Results for “bill starr”

This video series provides a fresh look at skill-transfer exercises and midline stability, combining the powers of Kelly Starrett and gymnast Carl Paoli. Both San Francisco CrossFit coaches add their expertise to refine basic CrossFit movements with the aim of improving power output.

In Part 6, Starrett and Paoli coach the bar dip. They prepare using “The Position,” the same foundational form used for movements from kipping pull-ups to bench press.

Paoli demonstrates getting… Continue Reading

Bill Starr explains how to create a strong, balanced upper body.

There was a time in the not-so-distanct past when everyone who lifted weights possessed wide, powerful shoulders. Bodybuilders were actually strength athletes back in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, and all of them believed wide shoulders added to their physiques. And they were right.

The reason why athletes in a wide variety of sports possessed such imposing shoulders is… Continue Reading

Join HQ trainer Adrian (Boz) Bozman for a peek into the Coaches Prep Course. In this video, Boz discusses programming heavy days and how to design a class around the WOD.

For a heavy day, Boz suggests a specific warm-up to prepare the athletes for the task.

“We want to make sure that we spend some time experiencing that position, experiencing the demands of that movement before the weight is the limiting factor,” he says.

After… Continue Reading

Bill Starr explains a simple way to plan a week’s worth of lifting for maximum gains.

Knowing how to utilize the heavy, light and medium system in your strength program is perhaps one of the most important things you can do to ensure ongoing success.

What the system basically does is prevent overtraining. In the very beginning, it really isn’t all that important. Whenever I… Continue Reading

Bill Starr offers up some drills for blasting past plateaus on your jerk.

In the last two decades, a large number of strength coaches and a smattering of personal trainers came to the conclusion that by inserting a high-skill lift in their athletes’ programs, the athletes became quicker, more coordinated and overall stronger than before. In addition, the newly acquired strength… Continue Reading

Do women require a different approach to strength training? Bill Starr doesn’t think so but offers a few tips for coaching female lifters.

I realize the origin of the idea that females are the weaker sex, but even at a young age, I knew it was false. I grew up in a farming community and observed that women did a great deal more work than the men and often helped with the milking, plowing… Continue Reading

Join Sevan Matossian at Ironwill Strength and Fitness as he shows us a specialized piece of powerlifting equipment for the bench press: the two-ply shirt.

According to Willie Albert, a competitive powerlifter and coach, two-ply powerlifting is an incredibly extreme sport in which a shirt allows skilled lifters to push 200-300 lb. more than they could in a T-shirt. The key word here is “skilled.”

“I’m not saying that… Continue Reading

Training kids is very different than training adults. At the end of the day, we want fitter people, but dealing with young athletes requires a special approach.

In this video shot at CrossFit Brand X, Mikki Martin leads a group of CrossFit Kids through a workout integrating—yes, you guessed it—Lego as a motivational tool. Also part of the workout is game of darts using a Venn diagram filled with movements as… Continue Reading

Want to build serious upper-body strength? Bill Starr says you should be dipping—regularly.

It wasn’t until my third year of training that I came across dip bars, in the weight room at the Wichita Falls, Texas, YMCA. From that day on, dips have been a part of all of my programs for Olympic lifting, powerlifting and strength training in general, and they’re even my current routine in… Continue Reading

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

In Part 2, Synkowski drills position transitions from mid-shin to mid-thigh to the jump, emphasizing that the athlete needs to remain over the bar as long as possible before the jump. She spends plenty of time on the set-up for the first pull and circles up the group to… Continue Reading

Bill Starr explains how you can use your mind to get the most out of your body in the gym or in any athletic endeavor.

Anyone just starting out on a strength program will make progress if he’s consistent, learns good technique, eats right and gets his needed rest. But once he’s been training for some time and knocking on the door of the high-intermediate or advanced levels, progress comes much more slowly. This… Continue Reading

Bill Starr explains how you can use special drills and movements to fine-tune your snatch and break your PR.

Performing a full squat snatch precisely is certainly one of the most satisfying experiences in all of strength training. When everything hits just right, the bar seems to have a mind all its own and floats overhead smoothly, allowing plenty of time for the athlete to move under it and lock it out… Continue Reading

If you don’t warm up or stretch, you aren’t optimizing your performance. Bill Starr explains.

Getting considerably stronger and staying that way is largely a matter of taking care of the details, such as training consistently, designing a program that fits your individual needs, eating wholesome foods, taking nutritional supplements, getting plenty of rest and so forth.

Most serious strength athletes take care of these tasks… Continue Reading

At the recent CrossFit-USAW Open in Colorado Springs, Colo., a host of elite athletes and coaches donned headsets at the broadcast table to break down what was happening on the platform.

During the 94-kg men’s clean and jerk, top American lifters Casey Burgener and Chad Vaughn joined Tony Budding to critique competitors including CrossFit Games athletes Peter Egyed and D.J. Wickham as they contested the clean and jerk.

For complete results, visit… Continue Reading

At a recent certification, Nadia Shatila and Dave Lipson had an opportunity to work one-on-one with Olympic-lifting coach Mike Burgener.

As an HQ trainer, Shatila regularly teaches new CrossFitters the snatch but doesn’t always get the opportunity to work on her own lift. Lipson (215 lb., 6’0”) can move large loads like no other (think deadlift well over 650 lb. and a 335-lb. overhead… Continue Reading

At a recent certification, Nadia Shatila and Dave Lipson had an opportunity to work one-on-one with Olympic-lifting coach Mike Burgener.

As an HQ trainer, Shatila regularly teaches new CrossFitters the snatch but doesn’t always get the opportunity to work on her own lift. Lipson (215 lb., 6’0”) can move large loads like no other (think deadlift well over 650 lb. and a 335-lb. overhead squat), but his best snatch is 220 lb.

In… Continue Reading

From Oct. 1-3, CrossFitters will compete with Olympic lifters in the first CrossFit-USAW Open. What will be the hardest adjustment for CrossFitters at this judged weightlifting meet? The standards.

While CrossFitters are comfortable with the Olympic lifts, judged standards are different from those common in most boxes. To prepare Team CrossFit for the event, USA Weightlifting Team members and national record holders Natalie and Casey… Continue Reading

Knees rolling in on squats and pulls? Bill Starr explains how you can fix the problem by working on your adductors, which will translate to more weight on the bar.

All strength improvement emanates from the center of the body—hips, glutes, upper leg—then radiates upward and downward. Those on a mission to get stronger recognize the importance of leg strength and know the back squat is the very best exercise for… Continue Reading

Have you ever seen kids scooting around in a CrossFit Kids class at your local affiliate? Those children could very well be the next face of USA’s national weightlifting team—or so is the hope of Coach Mike Burgener and the rest of Team CrossFit, a newly organized group of people interested in testing themselves in weightlifting competitions.

Coach B has been around weightlifting and athletics for a long time and has coached many… Continue Reading

In a training session at Eleiko HQ, 1992 Olympics competitor Anders Lindsjö works on the snatch and the clean with a group of athletes.

Lindsjö drills technique with an empty bar and encourages athletes to get a little angry when they jump the bar overhead, much like how Coach Mike Burgener demands a junkyard-dog attitude when pulling a weight.

From there, Lindsjö tells his athletes to add weight without… Continue Reading