s sleep, let’s talk about some of the rituals we can adopt and things to be mindful of the closer we are to bedtime.

 

 

Bedtime rituals to have in check/things to be mindful of:

 

  • Caffeine

Did you have caffeine 5 hours ago? Maybe less? Caffeine has a half-life of around 5 hours. If you consume 100 mg of caffeine, you will have 50 mg remaining in your system 5 hours later. Be mindful of the time you take the last gulp of the liquid gold.

  • Alcohol

Large amounts of alcohol consumption close to bedtime can have an impact on sleep quality. Particularly, REM sleep. REM is the stage of sleep where we can dream, muscles become paralyzed, eyes move back and forth. REM is also important for our cognitive function. REM is when our brain’s process information and store for long-term memory. So, if you have some important events in life that require some increased cognition, try to make REM a priority.

 

  • Water

I feel this is a no brainer, but often easy to look past. Heavy water consumption 1-2 hours before bed is no good. Getting up multiple times per night is going to impact the quality of your sleep. Try to create a water cut off time 1-2 hours prior to bedtime.

  • Sleep Schedule

We all have 33 alarms set to wake us up in the morning. But, do we have an alarm set to get into bed at night? Setting a routine to wake up and go to bed around the same time every day, if not most days, will help create a healthy circadian rhythm for our body.

  • Exercise Before Bed

Exercising before sleep is not a great idea if you can help it. Our body’s core temperature needs to decrease to sleep optimally. Obviously, training cause our temperature to rise. So, try to limit training 2-3 hours before bed.

  • Bedroom Temperature

Your bedroom should be the coolest room in your house. This is to ensure your body’s core temperature to drop. Set it for around 65-67 degrees Fahrenheit.

  • Light

Since it is 2019 and cell phones are a hot commodity, I think we have all heard about limiting screen time before bed. The omission of blue light from all the toys causes a decrease in melatonin production. You can have your phone set to shut off all apps 1 hour before bed to eliminate any temptations. Try this, as well as keeping your phone at a distance when sleeping.

Also, it is important to let your body know when it is day and when it is night. What I mean by that is, make sure you get some light exposure during the day and keep your house darker at night. Daylight is great for regulating our body’s circadian rhythm.

 

There it is! I hope this helps put into perspective the importance of sleep and how we function as human beings when we don’t get enough. Create a routine that works best for you. Happy sleeping everyone!

Ryan Mcumber, Signing Off…

Life Health

Here is the last UF blog post I will ever write. As dramatic as it may sound, I am just going from full time to part time at Union Fitness. But it has been amazing to get the support that I have received from everyone before leaving.

 

I have decided to go back to school (CCAC) to redo some prerequisites to make myself more competitive to apply to Physical Therapy schools in a year. Physical Therapy schools become more and more competitive each year but I am very excited to go for it to see if I can get in. 

 

After working for Union Fitness full time for about a year and half, I have learned a lot about being coach. I believe every coach should strive for these three things. 

 

  1. Constantly try to learn more  
  2. Stay humble
  3. Make people feel welcome 

 

Striving to learn more:

Every coach should be actively trying to learn more. This may seem obvious but you would be surprised how complacent some coaches get. This doesn’t mean that a coach should bring a new exercise to every workout- the basic’s work. But I always love to learn new ways to teach the basics. This allows the coach to be prepared when his/her favorite cue doesn’t work. Learning different cues, set-ups and warm-ups can be beneficial when people are coming to your classes with all sorts of health and injury backgrounds. If I have a football player and a professional speed walker, there is a strong possibility that I need two methods to teach the squat. I have been fortunate to steal a lot of ideas from my fellow coaches at UF.

 

Staying humble:

This is one of the harder things for any coach, especially me coming  straight  out of college. Of course with my degree and only 6 months of experience I was the best coach of all the land. Even though I was willing to learn, I wanted to show everyone how much I knew. 

