Attention Attention!!

Toss on your goggles because you’re about to be blinded by science…SCIENCE!

Union….this has been hiding in the shadows for far too long. Buried deep in the sarcophagus of time, repressed from the world. Adventurers young & old, from far and wide have spent their lives in pursuit of this historical relic. Some call it the fountain of youth, others believe it’s a transcendent pilgrimage of enlightenment. Your personal Swashbuckling Nick Cage (National Treasure reference) has found the X and unearthed these dark secretes.

TEACH ME TUESDAY is coming back! The goal of TMT is to provide a wide range of knowledge and education on health, overall wellness, training and many more dope topics. If you have anything you’d like to learn about please comment below of just let CeJ know what is up. Thank you for your time and lets Get Bumpy on this exploration of endless mental wisdom.

Train your Brain and get your Mind Bumpy!

Cheers,

CeJ

In today’s Blog, we will be highlighting our 1^st offsite UF Workout.  At UnionFitness we are striving to be a bigger influence in our community. We want to be a positive and uplifting part of Pittsburgh.  In order to be influential, we feel it’s important that we start in our own backyard, which is the Northside.  We wanted to get our faces out in the community, so we picked a local brewery to kick off our offsite workouts.

We ventured 4 blocks over to Allegheny City Brewing (ACB).  

This neighborhood gem is in the heart of Deutschtown on the Northside.  The owners of ACB, Amy and Matt welcomed the idea with open arms and allowed us to “GET BUMPY” (the words of one of UF’s prolific trainers and management staff, CJ).

“WITHOUT TRIUMPH, THERE IS NO GLORY”

With the new restrictions imposed on bars and Restaurants this past week due to Covid-19, we all were a little worried if we would still be able to have the workout.  BUT, we didn’t let the restrictions or the threat of rain stop us and we GOT IT DONE!!!  8 people came out and got sweaty before we all enjoyed the tasty suds of ACB’s Craft Beer.  There is something about struggling through a hard workout with people you know and don’t know, and then sharing a beer with them, that is good for the soul.  We want to continue to promote that feeling and meet new friends along the way.  I believe this is true outreach!  Doing things that bring people together, that can share their backgrounds with each other, is how we can promote community equity.

This was a GREAT kickoff to our offsite workouts and community outreach.  Our goal is to have one of these a month in our community to continue to show our neighbors that we are here, that we want to help, that we want to be a part of the change that is going on in our city, and that we want to continue to be a positive resource for our community.

Special Thanks to Amy and Matt of ACB and to the warriors that came out for the workout!!!

If you ever want a great place to have tasty beer and a fun atmosphere, please checkout @alleghenycitybrewing or www.alleghenycitybrewing.com

For our next offsite workout, check our Instagram @unionfitnesspgh.

Matt Grayson

Hello Union Fam,

For those of you that don’t know me I used to be a coach here at Union Fitness up until December 2019 (recently returned). In December I had the opportunity to be an intern strength & conditioning coach at the University of Maryland. The teams I was working with include: Baseball, Field Hockey, Volleyball, Women’s Lacrosse, & Wrestling. The goal of this blog post is to reflect on my experience at Maryland, evaluate what sets some of the best athletes in the country apart & what I plan to implement in the future.

For those of you reading this who haven’t been inside the walls of a collegiate weight room and envision athletes performing super complex & specific exercises; let me stop you right there. That is not the case. The three words I heard more than anything while at Maryland were, “Keep it simple!” For the most part, 80% (some would argue higher) of what strength & conditioning coaches’ program is very similar across the country. So, the question I find myself asking is “What sets each program/department/team apart?”

1.) Mind the Gap
“When the truth is blurred, perception becomes reality whether you like it or not.” This lesson is based around being aware of the gap between how you are perceived by others and your reality. You can be as self-aware and conscious as you want, but there is some value in objectively hearing how others perceive you. What people perceive is usually what they believe, and this is based on what they consistently hear, see, & think. I am and most people are guilty of creating perceptions before obtaining full information. This can also lead to a valuable and tough conversation on bridging the gap of how you and others are perceived. Going forward, notice those perceptions but don’t allow them to grow. Instead be intentional and put your best self on display.

2.) What does it mean to be tough?
When you think of tough, you probably imagine a scene from Rocky where he goes round after round, with a bloody face, eyes swollen, broken nose, & still somehow manages to come away victorious. True toughness to me is a characteristic many talk about but few execute.

The best example I have of this comes while one of my teams at Maryland was running shuttles. After already lifting for about 45 minutes we headed down to the basketball court to run our 3rd week of shuttles. The shuttles were 15 yards and back and every rep had to be completed in a certain amount of time. Your foot has to be behind the line at the start of every rep and you have to touch the opposite line every time. I was positioned at the baseline/start line, blowing the whistle to start, checking to make sure everyone was behind the line, & calling out times. First set no problem. Second set no problem. Halfway through the third set the female DIRECTLY in front of me says, “Connor my foot wasn’t behind the line. We owe an extra rep.” I missed the person two feet in front of me and instead of just cruising past it she held herself and the team accountable. Over the course of all of my strength and conditioning experiences, I can count this type of event on one hand. Speaking up, holding the individual and team accountable, knowing the result will make your teammates suffer more. The funny thing is after we finished the shuttles and debriefed; no one held a grudge or had any ill feelings towards her. So why doesn’t everyone hold themselves and others accountable?

To me the answer is habits. If you don’t not have the daily habits built in of doing things correctly and completely you will surely not hold yourself or others accountable when it will receive blow back. In the future I will look into team building activities specifically designed to get athletes to speak up and hold each other accountable. Secondly, I think debriefing is crucial. This is an opportunity for a coach to give honest objective feedback, but also an opportunity for your athletes to give feedback. Not just to you, but to each other. These micro events will be my attempt to get them to engrain and establish these habits and create an environment that is player led.  I would much rather have them remind each other to pause their reps than me. 

