We’re going to introduce a newly recurring blog for our gym- training updates from our staff. The aim being two fold:
We want to share with you our successes and failures while hopefully teaching you a little bit of the “why.”
We want you to get to know us better through these trials. We do practice what we preach (most of the time) and this should be an honest representation of that.

Leadership:
There are times to lead from the front and times to lead from the back- this is one of those times that the former is more important. To get this ball rolling, I’ll share with you my recent goals and how well I think I’m doing to achieve those goals.

Past:
August 25th I had an international meet in Mountain View, California. It went as well as it could have, and I learned a lot from my failures that day (and really the weeks prior). Since then my training took a back seat. I just wasn’t interested in training, so I let my body and my mind wander, so to speak. My ultimate goal in this sport is to total 2300lbs which might look something like 850 squat, 600 bench, 850 deadlift. To get there will take time, effort, patience, consistency, and some tenacity. So I have to realize that if I need six weeks ‘off’ after a meet to let my body get back to baseline, then that’s the step necessary to get me closer to 2300 as opposed to jumping back in and “grinding it out.”

Present:
What happens to muddy water if you keep stirring it? Nothing- it stays muddy. But if you leave it alone, it becomes clear again. So after I let everything settle down, the path to my goal became much more clear. I need to rebuild a foundation for my training. I also want to reduce my stress as much as possible. So I hired a well respected and accomplished coach, Josh Bryant, to lay out my training for me, with the goal being to go from 235lbs to 255lbs. One week in, I’m up to 244lbs- which is to be expected. The next 11lbs will be a little more difficult. My training has looked like this for the first week:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Being in the coaching spotlight is something I look forward to every single day. I love my clients and the members I teach and I think it’s no secret that I love to push them hard. Everyone that has worked out with me is, by now, suuuuper familiar with my so-called “maniacal laughter” when things get a little spicy. But I definitely have two sides: my well put together, has an answer for everything (or will at least attempt to find out the answer for you) and methodical coaching side and then my everything is falling apart, self-sabotaging and constantly whining athlete side.

What I love about UF is that we practice what we preach but it’s a fallacy that coaches don’t fail. In fact, we fail just as hard if not harder than the clients we teach despite knowing better. But that’s often why coaches have coaches—to bring us back down to reality when we are floating up in the abyss of self destruction and bad habits. It can be so easy to put your coach on a fitness pedestal, forgetting that they are indeed human too. So I’m here to confess all of my athletic sins to you, in hopes that the next time you yourself are floating in that abyss you can know that it’s normal and there’s hope.

So it’s time that I get real with y’all and tell you all the ways I’m self sabotaging on the post-baby-back -to -“normal” journey:

Dogging (or plain avoiding) my cardio workouts

Lifting weights is fun. You get that good endorphin rush, muscle pump and there’s just something about the sound of clinking weights that gives me those good good chills. What is not fun? Cardio. What is necessary sometimes? Cardio. Ugh. So by the time I convince myself to test out (read: suffer through) one of my Cardio Lab creations, I end up putting the least amount of effort in as possible.

Grossly undereating

Because we practice what we preach, I track and log my daily food intake. Most days it hovers between 1300-1600 calories, which between working out, breastfeeding and just my daily caloric needs, I know is not enough.

Comparing myself to my previous self

It’s always a bad, very bad, terrible idea to look at old pictures of yourself when you were younger sans kids, thinner with less gray hairs and a face like you just slept twelve hours straight each night for the last five years. A very bad idea. When Facebook pops up with those “Look at this post from X years ago…” I can’t help but compare myself to where I was X years ago. I’m constantly reading these articles all about “embracing your postpartum body” and quite honestly I want to rip them to shreds and slap the author. Yeah yeah, maybe I should embrace a little harder, instead of just whining so much.

Thinking I’m never doing enough

Free time is sparse when three young kids are involved. Add in a full time job, a pinch of single momhood and a sprinkle of Mom Guilt™ and you have a recipe for super speedy bare minimum workouts. I’m constantly battling those nagging thoughts in the back of my mind that I’m not doing enough to get to where I want to be.

Expecting progress overnight

I do one set of abdominal work and instantly check my stomach expecting to see a six pack. I eat correctly for one day and step on the scale expecting to see the numbers drop automatically. Ridiculous, I know and maybe slightly exaggerating here…but only slightly.

Weighing myself too often (and obsessing about the number)

Every.damn.day. It’s too often. I only obsess about the number for the rest of the day and it even affects my food choices for the day. I’m letting my scale rule my life right now and it sucks.

Not sleeping enough

One word: Baby. Need more be said? And if you’ve ever had a baby that slept longer than two hours at a time then don’t talk to me because I hate you.

