Category Archives: Training

Northside’s Strongest, Thank You

Training

Last weekend we were able to host Northside’s Strongest Bench Press, Deadlift Competition. For some background about this event, last year we were asked to host another full meet. If we had agreed to this we would have hosted 3 full meets per year. We had a few talks about how adding another meet would add into our goals and vision for UF. We decided that two fulls sanctioned meets was enough. We also knew it was important to host a smaller push pull meet. The goal was for our members to be able to compete, as well as allow outsiders in and have some fun with us. I do believe we accomplished our goals.

 

Hosting a meet isn’t all fun and games and we need a ton of help to set this up. Our members are amazing and always helpful with this. Two people I have to thank to start off is Max for feeding our staff while they were here working and Dave for doing such an amazing job with the shirts. The staff of UF were amazing and worked their butts off to give everyone a great experience. Without everyone stepping up and helping out an event like this could not happen. So THANK YOU.

 

Now for the meet.

 

The lifting went great. One of the coolest parts was the fact that we had 51% female lifters in the meet. We saw many people hit PR’s and tons of lessons learned. For me one of the coolest parts is when someone fails and then says to me, I know what I did wrong. The lessons the iron teaches you are never ending. Some of the highlights of the lifting are as follows,

 

Tim coming back from passing out to hit his next two deadlifts.

 

Kelsey just being Kelsey and smashing weight.

 

Ava and her infectious attitude.

 

CeJ on the mic.

 

There are so many more to thank and I want to make sure each and everyone know that we appreciate you, and couldn’t do this without you.

 

Hamer

 

RIP Louie, A True Legend

Fitness, Training

I began working in the strength game in the late 1990’s. Back in that time there was little on the internet to learn about training. My introduction to one of the greats, Louie Simmons began in that time period. I remember buying Powerlifting USA every month to read Louie’s monthly article. Back in those days I spent most of my reading time with Louie, Charles Poliquin, and Fred Hatfield. These men made me questions everything I thought I knew.

 

Louie’s Unique Approach.

 

As I aged I have learned to use a different language when speaking to people. Louie was Louie and he never changed (this in many ways a compliment). While his approach could be brusque, he respected you. I remember as a young lifter calling Louie’s home (he listed his home number on all of his articles), and Doris would hand Louie the phone, Louie would take his time to share whatever ideas, knowledge, and experience that he possessed. I was finally able to meet Louie in 2002. It was at an IPA meet (I forget where it was), I missed a bench attempt and Louie came up to me and gave me a few pointers. He still didn’t know who I was, but clearly he wanted me (and everyone) to succeed. The only time I ever bombed out of a meet Louie was the only one who gave me white lights (must have misplaced his glasses, cause I was high on my squats).

 

From that first meeting until today I would get a call every few years with an invite to train at Westside Barbell for the day. Louie would always welcome me with open arms and he would spend just as much time with me as he did with some of the best lifters. It was amazing to see a man who was willing to invest the same amount in all lifters.

 

Here is a short list of inventions or ideas that Louie brought to lifting.

  1. Invented the reverse hyper.
  2. Invented the plyo-swing.
  3. Began using chains and bands.
  4. Integrated ideas from olympic lifting into powerlifting.
  5. Re-introduced box squats.
  6. Re-introduced the world to more texts than one could list.
  7. Authored numerous books on training (with a great editor, my wife Erica).

 

Final Louie story to end this blog. When my wife was hired to edit Louie’s books she would call me into her office and say, “What is this guying talking about?” I’d ask to show me the issue. He would have a subtitle saying bench press, then the first sentence would be akin to, here at Westside Barbell we have 8 men who squat over 1000 lbs. I’d say yeah that sounds good. Of course being type A Erica would yell at me and say, “it doesn’t make sense.” I’d have to explain that anyone who reads Louie will understand. She would shake her head and walk away not happy. The point is Louie was a complex man, and with that he didn’t not think, or see the world the way most humans do. He truly changed the world of strength training. He will be missed. I will leave you with a few Louie quotes.

 

“Normal people will accomplish normal things.”

“Don’t be afraid to fail or look like a fool. These are necessary milestones on your way to the top.”

