Oh what a year it has been! This year has had its ups and downs but because of you all we have made it such a great year. We wanted to take some time to reflect on all the great things that have taken place this year at Become Better.

One of the best things that we all did at the gym this year was the Become Better Olympics. We had clients hit personal records and clients who came in multiple times after being beaten to take down their competitor and many clients who tried beating the numbers even after the Olympics finished. Here’s a few of our favorite memories:

The Plank Event - Nicholas Usher kicked the longest time off with a 6 minute plank. Then he was beaten by Alisa G and Jenna Vogen. He came back after hearing about being beaten and beat their times with an 8 minute plank, to which he shouted “beat that!”. Kerry, Ryan and Connor did beat that with over 9 minutes. Then Nicholas came back with the determination of Goku and Vegeta (sorry, Dragon Ball Z reference) and blew away everyone's time with just over 12 minutes.

The Dead Hang Challenge - Ed had the best dead hang time with over 3 minutes. Then Matt Shenk came in and passed Ed with just under 4 minutes. Ed then came back in and said, “that twirp can’t beat me” so Ed took down Matt. Then Ryan Tierney wanted to get involved (who also ran a 00:05.09 mile!) and beat all their times and held the dead hang for 4:21.6. Ed came back in the final week and beat Ryan with a time of 4:22.. Just fractions of a second more.

The Bench Press - By far the event with the most PR’s. Claire had held first place with a 145lb bench for a while until Shay came in to beat that number. In the final week, Candice Chalus ate her wheaties and beat both with a 151lb bench press (this was also a PR for her). In the final day of the Olympics and second day in a row of bench pressing, Shay came in and grinded out a 151.5lb bench to take the event.

The Become Better Olympics provided some great fun and competition. Be on the lookout for them in the future! For a full recap of the Olympics visit this page

Become Better Powerlifting had another successful meet. Each powerlifter was able to hit personal records on each and every lift! The best Squat was Nicole Celender at 125k (275lbs). The best Bench Press was Coach Paige at 70k (154lbs). The best Deadlift was Shay at 140k (308lbs). Each Powerlifter had over a 20k PR for their total with Jen Smith taking the highest at 40k total more than her last competition. Jess Wooten participated in her first competition and had no misses. We look forward to where our Powerlifting team can go from here!

Lots of clients in general hit milestones and personal bests all year long while reaching their goals. It will be hard for us to name all of our clients here, but here are some of the goals that were accomplished over the last year (that haven’t been mentioned above already).

Stephanie Ertel lost over 100 pounds while getting stronger in the process.
TJ Taylor Picked up over 330 lbs as a Sophomore in High school.
TJ’s brother, Charlie gained over 10 lbs and can now pick up 1.5x his body weight.
Brandon Hanson also gained a bunch of weight and can now confidently say he weighs more than Coach Dan (he’s a foot taller)
Brandon’s sister, Jess rejoined the gym in Summer and is on her way to not having kid arms anymore.
Their mother Sandy Hanson also got into a fitness routine for the first time ever. She believes her mobility, balance and strength have all increased a lot. She can now hold a plank for over 2 minutes when 20 seconds was a struggle at first.
Werner squatted 180k and deadlifted 210k
Jenna Vogen did a chin-up
Joe Hanlon has started his fitness journey and can now almost hold a plank for 1 minute. This may not seem like much, but when he started it was under 8 seconds.
This is always a goal of mine (Coach Dan): We had many college kids leave the gym to go to school, but all of them followed workout plans while gone AND they all came back over break :). Despite many of them not playing sports in college they still have continued the healthy lifestyle of working out.
Kerry Hartman can now do multiple reps with 2 plates on the Bench Press, 3 plates on the squat, and very close to the 4 plate deadlift club.
His wife, Jen, who is mainly a runner, also learned how to execute all of these lifts.
Robbie and Caitie Williams (brother and sister) have found time to continue to make strength gains multiple times a week amidst high school, band practice, performing shows and their normal sports they play. Robbie has maxed his Bench Press out at 250lbs at 15 years old and Caitie completed a goal of being able to trap bar deadlift over her body weight (her next goal is to smash a watermelon using her legs)
Robbie’s friend Max also joined the gym and although still learning he has proved capable of comfortably lifting over 240 lbs
Ryan Tierney ran a 5:09 mile, held a plank for almost 10 minutes and has continued to get stronger for baseball and hockey
Connor can now squat over 150k and bench 245 and is very close to the 400 lb Deadlift club.
Aaron would have hit more goals, but due to inconsistency (something about his kids always having things going on) he has failed. Just kidding, he did just hit a new max bench of 170. Not bad for a runner.
Nicole Miller hit a PR Deadlift over her bodyweight
Gina Swanson won the weight loss competition over the summer and can now comfortably Bench over 100 lbs and Deadlifted over 200 lbs.
Nicholas Usher was able to complete a goal to increase his body weight from 165lbs to 185lbs and continue on that at just about 190lbs. He has also hit a PR with a 2 Plate back squat and the ability to deadlift over 340lbs
Liz Anderson hit a deadlift PR at 100k and hit a PR Bench Press during the olympics at 110lbs
Jean Criss doesn’t have any fancy records, but wants you all to know that she feels strong and healthy which is her goal.
Debra Rocca has just hit her weight loss goal from when she started and is set to make new goals into the new year

We know that we have missed some of our clients on this list and we apologize for that. Some of you don’t have specific goals outside of general fitness and weight loss for us to mention and that of course is completely fine. There are also many newer clients who are in the middle of reaching their first goals. We hope everyone who attends our gym has been able to realize the improvements they have made in their health and fitness over this year regardless if they are mentioned on this list.

Become Better has continued to see growth in the training world. This is in large part due to the many clients who have stuck with us through all the crazy in the last 2 years to keep a foundation that has allowed us to stay afloat and to grow our gym community. We now have over 100 clients not including the new partnership with Pittsburgh Elite Volleyball Club. We have a lot of plans to continue this growth in the beginning of 2022 and beyond. We look forward to doing all of this with all of you

Thank you!

Your favorite coaches,

Dan & Joey