COACH BENJI’S TRAINING STRATIGIES

Make your training as effective as possible with simple steps

A new cycle is here and I’m fired up for it! We’ve got nine weeks to build raw strength, increase capacity, and sharpen the kinds of movements that pay off for life. This cycle is big lifts, smart progressions, and intentional work that leads to real progress if you show up and commit. It’s not about going full throttle and reaching failure everyday, it’s about hitting the simple, effective stuff consistently and with purpose. Lock in, trust the process, and let’s get strong together. I have 10 lessons below that I feel people overlook and when not taken seriously or done inconsistently will drastically slow or even prevent people from progressing.

1. Prioritize sleep and nutrition like you prioritize training. Recovery is the silent multiplier of your gains and recovery doesn’t always mean to skip sessions, it can look like going 5/10 effort instead of your usual 9/10 effort.
2. Focus on positions before loading the bar. Clean reps in clean positions will outwork ugly heavy lifts every time and even helps build tissue tolerance for those heavy lifts.
3. Warm up with intention. I know, warming up is my least favorite as well but that doesn’t make it any less important. Properly prepping your joints and movement patterns is the easiest strategy to reduce injury risk.
4. Eat primarily whole foods in quantities that support exercise without causing excess body fat. This takes experimentation and if you don’t know where to start reach out to Coach Chris as I don’t know anyone else who is more passionate about helping others with their nutrition.
5. Log your lifts and workouts. Tracking progress keeps you honest, shows you how far you’ve come, and reveals trends you might otherwise miss.
6. Breathe through your nose during warm-ups and during rest windows. It’s a free nervous system reset that helps improve recovery and endurance.
7. Stick to your percentages. You don’t need to max out every session to make serious progress, ESPECIALLY for strength gains. Follow the plan, trust the process.
8. Don’t skip cooldowns or mobility work. 5-15 minutes a day pays off more than most realize.
9. Ask questions. You hear me say this all the time, help me help you, ASK AWAY😀 The simplest way to fast track improvement is to understand why you’re doing something, every coach is here and excited to help!

Treat Thursday like training, not a throwaway day.  Recovery style days help build your aerobic base and can be so mentally rejuvenating after a tough Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, have some fun with your fitness! Maybe this is you coming in for mobility Thursdays or maybe it’s you planning a walk with a friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting in the right mindset for the 2025 CrossFit Open

Our “Open Prep” program took us through some extremely fun training sessions and also some…challenging training sessions, I know you have a few special ones that come to mind! We’ve done some practice touches on previous Open workouts 13.4,20.1, 22.1,23.1, and many other Whitney Gelin special Open prediction workouts. Some good news around completing this preparation is that we’ve been training at higher demands, more volume and tougher workouts than we’ll face in the Open. Our hard work is already done and now it’s all about just showing up, having fun and putting ourselves in a position to be proud of our efforts. These three weeks of the CrossFit Open aren’t about proving anything to anyone else, they’re all about proving to yourself what YOU can do.

When the workouts get announced it’s easy to feel anxious or to overthink the workout but instead of focusing on the unknown let’s try to focus on what you do know. You are stronger, fitter and much more equipped to handle the challenges of not just the open but your daily life as well. Maybe you’ll hit a PR, maybe you’ll get a new max set of pull ups or maybe you even surprise yourself with your engine and effort. No matter what it is, this is a chance to celebrate progress, not perfection.

One of my favorite things to remember about the Open is that it’s not even just about the workout, it’s about the experience at 12th State. The energy in the gym, the support from your community and the feeling of pushing yourself past what you thought was possible. These are some of the moments that remind me why I love CrossFit. It’s not about the leaderboard rankings or scores, it’s about EFFORT. Every rep, every lift, every step you took that you didn’t think was possible is a win in itself.

So when you step through that 12th State door, trust your training, trust yourself and trust your support. You’ve done the work and now all that is left is just effort, excitement and A WHOLE LOT OF FUN! The open is here, you are ready and I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do! 

Let’s get after it 12th State fam!

Coach Benji

 

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Want to achieve a new goal in CrossFit?  

Reverse Engineer it for success!

Do you have a goal in mind that you want to achieve? Maybe complete your first pull up/chest to bar/muscle up, PR a lift, complete a 5k, perform a workout Rx, change your body composition?  

A lot of the time, Coach Whitney’s programming and all of the coaches’ scaling helps to progress everyone toward achieving new PRs but if there is a particular goal you have your sights set on, start with the end goal in mind! Reverse engineer the activity components and then layer on those components over time to progress toward the goal.  Breaking down the end goal into smaller, more visible steps, allows you to see the path to success more clearly.

As most of us know, it’s not as easy as just wanting to achieve a goal, it takes time, consistency and trust in the process to attain the goal.

 

Pull ups and muscle ups:

There are many components to these movements but often people skip foundational building blocks. The questions I ask myself for every skill is, “what position am I starting in, what path is my body moving through and what position am I ending in?” The pulling bar movements take place when you’re hanging from under the bar and are smoothly rising above the bar. 

Work through the following:

1. Dead and Active Hang from the rig: You need to have the ability to hold your body weight from the rig. It would be hard for me to imagine anyone being able to do a muscle up without the ability to hang for a minimum of 60 seconds.
2. Kip Swings: Your hollow and arch positions are where you generate and express force in gymnastics. Your ability to create and maintain tension as you transition from your hollow position and arch position is critical for longevity and power expression. Consistent kip swing practice is crucial for all levels of gymnastics and you should have the aim to achieve 3 sets of 20+ as often as 3 days a week within warm up or as accessory movements. This especially applies in early stages of gymnastics.
3. Strict Pull Ups: Build the foundational strength! Start with negatives (aim for a 3-5 second descent) from a jumping pull up then progress to banded pull ups and finally, aim for achieving a solid 5-10 strict pull ups before moving on to movements like a bar muscle up.

Going beyond a pull up to bar muscle ups:

1. Chest To Bar Pull Ups: These will increase the range of motion at the top of the pull up and will get you more comfortable pulling higher. Obviously strict here would be fantastic but comfortable sets of 5-10 kipping C2B pull ups will also be a great aim.
2. Transition Drills: One of the most forgotten aspects of practice when it comes to the bar muscle up. Practice the transition on a low bar or with bands to understand the movement pattern of getting on top and over the bar. The aim here is to have a strong physical connection with understanding the relationship between the elbows and shoulders when the transition from under to over the bar occurs.
3. Dips: Come on baby, dip it out! Strengthen your triceps and chest with upper body pressing exercises, especially the ring dip. Your body is going to combat you getting into a position you can’t support yourself in. Aim is 10+ strict bar dips and 5+ strict ring dips.

If you’re able to reach these targets, I feel confident with you being in a great spot to take game time attempts at the bar muscle up. 

If your goal is focused on other movements or activities, work to break them down and develop a plan.  Ask me or another coach for help (we all love helping) to integrate it to your training plan.

Don’t make it overly complex, in fact make it easier than you think it should be.  Start with the basics and give it time for your body to adapt and progress.  Don’t rush things and trust the process.  

Those are the types of things that run through my head each day when it comes to learning new things. Embrace the awkwardness, celebrate little wins and don’t forget to laugh at yourself along the way. The right mindset and a good laugh can fix nearly everything!

Keep lifting, learning and laughing,

Coach Benji