The adage is true, “Days are long and years are short” (Gretchen Rubin). As I age I try to remember to take moments and be thankful for everyone and everything around me. With that in mind today I want to introduce you to a few friends of mine (that you may already know). This is my chance to thank some of the people that keep UF running, and me from working too hard :-).

 

First up is CeJ, also known as CJ or Charles Edward Jasper. What you may not know is that CJ and I have worked together too many times to count. He began interning with us when I was director of strength and conditioning at Robert Morris. He spent years bouncing around as a strength coach with stops at The Ohio State University, The Mets, Morehead State, Youngstown State, as well as a return trip to RMU with yours truly.

 

One thing I can say separates CJ is how he thinks. My running joke is CJ always thinks outside the box, so much so that sometimes I have to pull him back into the box. Due to how he thinks, and works, he always has an idea. Most of the summer events we run are his idea, he also handles all programming for our most popular class (powerful). In addition there is an added bonus with CJ, we also get one Skylyn to hang around the gym and be a positive force.

 

CJ I am thankful for your friendship and the chance to work with you. CJ is a friend and a co-worker for that I am grateful.

 

Next up is Toria Crispin! Tordawg is a two time MVP employee of the U! Toria came to us while working full time at Pitt. She was living in Parkview and wanted to pick up a part time job. Curtis hired her she brought her awesome self here from day 1. She worked here while holding down her full time job, and was awesome stepping up during the Covid time period.

 

She did leave us to take a job at University of Colorado at Denver. When a position opened up she was my first call. I knew she would not only be a great fit for us, but that we would also be a great fit for her. After some arm twisting I convinced her to come back and join us at the U. I can honestly say she keeps me on point most days. Without her at work we would probably or definitely mess up more things than I already do daily.

 

I am thankful for Toria’s friendship and that she is here with us at the U. When you see her pat her on the shoulder (make sure it’s her good shoulder) and thank her for all she does for us.

 

Finally, the new guy, Zain. Zain had some big shoes to fill, he took over after Curtis moved on from the U. If you don’t know his story (because he is humble and rarely tells his story), I will share some of it here. Zain is a veteran. Zain served in the Navy, his 21st b-day was ruined by international battles. He has seen more of the world than most of us.

 

After his service Zain went to Pitt where he competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting. He was on Pitt’s powerlifting team and received his masters at Pitt. Additionally Zain has been working two full time jobs for the last 3 months. In order to finish his masters he needed to do an internship, he did an internship at the UPMC complex in Cranberry while working here full time. He rarely talks about it and shows up everyday ready to work. I respect how he handled this. It also means that he set a high standard so if he gets lazy I can always remind him that his work load is now half of what it was all summer.

 

Zain we are lucky to have you at the U and we appreciate all you do and bring to the U.

 

There are many other people at Union Fitness that make us better everyday. I also want to thank all of our people for what they do. I know I am an imperfect leader, yet I keep trying to learn and grow daily. Our goal is to empower our people so they can empower our members and our community.

 

Thank you for spending time reading about these awesome people!

 

Todd Hamer

 

 

Throughout my career I have been lucky to spend tome with some of the best in the nutrition and diet world. I have broken bread with Dr John Berardi and Michael Pollan. Both of these men had a profound influence on how I eat and the idea I will share with you today. Michael Pollan has a simple method for eating.

 

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan

 

If you followed those three simple rules you’d probably be healthier than you are right now. On the other hand Dr John Berardi has written books about his different rules and methods. I have devised my own simple plan that is based in many ways on the lessons I have learned from these two.

 

1. Figure out how many eating opportunities you have in a week. If you eat 4 times a day 7 days a week that is 28 opportunities.
2. Create a scoring system. You could use an excel graph with 28 squares or even use notes in your phone. It doesn’t matter, just track it someway.
3. Mark an X in meals that don’t pass the simple test (I am about to show you), Mark a checkmark when you do pass the test.
4. Follow this simple test. Does your meal have protein, fruit and or veggies, and water. If so then it passes, if not it fails.
5. At the end of the week score yourself. Maybe you hit 14 out of 28 meals. Then you have a starting point, aim for 15 next week.

 

A few notes about this is, be honest with yourself as you must know where you are starting. Also, don’t fret over where you are now. The only way us up, no human would score perfect (maybe a bodybuilder preparing for a show), so give yourself a break and just try to do better.

 

Try this out and as with any goal make slow steady progress.

 

Hamer

Throughout the summer we try to get outside and be involved in as many of the fun activities around the area as possible. Rarely does a weekend go by that we are not hosting or participating in an event. This past weekend was one of the biggest for us here at the U. We hosted the Iron City Open 6. This was the 11th full powerlifting meet here at UF. Following this on Sunday we hosted Gay 4 Good’s Yoga 4 Good. I want to thank everyone involved in each of these events.

