Snatching With Limited Flexibility

Who is that big guy in the background ;).

I watched a lot of what coach Burgener was doing and he is great! Not the least of which is the man is tireless. He was out there for hour after hour helping people. Really good guy.

The perfect answer to a question that was posted on the forum recently. Thank-you very much.

Why does the gum chewing bother me so much?

I'm so confused. Do we or do we not push up on the bar? ie. active shoulders
I hear trainers use that all the time but it looks like when you push your shoulders into your ears they internally rotate and it looks like an awful position. Thoughts???

Kyle, I thought the same thing when I heard that cue. If you hunt around for more videos from The Coach, you'll hear him saying not to actively press-up on the bar. I believe he was just using a cue to prevent a lazy posture (soft position). I wouldn't take it too literally.

Gotta say thanks for this video. Just what I need as I work toward a respectable OH-squat.

Push up, as in have solid support for the bar, but eternally rotate the shoulders, "show your armpits".
The bar isn't braced upwards by your upper traps, it's supported by your mid and lower traps, your rhomboids and braced by your serratus. So basically all of the muscles that stabilise your shoulder blades act together to build a platform across your back for your arms to sit on and push from. Your upper traps are part of that, but they aren't the prime movers and if you focus on shrugging them up, you'll internally rotate. Do that enough and eventually it will catch up with you.

Craig, Yurii Hanson who competed at the games in this video. He is in the red shirt. He is the owner of CrossFit Billings. Also Beau Burgener, Mike's son is there at well.

What is the difference between the split snatch balance exercise and a behind the neck split jerk? Is it just the depth of the split?