The hardest thing for a human being to do is change. You have to be willing to change. Dinosaurs didn’t and they are gone. If the athlete doesn’t change or adjust, he is gone.”

“Weak things break.”

“Not being willing to try is the beginning of the end.”

“Don’t have 100 dollar lifting shoes and a 10 cent squat.”

 

 

 

 

 

Benefits of Adding Throws Into Your Workout

Fitness, Training

Toss it, throw it, sometimes you just gotta send it.

 

Today we are going to promote adding throws into your training. If you’re a powerlifter, athlete, weekend warrior or someone just looking to add spicy variety and new challenges into your workout, throws are a great add in.

 

The beauty of throws, is most anyone can do them because we can use various weights, implements and sizes of equipment. You can get a full body workout in with throws all while working coordination, balance, proprioception (awareness of your own body in space) explosiveness, the ability to brace, work capacity and overall muscular strength and endurance.

 

Currently, we implement throws into almost every training day with the athletes we work with at Union. Some throws are low impact throws that we use to work balance, coordination, catching and injury prevention such as a single leg partner chest pass. Other variations we use are to work on force production, explosive power and strength , an example of this would be our Snap Down to Granny Throw where the goal is to send it flying for height and distance.

 

Our most popular implement to throw is the medicine ball just for its versatility, but we have used sandbags, kegs and don’t forget the old fashioned frisbee.

 

Here is a fun sample medicine ball throw workout to give a try if you’re tossing the idea around in your head (see what I did there).

 

  1. MB Slams x 8
  2. MB Rotational Throws to Wall x 8each
  3. MB Wall Ball x 8
  4. MB Chops x 8each
  5. MB Broad Jump to Press & Chase x 8
  6. MB Granny Toss for Distance x 8

Try these exercises in a circuit for 3-5 sets or however many sets you are ready for while you take your rest as needed. Or just stop down to Union and we can throw it around in #Powerful and our other awesome classes. We’d love to have some fun and train with you.

 

Hope you give throws a try and remember, when in doubt, you just gotta send it!

 

Cheers,

CeJ

Underrated Exercises for Strength

Fitness, Training

Exercises seem to come and go. One day everyone in the gym is doing a certain exercise then years later it changes. There are a few that in my opinion that have faded from use without much of a reason. Below is a list of some of these under-appreciated exercises.

 

  1. DB Pullover. This exercise was used extensively during the golden age of bodybuilding. The pullover trains the lats, pecs, triceps, and even the abs. Grab a DB and do 4 sets of 10 and I promise you’ll be sore.
  2. Floor Press. The floor press was a staple of bench training 15 years ago, it shows imbalances, removes legs from the lift,  and build immense power at the bottom of the press. Also, try I t with dumbbells.
  3. Front Squats. Front squats build everything. I do not know if there is an exercise that checks more boxes than the front squat. It’s great for mobility, strength, and a big from squat is impressive.
  4. Running. It doesn’t matter if it’s jogging or sprinting. Get out and run. If preparing to lift then sprint, if looking for basic conditioning do some tempo runs, if you want health and to see the world more run a mile.
  5. Carries. Farmer carries, waiter walks, single arm carries, overhead carries, and any variation you think of is good. Most lower body “unilateral” lifts are actual bi-lateral. Split squats and lunges are mainly bi-lateral. Walking with weight will force you to spend time on one leg. This will create a ton of stability and strength. So to start or end your lift, grab some weight and go for a walk.

 

This is a short list of awesome exercises. Give them a try and tell me if there is an exercise that you love that didn’t make the list then share that as well.

 

Hamer

You…. What’s Your RPE

Training

I am going to start todays blog by asking you a few questions. I hope these questions create more questions in your head, this will lead to even more questions and maybe one day even an answer or two.

 

  1. How do you judge or grade your training session?
  2. Do you know your goals for each session?
  3. Can you quantify what you did?
  4. Do you use subjective or objective metrics in your training?