 

Now things are much different. It takes a few coaches to show you really how little you know. After this realization I made sure to ask every coach numerous question’s. I wanted to see how they set-up class, how they taught a certain exercise, how do they approach a large class size vs a small one, how they structured their programs and a lot more. It benefited me drastically to ask every coach I can find questions. Union is fortunate to have some knowledgeable and experienced coaches that I have annoyed with my questions. 

 

Making people feel welcome:

After my experience at UF, I now believe that this is the most important part of being a coach. 

 

At one point of working full time I had the opportunity to hire someone new. I was thinking about the criteria that I wanted and questions I was ready to ask. The first things that came to mind were: did they have an exercise science degree, years of experience, and what type of weightlifting background they had. As important as these are, if you are unable to convey the information or even worse not be very welcoming in the gym then none of the credentials matter. If the coach is not a nice person then this knowledge is wasted. 

 

A coach must help people feel like the gym is a place where they can try all new things without any sort of embarrassment. A coach must create an environment that not only people wanted to come back to but are looking forward to coming to class. Maybe  not  the Cardio Lab, since that class is rough, but most classes. If anything else I hope that I created this environment for everybody. I hope that people felt excited to take my classes and more importantly come to Union. 

 

I believe after spending the last couple weeks coaching and working hands on with Curtis that he has all of these qualities and I am excited to have him take over my position at UF. I will help by working on the weekends and doing a little personal training here and there. If you start to miss me, come see me on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday!

Lindsey Hits a Milestone

Life Health

Things I’ve learned from our #powerful (women)

 

I’m about a week away from a big milestone birthday and it’s got me feeling pretty reflective. 

 

Union Fitness has been a huge part of my life for almost three years now, and in that time I’ve both learned and change a hell of a lot. Taking this job was a huge career and life change, and I’ve done it all with a singular focus in mind – to introduce as many women to the power of strength training as I possibly could. I brought it up on my very first interview with Casey, and it continues to be my “one thing.”

 

I found lifting in my early 20s and figured it out largely on my own (with the help of the internet, naturally). It taught me how to find my own strength, and that in turn helped me build the courage to get myself out of some messy life situations and put me on the path to where I am now. Since our opening in 2016, we’ve seen our women’s class grow from 3 or 4 solid regulars to two BIG classes twice per week. We also have some former regulars who have moved on to their own programs, and a few who even come to class just to hang out and help out. I am proud of each and every woman who has come through this class – especially those who gave it a shot having absolutely no strength training experience. 

 

And while I go into each class with the aim of teaching and empowering the women who trust me with that task, I finish each class having learned something from all of them. Now, as I leave my 20s behind (gooooood riddance), I’d like to acknowledge some of the things I’ve learned from this community of strong ladies that I’m grateful to hang out with each week.

 

Lifting looks different on everybody. 

 

We have a huge variety of women that show up to class each week – all ages, shapes, and experience levels. Working with so many different people has reinforced how important it is to know that there is no universal “correct form” with regards to most exercises. Every body is going to look and function a little different from one another, so every individual will have to approach each lift differently. A particular example that always sticks with me – I LOVE programming zercher squats. Maybe too much. And I’ve learned that doing zerchers with a big chest means you’ve really gotta do some wedging if you want to be comfortable. I’d never had to think about it, and now I know how to prepare new people who are better endowed than I am!

 

No one likes zerchers as much as I do. 

Too bad ladies! They’re making you better!

 

You don’t need to wreck yourself every workout to make great progress.

 

I’ve been playing with the structure of the women’s class over the last two years, and I think we’ve finally settled on a layout that works for everyone. Programming works in three week cycles, doing a variation of the main movement (eg. A slow eccentric deadlift week 1, a speed variation week 2, a heavy deadlift week 3) and the SAME assistance work over all three weeks, with a goal of PRing in volume or weight on those movements each week. We do maybe 7 movements in total, and unless there’s a finisher, rarely do ladies leave class feeling like they’re dead or dying. And yet, they’re still all making progress towards their strength goals! There’s a time and place for going so hard you want to puke, and it’s certainly not multiple times per week.

 

Many women that are new to benching like to pick their feet up and flail them around when the weight gets heavy. 

