Burgener Warm-Up
Why the Burgener Warm-Up?!
Muscle memory! The Burgener Warm-Up is designed to help you become a better Olympic weightlifter by executing 5 different exercises correctly with a PVC pipe or Barbell. That being said, this is NOT an exercise you can just go through the motions on. Executing these exercises correctly with less weight will allow you to become a better weightlifter.
These 5 different movements will drill proper mechanics into your lifts and create good position habits! Our goal is to create muscle memory of the perfect positions and mechanics so that when things speed up in a lift, the proper positions are hit without the athlete overly thinking about it. There are only so many things you can focus on at once, the rest has to happen automatically.
The five different exercises for Burgener Warm-Up are: (1) Down and Up; (2) Elbows High and Outside; (3) Muscle Snatch; (4) Snatch Drops; (5) Snatch Lands. So drill those positions with a PVC or Barbell at the beginning of every session or even more frequently to take your snatch game to the next level!!
Down & Up
The Down and Up is the absolute most important movement of this entire warm-up. This is the movement that will generate all of the power and speed for your lifts.
When executing this movement, make sure your chest stays vertical when you dip, drive off of your heels and keep your arms relaxed. The shrug should not be a forced movement. If your arms are relaxed and you generate power from the ground correctly, your shoulders will shrug naturally.
Elbows High and Outside
The Elbows High and Outside movement ensures that the barbell remains close to your body at all times. The main goal is to make sure your elbows are higher than your hands, not necessarily the height in which your elbows can reach. If your hands in fact get higher than your elbows, then the bar will swing away from your body.
When executing this movement, you begin by perfectly performing the Down and Up, and simply follow with the elbows. The shoulder will lead this movement and the arms will follow. *Remember: this warm up movement is the only time you are allowed to muscle up the bar. When performing a true lift, you will be achieving this Elbows High and Outside position while pulling your body down under the barbell.
Muscle Snatch
Step 3 of the Burgener Warm-Up is the Muscle Snatch. This movement is designed to help an athlete improve their turnover. The turnover starts when an athlete has properly executed the Down and Up followed by Elbows High and Outside, followed by rotating your elbows down and finishing by punching the barbell overhead. Similar to the Elbows High and Outside, this turnover will be happening as the athlete is pulling their body down and under the barbell.
Snatch Drop and Snatch Land
These movements are designed to work on perfecting an athletes footwork. Over 90% of all missed lifts have something to do with improper footwork. It is crucial to learn proper footwork in this warm-up.
You will start with dropping down into your receiving positions, starting with a 2″ drop, then 4″, 6″ and finally all the way down into a full squat/receiving position. Make sure that you feet are landing in your ideal landing/receiving positions on ALL four depths.
Now that you have learned the movements to the Burgener Warm-Up, make sure you are executing each movement correctly before you start loading your bar. Muscle memory will come into play when you start adding on weight. For a more in depth review of this warm-up, hear it from the man himself below.
