Hey everyone, my name is Jared. You can usually find me opening the gym in the morning or pretending I can lift heavy weights in the Strength Lab. I am a physical therapist and a huge advocate for strength training. With strength training though, we usually find ourselves having some aches and pains that seem to limit our ability to go about our work week, do our normal activities around the home, or perform well in the gym or even a competition.

In strength training, often the small things are neglected. For example, how many of you actually focus on mobility and stability through your ankles, knees, hips and trunk as a part of your training for squats? How many of you focus on thoracic spine mobility, rotator cuff strength and stability, or hip strength and mobility as a part of your bench press auxiliary work? And don’t even get me started on the deadlift. In no way should you walk away with legitimate low back pain every time you deadlift. Having pain with training is a part of the process. For everyone. That is okay, it isn’t the end of the world, I promise. But your body is telling you that you have pain for a reason. Generally, when we experience pain it is because a part of the body is experiencing forces or damage that it isn’t used to or should not be experiencing.

Now the questions everyone seems to ask themselves or their training partners are:
“Why does my (insert body part here) hurt like hell?”
“How do I get it to stop hurting?”
“What can I do to prevent this in the future?”

What I will ask you in return are:
“Have you taken steps to address your mobility or stability issues?”
“What have you done to change your lifestyle to help your pain?”
“Have you changed the way you train to take care of your pain? Or are you just trying to manage it with Ibuprofen and grit?”

You absolutely need to figure out a way to care for yourself. I never recommend to people that they stop training. I never recommend that they have to stop moving or start taking a bunch of drugs to take care of their pain. You need to adjust your training to work through pain free movements or movements that only cause minimal pain while still working toward your goals. While doing that you need to figure out the mobility, stability or strength issue that caused your pain and address it. More importantly, you need to make sure that you are getting enough GOOD sleep, staying hydrated, and that your nutrition is on point. Just fixing these things alone can significantly help your problem. There is a ton of research supporting the benefits of sleep, hydration and nutrition in decreasing pain and helping the body heal.

If you are able to care for yourself and take the time to do so it will save you time and money. Time you can put toward other things such as your family, your dog, your collection of succulents, etc… As well as more time in the future you can dedicate toward your training and your goals! That being said… If you are having difficulty figuring out the issue, or you are not having success addressing it yourself, seek professional help. Ask your physician, physical therapist, chiropractor, etc. to help you with the issue and get it addressed by someone who knows what’s going on. They can point you in the right direction to help you address the issue on your own.

If you have any questions or need some assistance, let me know! Hit me up via email (jaredcaroff@gmail.com) or find me in the gym and I can do a quick movement screen on you and see if it’s something that needs addressed further or something you can easily manage on your own independently!

Happy lifting everyone! And remember, don’t let pain be your enemy, but use it to make yourself stronger and more resilient! Get your sleep, hydration and nutrition on point. Continue training through ways that don’t increase your pain but still address your goals… and find a way to address the issue at hand!

I am currently around 7 weeks out from my next Powerlifting meet, and things are beginning to ramp up. With training becoming more challenging, it is important to make sure that I am doing all of the small things outside of the gym that make the biggest difference. Nutrition needs to be in line, sleep needs to be adequate, and stress needs to be under control. I’m very fortunate to have a family back home who has always been extremely supportive, even now that I live 6 hours away. They understand that I am very passionate about my goals, and know that during these times, I may not be able to make it home as often as I would like. Traveling seems to take a lot out of me. Not so much physically (although that does come into play), but more so mentally. It is a lot to cram into 36 hours. As a matter of fact, the last time I traveled home for a day to visit my family at 8 weeks out from a competition, I ended up injuring myself during a training session the morning after a 6 hour drive to my parents. Fortunately, with the help of my good friends and training partners, I was able to compete at my highest level. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t cross my mind every time I’ve thought about going home to visit.

I had my mind made up that I wasn’t going to travel during this meet prep. But when I woke up last Thursday and felt homesick, I had to look myself in the mirror and ask if it was really worth it. Was my goal of a 2000lb total more important than spending time with my family? Some people would say yes. Some would say no. Some people would say it has to be one or the other. But I’ve come to realize that you can in fact accomplish both. Yes, it is extremely important to dedicate yourself to achieving your goals, but at what cost? 99% of us reading this are not professional athletes. We do not get paid to exercise every day, compete in competitions, or run marathons. We do it for fun and recreation. It helps us to be a better person physically and mentally. At some point, things are going to slow down, and training may become less important to us than it is now. If we put so much effort into one thing for so long and we choose to shut out those other people and things in our lives that bring us fulfillment, what will we have when it’s all said and done?

