Category Archives: Life Health

It’s Never Too Late; Start Now

Fitness, Life Health

We are entering the tenth month of the year. 2022 is 75% of the way over and it’s now a perfect time to create better habits heading into the winter. We tend to use the calendar to set our goals and start new challenges. I am here today to tell you NOW is the time!

 

This week the nominees for the Nobel Peace Price will be announced. If you do not know how the Nobel Peace Prize got its name then you are in luck, as I am going to tell you a story. The Nobel Peace Prize is named after Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Alfred was a Swede who during his lifetime was most well known for inventing dynamite. He invented dynamite to be used for safety. It would help miners remain at a distance while explosions would occur. The issue is that dynamite ended up becoming a weapon. One day Alfred opened the newspaper to read that overnight he had died. The paper had mistaken Alfred’s brother for Alfred. Yet, what he read was a headline about a man who died, and that man had caused more death than any human ever. This was clearly an awakening to Alfred.

 

Alfred did not want to be remembered as a killer, so he made a change. Upon his death he left his fortune to create the Nobel Prizes. He wanted to make humanity a better place for all peoples, and this was his way of paying it forward.

 

What Alfred teaches us about ourselves depends on your perspective. The way I see it, he reminds us that we can always adjust our sails. One of my favorite new artists is Jade Bird and in her great song, “Now is the time” she shares these lyrics:

 

“Never have I ever seen a better day to get upDoesn’t matter ’bout the weatherNow’s the time to go and get it”
As Alfred Nobel or Jade Bird reminds us, now is the time. It doesn’t matter what the past is, what the weather is, or past mistakes. All that matters is that we are here today so make a change. Now is the time to start anew and I challenge you to join me on a path of strength, health, and empowerment.
Hamer

 

One Year at the U

Life Health

Hey everyone Dahveed here! I know it’s been a little too long since my first blog, but better late than never. Around 1 year ago I walked into Union looking for a new gym and more opportunities to expand myself as strength coach. I would have never thought I was going to get a job that fast, and I don’t regret one bit.

 

Being at Union has been one of the best working experiences I’ve ever had. My coaching  has expanded tremendously, coming in every day and learning something new from either coaches, or members is something that’s pretty awesome. Now I know I sound like some sort of nerd but it’s honestly something so awesome to experience! For example yesterday Todd Hamer was talking to me about why I burned out a little faster than him during our training session, and it was because of our training experience. You guys are probably like “duh Dahveed that’s how it works,” but I just find it fascinating because this explains “old man strength”. These are the types of things that I get to constantly learn and I love it.

 

Something that I really love about this place is the fact that I have a fantastic team with me. I have worked in a lot of places and none have really felt like a team. Let’s say some personal emergency happens and everyone tries to help in anyway they can. It also doesn’t stop with the staff, this place helps out with the community more than any gym ever whether it’s fundraisers, free classes, volunteering, etc. These are things that makes me really appreciate UF even more.

 

This place has brought so much to my life, and I feel like I was at the right place at the right time. I’m really happy to be a part of this gym and this community and I thank everyone who has welcomed me!

 

Your favorite Venezuelan,

 

José Dahveed Jorge

Sport Massage and the Texas Bar Open

Life Health, Training

A few weeks ago, Union hosted the Texas Power Bar Open powerlifting meet on September 10th. I was one of the massage therapists asked to provide on-site sports massage therapy to the competitors. It has been an opportunity I’d been looking forward to since I began to study massage therapy, so I was elated to oblige and do my best for down-to-earth and hard-working athletes. I want to talk about my experiences leading up to and at the meet itself.

 

Several of my clients had begun to train for this meet months in advance. It was very inspiring to be a part of their growth and progress throughout this time. I was there for the tough training days and the really uplifting, powerful weeks, to be physically supportive with bodywork and a cheerleader in their corner. I truly enjoy helping people do and be their best so, I don’t do it for the thanks, but I did receive and appreciate them.

 

The day of the meet was active and exciting, everyone suited in their singlets and t-shirts. I rolled in with my table, chair, and Theragun in hand and made my way to the station under the easy-up, dodging lantern flies. The day began to blow by, competitor after competitor, one effortful lift after another. Soon, I too got to work; lifters that I knew and had not known yet came to me with twinges here and tightness there, combining my knowledge and intent to make magic happen for them. Their words, not mine. With the ten to fifteen minutes I lent my hands, I believe I was able to make a positive difference in those athlete’s performances. 

 

My takeaways from the meet:

 

  1. Doesn’t matter who you are, you can be strong.
  2. Making use of an on-site therapist is only beneficial.
  3. I can’t wait to compete again, and have the crowd behind me next year. 