Making excuses

Basically this whole list is one big giant excuse. Waaaah. I’ve been surrounded by the baby long enough that I’m beginning to turn into one myself.

Being too hard on myself

I face this one every day: I’m too tired. I’m too weak. I’ll never be strong. I’ll never be fast or quick or lean. I hate on my stretch marks, my wrinkles and my gray hair. I pine for something, anything other than what I am or where I’m at. Oh yeaaaahhhh, totally healthy thoughts *sarcasm*.

So there you have it folks. There is no happy ending to my self sabotaging sins right now, no problem solving and definitely no “let’s look on the bright side” talk. These are just things I’m facing at the moment, accepting them for being there and what they are. One day I’ll tackle them one by one but for now, damn it, everything sucks. And knowing that it can be a normal part of the process helps. So the next time you’re complaining to your coach about how everything hurts and how much Cardio Lab sucks, know that we really do it mean it when we say that we understand.

Think back to when you were doing your normal warm-up routine. While you were going through the motions, something in your shoulder just didn’t feel quite right. Maybe it was a slight pinch from your last workout or maybe you slept wrong. Regardless, the program says to hit something heavy today. What’s your next move? Take the gamble and push through or take a step back? Be honest now.

In my experience, I think you can categorize the majority of lifters into two groups: Performance Lifters and Therapy Lifters. If you answered that you would push through chances are you’re a Therapy Lifter. Performance Lifters tend to stop and reassess when things don’t feel right. Still unsure of which category you fit into, then ask yourself this question: Why do I lift weights?

Personally, I lift weights to be a human god amongst my friends. I love to create excitement through physical challenges. Perhaps you lift so you can deal with stress at work. Everyone has their own reason for lifting. But these individual reasons put us into certain categories. Therapy Lifters have lifting for an outlet when life brings too much to the table. They use lifting to help them deal with other, non-gym related, matters of life. Performance Lifters approach lifting to overcome the physical challenges that it brings. Of course lifters are not exactly one or the other but they do tend to lean more towards one side.

Performance Lifters are impressive. They are calculated, with each number in mind for the next two months or more. They are zoned into every tweak that they have in their body. Without hesitation Performance Lifters take care of any aches because they know that if they push through the pain, it might put them out for a month or longer. I don’t mean to say that the performance approach just means backing down at any little pain but each ache is weighed out more cautiously. Taking that extra moment to analyze the pain seems to prolong their longevity in the sport.

Therapy Lifting is hard to describe. I would argue that this approach is not heathy but I do believe that it is widely popular. Now here is something that I believe most of us can relate to, even if you are a Performance Lifter. You are wrapping your wrists or tighten that belt while placing the perfect amount of chalk on your hands, a cocktail of adrenaline is pumping through your veins. All of a sudden that pinch that you have been feeling in your shoulder doesn’t matter. What matters is getting that high after you get the weight up. You get that feeling of stress dispersing as the lift is accomplished. But this approach isn’t really therapy. Therapy is defined as “treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder” or a condition. Training is really none of those things. True- training isn’t a treatment, it is a momentary bliss to mask the issues that one is dealing with. If you are truly training with intensity than it can be just as harmful as other damaging outlets to handle emotional stress.

Again, I believe there is a mixture. I think it is rare that a person is truly all Therapy Lifter or 100% Performance Lifter. But the person that leans towards therapy lifting too much can be dangerous. Therapy Lifters need to take a moment to realize that choosing to address issues through lifting only prolongs the stressors of life returning while actually hindering your lifting. Worst case scenario it takes lifting away from you completely. On the other hand, the argument could be made that a Performance Lifter could benefit from allowing some emotions in their training. In reality, a good Performance Lifter has the drive or intensity built in already. After a while they know when something is just an everyday annoyance vs. an injury about to happen. The more you understand why you choose to lift weights the better you can improve as a lifter. Realizing that you are more of a therapy lifter early on will only improve you quality of lifting and the longevity of your lifting.

So maybe you find yourself leaning towards the “therapy” side of lifting. No matter what your goals are, taking a page out of the “performance” lifters’ book can be beneficial. Pushing yourself day in and day out and walking away from the gym feeling good, WHILE avoiding injury is the name of the game for both sets of lifters. The next time your shoulder flares up or your hamstring is feeling a little tight, be calculated in your training approach that day.

It’s that time again- Welcome to September’s State of the Union.

The weather has remained semi-unpredictable, but we’ve had some gorgeous days as of late. Practice some gratitude and get outdoors as fall starts to cool off. We’ve been getting classes outdoors as often as possible trying to soak in the short window of good weather that our fair city gives us.

