Cody

Preparing for an Olympic Lifting Session Written by Cody Burgener As you all know, the Olympic lifts are the greatest exercises in the history of humankind. They require strength, power, speed, flexibility, coordination, and just about anything else you could ever want to develop as an athlete. The Olympic lifts also require performance from virtually every muscle in your body. Preparing those muscles for performing the Olympic lifts well is essential. I don’t want you wasting an hour trying to prepare every muscle group though, so let’s hone in on a few important areas that every lifter should incorporate into

Better Accessories for Your Jerk Written by Cody Burgener Let’s talk about your jerk.  You know, the movement that is supposed to be the cherry on top of your beautiful new PR clean.  You don’t want to be one of those people that tells me, “well, I cleaned xxx lbs, but I missed the jerk.”  That should never happen!  The jerk should be the easy part.  But for many beginning lifters, the jerk can be frustrating and difficult. One of the reasons many beginning lifters struggle with the jerk is that they fail to consistently place their feet in the

How Do You Choose Your Accessory Lifts? Written by Cody Burgener Nobody is perfect. Everyone has weaknesses and room for improvement. When it comes to the Olympic lifts, there is always one weakness that sets you back from making personal records. So the question I’m asking is, “how do you go about improving upon that weakness?” For example, one common problem that lifters have is receiving the barbell in the bottom of the snatch. They will often attempt to remedy this by training more overhead squats to strengthen their overhead position. Is this the best way to approach it? Overhead