Sure, you achieved your goals, but what did that really get you? I can promise you that it’s not the equivalent of those other things in life which make it full. I did in fact travel home to see my family last weekend. And I did in fact get to have a quality 2 hour training session. Afterward, my brother, sister, and both of their families all got together at my parents for a cookout. We laughed, cried, told stories, and hugged each other as if we would never get to do it again. It was the best decision that I have made in a very long time, and I am in a better place mentally than I was before I decided to go.

Bruce Lee once said, “Become like water my friend”. He believed in forming to whatever scenario you find yourself in. Flow effortlessly and be completely captured in the moment. If you are training for an hour on a Tuesday night after work, then you are only focused on that one thing, nothing else. If you go home to spend time with your family for a day, then dedicate every minute of that day to being will them, and enjoying the small things. If you choose to do this, you will in fact achieve all of your goals, and live a more fulfilled life in the process.

If you listened to last weeks Union Fitness podcast you probably heard me bore you to death with all things CrossFit. During the podcast, I had the opportunity to talk about many things that mean the world to me, one of them being mental health – Which I didn’t entirely get to elaborate too much on (hence the reason for this weeks blog from yours a truly).

There was a point in my life where I was pretty closed off and then I realized once you understand that the opinions of others don’t matter, you will find freedom. This was the point at which I stopped being scared to open up about the things I was feeling internally. Now I’m not saying that I’m completely vulnerable 100% of the time, it’s certainly something I’m still working on, however when the moment presents itself I find that there are people in my life that respect me more for putting myself in those situations.

When I first started my fitness journey it was during a time where I didn’t like the person I saw in the mirror. I didn’t love my body, I didn’t love the choices I was making in my life and I didn’t like the road I was going down. Sitting on the third floor of my campus library I called the nearest CrossFit gym, little did I know eventually it would become the biggest part of who I am today and help me move through tough times.

Mental health encompasses a lot of things involving just you as a person. It’s everything from how you view yourself, how you treat yourself and how you deal with life in general. All of these things can have a drastic impact on your quality of life and it’s important to understand it’s always okay to put yourself first. When you take the time to invest in your wellbeing you allow yourself the opportunity to heal and to essentially give yourself a break from the stressors of life. This can be anything from getting a good workout in, talking to a friend or therapist or even just going for a walk to clear your head.

When I started to invest in myself I saw that I was growing into someone I could stand to look at in the mirror. It didn’t happen overnight though but my ability to just look at myself and not immediately think of something negative became my new normal. I stopped worrying about the number on the scale and started desiring a number on the barbell. It was that mentality shift that allowed me to enjoy life more and to celebrate what my body could do vs what it looked like.

Now that mentality didn’t come without struggle and I’m not going to sit here and write all this out without acknowledging that. 

I’ve had the extreme misfortune of losing one of my best friends to mental illness and that one loss in the way that it happened will stay with me for the rest of my life. Amanda is the reason for most things in my life but more importantly, not giving up. This is truly why I believe that fitness and mental health go hand in hand, without CrossFit or an outlet for me to put my deepest self into, I would have given up a very long time ago.

Working out became my church, it allowed me to put my pain into something positive and even if I was having the worst day, the endorphin rush allowed me to feel happy. I’ve had moments in my life for the entirety of the workout I thought about the one thing that was hurting me the most and used it as motivation. So when I said in the podcast that “fitness and mental health go hand in hand” this is exactly what I am emphasizing.

Although fitness is my chosen choice of prescription, I have walked down another path.

This past year I went through a pretty traumatic experience where I felt as if I need a little something extra to help me through this time. I was previously seeing a therapist and decided at that time I needed medication, consulted my doctor and with the aid of anxiety meds I was able to move through my days a little better with a clearer head. The discussion of replacing medication with exercise is one that is very prominent in today’s society and one that I take no stance on, I’m a firm believer in whatever helps you get through the day is the exact prescription that you need.

For me personally there were more negatives to being on medication than positives. The medication essentially numbed most of my feelings, made me foggy depending on the time I took it and negatively impacted my training. It was my own decision to take myself of my anxiety meds as I truly didn’t feel like I needed them. Although at the time it was exactly what I needed, I don’t think it was ever a long term solution for me.

So now I ask myself, where do you find yourself?

As a professional in the fitness industry, I have seen a lot of people of different shapes and sizes with similar issues they are battling every day. It is not my job to tell you what prescription fits you as an individual but it is my job to give you the tools to help you succeed. After being on both sides of dealing with mental health issues I have a better understanding and appreciation for those also struggling like myself.

