“Good” Athlete, “Bad” Girl

 

Let me preface this blog by saying that I have been this same height and size since about middle school. I am a grown 22-year-old woman and I have had this same stature for about 10 years *cue bigfoot sighting*. Nope, just me. In all seriousness though, I am not absurdly tall, but for a middle schooler I was a giant. Trust me, the photos do not do it justice. My identity as both an athlete and a female were something I always found difficult to intertwine through my adolescence for a laundry list of reasons, but we will talk about just a few. 

 

The main reason for this was because I have always been rather athletic and involved in sports one way or another. My whole identity was an athlete because I simply did not feel like a normal middle school girl by the standards of, well, basically everyone. Most of the sports I played required me to be exactly the opposite of what I wanted to be; big and strong. Sure, everyone wanted me to be on their team in gym class, but nobody wanted to take me to the school dance. I was gangly, awkward and had no idea how to dress myself. Hell, puberty is hard enough and now we throw in some insane height and a haircut that made me look like Billy Ray Cyrus when he had his mullet and you have yourself a hot mess. I was just dripping in swag to say the least. 

 

The point of this blog is not to relive my peak moments in life, but to bring light to how I think a lot of young girls feel as athletes. When you are an athlete, you are told that it is good to be big and strong and dominating. However, that contradicts itself when you step off the court or field or any other modality for athletics. Somehow you are less of a girl; your femininity is non-existent. You are expected to be petite and soft spoken; you are expected to make yourself less than you are. Now, I am not saying that this was ever spoken word or a rule that society abides by. I am simply stating that girls are expected to be two different people, two different identities based off what society deems appropriate. Let me give you a little example. In middle school I started “dating” this boy who was one of my best friends. I put quotes around dating because, you know, young love. This other girl that was in our class was small, thin, blonde haired and blue eyed. She met every beauty standard and she was adored by everyone for no other reason than that. She just could not believe that he liked me over her. I overheard her talking about us once and she said, “Why is he with her? She is twice his size.” Well, maybe he liked me better because I don’t have the personality of a witch… just a thought. 

 

I think it is extremely interesting how the majority of all of you, including myself, thought to yourself, “Wow, what a nasty girl”. But, we never stop to think about the fact that her acting like that is not entirely her fault. There are so many underlying societal factors that went into that one comment she made. So, because I am bigger than him, he isn’t allowed to find me attractive? Because you are smaller and thinner than I am, he should automatically pick you over me?  It blows my mind how we nit pick every little thing people say about us, but neglect to look at what is causing them to say those things. They don’t just come up with it; it comes from what is drilled into them from an early age. As a middle school girl, she did not even give that comment a second thought in terms of gender norms and the mental impact that can have a young girl’s identity as a powerful athlete. All she cared about was that she didn’t get the boy and little miss sasquatch did. Sasquatches deserve loving too.

 

Back then, I had absolutely no idea who I was or who I was “supposed” to be. I was a great athlete who felt good until I stepped into the real world and I was not looked up to because of my height or strength. I mean I was literally looked up to, but you get the point. A “good” athlete, but a “bad” girl. Somehow, these go hand in hand. You can’t be good at both, you must pick one or the other. As I grew into myself, I slowly began to realize that I do not need to hide the fact that I am big and strong. I will take big and strong over small and frail any day of the week. A lot of girls hold back from their full potential in athletics or strength because of this constant gap between what is expected in athletics versus real life. I know because I was one of those girls. I tried so hard to fit in until I realized that being myself and owning the only body I am ever going get is where I found my true identity. All that matters is treating my body with the respect that it deserves because it has gotten me through so much, including my glory days that we strolled through together. Being cute and girly is overrated when you can be undeniably you and feel so much more powerful doing so. Own it and never feel bad about being a big, strong badass. Me and your body love you way more for being the best form of yourself and working hard to find your own identity. Try it out, see what happens. 

 

Happy training, 

Maggie

Hello Friends, Family, Distant Acquaintances & 6 Degrees of Separation to Micheal Keaton!

 

Do you like exercise, cider and Pittsburgh local parks? Well of course you do & that is why UF & our new friends at Threadbare Cider are starting a monthly Summer Boot Camp Series. The first boot camp will be Sunday, June 13th from 10a-11a at Threadbare’s beautiful home base in Spring Garden. This will be a ticketed event and the price of the $20 ticket will include the hour bootcamp, one glass of cider to cheers at the Cider House and a 9.99% donation to Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. Pittsburgh Parks was founded in 1996 and is a local nonprofit that help improve and restore the city’s parks. The first bootcamp will be co-lead by the wild man himself, lord of all thing bumpy, the wizard of weights, Mr. CeJ and a super secret special guest Coach. Can you guess who it might be? The boot camp will be tailored to your personal comfort level of exercise and we are here to motivate, educate, have some fun & support our local community. You can get your tickets at www.threadbarecider.com by clicking on their events tab and scrolling down to the boot camp picture. If you have any questions, please reach out. So scream, shout and tell all your friends to get to Threadbare on June 13th to kick your morning Sunday Funday off the only way we know!

 

Hey Threadbare, did we just become best friends? Yep!