 

The Iron City Open is one of the premiere events we host here at UF. This was the sixth year we were able to host this event. If it were not for Doug, Candi, and Doug’s crew we could not host this event. We also must thank the WRPF for governing this event. I do want to personally thank all the UF lifters, spotters, loaders, friends, coaches, and employees who were here that day making this event special. Pitt Powerlifting did a great job, as they always do. They spend the day spotting and loading weights, if you have never done this, I don’t recommend it, as it is not easy. Here is a short list of gym members who did great and spent their Saturday with us; Josh, Ava, Bobby, Tim, Joe, Shane, Dan, Sydney, Jared, Katie, Curtis, Skylyn, CeJ, Toria, Justin, Amelia, Yessica, Zain, Daria, Dahveed, and I hope I didn’t miss anyone. Congrats Skylyn on winning best lifter. I will also thank some of our class members for coming by to support. Jaclyn and Lexi we appreciate the support!

 

Yoga 4 Good was our second event this weekend. We had 22 people come out and enjoy some Yoga with our wonderful instructor Lauren. Thank you Lauren for leading this group. We made some donations of food and clothes to The Open Door, Inc. If you do not know who The Open Door Inc is please click on their site. They house HIV positive people who have little to no other options and are a local non profit. I was not aware of this organization yet we already have plans to work with them in the future.

 

Now that these events are over let’s start looking forward to our next big events. We will be sponsoring Open Streets on June 25th. Come see CeJ and his wheel of exercise, and support our friends at Bike PGH. July 15th come out to our 3rd annual pride event. We will have a bootcamp style workout (with special guest coaches), and a comedy show following the workout. We are also going to host United Not Divided to end July. This year we will have more than 10 local gyms coming down to the U for a day of working out and building community.

 

Thanks and I really hope I didn’t miss anyone.

 

Todd Hamer

 

 

 

 

 

In the world of exercise, fitness, and strength there are too many exercises to think we could know all exercises. One easy way to help with this is to create a menu of exercises. What I mean by this is list all exercises that work your legs the most, then ones that are full body, arms, chest, etc. If you do this then you can grow your menu and pick and choose what works best for you. Today, I am going to pick one exercise out of my full body menu that is underutilized. The Single Arm Overhead Farmer Walk.

 

SA Overhead Farmer Walk.

 

How do you perform this exercise?

 

Grab a Dumbell and press it overhead, then go for a walk. It is really this simple, yet here are some tips.

1. Do not let the weight twist you. This is an anti-rotation exercise.
2. Do not let the weight pull you forward or backward. This is also and anti-flexion and extension exercise.
3. Do keep a steady gate. Try to walk as normal as you do everyday.

 

There it is in all its glory. The exercise you should be doing but, probably are not. There are many reasons why I believe this exercise is so underrated. First and foremost, this exercise uses all three planes (transverse, frontal, and sagittal). Second this exercise makes us bipedal. One thing we know is that humans should walk more, so walk. Last point I’ll make is that this exercise uses almost all of our muscle tissue.

 

How do you program SA Overhead Farmer Walks?

 

I would put this exercise in two places and for different reasons. Use it as a warm up or a finisher.

 

When using this as a warm up there is no need to go super heavy. Grab a reasonable weight that you can easily put over head and go for a walk. Walk 10-30 yards (depending on weight), switch hands and walk back. I like to mix mobility exercises in with this one. An example would be three sets of walks doing a different mobility drill for 5-10 reps between each set. The beauty of using these as a warm up is it will get the mid section ready for heavy, dead, squats, or just add some volume before you press.

 

Using these walks as a finisher. This is just a fun way to end a lift. When I do this as a finisher I tend to go heavier. The reason I go heavier is because I am already warm and I am not worried about fatigue for my upcoming exercises. This again can be done in a superset. Add in any rehab or just some pump exercises for fun at the end.

 

Give this exercise a try to begin or end your training session. Add it in one day a week for 4-6 weeks and see how you progress and how you feel.

 

Hamer

Do you ever get bored in the gym? Hit a plateau? Show up with no plan?

 

Far too often, we find ourselves scrolling social media and getting caught up in influencers workouts on Instagram and tiktok. This makes us want to get up and go to the gym, which is a good thing, but it can lead to a lot of confusion. The result is you show up to the gym with no plan, just some stuff you saw on Instagram which is specific to someone else’s plan. You end up doing their workout , then the next day you do another different one, then another, the cycle continues. This leads to no linear progress in the gym and constant novelty. How can we solve this problem? How can we break strength plateaus?

 

Set a goal, one that is specific. An example would be: I want to increase my bench press by about 20lbs by the end of the month. 

 

The proper approach to this would be to set up a training block of about 4 weeks, the idea is you do the same movements for 4 weeks and get better both physically and mentally. 

 

• Bench Press 5,3,2,1 (Set of 5, set of 3, set of 2, set of 1) (Increasing the weight every time)
• DB incline Press 3 x 8-10  (Secondary bench)
• BB Row 3 x 6-10 (Heavy Rows)
• Chest fly 3 x 10-15 
• Heavy tricep Ext. 3 x 6-10
• Rear delts 3 x 10-15

Pick a day of the week to be your bench press day, and execute this plan for 4 weeks straight increasing the weight a small amount (5 to 10 lbs) each session! 

 

Give this a try for your bench day for at least a month, let me know if you get stronger! The same method can be applied to anything. 

 

Come to the gym prepared. Stick to the plan.

 

• Michael Dowling 4.13.23