The Burgener Warm-Up

Stance – Grip – Position. Stance – Grip – Position.  These are the three things Coach Mike Burgener looks at in the athletes he trains in Oly lifting. The Burgener Warm-up, which consists of  six different sequences that are important for learning to perform the Olympic lifts, help train the body to perfect those three things.

When was the last time you did the Burgener Warm-up? If your Olympic lifting form needs a refresher, the following article and video by Mike Burgener are a must see/read. Repetition of these six sequences with little or no weight conditions the body to move properly through the power phases of the snatch and the clean and jerk

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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 shoulders don’t come up to bring the bar higher. The shoulders come up to lead you where? Under,” Burgener notes.

Second is elbows high and outside for keeping the bar close.

“You never want that bar to be outside the area of the base,” Burgener explains. “If it goes outside the area of the base, it’s away from my body. I don’t have any control.”

Third is the muscle snatch for developing the turnover.

“You’re really not pressin’ the bar up. What are you pressing down? You,” Burgener says.

In the fourth movement, athletes practice footwork as they increase the depth of the receiving position with the bar overhead, and finally athletes drop all the way down with the PVC pipe overhead to simulate getting under a heavy snatch.

“You always receive the bar where the bar is,” Burgener emphasizes. “You go to the bar.”

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(Source: CrossFit HQ, Mike Burgener)