 

I still don’t really get this one, but we’re all working on it! 

 

Doing hard things is better when you’re doing it with friends. 

 

I’ve seen so many close friendships blossom in this class. It can be incredibly difficult to establish new friendships with other women once we’re out of high school and college, and I truly feel that some of the best relationships are built when everyone involved is trying to better themselves individually. 

 

As UF grows into our new space, the women’s program will grow along with it. Keep an eye out for some time and teacher expansions in the new year!

 

To all of the women I’ve been privileged to work with this past year: thank you. From the bottom of my heart, you’ve all made me a better coach, athlete, and person. I look forward to making this program even bigger with your help. 

Reading for knowledge or pleasure- which is better?

Life Health

Truthfully, I have been struggling with what to write about. I have ideas, but I don’t feel like I have enough resources yet to put out information. I have a few I am excited about that will come alive soon enough. 

 

So for now I am writing about something that has been acting on my soul lately. For the past six years or so I have read an exorbitant amount of self-help, self-improvement, personal development, non-fictional-real-life-learn something from the latest guru type of book. Sure, I made my way through the cornucopia of personal development land, learned new things, new skills, and new strategies for sifting through life’s whirls and winds. I was utilizing reading more to learn than to feel and this was an issue.

 

Maybe I used the Dr. Seuss quote too literal- “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

 

Literary fiction provides something that no fact driven, non-fictional book could give or even sometimes, what real life can give us. The range of emotions literature brings out in us, we may never experience throughout life otherwise. It puts us in more situations than we could probably ever simulate in a life time and some of the situations we might not want to be in however, fiction provides perspective and can create some to develop empathy. And these novels, stories, and dramas give us situations to help us reflect and understand life’s intricacies.

 

The creative side of our brain needs this. This is termed “Theory of Mind.” This lights up a part of our brain that allows for de-construction of the character at hand, giving us the ability to identify with the character and all their desires, cravings, grievances, etc. Think abstract whereas non-fiction is more cut and dry. Fiction can also speed up time, go back, or even go into another dimension of time. We envision what it is like to go through a marriage and divorce, how murderers think, the atmosphere of the ultimate party at the Gatsby Mansion, or the exhilarating trip through the back of a wardrobe and into an imaginary land of winter ruled by a White Witch. Our brains like stories, to find meaning and go through the mental motions of what we are reading…as if we are there.

 

I used the self-development books to think they would fix me or the more I read the more I would be healed, find the link to happiness, know all the secrets and feel ready to take on life. And that could not be entirely further from the truth. These books are an aid, and they are just that. The self-improvement books are like sitting down with a therapist and leaving; not actually processing and practicing. Just simply negating all we had talked about.

 

How do we get stronger in the gym or change our body composition? Through consistency and patience. Through sticking to a program, eating well, knowing when your body is stressed, knowing when you did not get a good night of sleep and knowing to make adjustments the next day to accommodate. I should know this, but I did not realize it then. Sometimes life creates a lovely tunnel vision for weeks, months, or years and you can’t see it until you are on the other side *dramatic chest rising sigh*… finally. 

 

I would feel a sense of guilt for reading too many pleasurable fictional books and this would guilt me into picking up more educational or fact driven books. My time now is different. Less about myself and more about others. Connections. Research has shown that reading literature helps humans develop empathy and that is just one way to connect and feel for someone else’s story. Reading is a timeless way to explore the world. Or gloat on the feeling of warmth and innocence as you are re-reading some of the Harry Potter novels or The Chronicles of Narnia. Fiction also has a way of making us think in faint yet powerful and dynamic ways.

 

I am still reading every day. I am rotating between fiction and non-fiction however; I am allowing the wonder and creativity to take the reign. Both are necessary and coming from a science degree I can’t ignore my lunatic love for research, facts, new discoveries, etc. As a matter of fact, my next book will be a non-fiction for purposes of learning about new research and how this can hopefully impact our future in a specific area in our lives, but I can’t talk about it yet because it I will be in one of my blogs soon! 

