CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting w/ Coach Mike Burgener – Ottawa
October 12, 2009
This past weekend I attended the CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Certification with Coach Mike Burgener. The cert was hosted by CrossFit Ottawa, and held at the local Notre Dame High School. Unfortunately the weekend got off to a rough start as one of the instructors, former Olympian Fred Lowe, was denied entry into Canada. The sport of Olympic Weightlifting in this country still suffers from a lack of exposure and the thought that someone would come to Canada just to instruct it for the weekend seemed rather foreign to the border officers. Our own Pierre Auge stepped up to fill the void for the smaller breakout sessions, joining Matt DeMinico, Debbie Hudson, and Melissa Cvjeticanin.
The weekend was full of great instruction on technique and progressions for training the elusive snatch and clean & jerk. I picked up plenty of great coaching cues and “drills to develop the skills” that I believe will help me teach the lifts to a greater variety of groups and individuals.
Myself, Coach Mike Burgener, and Janine Daigle (CrossFit Bathurst) at the CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Cert in Ottawa
Coach B joked that he was going to take me back to California with him, along with a few others. He was impressed with my size, as short people with my lever lengths do have an advantage in this sport! Then there was Janine, who was given a lot of “tough love”, all in good fun though.
We also had Hani Kanama of Toronto Weightlifting on hand to show off some of his equipment, most notably the weightlifting shoes that he’s developed. The majority of the lifters in our club are using them now. Many of the weekend’s participants quickly discovered how much of a difference a good pair of weightlifting shoes with a solid raised heel makes regarding overall stability and positioning.
A few personalities emerged over the weekend, kettlebell trainer “The Iron Angel”, who exhibited some great flexibility, and David, who made the trip from Iqaluit, Nunavut. At 64 years young, he is just one year older than Coach B. David was then affectionately referred to as “Dad” by Coach B, and showed that you’re never too old to learn new tricks and have fun.
Overall, Coach B. is an engaging instructor and commands an attentive audience. There’s nothing like having strong “motivational consequences” to ensure everyone’s paying attention. YAY BURPEES!*
*You’ll have to go and find out yourself what this means!
October 12, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I love the crossfit website, and have been trying to incorporate elements of crossfit into my own routines. I’m limited by available equipment at the moment, but doing my best with bodyweight exercises and dumbells. Check out my latest workouts and see what you think – perhaps you could give me some pointers (remember, I’m currently limited to a set of adjustable dumbell weights – although free gym membership is only a month away for me – sadly though, it’ll be a new-age health club type gym!).
October 12, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Hi Jonny, with the addition of a set of gymnastic rings to your dumbbells (provided they’re heavy enough), you’d be able to do a fair amount of the CrossFit workouts with a few substitutions. Some resources you might want to check out are Coach Rut’s dumbbell workouts, gymnasticbodies.com (once you get some rings), and Shane Skowron’s Bodyweight Resource under the CrossFit Forums Workout of the Day section. However, if you’re now looking to put on some muscle, it’s hard to match heavy barbell squats and deadlifts. When going through CrossFit metcon workouts, remember to scale not just loads, but reps as well to your ability. I’d like to see the majority of the WODs be short and intense, and kept in the 3-15 minute time domain.
October 12, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Thanks for the advice – I’ll have access to barbells when I get my gym membership in a month’s time, so I’ll soon be able to get onto the barbell squats, deadlifts, cleans, etc (can’t wait!).
They definitely won’t have gymnastic rings though
(and I’d like to master the ‘muscle-up’ – is that what it’s called??). I wonder how I could make a cheap, but useable, set of rings (I don’t think the rafters in my garage are strong enough). I’ll have a think about that one.
I think a kettlebell could be my next purchase.
October 14, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Coach B offered to train you in California and you’re still in the frozen wastelands of Canada? Those vibrams might be cutting off circulation to your brain!
October 14, 2009 at 8:49 pm
No, I think it’s the stench killing off the brain cells! I’d love to get down there to train, do a little affiliate tour, but it’s getting the time and money together to do it right.
April 8, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Good attempt at 110 at the Ontario Seniors