Hello UF Community!

There are still a few weeks left of the summer season, but the UF team wanted to do a quick recap of the events we have held here at UF over the past few months, and a look into some events happening here in the future. Todd had the takeover Tuesday on our Instagram story this past week and highlighted some of our members who attended these events as well. We appreciate all the support from every one of you who had made it out to our events and all who plan to be in attendance in the future.

Iron City Open: Doug and his team put on a great event here at UF in June. We had several members compete in their first powerlifting meet that day and had several repeat competitors as well. We look forward to being the host site for this event every year.

Pride Night Bootcamp and Comedy Show: We had an awesome time and raised money for a great cause, too. We had a 60min (ish) bootcamp style workout followed by some food and a comedy show with a few local comedians as well as our very own MC and longtime member, Tim Bickerton. Special shoutout to Ava for making this all possible!

Ladies Night: This is held every 2^nd Saturday of the month and is open to members and/or non-members. It is a great way to meet some fellow strong ladies and to get a workout in with some equipment that you may not typically use during your gym time. Be sure to make it out to one of these Saturday’s and mention it to your friends, too!

United Not Divided Event: This year was the first annual event. UF was the host gym, Leg1on Training and Performance had come to us with the idea and Pittsburgh Fitness Project was teamed up with us as well.  It was an awesome event and turnout, and a great way to team up with fellow gyms and members in the Pittsburgh area. Stay tuned for details for another partnership and event in the future!

Yoga For Lifters: Our very own Curtis Miller and Meagan Gnibus were the OG founders of this event, and it was a huge success. The turnout was high, and the feedback received was even better. We hope to make this event or a similar event happen again in the future, so stay tuned.

ACB and Commonplace Coffee Bootcamps: These are a great way to get introduced into group style classes and have some fun while doing it. Both were a lot of fun, and even included a free beer at Allegheny City Brewing and a free coffee at Commonplace. We had around 30 total bags of clothing donated for a local shelter – the Light of Life, and monetary donations that benefited the Bridge Outreach as well.

Loop the Loops Ride+Walk Fundraiser: UF will be the site host for this event on August 13^th. This event is to celebrate BikePGH’s 20^th anniversary and the completion of the Allegheny Circle conversion project. You can ride, roll, and walk around the circle, while raising funds for BikePGH’s continued work and mission in the great city of Pittsburgh. Stay tuned for more details, and please visit this link to register! https://secure.everyaction.com/tyV9V-mss028fJLgVtk7Bg2

We have a few more exciting upcoming events that are planned to happen throughout the last months of the year. We are excited and hope to see you all at our upcoming events!

Toria

All coaches, athletes, and people in the fitness community have their own philosophies or ideas that they may use for their own training or for training another person that they have established a coach/client relationship with. In the world of powerlifting, one common programming tool that is often utilized is RPE. RPE can be an excellent tool for programming and should be utilized at different times for different reasons all throughout training. For those that do not understand what RPE is, RPE is rating of perceived exertion. Essentially, it’s what the person who is lifting the weight thinks how hard the exercise is and is generally rated out of a score of 1-10. With this being said, the higher you rate your RPE out of 10 then the harder the lift was in your own opinion. However, your rating of RPE also reflects how many more reps that you think you could have done at that specific weight. For example, if I were to do a squat single at 405 lbs and I thought the RPE was a 7, then I should have been able to do 3 more reps at that weight without failing. Another example is if I were to bench 135 lbs for 3 reps and rated it at a RPE 5, then I should have theoretically been able to do 5 more reps at that weight.