3.) Slow Cook
For someone who enjoys training hard, this is tough for me personally but is always in the back of my mind when coaching & training others. Harder is not always better. With Olympic sport athletes, coaches typically have them for 4 years. With that being said don’t try to throw everything at them their first year. This is also true for a private gym. It may feel like a big accomplishment to barely walk out of the gym but is it unnecessary. Yes, there are times to push the envelope but not all the time. It is our responsibility as coaches to regress you when you do not have the proper movement literacy to perform an exercise and progress you when you are crushing it. Remember, slow is smooth and smooth is strong. Put your ego aside and remember that one step back & two steps forward still get you ahead. 

4.) HAVE SOME FEEL
In the words of Cej, “Just be a dood!” Now what does this mean? To me it means: be authentic, be vulnerable, support & praise others without expecting anything in return, & know when to listen. At the end of the day strength & conditioning, personal training, & the fitness industry is a relationship industry.  Knowing your audience and what they respond to will build a client faster than any “perfect program”. I have seen some coaches and interns do this really well and others not so well. Do they always need you in their ear or do they just need an occasional cue? Do they like picking apart every detail or are they going to do anything written down? Do they need you hyping them up for every set or do they just need feedback?

An example I am reminded of takes me back to my time interning with Pitt’s Strength & Conditioning Department. It was a 6:00AM summer lift. A few of the wrestlers had to train early before heading to their summer internships/jobs. They had squats as one of their main lifts. One of my fellow interns was not typically loud but was trying to get them ready for their working sets. As he is spotting one of the wrestlers, he starts yelling & cueing the things that look like they need improvement, “UP, CHEST UP, KNEES OUT”. Finally, the wrestler finishes his set, racks his weight, and my fellow intern goes to help the next athlete. At this point I am still by the wrestler’s rack when he turns and says to me (in a little different language) “Why was intern X yelling. It’s just squats.” LIGHT BULB MOMENT. This particular wrestler didn’t need any external motivation or encouragement. He just wanted to be coached up without the yelling. He was going to give his best effort regardless.

The importance of conversation is nothing new, but often overlooked. A training session is much more enjoyable for a coach and client when everyone is on the same wavelength! Having some feel comes down to keeping in mind that the conversation is not about the relationship; the conversation is the relationship. And if you can’t hold a conversation what does that say?

Connor Keenan

Like many of us, I recently took a 2 month hiatus from training while much of the country was shut down. Of course, I could have found multiple ways to gain access to equipment, but I saw it as an opportunity to take the time to focus on other aspects of life that I wanted to address. Although the forced time off was great and helped me gain a new perspective, it has since been nice getting back into the swing of things over the last month or so. I set some goals and opened my mind to a new style of training focused on slowly building upon the foundation that I’ve previously established.

For the first 2-3 weeks I started by getting re acclimated to simply having weights in my hands and on my back again. I kept the intensity on my main lifts around 50-60%, and focused my accessory work around basic bodybuilding style movements. I also incorporated the use of supersets and circuits in order to reestablish a good level of conditioning before jumping back into higher intensity training. Now that I have gotten back on my feet, I feel as though I’m not too far off of where I was prior to quarantine. Except this time, I’m trying something new. 

Recently, one of my training partners recommended that a few of us do a training block in gear. If you aren’t sure of what I’m referring to, it basically consists of the use of supportive equipment designed to help both protect the body and aid in lifting more weight than you normally could without using it. This can consist of supportive briefs or suits for the squat and deadlift, and a supportive shirt for the bench press. In addition to this, when used correctly, gear can help teach you a good deal regarding your form, as well as what you should be feeling throughout the movement.

A big misconception is that using gear only makes lifting the weight easier. Gear is like any other tool or piece of equipment. It has a specific purpose, and when used correctly it can help you to progress in certain aspects of your training program. When I explain to people what it’s like training with gear, I typically use the analogy of driving a race car vs. a daily driver. If you take your Honda Accord around a race track, it’s going to be fairly easy to handle, and you aren’t going to be reaching very high speeds. However, when you take a race car around a race track, you have to be very precise with your actions. The speeds are higher, and you may always be on the verge of out of control. Well, that’s how gear can be. You have to focus on controlling your body and controlling the weight. This process has the ability to have a great carryover to your raw training.

Incorporating the use of gear into my training has given me a greater understanding of my form, technique, body awareness, patients, and approach going into each lift. Concepts like this are a great way to build momentum going forward with your training. If you’ve been lifting for a good length of time, it can also help you to push through plateaus, all while gaining a greater appreciation for what makes lifting unique and fun. As with changing anything within your training program, start slow and focus on addressing only one variable at a time. If you try to change to many things at once, you will have a hard time understanding what’s working, what’s not, or what affect each thing is having on your body and on your progress. Remember that training and achieving your goals is not a track meet, but a marathon. Take your time, progress at your own pace, and focus on the things that you can control and build off of each day. And always remember to have fun in the process! 

Dear Union Family,

Your health & safety are at the upmost importance to us and we want to give you the best environment possible to train and workout at. That being said, due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County, we will be requiring  everyone to wear a face mask while working-out in the facility beginning Wednesday, July 1st. Everyone has been doing a wonderful job at cleaning the equipment after use and respecting social distancing and for that we thank you very much for your efforts in keeping our home clean and safe.

We apologize for this inconvenience but we are doing this for your safety, our staff’s safety and the safety of our family and friends. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us. Thank you for keeping everyone safe.

Wear your mask, wash your mitts and let’s crush COVID, so we can high five on some PRs again.

Cheers,

CeJ