 

I am going to answer all of these questions with some history of training. When I first began training (when dinosaurs still roamed the earth), in the 1990’s most people used percentages of 1 rep max to set the workout load for the day. There were some good rules of thumb, for instance we know you can do roughly 10 repetitions at 75% of your 1 rep max. If we were performing 5’s you could begin at 75% and then adjust from up from there. It would look something like 75×5 80×5 85×5 for a top set. This was a very basic way to train and it worked for many people.

 

Enter Westside.

 

As Louie Simmons grew in popularity and Westside Barbell style of training became more mainstream many started using velocity as a metric to judge the workout. Louie reintroduced Prilipen’s Chart to lifters. The goal became move the bar as fast as possible. The weight was important yet how fast the barbell seemed to be moving was the ultimate judge. I remember even going as far as using a stopwatch to time reps. If you didn’t get three reps in three seconds then the weight was too heavy. There are many weaknesses to this way of looking at velocity yet we were figuring things out as we went.

 

As the idea of velocity in training grew VBT (Velocity Based Training) became the go to for training with speed in mind. Bryan Mann has written extensively about this topic. The use of tend units, speed for lifts, push, and many other brands aided lifters in objectively scoring their acceleration. This was a natural progression, even if at times it lead to ugly form. VBT did give the lifters the opportunity to use an objective metric to judge their lifts. We knew going in what velocity we were looking for and as long as the barbell stayed at or near that number the load was correct. With this method the lifter could make adjustments  immediately.

 

RPE Take Over.

 

The Borg Scale began as a rating from 6-20. The idea Borg had at the time was this could equate to heart rate. 6 would equal roughly 60 beats per minute, and meant rest. Whereas 20 was 200 beats per minute and was 100% effort. So while training you could ask how do I feel?  If the answer was 12 then we’d assume 120 beats per minute.

 

The Borg Scale grew into todays RPE (Rate of Perceived Exerertion). This scale has been simplified to a 1-10 scale. 1 being rest and 10 being 100% effort. Lifters then began to use this to quantify difficulty of lifts, 1 being rest and 10 being a maximal effort lift. Using the RPE scale gave the lifter a chance to judge, as well as set their load based upon how the weight felt on any given day. This has been great as it is very simple for lifters and coaches to use. At the same time (from what I’ve seen) it has also been a hindrance for many lifters as they are using a completely subjective scale to set the load for the day. With the amount of technology available why not use both a subjective, as well as an objective metrics?

 

Another weakness I see with using only an RPE scale is it makes the feel more important than reality. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have been training and I hit a weight, in my head I think, “I’m done,” then someone calls me out or loads the bar with more. I can taste and smell the fear, and I overcome it all and lift the weight. I am not saying this should be how one trains all the time, I am saying that if I just used RPE then I wouldn’t know what a ten truly feels like.

 

To take us back to the questions that began this post, the answer to all four is use RPE, use VBT, use percents. I didn’t even touch on the use of heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep data, or the multitude of other data we can use to help with our programming. In short, be sure that you are using both objective as well as subjective data to aid in your programming.

 

 

 

 

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Life Health, Training

Change has always been a part of my life. I spent a lot of my younger life jumping from town to town because of my dad being in the military. We traveled all over Venezuela so being new in a lot of places is something that I was used to. Even though I moved a lot with my family, it did not prepare me for moving to the US. When we moved around Venezuela we knew we were going to come back to our hometown but not this time.

 

When I moved to the US I experienced a lot of discomfort. I didn’t know anyone- didn’t speak the language, didn’t know any places- I was lost. I had to force myself out of my comfort zone to do anything. At first I was terrified. I remember lunch being very quiet and lonely. I would see all these kids talking to their friends and laughing, and I wanted that. I decided that I would embrace that discomfort and reach a new goal I had set for myself- “be able to hold a full conversation in English and make friends”. It worked. I did everything I could to achieve that goal and it made setting new goals for myself easier as I graduated high school, and moved onto college. Watching myself be able to change in a way I never thought I would be able to, only furthered my drive to want more for myself after I graduated from college.

