Results for “Mike Burgener”

“Anytime you are gripping this PVC pipe for a snatch or a clean, you must always have the hook grip!”

Coach Mike Burgener is not flexible on this rule, and breaking it usually results in burpees. But why?

Simply, the hook grip ensures the bar doesn’t slip in your hands, even at maximal weight. Olympic weightlifting is a game of centimeters, and even a little slip can move the bar out of its optimal line of… Continue Reading

“We’ve got CrossFit’s best and brightest coaches with their best and brightest athletes. We’re challenging these guys,” says Jon Gilson, owner of Again Faster. “We programmed this to expose weaknesses. So they’re competing this weekend. They’re getting coached on technique this weekend.”

Gilson continues: “I wanted to foster team unity, and I wanted to give these guys a chance to prepare for the Games.”

CrossFit New England hosted the Again Faster Team Summit in Natick, Mass., and… Continue Reading

Before a lift, you have all the time in the world to put your athlete in the correct stance. Once the athlete squeezes the bar off the ground, you’re out of the picture and the athlete has to find the receiving position on his or her own.

Ideally, the receiving position is the same every time, which will produce consistent mechanics required for successful lifts. In reality, athletes have trouble landing where they… Continue Reading

On Episode 170 of CrossFit Radio, host Justin Judkins interviewed the second-fittest female in the world, Annie Thorisdottir, as well as CrossFit HQ’s Tony Budding. This episode was webcast live at 6 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, May 4, 2011.

6:25 Annie Thorisdottir, also known as “Iceland Annie,” came on the show to talk about her performance in the Reebok CrossFit Games Open. She explained the strategy behind waiting… Continue Reading

Annie Thorisdottir might be a long way from Iceland, but she doesn’t look out of place at Mike’s Gym in Bonsall, Calif.

In Part 2, the second-place finisher in the 2010 CrossFit Games learns a less-well-known cousin of the Burgener Warm-Up. The “Junk-Yard Dog Warm-Up” is designed to get athletes ready for jumping and landing, which define weightlifting in the simplest terms.

Then it’s on to behind-the-neck snatch-grip… Continue Reading

Annie Thorisdottir might be a long way from Iceland, but she doesn’t look out of place at Mike’s Gym in Bonsall, Calif.

The second-place finisher in the 2010 CrossFit Games is in SoCal to work out with Coach Mike Burgener—and his ever-present dogs. Thorisdottir is an outstanding athlete, so Coach Burgener is only looking to fine-tune her technique on the Olympic lifts.

First, it’s all about nailing foot position with light… Continue Reading

Chad Vaughn, a two-time Olympian and member of Team Again Faster, offers some Olympic-lifting tips to Games competitors at the Again Faster Summit. His athletes include top women in the 2010 Games, such as Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Jessica Pamanian, Michelle Kinney and Heather Bergeron, as well as 2011 Games hopefuls such as Kevin Montoya.

Vaughn’s first concern is the snatch set-up. He widens stances and grips to… Continue Reading

Working his magic on Dave Lipson, Coach Mike Burgener refines the split jerk by breaking down the movement and rebuilding it.

“The goal is to dip and drive that bar overhead in one complete movement with no press-out, no pressing or rebending of the arms,” Burgener says.

In Part 3, Coach Burgener emphasizes the importance of footwork and landing in a shallow lunge.

“When the CrossFit athlete goes into the jerk, the split, hell, they… Continue Reading

Coach Mike Burgener analyzes Josh Everett’s use of the split technique in the snatch and clean and jerk.

One of the original CrossFit stars, Josh Everett is a great athlete who’s especially good at the Olympic lifts. At the CrossFit-USAW Open in Colorado Springs, Colo., Everett was able to showcase his CrossFit talents and his Oly skills on his way to victory in the 85-kilogram class.

Everett uses the split style for… Continue Reading

Working his magic on Dave Lipson, Coach Mike Burgener refines the split jerk by breaking down the movement and rebuilding it.

In Part 2, Burgener points out some common faults with footwork: finishing forward in the lunge and finishing with a straight back leg. He says both of these faults load the lower back and force the athlete to recover forward.