To follow along with our core values, here is a link to our website: https://unionfitness.com/about/

UF Values- EPIC: Education—Passion—Integrity—Community

Education
I’m proud of my staff for the effort they put in daily to get better- from constructive criticism amongst one another, to reading new books, and continuing education courses- they just want to be better at their jobs. That’s rare in today’s world and I try to remind them of that every day- Union Fitness is what it is because of their efforts and sacrifices.

With that being said, the education spotlight is on my friend and mentor, Steve Goggins. Steve is part of EliteFTS and was the first man (in the world) to squat over 1100lbs. (1102 to be exact). Steve was gracious enough to come to UF to put on a squat seminar that was open to the public. The cool part- our staff jumped in to make sure they learned something too. We can never be too proud to learn.

To summarize, the event went well. There were 30 participants and Steve took about three hours to make sure that he got his information across, then had the time to watch every single person squat while giving them cues and feedback to correct mistakes. From 115lb. squatters to 650+lb squatters- everyone had something to take home and work on.

Passion
This is an easy one. If you happened to be there in person to see this, you know that Stew Snyder left it all on the platform on Saturday September 22nd for the Iron City Pro/Am. Stew had a great day, but the icing on the cake for him was a 600lb deadlift that he set his sights on months ago. He pulled it successfully on his last attempt and bent over in tears afterward because he literally put everything he had into that lift. Maybe you don’t have quite that amount of passion for powerlifting, but make sure you let yourself feel something like that once you achieve your goals.

*Check out the Union Fitness instagram page if you want to see the video for yourself!

Integrity
I always like to review the definition of integrity: (1) the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and (2) the state of being whole and undivided.

This is always the hardest value to single out because it is so encompassing. I think behind every action we can find some integrity, or lack thereof. So it’s a complicated endeavor to honestly and earnestly pick out one example, let alone a few. BUT, I think I (with help from my staff) came up with a couple good ones.

With the Iron City Pro/Am on the 22nd, we had 30 lifters and another 50-100 people in and out of the Strength Lab all day long. There was a piece of equipment a lifter left by accident that was turned in immediately after the meet. Normally, this particular item would have found its way into someone’s bag, never to be seen again. But not one of those people took it upon themselves to claim it as their own. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but respecting people’s personal possessions is important in my book. So kudos to everyone from this past weekend.

In the same vein, all of the Union Fitness equipment was respected. Nothing was broken. Most plates were returned. Most bars were returned. It’s a sigh of relief when you invite strangers into your ‘home’ and they take care of it as if it were their own. So again, kudos to all of them.

Community
This one was almost as easy to pick as Stew’s passionate deadlift. The amount of volunteers that we had step forward to help out this past weekend blew me away. I’ll throw a quick list together, but please forgive me if I forgot anyone…
Justin Zak, Nate Lester, Casey Clark, Yessica Martinez, Jabez Burford, Jodie Burford, Lones Green, Heather Witherow, John Wisnioski, Joe Lucas, Alan and Rea Welding, Curtis Miller, Liz Tump, and the UF staff.

The gentlemen, led by Nate Lester and supported by the Pitt powerlifting team, supplied all the man power to spot and load on the platform. Without that, we don’t have a meet folks. So thank you all for effortlessly performing that thankless job and making sure no one was injured.

Yessica and Lones handled some lifters that needed assistance because they were traveling without friends or family.

At one point, unprompted, I walked in on Casey Clark and Connor Hassinger (former intern) breaking down bars in the Strength Lab and putting equipment away.

Liz Tump was running around ALL DAY making sure everyone was taken care of (we call her mom).

And I’m sure there were many, many other instances that I missed. But I want them to know that I and we are grateful to have the supportive community that we have. We’re trying to make the North Side as welcoming as we can, one powerlifting meet, personal training session, and group class at a time.

Confession: every time I step into a new facility (like when I’m traveling), I still have this little moment of panic when I step up to a power rack or squat stand set-up that’s different from what I use at home. No one likes feeling like the only new kid who doesn’t know how to do the basics, like adjusting hooks and safety bars. That’s the bare minimum right?! Why can’t we just always intuitively KNOW how these things work? It’s so easy to get into a cycle of beating yourself up for simply being new to something.

Those panicky feelings haven’t kept me from lifting in new places for a long time, but I know for newer lifters, and especially new female lifters, decreasing this anxiety could mean getting started on a lifting program way sooner. I want every single person who steps into Union Fitness to feel confident and comfortable getting through their workouts, so I’ve put together this basic guide on how to adjust the racks in both the Fitness Center and the Strength Lab.