I have a quote tattooed on my leg and it reads, “strength doesn’t come from what you can do, it comes from overcoming things you once thought you couldn’t.” If there is ever a moment you feel weak, lean into the fact that it will pass and lean onto whatever helps you through the situation. It is essentially all about growing through what you go through and although these experiences will be painful they will teach you to never give up.

The topic of mental health will never be an easy one to have and as I write this I feel as if my thoughts are all over the place, it’s a tough one to talk about. However, I hope from my sporadic thoughts that seem to be carefully placed together make sense to you. At the end of the day, your relationship with you in the most important and I hope you take the time to nurture your personal growth, in whatever way that may be.

J

On March 15, 2020, Union Fitness will host the 2nd Annual “All Out for

Amelia” in honor of 4 year old Amelia Sharer. In October 2018 Amelia was diagnosed

with a rare and aggressive form of pediatric cancer, and although she battled with

bravery and a smile, her fight came to an end in March of 2019.

While her time on Earth was brief, Amelia inspired thousands of people while

reminding us all to appreciate the little things. Her goal was to spread love

whenever possible, and thus the Amelia M. Sharer Foundation was born. It’s

mission is simple- to help children and families affected by cancer and to ensure

that NO child, no matter their family’s ability to pay, is denied medical

transportation in times of need.

This mission is particularly close to the

foundation’s heart, as Amelia initially waited for over six hours for ambulance

transportation to the Children’s Hospital due to a temporary lapse in insurance

coverage. Finally, after hours of dismay, an EMS crew two hours away heard of the

situation and selflessly offered to transport Amelia at no cost to the family.

In support of their mission, Union Fitness has generously offered to host a

charity push/pull event. Just two days after the first anniversary of her passing,

our goal is simple- to spread love and help support a worthy cause. Your donation,

be it of time, money, or prize items, will help us reach our goal and lessen the

burden of families going through the atrocities of pediatric cancer.

Please contact alloutforamelia@gmail.com for additional questions. More

information about the Amelia M. Sharer Foundation can be found at

www.strengthforamelia.org.

Sincerely,

Nicole Nelson

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the discussion with a few of my training partners on the topic of measuring progress within our training programs. As lifters, it’s very easy to get caught up in focusing too much on the obvious; putting more weight on the bar. Although this feeds the ego, it is not always great for our progress, and can actually greatly hinder our ability to be our best. As an individual with the goals of simply looking and feeling better, it is very easy to compare ourselves to what we see around us instead of focusing on what’s most important. Every individual is different, and no two people will progress the same way or at the same pace. So if we stay open minded and focus on getting better at one thing at a time instead of trying to do too much, we will likely achieve our goals more consistently, while making it more enjoyable in the process.

A wise man once said “Life ain’t a track meet, it’s a marathon” (thanks Ice Cube). Our mindset for progression should be no different, regardless of if it takes place inside the gym or during everyday life. We do many small things each day that add up in order to achieve a singular or multiple goals, so why should our approach to training be any different? In the long run, we must think about our main goals. What is it that we want to accomplish, and what approach will give us the best chance of getting there? The best way to promote consistent progression is to focus on achieving small, realistic, and obtainable goals. 

Listed below are some of the areas which I feel are most important when it comes to making consistent, continued progress inside of the gym, which will in turn have a similar benefit to our accomplishments in everyday life.

1) Focus on your mindset:

This is usually the first area that we could benefit from. Focus on a strong positive mindset. Understand that things aren’t always going to go as planned, but that there is something positive to learn and take away from every situation. It’s up to us to decide the outcome. Learn to better approach this and you will see a major improvement in your day to day progress.

2) Refine your technique:

In my opinion, technical improvements should always come before increased intensity. It’s much more challenging to spend the time learning how to move correctly, but it will be much more beneficial in the long run. Every day before beginning your workout, pick 1-2 things that you want to technically do better than your previous session.

3) Build personal goals through increased repetitions or sets.

This is probably the easiest way to judge physical progress. For most people, I like giving them a repetition range for each set. For example: 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions. Find a weight that they come close to failure within that rep range. When they can complete all sets at the top number of repetitions for that range, they now know that they are ready to progress in weight by 5-10 pounds.

4) Keep weight increases to small increments.

If you do chose to progress by increasing your weight for a given exercise, remember that staying on the conservative side is always better than biting off more than you can chew. There’s nothing wrong with a 5 pound increase on your squat. On the other hand, theres nothing more discouraging than trying to progress too much and missing your goal repetitions. Be smart and patient. All good things come with time. 