 

Cheers to my exercising, cider drinking, park adventuring party people,

 

CeJ

I have now been working at UF for 20 months and during this time I have realized that I am spoiled. Few gyms have what we have here at Union. So I would today I am going to give you a review of some equipment that we have and maybe you are unfamiliar with it’s usage.

 

Considering that we have 4 separate areas some of this may not matter to you if you only use certain areas, yet it’s is always good to have an overview. I will break these down by gym spaces.

 

Fitness Center

 

Machines- As with most gyms we have a large selection of machines and I will not bore you by walking you through how to use each and everyone of them. Most have instructions on the machine. We also have the cardio machines with the explanations. As with anything please feel free to ask us if you do not know how to use any of these machines.

Kettlebells- We have KB’s up to 100 lbs. KB’s have become very popular over the past decade and they have many uses. Most people use these properly and there are more uses than most ever think of so ask any of us and we can give you some new ideas.

 

Strength Lab

 

The Strength Lab has a lot of cool tools and I’ll list some here.

 

Monolifts- These are the squat racks that most gyms do not have. They have a jack to adjust the bar to your height. Generally they are used facing towards the windows. Also, if you have someone run the handle you can squat without the need of walking out. This is nice as it prevents you from possible misstepping and hurting yourself. There are also safety straps for when you don’t have a proper spot.

 

The Rig- This is the big thing in the middle. It is basically 6 stations in one. There is also the monkey bars, just be careful and safe with these.

 

Frankenhypers- Frankenhypers are the glute-ham, reverse hyper combos. Both exercises are good for lower body days and with all the micro adjustments I would recommend asking one of us how to best use these.

 

Fatbells- As CeJ once said, “Imagine if a kettlebell and dumbbell had a baby, this is the fatbell.” They can be used similar to KB’s or DB’s presses, lunges, rows etc. I do not recommend swings or snatches with them as IMO KB’s are superior for these movements.

 

CardioLab

 

Ski Erg- Give them a go. They are pretty simple, grab the handles throw them down and come back up. Again there are finer points yet pretty basic movement.

 

Bikes- Pedal! Good rule of thumb when you set the seat use the top of your hip joint as a guide to where the seat should be.

 

Ergs- Rowing may be the most miserable exercise, avoid at all costs. Some like this yet these people like hard work more than I do.

 

Performance Lab

 

The newest arrival in this room is the powerblocks. There are adjustable dumbbells, they are great for quick changes to weight. There is a plastic piece that slides in to adjust the weight from 5-95. These are very easy to use and are very convenient.

 

This is a basic overview of all the fun things we have. As always please ask and we will do all that we can to help you!

Unionites, it’s time to shine!

 

We have so many unique, talented and badass members, it’s time to let the rest of Union know what you’re all about. Let’s show off your competitive side! We want to build a Union Wall of Fame. Bring in a picture of yourself competing and we will get you up on the great wall, maybe even with you Herbie Hancock on the picture. It could be a picture from the 90s when you played college sports or a picture of a marathon you did yesterday. We want to show you off and give you a spot on the wall to smile at. If you have any questions please let us know and we can make it happen. We can run the gamut of wellness, exercise and competitions for these pictures.

 

Send your pictures and let’s get at er!

 

Cheers,

CJ 

Change is the only guarantee in life. Today I sit inside a gym that was once a fast food restaurant. This is movement for a better tomorow isn’t it? Knowing that lifting, life, and all of us will keep changing and growing here is my half-hearted look at gym essentials and how they have changed over the years.

 

1. Shoes. Some people live and die with the olympic shoes (not a bad choice depending on stance, mobility, and depth of your squat). I came of age during the Chuck Taylor craze, I realize most have moved to Vans and I can dig this. I do ask that you don’t call your shoes “lifters” as it is dumb.
2. Short shorts. I can admit that the length of shorts got out of control in the 1990’s and early 2000’s yet we don’t need to swing the pendulum as far as we have now (this is mostly directed at the guys in the room). Ward keeps telling me that Magnum PI had it right. I just say shouldn’t be past the knee yet mid thigh is fine, no need for shorter.
3. Training shirt with the properly cut off sleeves. There are a multitude of ways to cut sleeves off. CeJ chews his off prior to training. My advice cut the sleeves off at the armpit, don’t be the homemade string tank top dude.
4. Your special belt. We all know a good lifting belt can make a huge difference yet when your special belt is necessary for curls maybe your belt isn’t that great.
5. All the mobility devices. I won’t lie I fell into the foam rolling craze 15 years ago and it’s great, yet if you carry your foam roller, tennis ball, buffer, theragun and three golf balls then maybe it’s time to cut back.
6. Headphones. If you know me you know this is a pet peeve of mine. I try to be in the world as much as possible and I do have my favorite music yet I implore everyone to be in the moment with those around you. Building a better community takes communication.
7. Deodorant. We have all had that training partner who didn’t do a great job with hygiene. One of the beauties of UF is that we have deodorant for you to use. A caveat to this there is no need to use the entire bottle of cologne prior to training.

 

This is just a short list of what we need and don’t need at the gym. I hope you understand that while this is a light hearted look (with maybe some truth).

 

Stay Strong,

 

Todd Hamer