A brief aside: please know that if there is EVER a piece of equipment you don’t know how to use, the first thing you should do is ask one of our staff members. I promise you, you’re not inconveniencing us, and we’re happy to help. However, I understand that sometimes, anxiety can get in the way. Refer to this guide when the thought of interacting with another person is just.too.much.

The Fitness Center Power Racks

In the Fitness Center, you’ve probably noticed the two huge power racks in the free weight area. There are three barbells between them, all 45lbs. You can use these racks for a huge variety of barbell movements: all kinds of squats, barbell lunges and other single leg varieties, overhead pressing, and you can (and should) pull a bench in for your bench pressing needs. One thing these are NOT useful for: deadlifts. You’ll need to do those out on the floor due to the height of the racks’ feet. Not a problem, just set yourself up behind the reach of the power rack and you’re ready to go (while keeping a rack open for someone else that may need it).

Now let’s talk specifics, and by talk I mean mostly show.

The power racks have j-hooks (where the barbell typically goes) and safeties (typically used so that in case of a failed lift, you have something to catch the bar and save your ass).

To move the hooks:

 

1. Twist the hook open to the outside.
2. Pull it all the way out
3. Move it to your desired spot
4. Insert hook sideways
5. Twist down and into position

To move the safety bars:

 

1. Insert bar sideways
2. Twist down and into position

The Strength Lab Rig

In the Strength Lab, we opted for a large, custom-made rig over power racks. The rig can be set for just about anything you want, and operates in mostly the same way as the power racks in the Fitness Center.

One major difference is in the variety (and therefore weights) of the bars available. If you want to read up on some of our specialty bars, look no further. For the most part, you’ll be using the Texas Power Bars, which are all marked with blue tape and weigh 45lbs. We also have a 35lb women’s bar (silver, no tape, normal length) and two 15lb practice bars (silver aluminum, short) that are super useful when you’re learning new movements.

To move the hooks:

 

1. Twist the hook open to the outside.
2. Pull it all the way out
3. Move it to your desired spots (use the numbers!)
4. Insert it sideways all the way
5. Twist down, into position

To move the safety bars:

 

1. Find the pile of safeties under the weight stack
2. Follow the same directions as above (insert sideways, twist down)

Setting Up

Some quick tips for setting up your big exercises:

When setting up to squat, remember that you always want to unrack BACKWARDS, which means facing AWAY from the mirrors in the Fitness Center (we have none to distract you in the Strength Lab). No, you don’t need the mirror to check your form – ask a friend or UF Staff member to watch, or even record yourself squatting. Unracking forward is fine on the way out, but if the weight is heavy, getting the bar into the rack facing backwards is going to be difficult and dangerous.

Set your hooks so that when you get under the bar and stand it up out of the rack, you should completely clear the hooks. Again, this will make reracking after the lift much easier. If you find yourself getting up on your toes when you go to rack the bar, take your hooks down a notch.

Remember to use the safeties! You should place these so that they are 2” or so below where the bar sits when you’re at the bottom of a squat (see picture for reference). That way if you can’t get up, you just dip down a little lower and can get out of trouble.

To set up the bench press, keep the same principles in mind for hook placement. If you are unracking the bar alone, you need to be sure that you can clear the hooks before pulling the bar out of the rack. When you go to rerack, you should be able to easily put the bar back on the hooks. If you’re hitting the hooks while reracking, go down in height before you start attempting to bench heavy weight.

You can also use the safeties while benching! If you bench with your shoulders retracted (and you should be) you’ll have a little bit of an arch to give you a buffer in event of failure. The safeties should be set just below where the bar touches your chest. If you can’t move the weight, sink down into the bench and let the safeties catch the bar.

Final little tip: write those rack heights down! We marked every other notch on our racks to make it easier for you going forward. Add a little note to your program so you never have to guess again.

That’s about it! Get out there and lift to your hearts content.

Ever come home from a workout, dripping in sweat and sore in places you never knew existed, but still have a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that you just didn’t do enough?

As a coach, it can be discouraging to see your clients thinking they aren’t getting the results they want. As a client or member, it can be even more discouraging, if not downright infuriating to not be getting the results you want. So you work harder and harder then faster and faster. After an intense hour-long class, you hop on the treadmill for one final sweat sesh. But that nagging feeling persists. You tell yourself that you’re not getting where you want to be because you’re not working hard enough. So you begin to hop on that treadmill after every.single.class. But when that soon doesn’t feel like enough, you start to do what we call “double-dipping”, going from one class right into the next scheduled class then, of course, ending it with your beloved treadmill session. This cycle is endless, leaving you feeling unfulfilled, exhausted and incapable of ever recovering properly. Or worse yet, injured.