“Ninety percent of all missed lifts in Olympic-style… Continue Reading

Working his magic on Dave Lipson, Coach Mike Burgener refines the split jerk by breaking down the movement and rebuilding it.

In Part 1, footwork is the foundation, and Burgener coaches Lipson through a series of progressions he teaches to CrossFitters who attend his Olympic Lifting Seminars.

To develop the jerk, Burgener starts Lipson in a long lunge. He provides his coaching cues: make sure the front knee is over the ankle… Continue Reading

Join Mikko Salo, the 2009 CrossFit Games champion, on his road trip across America—but this trip isn’t quite the same as the CrossFit Journal’s last Road Trip with Dave Lipson, Rob Orlando and Dave Castro. A man of few words, Salo is rarely distracted from his quest to better his training.

With another day at CrosFit Columbus, home of 2010 Games champion Graham Holmberg, Salo and Holmberg have another chance for a workout… Continue Reading

Coach Mike Burgener explains how to fix the path of the bar with athletes of very different proportions.

Athletes with different proportions look very different on an Oly platform, and each will require individualized coaching to get into optimal positions. Be that as it may, most aspects of good technique stay the same whether an athlete has long femurs or short ones. You still have to finish the pull, and you still have to get… Continue Reading

A tent city and a swarm of CrossFitters guarantees some fun and engaging discussion. Join elite CrossFitters and elite coaches as they come together at the CrossFit Endurance Sports and Fitness Expo in Costa Mesa, Calif.

In Part 1, the Athlete Panel has assembled, including Coach Mike Burgener, Kelly Starrett, Josh Everett, Greg Amundson, Rebecca Voigt and Kristan Clever.

The panelists first discuss the beginning of their CrossFit careers. For… Continue Reading

Coach Mike Burgener explains how Kristan Clever uses athleticism and raw aggression to overcome minor form breaks.

Reigning CrossFit Games champion Kristan Clever began the CrossFit-USAW Open with a miss that sent the barbell rolling off the platform toward the center judge. The SoCal athlete smiled, shrugged it off and went on to nail the 62-kg snatch on her next attempt before hitting 64 kg on her final… Continue Reading

Join HQ trainers E.C. Synkowski and Chris Spealler as they show athletes and coaches how to teach the snatch to a large group.

Synkowski begins the tutorial by showing how she coaches the snatch. She begins with an introduction to the movement, then starts the progressions to the complex Olympic lift. She bases her coaching progression on Coach Mike Burgener’s Warm-Up, but she takes her time to discuss and drill each step.

Synkowski… Continue Reading

Would you trade 2 minutes 38 seconds a day for a few PRs in the snatch or the clean and jerk?

If you would, then you need to start doing the Burgener Warm-Up and the skill-transfer exercises that follow it. The series of movements takes less than three minutes to perform and will help eliminate a host of form errors that can derail your lifts. By drilling the correct movements every… Continue Reading

The big men hit the platform on the last day of the CrossFit-USAW Open under the eyes of Coach Mike Burgener, elite American lifter Kendrick Farris and Tony Budding.

The class included Dave Lipson, a very strong athlete who’s been working with Coach B to improve his Oly technique. In spite of that work, Lipson was nursing an injury and wasn’t 100 percent.

Also on the platform was Spencer Hendel, a two-time… Continue Reading

Coach Mike Burgener breaks down the key points of Chad Vaughn’s lifts at the CrossFit-USAW Open.

Chad Vaughn opened the snatch competition at the CrossFit-USAW Open with 132 kg. He made the weight easily, which isn’t that surprising considering Vaughn is an Olympian who was lifting only days after finishing 20th in the 77-kg class at the World Weightlifting Championships in Antalya, Turkey.

Vaughn went on to put on a… Continue Reading

What’s it like for a CrossFitter to compete in Olympic lifting? For Heather Bergeron of CrossFit New England, the CrossFit-USAW Open was an emotional experience.

“Well, I’m now known as the Comeback Kid,” Bergeron says.

Even under the guidance of Olympic-lifting coach Mike Burgener, Bergeron had a frustrating time with the snatch and did not register a successful lift.

“I honestly don’t know what went wrong,” Bergeron said.

After that harrowing… Continue Reading