May's Newsletter

Let's get stronger, together

This is a necessity

Nobody starts something new hoping to fail, But a lot of people *do* start, fall off, and end up right back where they began. Not because they aren’t capable. Not because CrossFit is “too hard.” It’s usually because they never build the habits that actually create results. Your first 30 days matter more than anything that comes after. This is where consistency is built. This is where your body begins to adapt. This is where you decide whether you’re someone who shows up, or someone who keeps starting over. If you want this time to be different, here’s how you make sure it is: Treat Your Workouts Like They Matter. Because they do. If your gym time is optional, it will get replaced by something else. Work, errands, being tired, or just not feeling like it will always win. Put your workouts on your calendar and treat them like an appointment you don’t cancel. This is your time. Protect it. Show Up Especially When You Don’t Feel Like It. M otivation is unreliable. Some days you’ll feel ready to go. Most days, you won’t. The people who succeed aren’t the most motivated. They’re the most consistent. They show up on the days they’re tired, busy, or not feeling it. Those are the days that actually change you. Take Recovery Seriously. Your progress doesn’t just come from the hour you spend in the gym. It comes from how well you recover from it. Sleep at least seven hours a night. Drink more water than you think you need. Eat real food. If you ignore recovery, you slow everything down. If you prioritize it, everything improves faster. Focus on Learning First. In your first month, your goal is not to crush every workout. Your goal is to learn. Move well before you try to move fast. Understand the movements. Ask questions. Get coaching. The intensity will come naturally over time, and when it does, you’ll be ready for it. Use Your Coach. You are not supposed to figure this out alone. That’s the difference between a regular gym and a place like CrossFit Black Ridge. Ask questions. Get feedback. Let us help you scale workouts, fix movement, and guide your progress. The more you communicate, the faster you improve. Be Patient and Stay Consistent. Real change doesn’t happen in a week. It doesn’t even fully happen in a month. But something powerful *does* happen in your first 30 days. You start to feel better. You move better. You build confidence. You prove to yourself that you can stick with something. And that’s what carries you forward. --- We’ve seen it hundreds of times. People walk in unsure, nervous, thinking they need to get in shape first. Within a month, they’re stronger, more confident, and actually enjoying the process. Not because they did anything extreme. Because they showed up, stayed consistent, and followed simple habits like these. If you give this your full effort for one month, it won’t just change your fitness. It will change how you see yourself and what you believe you’re capable of. If you’ve been thinking about starting, this is your sign. Book your first class and commit to 30 days. That’s all it takes to start becoming someone who doesn’t quit anymore. - CrossFit Black Ridge -- Coach Robby Bennett

If you’ve been thinking about starting CrossFit, this is your sign. This week at CrossFit Black Ridge is Bring a Friend Week. You can come in, try classes, and experience real coaching in a fun, supportive environment. No pressure. No expectations. Just show up and get moving. We see it all the time. People wait months or even years before starting because they think they need to be more fit first. That’s backwards. CrossFit is how you get in shape. You don’t need to prepare before you begin. To make it even easier to get started, we’re running a limited-time offer this week. Use code BRINGAFRIEND40 at checkout to receive 40% off your membership. This offer expires Saturday at 12:00 PM. It will not be extended. If you’re ready to feel better, move better, and build real momentum in your fitness, now is the time!! Sign up now at CrossFitBlackridge.com/memberships and use code BRINGAFRIEND40 at checkout. Bring a friend and get started this week.

How frequently do you hear the phrase, “I’m just tired"? Tired during the workout. Tired after the workout. Tired all day, honestly. Most people assume it’s stress, age, or that they just need more caffeine. But in a lot of cases, that’s not the real problem (I'm not a doctor, so keep that in mind). The real problem is this: you’re not eating in a way that supports what you’re asking your body to do. This isn’t bodybuilding. At CrossFit, we don’t care how you look. We care about what you can do and how you feel. If your energy is low, your performance suffers. When your performance suffers, your results slow down. Food is not just about weight. It’s about energy. Your energy is everything. A lot of people in the gym are unintentionally under-eating, especially when it comes to the things that actually fuel performance. Protein is the first big one. If you’re not eating enough protein, your body struggles to recover. You stay sore longer. You feel weaker. Workouts feel harder than they should. Over time, progress slows down. Then there are carbs. Carbs have received a bad reputation, but they are your body’s primary fuel source. If you’re constantly dragging through workouts, feeling sluggish, or hitting a wall halfway through, there’s a good chance you’re not eating enough carbs to support your training. Fiber, which, in my opinion, everyone needs to eat more of. Fiber helps regulate digestion, keeps you feeling full longer, and helps stabilize energy levels throughout the day. If your nutrition is inconsistent, your energy will be too. One of the simplest ways to improve both fiber and protein intake at the same time is to eat more beans. They don’t get enough credit. Beans are cheap, easy to add to meals, and packed with both fiber and protein. Something as simple as adding beans to rice, salads, or bowls can make a noticeable difference in how you feel and recover. Eat more beans. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is support. Eat real food. Prioritize protein at every meal. Don’t be afraid of carbs, especially around your workouts. Eat fruits and vegetables daily. Drink more water than you think you need. You don’t need a complicated meal plan. You need consistency with the basics. If your workouts feel harder than they should, it might not be the programming. It might not be your fitness level. It might be what you did or didn’t eat before you walked into the gym. Start there and see what changes. You should talk to a doctor too, especially if you need more specific, and specialized help. - Coach Robby Bennett - CrossFit Black Ridge