 

There was one more recent venture that gave me that same feeling of discomfort, and it was moving to Pittsburgh. When I moved to Pittsburgh the first couple of days were great but after 2 weeks, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I again had no friends, no job, no money but what I did have was experience with this discomfort so I started setting new goals for myself to be able to achieve all of those things. I wasn’t having any luck finding jobs, money or friends until I went into this little gym named Union Fitness (maybe you’ve heard of it) and I talked to this guy named Todd Hamer (weird guy, don’t talk to him), and he offered for me to come work a powerlifting meet. I was faced with that same feeling of discomfort but I knew that if I went to this meet, I would be opening new opportunities for myself. I met a lot of wonderful people and I got this great job!

 

We all have those feelings of being uncomfortable in new situations but we can’t let those feelings dictate how we live. Understand and acknowledge those feelings, but don’t let them hold you back from great, new opportunities.

It’s Ladies Night

Fitness, Life Health, Training

Hello Everyone!

 

We are super excited to say that we are going to be offering our first ever Ladies Night here at UF! This will be held next Saturday March 12th from 4:30 – 6:30pm and we are planning to continue to offer this event on the second Saturday of every month moving forward. The Strength Lab, Cardio Lab, and the Fitness Center will all be open for us to train in for those 2 free hours. All ladies are welcome whether you are a current member or a non-member. Come on out and have some fun, bring a friend, hit some PR’s, and meet some fellow strong ladies. 

 

We are looking forward to seeing all of you there and continuing to create a strong community together! 

 

Toria

Meet the Ryde Instructors

Fitness, Training

Now that we are almost two months into the newest addition of cardio classes to Union Fitness, we thought it’d be nice to share a little more about the Ryde instructors over the next few weeks. Kayla, Vanessa, and Rachael are first up on this week’s introductions!

 

Kayla Hersperger

 

Hi! I’m Kayla! I’m primarily a yoga teacher but I’ve been teaching RYDE classes since this past summer. I absolutely love putting together my playlists and class plan each week and look forward to teaching on Friday mornings.

 

I started indoor cycling about four years ago at Urban Elements when Britt and Sharon encouraged me to venture outside the yoga room. I hopped around to various studios and then when the pandemic hit, I became obsessed with the peloton bike. Since buying my own, I’m pretty much riding every day between my own bike and the classes at Union Fitness.

 

In my class you can expect to ride to the beat of the music. I take extreme care creating my playlists that are often themed and always exciting. If you don’t have fun in my class, I haven’t done my job. My goal is to get your heart pumping and your face smiling. Basically, we have a party on the bike.

 

Vanessa Matthews

 

Vanessa went to school to be a chemical engineer, but left her career to pursue her passion of fitness full time.  She opened her own personal training business and has taught many different group fitness formats since 2010. In 2015 she was fitness director at a local gym, and won her first figure competition, all of which seemed like significant accomplishments, until her health began to fail in 2016.  When she had her first baby in 2018, health issues continued to spiral out of control.

 

Chronic pain forced her to change her entire philosophy and approach to health, which she believes is holistic, and more about food and mindset than it is about exercise. After a 4.5 year break from teaching, and now with a 1 and 4 year old, Vanessa is back with a new outlook on life.  In her classes, she takes her students on a mental journey as well as a physical one.  If you catch one of her classes, you will feel like you can take on the world!

 

Rachael Riddell

 

Rachael graduated from the University of Colorado Doctor of Pharmacy Program in 2014 and manages a team of Clinical Pharmacists in Pittsburgh. Shortly after finishing pharmacy school, she started teaching cycling, bootcamp, and barre fitness classes in Denver. Her love of all things fitness followed her back to Pittsburgh in 2018 where she has continued to teach around the city.

 

All of Rachael’s workouts (on and off the bike) are intended to challenge what you think you are capable of doing and leave you feeling accomplished. Look forward to a playlist to keep your body moving to the beat in every class.

 

You can catch Kayla, Vanessa, and Rachael early mornings during the week and also on the Saturday rotation!

CeJ’s Strongman/Powerlifting Experience

Training

Hello Dream Team,

 

I have been just training for life, liberty and the pursuit of bumpiness for the past few months. With no competitions currently in sight I have been mixing various training styles, implements, exercises and just rolling with them for a few weeks at a time. With that being said I do miss the time frame goal, game time feeling that competing in powerlifting and strongman provide. So that got me thinking, why don’t I talk about my experiences in both and work to inspire or push you and the strong folks at Union and abroad to try new competitions.

