May in Review

Race season is in full swing and our 5k is fast approaching, schools winding down and Summer preparation is underway, and high school playoffs have begun with many of our athletes from track, lacrosse, baseball, and softball participating. There is plenty to write about but too many accomplishments to cover. Here are a handful of them.

May 3rd – Play for Will

The 7th Annual Play for Will basketball game took place on Friday night. The crowd of several hundred made for an exciting night for our team. Many of my athletes consistently support Nashoba athletics throughout the year so it was great to see the roles reversed as so many Nashoba students attended. While we didn’t emphasize fundraising, we were able to raise nearly $2000. Our film guy, Ben, put together an awesome video of the event.

May 5th – Becca Pizzi 5k

Racing has introduced us to some amazing people. If you are unfamiliar with Becca Pizzi and all she has accomplished, a quick Google search would be sure to impress you. Beyond running she is an amazing person and we’ve been lucky to connect with companies like dorsaVi, Lulu Lemon, and Newton Running through our relationship. Every year we make it a priority to support her race. Finishing in 18:46 was a decent result for our first hard run of the season.

May 15th - Cerebral Palsy Research Project Post-Testing

Sam was our sixth participant to finish up post-testing in the research project, an 8 Week Strength and Conditioning Program’s Effect on Lower Body and Core Muscle Mass in Individuals with Cerebral Palsy. Working with Dr. Jason Talanian from Fitchburg State, we will use the data from the six participants to run statistics as well as put together a write-up of quantitative and qualitative findings. The project would not have been possible without InBody loaning us the S10 device to record measurements for our athletes unable to stand independently on our S270 device. Hopefully the results of this project and other ones that we have planned will provide insight on how to improve the functional strength of individuals with Cerebral Palsy.

May 18th – Holland Elementary 5k

Every year, Team Hoyt chapters from across the country come out to Holland, MA for a weekend of celebrating all of Rick and Dick’s accomplishments in pioneering inclusion in athletics. Wheelchair duos from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, Arizona, California, Idaho, Ohio, Oklahoma, (and possibly more) were represented at the race.

May 19th – 4 Jakes Sake 5k

Jake and Sheryl Marrazzo trained with us this past Summer and Fall for their first triathlon together. Their mission aligns well with what we do at the gym so we were glad that we could support their annual 5k for their non-profit, 4 Jake’s Sake.

May 20th – Summer Staff

Dennis and Kyle interned for me throughout the year and I am very excited that they’ve accepted jobs to work for me this Summer. Dennis will be helping with classes and athletes on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, Kyle on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Both will be accepting personal training and distance coaching clients. In addition to representing the business very well over the last 9 months by being involved in our research projects and building rapport with all of our athletes, I am very confident in their ability as coaches. I am lucky to have them; and you’ll be lucky to work with them.

Summer hours and classes are up on our website. If you’re interested in something specific that isn’t included on the schedule (i.e. nutrition coaching, mobility classes, etc), or if you’re interested in training but the gym schedule doesn’t work with yours, email us at unifiedhp@gmail.com and we’ll find a way to help.

May 22nd - Iyengar Yoga Research Study Post-Testing

Four of our adult athletes with Down Syndrome have been performing an Iyengar Yoga routine 2x/week throughout April and May. Before starting the program they were assessed using the Functional Movement Screen; a battery of tests intended to identify deficits in functional strength and stability. A more in-depth write-up of the study, our rationale behind choosing Iyengar Yoga, and the results of the assessments will be included in a later blog post.

May 25th – Bench and Brunch

Jessie Burdick has been helping our Special Olympics Powerlifting program. She and Seth will be coaching our athletes at the state competition in June. Jessie organized a fundraiser, Bench and Brunch, for our program and hosted it on May 25th at RX Strength Training in Somerville where she is a coach. We had five athletes compete: Josh, Cassidy, Nick, Michael, and Kevin. For Michael and Kevin it was their first experience at a competition and they both hit third attempts that exceeded their heaviest singles in the gym.

May 26th – Boston’s Run to Remember

This race has become an annual event for me, Jacob, and a handful of our gym members. We had several run the half marathon and others run the 5 mile route. Missie and Amber recovered and maintained their conditioning from running Boston to run the 5 mile route along with Shannon. Kayla, a Junior at Nashoba trained for the race throughout the Spring and finished her first half marathon. Kate followed a 12 week plan that had her training 6 days a week, every week; and she followed it to a T, never missing a session and tracking every metric that I asked (splits, heart rate, etc). Her 10 minute PR was well-deserved. As for Jacob and I, 13 miles aligned well with the training we’ve been doing but my conditioning didn’t really have us in a place to run hard for an hour and a half. Some bizarre cramping within the first mile caused me to work a lot harder to sustain a given pace than I had hoped for. 5 miles in we were really struggling to maintain a respectable pace but it was a nice mental victory to work our way through a long run that wasn’t going perfectly. Jacob put on a solid 90 minute vocal performance that kept my mind somewhat off the discomfort. It is an incredibly well-organized race for a great cause.

June will bring the start of Summer training, our 1st Annual 5k, and more races. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram to stay up to date with the day-to-day activities as well as program offerings.