Patience is one of the most underrated skills in fitness, especially in CrossFit. Everyone wants to get stronger, faster, and more skilled as quickly as possible. But the athletes who improve the fastest over time are the ones who are willing to slow down in the beginning. One of the most common things I see? Athletes walking into the gym already strong, they can move weight, no problem. But when it comes to Olympic lifts or gymnastics, the coordination, timing, and positions are not there yet. Instead of taking the time to learn those movements properly, they load the bar too heavy or push themselves too hard before they have earned it. That is where progress stalls and injuries start to show up. In CrossFit, we talk a lot about intended stimulus. Every workout is designed with a purpose. Some are meant to be long and steady, others short and aggressive. When you ignore that and go all out too early, you redline. You spike your heart rate, burn out quickly, and completely miss the point of the workout. Think about a 20 minute AMRAP with a light-moderate weight. If you come out at full speed, your heart rate jumps immediately and you are forced to slow down or stop far too early. Instead, your effort should build over time. If you tracked your heartrate during the workout, it would look something like a bell curve. Your heart rate gradually climbs, reaches a peak, and then tapers off. That is an effective way to train your engine and improve your conditioning. Short workouts are different. If it is a sprint style workout, you should push the pace and hang on. But the key is understanding the difference and having the discipline to execute the workout the way it was designed. Intensity drives results, when safety is prioritizied The same idea applies to strength and skill work. Just because you can lift something heavy does not mean you should. Movement quality has to come first. The methodology of CrossFit is clear. Mechanics come first, then consistency, then intensity. Skipping steps might feed your ego in the moment, but it slows your progress long term. Most injuries in CrossFit are not because the program is dangerous. They come from athletes letting pride take over. Not listening to the coach, not respecting their current ability, and pushing too hard too soon. In fact, one study from the U.S. National Library of Medicine concluded, “Our findings suggest that CrossFit training is relatively safe compared with more traditional training modalities. However, it seems that those within their first year of training as well as those who engage in this training modality less than 3 days per week and/or participate in less than 3 workouts per week are at a greater risk for injuries.” That lines up exactly with what we see in the gym. Newer athletes who rush the process or train inconsistently are the ones most likely to run into problems. If you want to improve as quickly as possible, you have to be willing to take a step back. In short, be coachable. Be consistent. Learn the movements. Pace your workouts. Trust the process. Patience is not holding you back. It is the thing that keeps you progressing. Sources: CrossFit: Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity Part 1 https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/mechanics-consistency-intensity-part-1-what-does-it-mean CrossFit: How Much Intensity https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/crossfit-how-much-intensity U.S. National Library of Medicine: Injury Rates in CrossFit Training https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6201188/ -Coach Robby Bennett CrossFit Black Ridge

What sets CrossFit apart is our standard of movement. This is not bodybuilding. At CrossFit, we do not care how you look and we do not care what you weigh. We're not training for a certain aesthetic. We care about what you can do and how you feel. When your ability improves, your physical appearance often follows, but appearance is based on opinions, not facts. Performance is measurable. Health is measurable. Capability is what actually matters. That is why we train through a full range of motion, and it is one of the biggest reasons this style of training leads to long term health, durability, and independence. Full range of motion means moving your joints through their complete natural limits. Squatting all the way down, standing all the way up, pressing to full lockout. It is not about making workouts harder. It is about preparing your body for real life. Life does not happen in partial reps. It happens in awkward positions, off balance moments, and unexpected demands. Training full range builds the strength and control to handle those situations safely. Another major benefit is that full range of motion builds mobility while you train. Instead of separating strength and flexibility into different sessions, you are developing both at the same time. Athletes who consistently move through full ranges tend to improve mobility naturally because they are strengthening those end ranges instead of avoiding them. Training full range of motion also improves strength and joint health. When you move through a complete range, you recruit more muscle fibers and build balanced strength around the joints. That leads to better stability, cleaner movement patterns, and less wear and tear over time. Partial movements often leave gaps in strength and create weak positions that show up later as pain or injury. There is a simple idea in CrossFit that new range is weak range. Any position you do not train is a position where you are more likely to get hurt. This becomes more important as we age. Range of motion naturally declines over time, and if you are not actively maintaining it, you lose it. This is where longevity comes into play. The goal is not just to be fit today. The goal is to still be capable decades from now. Being able to squat to depth, get up off the ground, reach overhead, and control your body in space directly impacts your independence later in life. These are the movements that determine whether you can continue to live actively and confidently as you get older. At the end of the day, full range of motion is about training your body the way it was designed to move. It is about building strength everywhere, not just where it is comfortable. That is one of the biggest reasons CrossFit is so effective, not just for getting fit, but for staying fit for life. Sources from CrossFit Journal and CrossFit.com https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/crossfit-CMT-full-range-of-motion https://journal.crossfit.com/article/training-through-full-range-of-motion https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness https://journal.crossfit.com/article/theoretical-hierarchy-of-development