 

Let it be known that ANYONE can compete in either of these sports and more people will support and cheer for you than grumble and poke fun. For those people that poke fun at people competing you’re not cool or helping new people enjoy the sport you do, we can have a chat later about that. If you are competing for the first time in either of these sports, I would recommend getting a coach that has competed or training with people that have competed. This will help boost your confidence and not go into training and competition without purpose, drive and knowledge. The saying “I don’t know if I’m ready yet” is the reason we prepare and train for the competition. Have no fear, find some battle buddies, coaches and let’s get at er!

 

In the grand scheme of things the two sports (powerlifting & strongman) are similar in training. Your goal should be to have a strong base of work capacity, proficient technique in the BIG moments (Squat Bench Dead Carry & Overhead Press) , build some muscle because you can’t flex bone and much to many people’s anti-cardio hearts, have a good aerobic capacity (mostly for recovery purposes but also so you aren’t a lump after your first event). I would say another cool thing about these sports is that the majority of people competing and supporting athletes are very nice, helpful and educational. They as anyone would want to see their sport grow and attract more attention.

 

There are a few differences I noticed in training and competing for both sports. In a full powerlifting competition you will always squat, bench and deadlift in that order. Strongman however can have 3-5 or more various events that you will usually know upon signing up but could also change due to equipment or other issues (the mystery is part of the fun).  While training for powerlifting I would recommend having a squat, bench, deadlift and second press emphasis day focusing on building your competition lifts. While training for strongman I would still keep my 3 strength and main mover days going but I would emphasis the Overhead press and deadlift more since that is used more in strongman. I would throw a variation squat and bench in to help strengthen my movements and keep building muscle. Also in Strongman, you will usually be head to head with another competitor but I would tell anyone to focus on their own efforts and do the best they can.

 

Overall I had a blast competing in both Strongman & Powerlifting. I liked seeing my maximal strength in the powerlifting competition and pushing the gas pedal in the strongman competition. I will definitely be doing more of both soon and would love to talk more in person with people who are interested in joining me in training and competitions.

 

Pitter patter let’s get at er and have some fun trying new events.

Ham’s Comeback

Fitness, Life Health, Training

As you may already know I injured myself training three weeks ago. While injuries are never fun we all know that bumps and bruises are part of training. I am going to use this opportunity to fix some issues that I have ignored for far too long. While trying to return to training I am going to keep Jared’s words in my head, “In two weeks you will think you are better, then for the next two months you will do something that reminds you that you aren’t” 

 

I began “working out” the week after my injury (while it appears that my injury is 100% soft tissue, I must be smart in returning). The reason I quoted working out is because there is a big difference between training, and working out. Training has a purpose and is striving towards goals. Working out is aimless and not nearly as focused. To be fair I began this process two weeks ago, and while it seemed aimless it honesty wasn’t. The goal the first two weeks was to move, work on my mobility, and return myself to pain free (mostly) movement. 

 

Now to begin my training.

 

Today I will begin my training again. This will be the first time I train with a barbell or any real weight. I will lay out my plan below. Before I do that here are some specifics about the plan. I discussed this with many people to come up with a solid plan. First thing you may notice is that the program looks upside down. I squat last. Curtis had this idea as I will be warmed up and moving better by the time I get to my squats. In addition the only barbell movement I am doing for the next 2-3 weeks is a front squat. Here is the program.

 

  1. Slider Leg Curl 3×15
  2. Bulgarian Split Squat (31X tempo) 3×8
  3. Chins 3×10
  4. SA Bench with Iso opposite arm 3×10
  5. SA Overhead Press 3×10
  6. SA Row with Iso opposite arm 3×10
  7. Trap Bar Carries 3×20 yards
  8. Front Squat (10 count iso) 3×3-5 

 

That is it. I will still begin each day with bike 10 minutes and about 15 minutes or rehab/mobility work. Wish me luck as I will be SORE.