 

To end, a definition and sign-off quote:

 

Sports massage, or athletic massage, is the application of massage techniques that combine sound anatomic and physiologic knowledge, an understanding of strength training and conditioning, and specific massage skills to enhance athletic performance. This bodywork practice enables an athlete to attain their highest potential by accelerating the body’s natural restorative processes, enabling them to participate more often in rigorous physical training and conditioning.

 

“To be anyone else but the happiest version of yourself is a waste.”

 

MJA

Movements You Should Do Daily

Fitness, Life Health

I trained two people at UF. Duke and Jenn, each person brings something different to us and challenges me in different ways. Jenn just did her first powerlifting meet and has a goal of mastering pull ups. Duke is a seasoned lifter, he has done CrossFit, powerlifting, and been training for well over a decade. Having these two people to train with is great as it creates such an awesome environment for me to learn. Each brings a different strength, weakness, as well as personality to their training.

 

This week Duke is on a family trip and he is also coming back from a slight back strain. A few weeks back he aggravated some soft tissue in his back and we have had to adjust slightly to train through his injury. Knowing the this week is a planned travel week got me thinking. What are movements someone should do daily? Also, how we can make these a habit whether we are traveling or just sitting at home? So I made a short list of movements that I would recommend everyone does daily.

 

  1. Squat- I know this is obvious. There is probably no movement that is better for the entire body than a bodyweight squat. Cues are simple, keep your feet flat on the ground, your sternum up, and get as low as you can. Do this daily, for reps, for time, and for fun.
  2. Standing Quad Stretch- As a society we spend to much time in a forward leaning position. This will tighten our hip flexors (which include the quads). So grab your foot and pull it towards your butt. Just like with the squat, what matters is that you do the movement. How long, how many reps, and other variables doesn’t matter. Movement matters.
  3. Childs Pose to Cobra- Have you ever heard of creep? No, not the song (even though it’s a great jam). Creep in layman’s terms is when the fluid around your disk moves (generally this shift is posterior). Think about it like this, if you are sitting (and probably leaning forward) your disks are being pushed to open up posteriorly and the fluid will move more to the back. Doing these movements will help move this fluid and set your back into a more neutral position.
  4. Toe Touch- This movement has received a bad rap over the years. Yes, it is a fact that repeats flexion is bad for the spine. Yet, I’d contend that if you are doing all of these movements combined than the net affect will be a positive. So bend over and touch your toes.
  5. Lateral Lunge- A mistake I made way to often as a young coach was not moving through all three planes of motion. There is front, sagittal, as well as transverse. Move in all three of these planes and your body will feel better.
  6. T Spine Movements- There are many different movements here. You could do the worlds greatest stretch, multiple wall stretches, or lying t spine work. Just make sure you are moving your thoracic cavity.
  7. Being Bi-Pedal-This means walk more. If you want to be healthy, walk, if you want to think, walk, if you want to meet new people, walk. Most great thinkers walk and just let their minds be free. The adage about 10,000 steps a day is great, yet the science is pretty clear if you want to be healthy 8,000 steps is plenty. I average 15,000 a day, yet I have also never had a “real job.”

 

This is my short list and a simple catch all of movements you should do daily. These can be done whether traveling or at home and shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

 

Hamer

Encouraging Women to Lift Heavy

Life Health

A few weekends ago I was at our powerlifting meet at here at Union Fitness, where there were some very heavy lifts, and even some records set. But that wasn’t my favorite part. My favorite part was seeing the excitement when a strong female lifter hit a lift that she has been trying to accomplish for a while. The confidence and happiness these ladies radiated on that platform was something I hope every woman gets to experience in her lifetime. 

 

I encourage all women to lift heavy, to get out of out comfort zone and see just how strong you really are, because I promise however strong you think you are right now… you’re way stronger. I see it every day, when I am training female athletes and I convince them to just put a little more weight on the bar, and they lift it. It gives them the confidence to keep putting even more weight on the bar. After all, we can only grow by continuously stepping out of our comfort zone. 

 

By lifting heavier weights, it builds confidence and can help you focus on the strength you are building instead of focusing on how our bodies look. I think this is something a lot of us women can benefit from. We start to see ourselves in a different light and fall in love with our bodies again. I want all women to see just how strong and powerful we are, when we start to focus on our strength instead of things society has convinced us that we should focus on.

 

Once I started powerlifting, I started to see myself as this strong, powerful, badass woman instead of being so worried about how I looked in the mirror. Now I am happy, strong, AND I love what I see in the mirror, and before lifting heavy weights I didn’t think I could ever get here. Many people in my life recognized the confidence I was starting to build after I started lifting heavy. And I recognized it too, which is why I believe one of the best ways to empower women is through strength. 