If this sounds like you, then you have a chronic case of “More is better.” As much as we love seeing your smiling (or grueling) face here at Union Fitness, as professionals we’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you “Enough is enough!” It’s not at all unusual, at one point or another, to succumb to that persistent voice in the back of your head. We’ve all been there. So what can you do to kick that voice to the curb and start seeing the results you want?

It can be hard to admit that you’re doing too much. It can be easy to think that you’re supposed to be going at 100% all the time. It can be equally as easy to see rest and recovery as secondary to sweating and soreness. But it’s time to step off the treadmill and take a step back from all the extras. It’s time to say enough is enough!

Honestly though, I feel probably more like Arnold did after his heart surgery this year than his iconic Terminator movie. It’s been a long three months away with lots of ups and downs in the lonely maternity leave world. Balancing a brand spanking new baby with (sometimes slightly overzealous/obsessed) six year olds while trying to encourage my own health, wellness and recovery is…tricky. Naturally, my training took a back seat. Like a seat in the veeeeery back of a of veeeery long bus. Or no, not even. My training didn’t even get to ride in the bus. It was carted in a trailer behind the bus. So now, three months later, I’m back to work and things have started to settle down a bit on the baby home front. Even though that handsome sleep stealer is still new, he’s not brand spanking new anymore, so I (finally!!) feel I can start to focus on my training again. Since I shared my pregnancy workout journey with you before my handsome little man entered the world, I thought I’d share what that journey looks like now that he’s here!

With the twins I had a planned C-section at almost 40 weeks. With the newest bundle, I was hoping for a VBAC but after almost 42 weeks he was not budging. Stubborn. Hmm, I wonder where he gets it from?! Long story short, nothing went according to plan and I ended up with another C-section, this time with more complications that prolonged my recovery process. Which leads me to my Post-Baby Training (or PBT) Lesson #1: Things will sometimes not go according to plan, no matter how well thought out they may seem or how badly we want them. This can sometimes be a hard pill to swallow. I wanted so badly to be one of those moms that walked out of the hospital as fit as they were before they got pregnant. After all, if anyone deserved that it would be me, right? I’m a personal trainer, a coach, a yoga instructor! I worked out diligently my entire pregnancy! I eat healthy! NEWS FLASH, ALISON: that mom does not exist! There is no such thing! It’s a fallacy we are fed and we believe tirelessly, even despite having been to that rodeo before and knowing better. My well thought out labor and delivery plan crashed through the window before it had a chance to even open and so it was time to throw out the false and detrimental beliefs about postpartum recovery too. And so I did exactly that—I threw out all the garbage ideas I had about my training during maternity leave and sat on the couch to feed and snuggle my new baby boy. I did that, nothing more, for 6 weeks.

When I could finally begin to scrape myself off the couch and get the baby to unlatch from me long enough to breathe, I started to come up with a couple ideas for training which leads me to my PBT Lesson #2: Go Slow. Anyone that knows me well probably has an idea of how hard this one is for me. When I have an idea or something excites me, I like to go full steam ahead at 1,000mph. I wanted nothing more than to snatch a barbell over my head like the good ole days. But I knew better. I knew that I needed to heal and rebuild before I could even touch a barbell again. So I dedicated myself to twelve weeks of short bodyweight workouts & breathing exercises designed to heal abdominal diastasis and promote mindful movement. It was back to basics and, to be honest, it felt really good to start from square one. Instead of looking at it like I was taking so many steps back, I viewed it as a chance to renew my movement patterns and start from scratch. It was an opportunity, not a disadvantage or a punishment. In addition to those workouts, I added in some “cardio” aka: walks around the neighborhood wearing the baby in a wrap, chasing after 6 year olds on scooters, cleaning the house, cooking healthy meals and, if I was lucky, the occasional ride on the dusty elliptical or rower in my basement.

I knew it wouldn’t be healthy or advantageous for me to check my weight every day, so I promised myself I would only weigh myself once every week or two. Yet despite all of my efforts, beyond keeping three children alive, I found myself still plateauing on that dreaded scale. I would often text my coworkers about my frustrations on feeling comparatively weak during my workouts and about how the weight was not coming off as fast as I wanted it to. Casey would remind me that what feels hard today will feel easy in no time as long as I kept trying (and considering all the Casey has been through in the last couple years, I knew to take this advice to heart). Lindsey would remind me that my body composition is changing and it’s not just about numbers on a scale. And she would occasionally remind me that, you know, I had just had major abdominal surgery and birthed a human being. Ryan would bring me coffee from Whole Foods. All of which bring me to my PBT Lesson #3: Be kind to yourself. What that means is not allowing the negative thoughts to take precedence to the positive ones or blind you from seeing the positive changes. I can be vulnerable enough to admit that there were (still are, really) tons of negative thoughts about my body, my abilities and self-esteem that swirled around in my head at any given moment. Yet, we can practice kindness towards ourselves by shoving them to the back or better yet, dealing with them. But that takes practice too. It’s a daily exercise, just as important, if not more so, than your basic breathing exercises. And yes, practicing kindness even means taking a “time-out” to actually sit down and drink that can of (amazing!) coffee your friend brought you.