5) Keep track of your rest periods.

I’ll be the first to admit that I love having conversations with my training partners and other members during workouts. However, during that time I could be focusing on keeping my pace up, which will ultimately increase my overall conditioning. Start with a rest period that gives you enough time to physically recover from each set. Then, each time you come into the gym, work to lower that time, even if it’s only by a few seconds. The less rest that you need in between sets, the more conditioned that your body is becoming, and the more you will be able to progress in everything that you do.

If we focus on these 5 things, we will always continue to find progression within our training program. This in turn will keep us progressing through our daily life, and kicking ass for years to come.

You’ve been working all year, the long hours in the gym, the tears, putting in the work while going through tough periods in your life, it all adds up at some point. It only takes one second, one thing to go wrong and all that hard work you put in is at a stopping point. 

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw that I hurt my shoulder during my first Qualifier workout for the Mid Atlantic CrossFit Challenge (MACC). I then spent the next week completely off training, seeing a PT every day and trying to manage the pain I was in. It wasn’t until Friday of the same week that I finally had relief of pain and could go through the last 2 workouts with little to minimal pain.

When you’re on a team you always want to perform at your best and when you feel like you aren’t, you don’t only feel like you’re letting your team down but you’re disappointed in yourself for letting this happen. You try to tell yourself, it’s normal, you’re only human but it certainly doesn’t hurt any less. You can also relate this to individual sports or fitness goals; when you work so hard for something only to fall short, it just sucks.

So, here we are, in the thick of it and you ask yourself, where do I go from here?

Fitness is the only thing in life where your success is completely dependent on yourself. It doesn’t care how old you are or how much money you make. It does care about how hard you work. Setbacks are bound to happen, it’s just the nature of being human. The hard part here is reframing our mind so they don’t weigh on us heavily, basically teaching ourselves to view negatives as positives

Now, how do we do that?

First, you have to own the situation. You have to understand that yes said situation happened and know you are in complete control of your reaction. When I look at my shoulder injury I’m thinking, did I know my shoulder was weak? Yes. Could I have done more PT exercises over the past few months to stabilize my scapula? Yes. Owning what you are going through is the first step in taking back your power.

Second, you need to use the situation as fuel to motivate yourself. If we let every single “no” we ever received in our lifetime stop us, none of us would be where we are today. Every single no is a redirection, we are simply being shown a different way to get to where we want to go. It might not be an easy road but it’ll be the one that shows us our strength. 

Lastly, remind yourself that setbacks are part of the journey. Find it somewhere within you to be kind to yourself, letting yourself feel the initial reaction but then by choosing to not dwell on it you will find control.

What about situations outside of the gym, does this way of thinking still apply?

So, you didn’t get that job or promotion you applied for. Does that mean you’re any less of a person just because you lost out? Not in the slightest. As I previously mentioned, every no is simply life’s way of redirecting us to the path we are meant to be on. Would you rather have an easy-going, flow through it kind of life or would you rather have a life that was full of growth? The choice is yours but I’m sure I know your answer already.

If we’re talking about something a little deeper, that’s a really tough one and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes life kicks you in the jaw over and over again, you’ll pick yourself up and find yourself on the ground again. If there’s anything I could ever stress (inside the gym and outside) it’s always going to remain to be, kindness. Having compassion for yourself is one of the hardest things as we are our own toughest critics. But, if you reframe your thinking, every tough situation is an opportunity for growth. You wouldn’t be where you are today if it wasn’t for the tough things you needed to fight through. 

The moral of the story here is disappointment is ultimately unavoidable and navigating through it certainly a learned skill. It’ll get under your skin and dip you into a pool of self-pity but If you learn to (here it is, again) be kind to yourself and use the situation to motivate you then in the grand scheme of things you will be a stronger more resilient individual.

We are always working toward personal growth but you cannot possibly become a better version of yourself by having an easy life. You will experience weak moments but it’s in those moments we realize how much we can handle and how far we can push ourselves past that threshold. 

Much love,

Jocelyn

Greetings UF Nation,

I am preparing for the USPA Shark Tank meet in Cleveland, Ohio. This will be my first return to the platform in over a year and only my second time as a raw lifter.

Friday is bench day for me, and I am currently doing a 3 week wave of Dynamic Effort (DE) work on my bench.

Warm Up:

I always begin with jump rope. I hit 100 straight skips then just do anything else until I mess up on the rope. Following jump rope I do some shoulder mobility work and some work specific to lower trap engagement.