As there is with anything in life, RPE also has its pros and cons. One pro is that it can be extremely efficient in managing fatigue for people. However, everyone has their good days and everyone has their bad days. Some days you feel really weak in the gym and other days you feel really strong. For example, if you got bad sleep the night before your training session or you are very stressed out about something you may have going on in your life such as a job or school then you may not feel the best when it comes time to lift some heavy weights. This is where RPE can help. On a day where 135 lbs is feeling really heavy when on a normal day it typically feels pretty light, then you can lower the weight to match your prescribed RPE. This will prevent you from doing too much on a day where you feel physically weak and in hand will prevent you from building up too much fatigue at once. However, the same way that RPE can aid in managing fatigue it can also have a negative affect on managing fatigue. This can happen when someone overestimates themselves and thinks their lift is easier than it actually was. For example, as a coach I constantly receive videos from the clients I coach and they give me their opinion on their lift and RPE. Sometimes they will over estimate and call their prescribed single an RPE 8 but when in fact it was an RPE 10. The issue with this is that if it keeps occurring, then it can become a habit. Once the habit is created then you could be over exerting yourself when you shouldn’t be. This could lead to lack of progress from not being able to recover or could even create an injury.

Now that we have a decent understanding of RPE, how it works, and some pros and cons of it, we can dive into a discussion of RPE for accessories. Some coaches believe that RPE can be programmed for accessories and that you need to manage your fatigue from your accessories so that you can perform at your best when it comes time for your compound movements. In theory this does make sense and has been shown to work with some people. However, this theory of programming RPE 6,7, or 8 on accessories leaves the opportunity for people to slack off and sandbag on their accessories. This then leads to less muscular breakdown and less opportunity to recover, grow, and get stronger. With this being said, I think a lifter should take the approach of pushing their accessories as hard as they can and go to actual muscular failure. Yes, this may in the short term affect the lifter on their compound lifts and make them feel weaker when they attempt to squat, bench, and deadlift on their next session but it will ultimately do more good than bad. This is because the human body is an amazing thing and will eventually adjust to training accessories to failure. The body will reach a point where training to failure will not affect the next training session and you’ll be able to make progress. Along with human body being able to adjust, going to failure on accessories will provide the lifter with more muscle breakdown that they are not achieving on the squat, deadlift, and bench press, provide them with stronger joints, ligaments, and tendons, and could provide them with more confidence when they get under the bar. So, the next time you are looking to change up your programming in powerlifting and you are not training to failure on your accessories, then try training to failure to see if it works for you!

Zain

I think it’s difficult to give you a real introduction into who I am in a single blog post, but I am going to give it a shot!

My name is Dylan Heisey and I am a new staff member/coach here at Union fitness. I am originally from the Lancaster/Hershey area which is about 3 and half hours east of Pittsburgh. I moved to western Pennsylvania at the end of 2020 to earn my MBA while finishing my last year of track & field eligibility at Seton Hill University. I love all Philadelphia sports (sorry yinzers), I strongly believe that Wawa will always be better than Sheetz, and I absolutely love all things related to electronic music. When I am not in the gym, you can find me at a local flea or vintage market, reading, or finding a new hobby to learn.

So now that you have some basic information about me, let me tell you about what I think you should really know. My love of sport didn’t come naturally as it did to many. I played several different sports in High School and eventually Track and Field was the one that stuck with me. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to walk on to a college track team in a small school and the rest is history.

Even now as my chapter of a college athlete has ended and my career in Olympic weightlifting is just getting started. I don’t think I am a talented enough writer to fully encapsulate how sports have changed my life. It has given me the confidence and ambition to take on any challenge that comes my way, and I hope it can do the same thing for you. I want to be the person that pushes you to success whether it’s inside the gym or out! So if you see me around the gym please stop and say hi, I want to get to know as many of you as possible! Until we meet, I will leave you with this quote:

 “Only those who can see the invisible can do the impossible” – Frank L. Gaines

Dylan

I am currently 6 weeks in to my first powerlifting meet preparation training and am only 9 weeks out from the actual meet. I have been lifting on and off for a few years now, but have had trouble staying consistent and pushing myself. In these past few weeks, I have noticed a significant difference in my attitude towards lifting and training in general. I found that being in UF’s supportive environment and having specific goals in mind or at least a general idea of where I would like to end up, has helped me tremendously. UF’s unique “family like” environment helps me to stay motivated and accountable every day that I come into the gym, too.