So what does my actual training plan look like now that I’ve learned all these important lessons? Well, I sat down at my desk and concocted a 6-day per week program for the next three weeks. It was perfectly planned out, with just the perfect amount of work packed into one week (read: WAY OVERDOING IT) and I was pumped to start. That was, until Ryan looked it over. With his eyebrow raised in that smirky I’m-proving-a-point way, he asked me one simple question, “How much sleep are you actually getting, Alison?” Which leads me to my next PBT Lesson #4: Sleep is so, so, SO important to training and recovery. With one silent eyebrow raise, I knew. It’s something we harp on time and time again here at Union Fitness and I was guilty as charged. My training, and subsequently my recovery from training, would never be where I want it to be until I can start sleeping more regularly instead of the 90 minutes or so every 3 hours at night. If I went through with my training plan, I would just be spinning my very tired wheels. Ryan’s eyebrow was telling me everything I already knew but just needed to hear (or see in this case). That being said, it doesn’t mean I can’t train at all, but that I just need to take down the intensity and volume for a little bit. And that in turn leads me to my final PBT Lesson #5: Repeat lessons 1-4 as often as necessary. Ok, so I’m a little stubborn (I know, surprise surprise). If you haven’t caught on by now, the theme of all of these lessons is that they aren’t easy to do or accomplish. It all takes time, patience and effort. Luckily I have a little bit of all of those things. So for now, you can look for me taking it easier than I’d like to in the Strength Lab or catnapping in the office.

A tension headache can be the splinter in your side. It’s a busy day with a mountain of work to get done, when all of a sudden pain starts to creep up from back of your neck. After a while it circles around to the front of your head. You try to stretch your neck out a little, rub your traps, but the pain seems to go away only for a minute until it returns full force. Before you go straight to Advil for a solution, there is another way to reduce the pain and possibly cure your tension headache.

Let’s look at what it is causing all this pain. The most common misconception with tension headaches is that you have “tight traps.” If you have tight traps, all you need to do is stretch them out, right? Wrong. When it comes to tension headaches, the traps aren’t tight in the conventional sense of not being able to stretch, but tight in the sense that they are being stretched out fully all the time. Say you have a rubber band. Place the rubber band on your desk. The rubber band laying there is loose but when you stretch the band out, the tension builds. This is your traps in a tension headache scenario. This is not the case for all tight muscles, but there are certain cases where this is happens. Tension headaches are all about the position of your shoulders and head throughout the entire day. You might have seen a picture of that stereotypical person at the desk with the his/her head far forward, shoulders slumped and upper back slightly rounded. This bad position causes your upper pecs, front delts, and anterior neck muscles to get tight. How to fix this bad position?

The best way to fix your tensions headache is to get in a good position. The goal now is to know what a good position feels like but also to strengthen certain muscles that maintain that position all day. Here are my 4 favorite exercises/stretches to help relieve and ultimately fix those tensions headaches.

1. Chin Tuck or Big Proud Chest

This is probably one of the most common exercises, but I believe it is frequently performed wrong. Chin tucks can be great but, the first move you do is not tucking your chin. Arching your upper back should be your first adjustment. When lifting with Casey, he always tells me “big proud chest”. “Big proud chest” is what brings your back into that proper position. Now you are not technically arching your upper back but actually making it straight. Once the upper back is in alignment, tuck your chin like you are trying to make a double chin at your best friend across the room. Complete 3 sets of 10 reps.

2. Band Pull-Aparts

If done correctly, this can be a great exercise to help strengthen the muscles that put the shoulder in the proper position. This is a common exercise to warm up the shoulders before benching, but can also be a great tool to fix poor posture. Grab one of our thin red or orange bands. This exercise is not meant to attempt to hit a PR, meaning you should be able to multiple sets and reps with proper form. Often I see people try to create as much band tension as possible and as a result people use their triceps to pull the bad apart vs. their rear delts and lower mid traps. Grab one strand of the band while keeping the arms slightly bent, pull the band apart and squeeze your shoulder blades back and down. Think about your shoulders blades in hour back pocket. Maintain the same arm position the whole time. 4 sets of 15 reps.