 

All books serve a purpose in some way. This blog was not to be one-sided, it was to show there are more sides that we often leave behind and sometimes we need time to immerse ourselves in a story and take on another experience.

 

A book I am diving into as of recently is Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of The Wild Woman Archetype. This is probably one of the most empowering books I have held in my hands. The author is incredible at story-telling and analyzing the myths and folk tales of the “Wild Woman” and the psyche of her. This book engages with Carl Jung and his theory of the archetype. I am ending this blog with a quote that I love from this book:

 

“When we accept our own beauty, it is put into perspective, and we are no longer poignantly aware of it anymore, but neither would we forsake it or disclaim it either. Does a wolf know how beautiful she is when she sleeps? Does a feline know what beautiful shapes she makes when she sits? Is a bird awed by the sound it hears when it snaps open its wings? Learning from them, we just act in our own true way and do not draw back from or hide our natural beauty. Like creatures, we just are, and it is right.”

 

By Alexa Ferri

Self-efficacy…got it? Want it?

Life Health

What Is Self-Efficacy and Why You Need It In the Gym

 

When you walk up to a heavy barbell, attempting to squat a new PR do you feel like you can rise up and crush that lift or do you place it on your back, feel the heaviness you’ve never felt before and re-rack, deciding to give up in defeat? When you’re faced with a new movement or a new class or a new challenge are you the little engine that could or do you doubt your abilities? If you are the type of person to view challenges as a task to be mastered instead of feared, or the type to recover quickly from disappointments and setbacks then chances are you have a strong sense of self-efficacy.  

 

Self-efficacy is the belief in your own innate ability to succeed and achieve goals. It is a central concept in Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which examines how we learn from one another through observation, imitation and modeling.  Self-efficacy plays a role in how we determine what goals to pursue, how we go about accomplishing them and how we reflect upon our performance. Our belief in our ability to succeed is important to how we behave, how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about our place in the world (or gym).  

 

So what happens if you’re the type to re-rack your barbell when it gets too heavy or shy away from taking that class you’ve secretly wanted to take?  Have no fear; there are ways to build self-efficacy.  According to Bandura, there are four major sources of self-efficacy: 

 

  1. Mastery Experiences

Bandura describe this as the most effective way to build a strong sense of self-efficacy and it’s simple—perform a task successfully.  Want a new squat PR? Then squat lighter weight with confidence, and repeat. And don’t forget to celebrate your successes, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Write it on the PR board, gloat on social media or simply just gush to your coach about your new success or goal accomplished. 

 

  1. Social Modeling

Or an easier way to put it is: watch others perform a task successfully. Cue group classes—they’re a great way to get in some social modeling.  Or if the whole group fitness thing isn’t your jam, then simply look around while you’re at the gym, watch some YouTube videos or take a peak at our Instagram for some inspiration. Witnessing others similar to you succeed at something raises our belief that we possess the capability to succeed as well. 

 

  1. Social Persuasion

This is just a fancy way of saying, “ask for some verbal encouragement”.  Seek positive affirmations. Ask your coach for some feedback. Accepting positivity and encouragement can lead to overcoming self-doubt.

 

  1. Psychological Responses 

Building a strong sense of self-efficacy isn’t just about doing or performing either. It is also about how we think, feel and act towards ourselves. Our own emotional responses and reactions are important.  Learn how to minimize stress and increase positive mindsets/moods. Practice looking inwards.

 

Goals, if you haven’t noticed yet, are an integral part of Union Fitness.  As a staff, we regularly sit down to talk about our personal and work-related goals.  We often discuss with our members the importance of setting (and achieving) realistic targets, plans and objectives.  You see, the thing is–we don’t want to just build strong bodies at Union Fitness, we want to build strong minds and a strong sense of self too. We want you to be successful inside the gym and out too.  We want you to be able to crush goals here, but also enable you to feel like you could tackle any obstacle that comes your way outside of a squat rack too.  Your own belief in your abilities is a good predictor for how motivated you feel to continue onwards with your goals.  Self-efficacy is also important for how you feel about yourself and when push comes to shove, we want you to feel great here, there and everywhere.