The Beast

Burgener Warm up

5 Overhead squats

1 minute in bottom of squat position

1 minute in pidgeon, left leg

1 minute in pidgeon, right leg

1 minute 11052.

Your OH Squat is key!

In my first few years of mining the Main Site and CF Journal and comments sections, the only man I listened to as much as Coach Glassman was Coach Burgener.  He was (and still is) the man for the Oly Lifts.  Every video of his, I watched and studied, watched and studied, watched and studied.  What he pointed out, I memorized.  Every nuance and technicality he noticed and got pissed about, I saw through his eyes.

But for every time he taught technique, he never failed to metion (either verbally or non verbally) the point of Aggression.

  One thing I remember is:  Good technique with no aggression is a missed lift.  But okay technique with aggression is three green lights (three green lights from three different judges being a successful lift in competition.

)  Though he didn’t actually say the word in every video, there was no mistaking the demeanor, the command, and the ferocity in his coaching that emphasized the fact that you’ve got to F#CKING GO FOR IT when you’re attempting a heavy Oly lift.  Assuming you’ve learned the technique, and you’re looking at the bar, you will not make the lift unless you STOP THINKING ABOUT IT AND COMMIT.

Here is one of my favorite videos on heavy snatches, watching the athletes in his gym go for PRs, sometimes making it, sometimes missing spectacularly, and of all athletic levels.  It’s worth noting that the background song is not the same as it was when it first posted so many years ago, which was ‘Trial of Champions’ by Three Inches of Blood.  One of the reasons it was SO FREAKING COOL is because it got you pumped up, the clips were synced with parts of the song, and the lyrics were about an enslaved gladiator fighting his way out of the arena, eventually taking the life of the Emperor, while people are doing heavy snatches!  Thusly, I recommend playing the original song at a very high volume while watching the muted video at the same time.  Your snatches will be better for it.

  Lyrics available upon request.

Yeah, that just happened.