Supplemental Olympic Lifting for CrossFitters

In our series of articles over the past year or so, we've introduced all the basic elements of the snatch and clean and jerk, as well as some of the important assistance and skill-transfer exercises. Starting this month, we'll address strategies for going beyond the basics. We'll make some assumptions about different types of CrossFitters and create programs for them. The goal is not to create competitive weightlifters, but to help CrossFit athletes improve their lifts.

Several times a month we get e-mail questions from CrossFitters who want to improve their Olympic lifting about how to combine such a focus with CrossFit training. Because there are several CrossFitters who come to Mike's Gym on the weekends to train, I deal with this situation there on a regular basis. Most of the CrossFitters who come to Mike's Gym are committed to CrossFit and want to continue to train hard-core CrossFit while they also work on getting better in the Oly lifts.

In this month's article, we'll assume that you have no extended formal training in the lifts, that you regularly follow the WOD (Workout of the Day) from CrossFit. com, that you've read our other articles and can perform the movements reasonably well with low loads, and that your basic goal is to improve your performance on those workouts that call for heavier cleans, jerks, and snatches. In other words, we're approaching this as if you consider the Oly lifts a chink in your general fitness armor.

The Burgener warm-up is the foundation for learning all the lifts (see our article in the CrossFit Journal issue 53 for more information and detailed instruction on the Burgener warm-up). It should be done every day with PVC. It can also be done with a light barbell if desired.