Results for “burgener”

We challenge you to improve your mental fitness by reading our Founder and CEO’s CrossFit Journal articles.

“When we explained that we thought our workouts were so effective that if we were to post one every day, someone would eventually find them, try them, have great results, and come back and tell friends, the dot-comers laughed heartily and condescendingly chortled, ‘Ahhhh, the old grassroots approach!’”

Greg Glassman wrote that in the 2005 CrossFit Journal article “www.crossfit.com.”

On Feb. 10, 2001, the first workout of the day went up on… Continue Reading

Mike Burgener offers quick tips for turning push presses into jerks.

The jerk is a lot like Nobuyuki Kayahara’s “Spinning Dancer.”

Some see the silhouette spinning clockwise, while others see counter-clockwise movement. The effect of the optical illusion is so profound that the brain struggles to grasp how the reversed movement would even be possible. Look at the silhouette again and you might see that the movement has… Continue Reading

Mike Burgener offers quick tips to correct footwork in the jerk.

The jerk really comes down to a fraction of a second.

Time it perfectly and the bar seems to stall in the air while a lightning-fast athlete wedges himself between the steel and the ground with perfect balance. The lift looks easy and natural, full of agility and grace. It’s like watching a gymnast stick the landing.

Miss the correct moment by… Continue Reading

Mike Burgener offers quick tips to correct errors in the snatch and clean and jerk.

Just as it’s possible to correct weightlifting errors, it’s possible to cause errors when cues go awry.

Take, for example, the oft-used cue “finish!” What the coach is looking for is a natural position created by perfect balance and unbridled aggression. In a snatch or clean, a profile shot of the finish will show a lifter at full… Continue Reading

Mike Burgener offers quick tips to correct errors in the snatch and clean and jerk.

Most of us have seen the guy who can do a kettlebell swing with a 300-lb. barbell. The lift is called a clean, but it lacks the grace and speed evident when skilled lifters pulls their bodies around and under a perfectly placed bar with lizard-like speed.

While ugly, the swinging clean is impressive because the lift… 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

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 1, we sit down with Coach B. in his home garage as he reflects on… Continue Reading

If you’re going to train with Mike Burgener at his home nearly an hour north of San Diego, California, there are a few rules.

First, only one person lifts on a platform at a time. Second, move your bar to create space for others lifters. Third, clean the plates off the platform.

“Other than that, let’s lift some heavy weights. Let’s have some fun,” says Burgener, affectionately called Coach B.

When Leslie Graves jerks… Continue Reading

At this CrossFit Invictus Training Camp, longtime Olympic-weightlifting coach Mike Burgener works with one athlete who is not reaching full hip extension and is therefore being pulled forward by the bar. Coach Burgener explains the height of the bar is often less important than the speed with which an athlete can pull under it.

If athletes “lose connection” between the time of hip explosion and getting under… Continue Reading

You’ll have to drive to Bonsall, Calif., if you want to train with Coach Mike Burgener. But you can’t park in the garage. That’s reserved for lifting.

“Way to go! That really lights my ass on fire!”

Being coached by Mike Burgener is a singular experience. Not only is he one of the best Olympic-weightlifting coaches in the country—he coached the Junior World Women’s Weightlifting Team and runs the CrossFit Olympic Lifting Trainer… Continue Reading

J.P. Bolwahnn is untraditional: in his mid-30s, he’s a business-administration student at the University of San Diego, where he also plays football.

“There’s no other 35-year-old playing running back in college football right now,” he says with a laugh.

Bolwahnn is also a Level 1 Seminar Staff member, a member of Mike Burgener’s team for CrossFit Olympic Lifting Trainer Courses, and a trainer at CrossFit USD.

“He’s an outstanding… Continue Reading

At this video filmed at CrossFit Invictus, Coach Mike Burgener explains why he has athletes jerk from behind the neck.

“Forces me to go straight up. My elbows are where automatically? They’re down. They’re already externally rotated. And I can just really drive the heck out of ’em,” he says. “But the reason that I give my athletes jerk behind the neck is because of confidence.”

Casey, one of Burgener’s sons, could clean… Continue Reading

After 45 years of coaching Olympic weightlifting, Mike Burgener still assesses athletes the same way: stance, grip, position.

“You just eyeball it real quick and you make the changes right away,” he says during this CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Trainer Course.

After that, it’s the five-step Burgener Warm-Up.

First is the down and up for developing speed through the middle. The hips must open and the shoulders come up.

“Now the… Continue Reading

In college, Stephane Rochet got up at 3:30 in the morning to help out at Ohio University’s weight room with Ethan Reeve, who was the strength coach.

“Just one of the lucky breaks in my life,” Rochet says. “(He) was an absolute genius.”

He adds: “That’s when I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

Today, Rochet is the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of San Diego and part of CrossFit’s Level 1… Continue Reading

Olympic-weightlifting coach Mike Burgener says the three snatch positions are the high hang, mid-thigh and floor.

While the weight is somewhat balanced in the foot in the start position, the weight moves back toward the heels very quickly after the bar breaks the ground.

“The knees start everything, and the weight, in my opinion, should be 55 (percent), 45 (percent) and then shifted back immediately once the bar is lifted,” he explains… Continue Reading

Olympic-weightlifting coach Mike Burgener has changed his cues for beginners to produce optimal results. Andréa Maria Cecil explains.

Mike Burgener used to be “real big” on using the coaching cue “pockets” for anybody performing the snatch or clean.

“For years I emphasized ‘mid-thigh’ to ‘pockets,’” said the longtime Olympic-weightlifting coach. “I emphasized the hell out of it.”

Then he noticed one of his own trainers giving the “pockets” cue to a beginner. The result: the athlete… Continue Reading

At the recent CrossFit Tour stop in Big Sky, Mont., Olympic-weightlifting coach Mike Burgener hosted a clinic and of course handed out some burpees.

In this clip, he helps Olivia Swant of CrossFit Billings with her overhead squat. To start, she does an overhead squat with a PVC pipe.

“Oh, God,” Burgener says.

First, he checks her stance, grip and position. Then he finds the limits of her range of motion. After that, Burgener… Continue Reading

A group of five exercises will help improve the snatch, Olympic-weightlifting coach Mike Burgener says during this trainer course at CrossFit Invictus.

The exercises are: snatch push press, overhead squat with a Sots press if needed, pressing snatch balance, heaving snatch balance and snatch balance. All the movements are done from the rack.

This is where the down-and-up of the Burgener Warm-Up comes into play, Burgener says.

“There’s so many… Continue Reading

On Episode 240 of CrossFit Radio, host Justin Judkins interviewed James Hobson from CrossFit Addiction, as well as Brad Woodhouse of WOD Tours. This episode was webcast live at 6 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012.

The Words of Wisdom are from an article titled Training for Fat Loss by Calvin Sun, found on the CrossFit Invictus website. In the article, Sun addresses common misconceptions such as “Weights will make me bulky,”… Continue Reading