 

Maria Fautali

First Meet Experience

Fitness, Life Health, Training

This past Saturday, Union Fitness hosted the 2022 Texas Power Bar Open which happened to be my first meet that I’ve competed in. I have spectated and volunteered at three other meets that were hosted here at UF, but never actually lifted in one.

 

I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by several “meet veterans” at UF who were able to help me prepare for everything in the months beforehand. Curtis, Todd, and Zain helped me stay ready and answered all questions that I had both during training and on meet day.

 

I learned so many new things about myself and powerlifting throughout my training. I was able to test my limits, hit some solid PR’s, and I learned how to successfully train for a meet.

 

Going into meet day, I knew next to nothing about weigh-ins, lift commands, or how the flights of lifters worked throughout the day. Thankfully, I had the UF team with me for weigh-ins to help me know what I needed to bring and how the flow of it all went. I started training with the lift commands towards the last weeks of training, so I was still a little rusty but ended up not missing any of them on meet day. As far as the flights of lifters went, I had Zain by my side all day to help me to know when I was going to step out onto the platform and also what numbers I would strive to hit on the next attempts.

 

I ended up going 8/9 on my lifts, which I was very happy with. And I also hit a huge deadlift PR, which I was very excited about! I couldn’t have made it through the whole day without Ava, Diana, and Miranda (who all three also competed and did awesome) helping to motivate me and we hyped each other up all day, Zain who helped me with everything from warmups to figuring out my next attempts to getting me platform ready, Curtis who helped with my training program for months and he shared all of his powerlifting wisdom with me, Todd who gave me some pre squat trap slaps to get me ready to lift and as I’ve said before he’s my everyday hype man, and last but not least my dude Malik who kept my muscles ready to make the gainz and hit my lifts.

 

Thank you to everyone who helped make my first meet experience a great one. I’m planning to do some more in the future, and I’m looking forward to it!

 

Toria

Neat Adaptations to Anaerobic Training

Fitness, Life Health, Training

They blinded me with science.

 

Today let’s take a quick look at what happens inside our body when we start a weight lifting/ resistance training program. This style of exercise is called anaerobic training.  Anaerobic training is defined as high-intensity, intermittent bouts of exercise like weight training, plyometric drills, speed, agility, and interval training.

 

Anaerobic exercise results in benefits and increased levels of these functions listed below.

 

Cardiac output & Stroke volume: Heart can beat faster and harder to provide more oxygen and nutrients to active muscles.

 

Heart rate: Decreases resting HR & blood pressure.

 

Oxygen uptake: Increases ability to take in oxygen from the respiratory system and deliver it to the working tissues

 

Neural adaptations: Motor cortex activity increases when the level of force developed increases and when new exercises or movements are being learned. Aka learning new exercises will create a “muscle memory”.

 

Bone & connective tissue: Strengthens bones, tendons, ligaments and fascia.

 

Muscular growth: Muscle hypertrophy is muscular enlargement from an increase in the cross-sectional area of the existing fibers.

 

Strength & Power: Mean strength & power increases up to 73%  in untrained athletes.

 

Body Composition: Increases in lean tissue mass, daily metabolic rate, and energy expenditure during exercise are outcomes of resistance training.

 

Flexibility : Anaerobic training potentially can have a positive impact on flexibility, primarily if the individual has poor flexibility to begin with & completes the exercise with use of full range of motion.

 

Aerobic Capacity: Circuit training and programs using high volume and short rest periods have been shown to improve VO2max.

 

Motor Performance: Resistance training has been shown to increase running economy, jumping, sprinting, golf swings, throwing and hand eye coordination.

 

Come toss some weights around on a regular basis and reap all these neat benefits and gains with these adaptations to anaerobic training.

 

Get Bumpy,

CEJ

There Is No Growth Without Change

Fitness, Life Health

Some of you may know me as a trainer, a group instructor, and a fitness enthusiast here at Union, but my life consists of a lot more than that now.

 

At the beginning of this year, I began to feel like I wasn’t performing to my full potential, not in the gym, but in life. I felt like I had so many people I still needed to reach and help, but not as a trainer, as something else. I knew I had all these other skills I wasn’t utilizing, creativity, entrepreneurship, hustle, problem-solving, honesty, and so much more. Yes, of course I utilize those skills as a trainer, but at a much smaller capacity. So, what could I do with all of that at a greater capacity? Real Estate.

 

I really can’t pinpoint how I decided to put my energy into becoming a realtor. It’s always been something that’s been in the back of my mind. I grew up watching every HGTV show under the sun, I’m obsessed with interior design and renovation projects, and most importantly I am an independent and hardworking individual. I knew that whatever I ended up deciding upon, I was going to make it happen. I started my studies in the beginning of the Spring, finished in 2 months, passed my exams, secured my license, and joined a brokerage.

