Olympic Lifts

“If you would’ve told me 10 months ago that I was going to compete in weightlifting in a national championship, I would’ve laughed and called you a liar because I just never thought that I could do something like that,” says Cassidy Duffield of Salt Lake City CrossFit.

A former gymnast, Duffield admits she was once self-conscious about having broad shoulders and a muscular figure. When her gymnastics career ended, she looked forward to being “skinny”… Continue Reading

CrossFit athletes sometimes look to squat programs to increase strength—but are they effectively targeting weaknesses or merely feeding the ego and sacrificing general physical preparedness?

The first squat program Aaron Straker tried was the three-week Smolov Jr. cycle in March 2014. His goal was to build strength after an Achilles rupture. The cycle was so successful Straker decided to try the full 13-week Smolov cycle later that same year.

“It just buried me,” said… Continue Reading

Bill Starr describes additional drills to help you finish the pull and clean big weight.

Editor’s note: Bill Starr completed this article before he passed away April 7, 2015, in Maryland.

In September 2009, the CrossFit Journal published my article “More Pop at the Top,” which described how to do high pulls, shrugs, isometric contractions and throws to improve the numbers on any type of… Continue Reading

Bill Starr addresses an element of strength training that’s too often disregarded by hard-charging athletes.

Editor’s note: Bill Starr completed this article before he passed away April 7, 2015, in Maryland.

There are three sides to the strength pyramid: training, nutrition and rest.

It takes time to learn how to do various exercises using proper technique, what exercises to do on which training days, what sets and… Continue Reading

Longtime CrossFit Journal contributor and strength legend Bill Starr passes on at 77.

Bill Starr died April 7 in Maryland. He was 77.

Starr first contributed to the CrossFit Journal with the November 2008 article “Overhead Is Rising.” It was introduced as follows:

“This article is both an instructional piece on overhead lifting, as well as a history of the unfortunate demise of overhead lifting in most strength and conditioning programs.”

The lines… Continue Reading

If the bottom of your snatch is full of trepidation and shaking, Bill Starr has the cure.

I believe full snatches are the epitome of athleticism. When done correctly, the full snatch is a flawless symphony of strength, quickness, timing, coordination and balance. There are many things that have to be done before an athlete is able to master the technique in the full… Continue Reading

In this three-part series, get to know Coach Mike Burgener, who runs the CrossFit Weightlifting Trainer Course and coached the American Women’s Junior National Team for about a decade beginning in the mid-’90s. He’s also the man behind Mike’s Gym, a two-car garage in Bonsall, California, that serves as a USA Weightlifting Regional Training Center.

In the final episode, we learn how Burgener’s now-famous garage gym… Continue Reading

In this three-part series, get to know Coach Mike Burgener, who runs the CrossFit Weightlifting Trainer Course and coached the American Women’s Junior National Team for about a decade beginning in the mid-’90s. He’s also the man behind Mike’s Gym, a two-car garage in Bonsall, California, that serves as a USA Weightlifting Regional Training Center.

In Episode 2, we learn where Burgener’s coaching career took him after he met and married his wife.

“I was invited… Continue Reading