Results for “chad vaughn”

Chad Vaughn explains what lifters and coaches will learn at the CrossFit Weightlifting Advanced Trainer Course.

Weightlifting is described as ballet with a barbell, poetry in motion and a beautiful work of art. As the best weightlifters in the world train to put the greatest weight overhead, they also develop athletic attributes such as strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. These attributes are… Continue Reading

On. Oct. 25, CrossFit Weightlifting Advanced Trainer Course leader Chad Vaughn held an event to raise money for Barbells for Boobs, an organization dedicated to the early detection of breast cancer. Vaughn’s affiliate, CrossFit CenTex, hosted the event at Horny Toad Harley-Davidson in Belton, Texas.

While most used the prescribed weight of 135/95 lb. or scaled appropriately, Vaughn, a two-time Olympian, challenged Aja Barto to complete 30 squat clean… 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

When it comes to the clean, it’s all about fully opening the hips.

In other words, “violently extend the hip,” says Jesse Ward, a member of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar Staff and a coach at CrossFit Lynnwood in Washington state.

To drive home the point, he has athletes throw medicine balls backward. It’s a simple but creative drill the ebullient Ward uses to help athletes identify and focus on one… Continue Reading

With the New Year upon us, Heber Cannon and Eric Maciel offer this retrospective collection of some of the best moments of 2013 as seen through CrossFit Media’s lenses.

From the elegant beauty of Chad Vaughn’s slow-motion snatch to the intensity of Rich Froning vs. Jason Khalipa in Open Workout 13.5, it’s been a memorable year of video.

Also included is CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman’s emotional announcement of the… Continue Reading

Two-time Olympian Chad Vaughn details four areas of focus if you really want to add weight to your snatch and clean and jerk.

Most athletes dive into the Olympic lifts without considering what really allows someone to lift the heaviest loads and move efficiently through high-rep workouts.

I have four keys to lifting the heaviest weights and moving well in the snatch and clean and jerk. They… Continue Reading

Alongside CrossFit Media’s Carey Peterson, two-time Olympian Chad Vaughn dissects his 315-lb. clean and jerk via slow-motion footage.

“Really the same for the snatch,” he says of his set-up. “I’ve just locked myself in here. I’m looking at the tension in the back, the back-angle maintenance, the shins coming back out of the way.”

With the shins vertical as the bar passes the knees, the clean becomes easier, says… Continue Reading

Chad Vaughn repeatedly tells Kayla Baumgardner to get comfortable in the bottom of her overhead squat.

Vaughn, a two-time Olympian, can tell being so low is an unfamiliar position for the 22-year-old, who is scheduled to compete at the Northern California Regional this year.

“You’re gonna have to get where you can hold tight in that bottomed-out position,” advises Vaughn, part owner of CrossFit CenTex in Belton… Continue Reading

Alongside CrossFit Media’s Carey Peterson, two-time Olympian Chad Vaughn dissects his 285-lb. snatch via slow-motion footage.

As he settles into his start position for his heaviest snatch of the day, he’s thinking three things: build tension in the back, feel the shoulders in front of the bar, and be aggressive on the extension. As he takes a deep breath and locks in his back, he feels the tension he’s created, he says.

“My… 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

Doug Chapman, coach to 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games second-place finisher Julie Foucher, doesn’t talk about a shrug or an elbow pull when he teaches the snatch.

“The reason is I have your mind going in too many flippin’ places,” explains the owner of HyperFit USA/CrossFit Ann Arbor.

His cues are simple: “I want you to dip and I want you to catch,” Chapman says.

Next, he starts a workout where athletes are snatching from… Continue Reading

Chad Vaughn breaks down the “simplest” of the three Olympic lifts.

In comparison to the snatch and clean, the jerk is theoretically the simplest of the three lifts.

For the jerk, as in the snatch and clean, certain parts of the body have to move out of the way of the bar so it can travel up straight. In other words, these parts have to move around the bar. In the jerk, of course, the head is the only… 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

Active shoulders, weight over the base of the feet and, yes, the hook grip.

In this snippet from an Olympic Weightlifting Trainer Course, Mike Burgener first talks about keeping the shoulders externally rotated to keep the bar in a strong position overhead.

“If that bar’s up here over your head and you’re shrugging your shoulders … where does the bar go? It goes forward automatically because it becomes an internal rotation,” he says.

The next point… Continue Reading

Olympian Chad Vaughn offers tips for attacking the heavy dumbbell snatches and hang cleans at the Reebok CrossFit Games Regionals.

I remember being very surprised when the Regional events included heavy dumbbell snatches.

My trade is, of course, getting a barbell over my head with two hands, not raising a dumbbell with one, so I was actually unsure that I could even handle the 70-pounder. Obviously, I had no… Continue Reading

What’s the right way to approach the bar in the Olympic lifts?

There isn’t one, Coach Mike Burgener says during this CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Trainer Course.

To illustrate, he has six of his athletes demonstrate how they approach the bar and how they set up at the start of the lift. Some like to squat down and roll the bar away from them, others prefer a quick set-up and take-off to avoid excessive thought, and… Continue Reading

The back angle stays the same from when the bar leaves the ground until the lifter gets to the take-off position, Coach Mike Burgener says during this CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Trainer Course.

To prevent the hips or chest from rising too soon, a great cue Burgener uses is “stand with your legs.”

“The minute that I stand with my legs, the bar comes up, too. They gotta come up together,” he says.

As you stand and the knees… Continue Reading

Positioning and speed are key to successful Olympic lifts, Coach Mike Burgener says during this CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Trainer Course.

Off the floor, sweep the bar back, but without touching the shins.

“I have got to get the bar in the right position so that I can gather my speed,” Burgener explains. “It’s critical. If you try to pull a barbell up, you will fail when the weight gets heavy. If you get the… Continue Reading

Olympian Chad Vaughn explains ideal positioning for success in the Olympic lifts.

As a spectator at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games, I couldn’t keep the coach in me from slipping out during all the barbell movements.

It was easy to see the increase in the quality of weightlifting technique and leg strength, even from just the year before. I believe strength and technique will continue to increase through the next couple of years until… Continue Reading

Two-time Olympian and coach Chad Vaughn and fellow Olympian and American record holder Kendrick Farris recently held an invitational training session. Vaughn explains that he handpicked the athletes from ones he had worked with in the past.

“We want them to be inside of a high-level training environment, weightlifting training environment, that otherwise they may not be exposed to,” he says.

The purpose is not only to teach the athletes… Continue Reading