 

Going into it, I knew this career wasn’t going to be easy, especially being a personal trainer on top of it. Since becoming a realtor, my life has changed, my goals have changed, and my routines have changed. I no longer have time to train 5-6 days, utilizing a bodybuilding split, and spend 1.5-2 hours in the gym. Sure, if I really wanted to make the time to stick to that I could, but honestly, I was so sick of training that way.

 

It started to sink in that my life would no longer solely revolve around fitness, and it was scary, but it was also kind of exciting. I decided to start training every other day, 4 times a week, utilizing full body workouts. On the days in between I was aiming to get in 10,000 steps for the day, but if it didn’t happen, I wasn’t going to put pressure on myself.

 

Training this way has been great! Before, all my workouts just felt like I was going through the motions, and now I have gained back that excitement and passion that was there in the very beginning. Mentally, I have taken a lot of pressure off myself. If I get to my workout in, great! If I had a busy day and can’t lift/ don’t have the energy, great, there’s always tomorrow! Adding something else to my plate allowed me to take my hyper focus off fitness and create realistic boundaries for myself.

 

With that being said, I’m so grateful for this opportunity and the change it has brought in my life. I still love being a trainer and plan to do it for as long as I can. Everyone that I’ve had the pleasure of training since being at Union has been wonderful! My clients never fail to amaze me. It’s truly a blessing that I get to help people change their lives!

 

Three lessons you can take away from this:

  1. You can do anything you set your mind to.
  2. At the end of the day, nothing is really that serious.
  3. If you need to buy or sell a home you should call me 😉

 

April

We Have The Meets

Fitness, Life Health, Training

It’s that time again! In 10 days we will be hosting the 2022 Texas Power Bar Open, right here at our very own Union Fitness. This will be the 10th sanctioned meet that we have been fortunate enough to hold here at Union Fitness since opening in November of 2016. Each one has gotten bigger, better, and more exciting for the lifters, as well as the spectators and fans. Obviously, we couldn’t do it without the help and support of our amazing staff, along with our good friends Doug and Candi Nostrant and their awesome team who always provide the best experience possible.

 

If you have never been to a powerlifting meet, I highly recommend that you check one out! Especially our meets here at Union. I may be bias, but we are very fortunate to have an amazing facility and support that allows us to hold some of the best meets that I’ve ever been a part of. Regardless of if you’re a competitor, or a spectator, there is something for you. This year we will have many great sponsors and vendors on hand providing a ton of support for the lifters and the spectators. Businesses such as Live Large, Fortifix, Victory Float Lounge, Athlete Recovery Lounge, and At War Athletics, will all be on hand with their products and services. Along with this, Edgar Snyder will be giving away $500 to the best overall Male and Female lifters, Texas Power Bars will be giving away two of their power bars, and Iron Rebel will be giving away gift certificates.

 

This year, we have four members who will be competing. Diana Jordan, Ava O’Brien, Brian Steinmiller, Eric Price, Jenn Robinson, and Zane Augustine are no strangers to the platform, and have been training extremely hard over the past few months to prepare. Along with this, our very own Miranda Gard and Toria Crispin will be competing in their first meet. It has been an absolute blast watching all of these individuals showing up every day and giving their all to each session.

 

So be sure to stop by and show them your support! If you would like to stop by, lifting will begin at 9am right outside of the main entrance. Admission is $10 for adults and free for children. We look forward to seeing all of you here, and maybe we will even see you on the platform at our next event next June.

 

– Curtis Miller

New Staff Spotlight, Maria Fautali

Fitness, Life Health

Hi everyone! My name is Maria Fautali, and I am so excited to join the staff at Union Fitness. I am new to the Pittsburgh area, moving most recently from Cleveland, Ohio. I was a three-sport athlete in high school and continued my track and field career beyond that at the University of Rio Grande as a sprinter. While there, I received my Associates Degree in Business Management with a minor in Psychology. 

 

I am currently attending Phoenix University and working towards my bachelor’s degree in business management, with a focus in Diversity and Inclusion. I have always had a deep passion for creating a safe and comfortable space for everyone. I want to be the reason that everyone feels heard and seen. I also have a passion for Women’s Empowerment and equality for women and girls in sports. Because of that, I started my own company called Strength In Us LLC that focuses on empowering women through fitness. I chose to join Union Fitness because they share my passion and dedication for an inclusive environment.

 

Although my days of a college athletics have ended, I have just begun my career in the world as a professional athlete. I currently play for the Pittsburgh Passion, Women’s professional tackle football team as running back. 2022 was my first year in the league, and I was named an All-American player as a rookie. I am very blessed and excited to continue playing for the city of Pittsburgh!

 

I look forward to working with everyone at Union Fitness and meeting all of our awesome members!

 

Maria