Curtis was willing to help me out with my programming, so we have been working together on creating my plan of action these past few weeks. I started the first 4 weeks of my training with lifting 4 days a week. My days were focused on squatting, benching, deadlifting and I also had an upper body accessory day.

For the main lifts, I was working on compensatory acceleration training (CAT), meaning that I was lifting as explosively as possible throughout the entire movement. On top of that, I would have 4-5 accessory exercises after I would finish squatting, benching, or deadlifting. My biggest weakness within my lifting is my upper body strength, so that accessory day included all upper body focused strength exercises. I had close grip incline bench press as the main lift, and then rolled into kettlebell Z presses, pullups, triceps pushdowns, and side raises to rear delts.

The 5th week of my training included building my squat, bench, and deadlift up to a heavy triple set at an RPE 8, and then this week I am working at that RPE 8 weight for 3 sets of 3 repetitions. I have never trained with using RPE before, so it has been a challenge to really figure out where I’m truly at.

Even though I’m not familiar with the RPE scale, I’ve been able to push my limits and test myself as far as the weights go this week and last week. I hit my squats on Monday, bench on Tuesday, I have deadlifts today, and some more upper body accessory work tomorrow. I also enjoy throwing in 1 or 2 days of biking on the weekends as an active recovery method as well.  I’m excited to see what I can do in these next few weeks leading up to the meet, and to see what I’m able to hit on meet day! If you have any questions about the specific program that I’ve been following, or about anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask. (:

Toria

I recently went on vacation with my family to North Carolina. I don’t usually go to the gym when I’m on vacation, as my plan is to relax and restore as much as possible. However, Being 4 weeks out from my next powerlifting competition, I had to get in at least two quality sessions while I was there. So I found what Google said to be the best gym within driving distance, and I made my way there. Having been in this profession for 13 years, naturally, I go into new places and look around to see what I think. I briefly analyze the layout of the gym, along with the equipment, the cleanliness, the staff, and the various members that go there. With this gym being in the center of a popular vacation town, I knew that at least half of the people there were visitors just as I was. So I knew to be open minded about my experience.

As I was warming up on the treadmill, I noticed many things that were very different from what I experience on a daily basis at Union Fitness. I noticed that most people weren’t acknowledging one another. There weren’t many smiles, head nods, or waves. There was no “how are you?”, “May I work in with you?”, “Excuse me.”, “Thank you”. None of that. Despite all of that, I continued to stay open minded, as I knew that many people there have never seen each other before, and may never see each other again. 

As my Wife and I proceeded to go through our training session on our final day there, a woman walks our way and asks us where we were from. We told her that we were from Pittsburgh and that we train at a gym called Union Fitness. She continued by giving us some extremely nice compliments regarding the way that we carried ourselves during our time there. This was extremely humbling. We talked for about 20 minutes and then we went our separate ways. On the way home, I reflected on that experience as well as my time training at that gym. It made me realize how fortunate I am to be able to work for and train at a gym as professional as Union Fitness, and how great of members we truly are.

During my time at Union Fitness, I have seen strangers become friends, communities and bonds built, fears overcome, and countless goals set and achieved. I have also seen members who have not only stayed consistent with their training, but who have educated and evolved  throughout the process. At the same time, I have seen our amazing staff evolve simultaneously, while educating and caring for each and every member just as they would for their own self. I truly believe that we have the best team and members of any place I’ve ever been to. I think we often take for granted the things we have as we become so accustomed to having them in our daily lives and routines. We aren’t perfect, however, as long as we continue to learn and grow just as we have, we will continue to evolve into an even better, stronger community. I want to thank all of you for everything that you have done to make Union Fitness, our home, such an amazing place to be.