One of the most consistent patterns I see, as a CrossFit Affiliate Owner, is what happens after someone starts. People’s bodies adapt fast. They become healthier, stronger, more balanced, and more flexible in a relatively short amount of time. Not because there’s some shortcut, but because they’re finally doing something that challenges them in the right ways, consistently. CrossFit works because it’s infinitely scalable and driven by intensity. No matter where you start, the workout meets you there, but it also pushes you forward. That intensity is frequently where the majority of results come from. It’s what improves your cardio-vascular endurance, builds strength, and increases your capacity to handle stress over "broad time and modal domains". You don’t stay the same when you train like this. Your body adapts, and adaptation is exactly what we’re after. A huge part of that adaptation, or physical improvement, comes from the constant variety of exercise here at CFBR. We don’t repeat the same workouts over and over; because life doesn’t work like that. Different movements, different time domains, different challenges every day. Some workouts are short and fast, others are long and uncomfortable. That variation forces your body to keep adjusting, which is why people see such well-rounded progress instead of just getting good at one thing at our gym. Getting uncomfortable is part of the process. It’s not something we avoid, it’s something we train. When you’re breathing hard, when your muscles are fatigued, when you want to slow down but choose not to, that’s where growth happens. Over time, that builds not just physical strength but mental toughness. You start to trust yourself more because you’ve been in those hard moments before and made it through. I've had several of our newer athletes recently ask how to train for different races coming up, and how to get to the point where running a mile (or more) feels doable. Get this, running isn’t the norm. Most people don't. They think about it. It’s uncomfortable, and they avoid it. The hard things matter. CrossFit helps bridge the gap of not running much to running more, by building a well-rounded base of strength, flexibility, coordination, endurance, etc. In short, we help you to get stronger legs, better lungs, improved stamina, and the confidence to keep moving when it gets hard. CrossFit is built on constantly varied, functional movements performed at high intensity across broad time and modal domains. That’s not just a definition, it’s how we prepare for real life. We train movements that matter. Squatting, lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, and running. These are the things you actually use outside the gym. When you get better at them here, everything out there becomes easier. At the end of the day, this is about being ready. Life is unpredictable. It throws challenges at you without warning. Whether it’s a race, an event, a long day, or something completely unexpected, you want a body and a mindset that can handle it. That’s what we’re building. That’s why CrossFit works. Because it’s consistent, it’s intentional, and it forces adaptation. And when you stick with it, the results show up faster than most people expect. -Coach Robby Bennett

At CrossFit Black Ridge, we need to be clear about something: T his Is Not A Regular Gym . This is not the place where you pay 20, 30, or even 60 a dollars a month just to say you have a membership. It is not the place where showing up is optional and no one notices when you disappear. This is the place for people who want more. Black Ridge is for those who are ready to commit, but it is also for those who know they struggle with commitment and need something better . Most people do not fail because they do not know what to do; they fail because they do not stay consistent long enough to see it through. That is where we come in. At CrossFit Black Ridge, you are not just another name on a list and you are not just another swipe of a key card. You are part of a community, and that means something. When you do not show up, we notice. When you have been gone for a while, we reach out; not to annoy you, but because we care. You told us you had goals, and you said you wanted to change. That responsibility does not stop when you leave the gym. This is about how you eat, how you fuel your body, and how you take care of your energy. Energy is more valuable than money. You can make more money, but you cannot fake energy or buy it back when your habits drain you every day. Coffee, energy drinks, etc. only go so far. When you show up here, we are not just encouraging you to work out. We are encouraging you to live better, eat better, sleep better, and take ownership of your life. In short, the people who come to CrossFit Black Ridge live a full life. Not because our exercise is the best (although it really is), but because of the culture or kindness, and encouragement is contagious. This is a place where encouragement is constant and support is real; showing up matters, not just for you but for the person sweating next to you. So show up. Show up on the days you feel motivated and on the days you do not . Fuel your body like it matters, because it does. Show up for your goals, your community, and yourself. This is not a regular gym, and that is exactly why it works. -Coach Robby Bennett