3. Snow Angels

If you’ve ever had me as a personal trainer or been in my #powerful class on a press day, then you have seen these (and hate them). They are one of my all-time favorite exercises. Find a wall that you can lean against with a lot of room. While leaning against the wall, round your lower back so your entire back is against the wall. The upper back, shoulders and back of your head should also be touching. Now place your arms against the wall with your thumbs facing towards the wall. Apply about 50-60% percent strength against the wall. Now your arms slide up into a Y shape and the down to a W shape. I love this exercise because you can do it all day. You might be sore from the first couple sessions but I tell people if they want they can do this 3 times a day. Complete 3 sets of 5-10 reps

4. Donnie Thompson’s Shoulder Mobility

Donnie Thompson is a well-known powerlifter who was the first person to total 3000 pounds in multi-ply gear. After totaling 3000 he went to work with various physical therapists and world class athletes to help prevent rehab injuries. Donnie is good friends with our manager Casey.

This is great for overall shoulder health. While most people want to stretch their already overly stretched traps and back of the neck you should be stretching your upper chest. This movement is half a stretch and half a strength exercise. Place the band around the front of the shoulder. Step away from the band allowing the band to pull your shoulder back. Once there is a significant amount of band tension on the shoulder, rotate your shoulder in large circles. Go up, back, and then down and then all the way forward. 2 sets of 4 rotations each shoulder.

With all these exercises in your tool belt, now you need to piece it together into a program. Some of these exercises can and should be done every day. For example, snow angels and chin tucks should be done twice a day. Donnie Thompson’s mobility can be every other day. Band pull aparts should be done every press day. Even if you don’t suffer tension headaches at all, these exercises can help a wide range of shoulder problems. Try them out and see how much better you feel.

Here at Union Fitness, we’re lucky to have access to not one, but THREE Glute-Ham Raises (GHRs, or GHDs if you’re into Crossfit and want to annoy Casey) in the Strength Lab. These aren’t frequently found in commercial gyms, so most of our new members aren’t sure how or why to use them. I’m here to clear some of that up for you today.

The GHR is primarily a posterior chain strengthener (think your hamstrings, glutes, and back, everything on your posterior). Its most frequent use is for the aptly named glute-ham raise, which targets the hamstrings. This exercise requires a lot of hamstring strength (and patience) to start. Where I would normally include a video of one of us demonstrating this movement, in this case I’m going to defer to someone far more advanced. This old EliteFTS video with Dave Tate will teach you how to set the GHR and how to properly perform the glute-ham raise:

Some key takeaways:

1. Your knee should be set right below the pad. The higher your knee placement, the harder this movement will be.
2. At the bottom of the movement, your body should be in one straight line (think plank here).
3. You’ll want to avoid arching your low back. Actively think about putting yourself into a hollow-body position. This will help take your low back out of the equation and really target your hamstrings.
4. Control the movement, especially during the eccentric (or lowering) portion, for best results.
5. Really drive your heels into the back plate to keep your calves from taking over.
6. Try to keep your toes forward (they’ll want to turn out).
7. As always, squeeze your glutes at the top.

Not everyone will be able to perform this movement right away, and that’s ok! We have a few ways to modify it for beginners. My favorite is with a PVC pipe. You’ll place the pipe 1-2 feet in front of the GHR and set-up as per the video above. Instead of dropping straight down, you’ll either walk your hands down the PVC pipe or let it bow straight out to the front. Be careful to maintain that hollow-body position here! It’s even easier to lose your low-back alignment with the PVC. Now you’ll still drive your feet into the plate and either walk your hands back up the PVC or perform the full but assisted raise.

To work up to the GHR, we use lots of hollow-body holds and dead bugs, plus a lot of hamstring curls on the stability ball.

The GHR has a variety of other uses: back extensions, sit-ups, reverse hyperextensions. To get a feel for these, try one of our #powerful classes! They’re offered every single day and will introduce you to tons new movements.

As always, if you need help adjusting or using the GHR, just ask! We’re always here to help you reach your goals.

We mentioned months ago that we were changing the format of our blogging here at UF: a focus on longer form, more targeted posts meant to inspire you and guide you in achieving your goals. This week’s blog, from Alexa, ties together a lot of the topics we’ve been hammering this year. She gets a little deeper into the science of why we need to sleep, to eat well, and to focus. I think you’ll get a lot out of this one.

The goal of this blog is to give you some insight on how you can prepare for your next training day and also, to adopt a plan that works for you.  There are three big ideas I want to touch on that I think are essential to set yourself up for success prior to training: Sleep. Nutrition. Mental preparedness. With these three, you have more than half of the battle covered.