– Curtis Miller

We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, whether that be in the weight room or just life in general. Have you ever been to a job interview or completed a yearly performance review with your manager and they asked you to talk about your strengths and weaknesses and how you could improve on them? I want you to take the time and think about this for a few seconds and reflect on what you believe your biggest strengths and weaknesses are within the weight room specifically. You may only have 1 weakness, or you may have 5+, and that’s okay because there are no right or wrong answers here as everyone is different.

We all like to show off our strengths because we are proud of what we have overcome and what we can accomplish. Whether we hit a PR or hit a set that looks impressive, we want to show the progress that we are making and that we are strong. One thing that most (if not all) of us could do a better job of is getting out of our comfort zone and embracing our weaknesses when it comes to lifting instead of hiding them.

Most of us tend to stick to what makes us the most comfortable and to what comes easy/what we enjoy doing the most. We continue to perform the same exercises that we are used to doing and that we have already mastered. For me personally, I struggle with getting out of my comfort zone when it comes to lifting. I recently worked with Curtis on programming for me to train for my first powerlifting meet. When we were brainstorming exercises, I was unfamiliar with quite a few of them. Aside from being unfamiliar with some of the exercises, there were also some that he put out there that I have always disliked doing so I have avoided them for quite some time.

Throughout my training, I have learned to embrace the suck and do the exercises that I have been avoiding for months just because I wasn’t good at them and didn’t like doing them. I have learned to get out of my comfort zone and take on the new exercises no matter how different, difficult, or how “silly” that they may look like to others, because I know that it will benefit me in the long run of training.

Go out and pinpoint your weaknesses, and then create a plan of attack to conquer them. Growth and change are never easy, but the benefits that you will gain are worth it.

Toria

Cues are a great tool in helping fix or improve any exercise or movement pattern. The best part with cues is that there are so many different options that can all be beneficial at some point. Each person is slightly different as to which cues will have the greatest impact on them.

These various cues can be internal or external. For example: in a hang clean an internal cue might be to extend the hips and an external cue might be to jump as high as you can. Internal cues refer to something within the body while external cues refer to something outside of the body or reference some sort of visualization movement.

With most of the people I coach, I find that external cues have a greater impact because they can better understand and apply the movement to a concept that they are already familiar with. Asking someone to abduct their femur might sound like a foreign language to them and thus the cue is useless. Asking them to think about driving their knees towards the walls on either side of them might make a bit more sense and have a more positive impact on the movement pattern.

The key here is understanding when to use cues in your own training. I find cues can become overwhelming and it is easy to start thinking about 100 different cues for one movement. Now that I’m thinking about 100 different things, I’ve lost focus on the task at hand. For example, when going for a maximal effort squat it can be easy to think about so many things: back tight, head back into the bar, knees out, screw your feet into the ground, brace into your belt, etc. For me, I know that if I think about all of those during a heavy squat, I will most likely miss the squat because I’m losing focus on the actual task at hand – squat down and stand back up.

As a coach it is so easy to throw out a million cues a day at the athletes I get to work with. However, I need to remember two things: 1. How would I perform if I was thinking about a bunch of different cues and ideas all at once? 2. Often athletes can feel when a movement is not perfect and can autoregulate themselves. The next rep is usually significantly better because they felt what went wrong. Further, week 1 of a new exercise usually will have some hiccups and not look the best. However, without any cueing or corrections the following week when they come back to that same exercise their motor pattern is usually naturally better because the body remembers what to do and how it feels. Week 1 with an athlete my cues are usually very simple to make sure they are not going to hurt themselves doing the movement. Week 2 and on can be more of a time to use more cues to refine the pattern as needed.

My overall point here is that cues can be super helpful to fix and refine any movement pattern. However, do not drown yourself in too many as it will be easy to lose sight of the original task at hand. Stay focused on your overall goal and use cues to help without losing sight of the end goal.

Simone