Bench with mini bands- 8×3 (165 lbs (50%))

FatBell Incline- 4×10 (70 lbs)

1a Machine Press- 4×30 sec

1b Machine Lat Pulldown- 4×10

2a Fat Bell Row- 3×8 (97 lbs)

2b Band Tricep Pushdown- 4×25

The idea with my accessories is simple…tear muscle down and rebuild. You may notice I had some timed work in there. I believe more people should perform timed work. We often see people program 4×10 with no idea on what tempo is being used. So pick an exercise and do some work for time. See how it feels and if it works for you then adjust the time appropriately.

One of the most popular strategies in personal achievement as well as managerial motivation is to create goals, specifically SMART goals, to encourage certain behaviors and habits. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. This means that your goals should be purely objective without any way to insert subjectivity. Black and white. No gray.

Ever since I learned about SMART strategies, something about them didn’t sit well with me. I thought they would work for occupations with checklists and strict protocols, but they seemed too rigid when it came to innovation and artistic creativity. I wondered if there was another way.

Many times, we have a specific thing in mind that we want. However, many times our desires can be ambiguous and vague. How many of you reading this right now have followed your 5 year plan perfectly? Or are you doing something completely different than what you thought you would be? Play-doh was initially designed to clean wallpaper. No one expected to create one of the most popular and iconic toys of all time. Joseph Needham was a brilliant British biochemist, but did a 180 degree turn and became the premier authority on the history of Chinese science and technology simply because he was curious. It can be hard to tell where our interests and passions will take us. 

The Western world is obsessed with reductionist science. Break this thing down to its most fundamental, indivisible parts to find out what it is. It has to be quantified. If you can’t measure it, then it doesn’t matter. The problem is, there are whole fields of science that rely on subjective, qualitative data. How do you objectively measure well-being? Or leadership ability? What scale would you use? What are the components of well-being or leadership? How do you quantify a piece of art? These are questions that come from reductionism, but they can have little meaning when it comes to complex dynamical systems such as human beings. 

Research has supported the idea for a long time now that we are very poor at estimating our highest potential in any given task or skill. This makes knowing what is achievable and realistic very difficult. Many of our greatest athletes, artist, thinkers, etc. were thought to have very little potential. Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin were very average in their abilities in their youth. No one predicted that they would become two of the greatest minds to ever grace the earth. Long-term success is especially murky, but even short-term changes can be tough to nail down. We lift weights and expect to get stronger. Sometimes the results are overwhelmingly positive in a short amount of time. Other times, we are disappointed with the pitiful outcome after a training block. If we don’t achieve our goal, are we worth less? How tempting is it to judge ourselves based on the outcomes we are chasing? But if our goals don’t align with what is possible, we are constantly falling short of our/other’s expectations. 

It’s good to have a direction that you want to go. I think it’s paramount. That doesn’t mean you have to scrutinize every detail along the journey. Instead of being obsessed with outcomes, I propose that we focus on the system. What are you doing to advance in the direction you desire? How can our process be refined? Focus less on the “what”, and more on the “why” and “how”. This allows for recalibration when new information arises, and keeps you grounded when things don’t go your way. It also encourages you to enjoy what you’re doing. Have you ever set SMART goals when you went out for a dip in the ocean? Or when you went on a stroll with a loved one? I would guess not. You were more focused on enjoying the experience. Goals wouldn’t seem appropriate because they would steal from the moment. We can do the same thing in many other aspects of our lives. Focus on process enjoyment and refinement. If you can do that, the outcomes will take care of themselves. 

Yes I know that is a lot of supers. There is a reason for that, as we are having a super class this Sunday that is helping a friend of the gyms and they do not know about this yet. How are we going to keep this a secret? Well, luckily this person does not live too close and does not follow us on social media.

This Sunday, February 2nd, 8:30 AM we are going to host our next super class. As with our previous super classes, we are asking everyone who joins us to do something good for the world. One of the friends of the gym was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and has to travel a far distance for her treatments. So we are asking anyone who joins us to purchase a gasoline gift card and bring it with you on Sunday and we will surprise her with the cards this week.

What we will do this during this super class is break the class into two teams, we may name the teams after a few other teams that will be playing later that evening. Then we will compete and the winning team will get their Union Fitness t-shirts to show off their favorite gym.

So come on down and bring a friend or two and don’t forget a gas card to help our friend out. Next week we will hopefully be able to get some pictures of us delivering the cards. Just please sign up for the class on our website or app so we can have an accurate count.

Thanks for all you do!