Sleep
First and foremost, let’s talk about it. Sleep and exercise are interrelated. You NEED sleep to perform your best and for recovery. And exercise can also help promote a better night’s rest. But why is sleep important? Well if you are an active individual your body DESPERATELY requires 8-10 hours of quality sleep. Getting an adequate amount of sleep for your workout tomorrow will help reduce fatigue, improve reaction time, and performance. The majority of us have goals to reach at the gym. You can train your little heart out but if you are lacking in the self-care department, you will create a vicious cycle of stops along the way.

Sleep is when we repair and build from the repetitive microfiber tears that our muscles endure during our training sessions. During sleep, hormones are released: growth hormone (see picture below), testosterone, and plenty of others. We need the release of these hormones to recover, perform at our best, and not to mention, this will in return help improve our body composition by building muscle tissue. When we neglect sleep, we are at risk for injury, impaired judgement, slow reaction time, weakened immune response, fatigue, and possibly not even making it to the gym because we are unmotivated and sleepy. Also, leptin and ghrelin are hormones that are increased when sleep is scarce. These are not hormones you constantly want circulating, for they are hunger hormones that signal our higher brain to overeat. Want to feel better, perform better, and look better? Make sleep number one.

Pre-workout nutrition
This is a case by case variable to play around with for some. Why do I say that? Some people do well exercising within an 1-3 hours of eating…and some do not. Some people do well with glucose prior to training, some are fat-adapted, and some train fasted. However, I will give you my reasons on why eating is important and what it does.

I am sure somewhere you have heard that food is like the gas to a car. Food is our fuel.

Carbohydrates are specifically important before a workout (along with some protein). Carbohydrates are macromolecules that are broken down into smaller components (substrates) and are utilized by the cells of our working muscle tissue. We even store carbohydrates as glycogen in our muscles, however those storages are emptied after exertion. They need to be re-filled. I do not mention fat intake before training for two reasons: fat slows down absorption, meaning we need tons of extra time to breakdown and absorb them, and second, fats do not provide nearly as much energy as carbohydrates UNLESS you are in ketosis and are fat-adapted.

Some suggestions of carbohydrates to consume 1-3 hours before a workout: potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, fruit, rice cakes, oatmeal. The same goes for post-workout nutrition, get in a substantial number of carbs, preferably faster digesting like white rice, white potatoes, fruit. However, add a tad more protein for your post-workout because protein is necessary for muscle growth thus, improving out muscle to fat ratio!

Mental preparation
Having the mental preparedness to reach your fitness goals is 90% of the battle. Let’s talk about five rules to help you through the process.

Many, if not all of us have those days where we are constantly “in our heads.” Maybe not wanting to train, let alone even move…

Number one: Take a moment and recognize the thoughts. Thoughts telling us that we are too tired, weak, not in the mood, feeling like progress is slow or that it’s not even worth it to get up and move at all. Accept the stream of thoughts. Then, challenge and find what’s rational. Most of us know the “correct” answer to our thoughts. That voice inside tells us otherwise and is sometimes overpowering. Train your mind to be present. Know your plan. Prepare, but also prepare for setbacks. Take a seat and do some belly breathing. Belly breathing (diaphragmatic breathing) has been shown to ignite your parasympathetic system (rest and digest), decrease cortisol (stress hormone) and decrease blood pressure. All things we want kept to a minimum prior to training and post training. I know all of this is way easier said than done. I never said this was an easy task for me either. This is to be practiced every. single. day. Just like exercise, the more we do, the more we get better.

Number two: Leave out the extrinsic motivators. Build your fitness journey for you and only you. Don’t do it to prove anything or impress anyone. Motivation from outside factors will catch up eventually and hinder your journey. Motivation comes in bursts. There is a point where motivation does not exist and all we have is discipline to rely on. Discipline is the key to productivity. If you want it bad enough, regardless of your head talk, environment, etc. you will do it. And you will let VERY few excuses take precedence.

Number three: Learn to let go of the things we cannot control. It is the manner in which we react that counts. If you do this, you can make doing what you need to do (exercise) a heck of a ton easier. Exercise is stress to the body. Having multiple layers of stress exist in your head and body prior to exercise will not make things easier and can potentially hinder that day’s performance.

Number four: Have a plan. Breakdown your larger goal(s) into smaller, manageable parts. Your plan of action is to focus on today’s goal. This will make it easier to accomplish today while also alleviating stress by shifting focus off of the long term, bigger picture. Write things down and visualize your progress.

Number five: Remember your why. Why did you start your journey into fitness? Having that why at your forefront will make this journey more meaningful and allow for passion and effort to shine. Put in the time, learn and understand your actions, make sacrifices, and most of all have love for what you are doing.