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PUBLISHERNorCal Strength & ConditioningPO Box 5501Chico, CA 95927www.crosstnorcal.com

COVERNicki Violetti

BACKISSUESBackissues are available at www.crosstnorcal.com

THE PERFORMANCE MENUis published monthly and distrib-uted exclusively to subscribers by NorCal Strength & Condition-ing. Yearly subscriptions can be purchased for $25.00. Visit www.crosstnorcal.com for more in-formation.

All content copyright NorCal Strength & Conditioning and its respective authors. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited by law.

FEATURES

4 Yay Burpees! An interview with Coach Mike Burgener

9 Get Carried AwayA sneak peak at the rst training DVD in the upcoming series by Coach Dan John

REGULARS

12 Recipes for Health & Performance New ways to feed yourself for optimum health and athletic performance

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 3

YAY BURPEES!An Interview with Coach Mike Burgenerby Robb Wolf

This month we have the honor of an in-terview with world-renowned Olympic Weightlifting coach, Mike Burgener. Those of you who know Coach B know that any-thing written by or about him should be ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME!!! This is because he is SO FREAKING PASSIONATE ABOUT THE OLYMPIC LIFTS!! Well, our design department nixed the ALL CAPS for the interview, but I want readers to know the boundless energy, knowledge and excite-ment that burns in this man. If you watch him coach, see his excitement, and do not want to become an Olympic lifter, you do not have a pulse.

If you have not checked out Coach Bs site, you need to at www.mikesgym.org. Read the articles and look at the sequences he has picked out as exemplifying good pulling technique in the Olympic lifts. Once you have done that, get a broomstick, dowel or piece of PVC, and practice The Warm-up.

Read the interview, compete in the Olympic lifts, and make this man proud!

Would you give our readers some back-ground on yourself? What are some of the athletic achievements of which you are most proud? When and how did you get in-volved in Olympic weightlifting?

I grew up in southern Illinois. Marion, Il-linois, to be exact. My dad was a dairy man, my mom a beautician. I have two sisters who still reside in the Midwest. I played football at Notre Dame and was a defensive back under Ara Parseghian, who brought Notre Dame back to prominence in 1964.

My strength coach, Fr. BHB Lange, was an Olympic lifting coach who taught me the lifts, and I competed in the off season.

When you begin coaching a newbie in the Olympic lifts, how important are overall conditioning and athleticism?

Overall conditioning and athleticism are very important to be a high-caliber Olympic weightlifter. Having said that, everyone can have loads of fun training the lifts and par-ticipating in contests at the local and even national levels.

How do you gauge the attributes you nd desirable for success in the Olympic lifts and what are some ways you address pos-sible weaknesses in these areas?

Flexibility is the number one attribute that I look at when identifying a potential athlete. I also look at size: long levers and shorts limbs are ideal to be successful at a high school level. However, I have seen many motivated men and women who have big hearts and lots of motivation that do not have those attributes but have been successful. There really is not much that I can do about so-motyping, but we can address weaknesses of individuals with certain exercises to en-hance the strength in various positions.

Coach, you teach the Russian style of pull-ing in the O-lifts; tell our readers a little about this style and why you like it.

I like the Russian style of the pull because of its vertical position. I have found that when we are pulling in the straight up and down position, we can put more momentum on the bar. Also, the Russian pull is what most kids in the USA identify with, i.e. the verti-cal jump. I have found it easier to teach us-

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 4

ing this system because of our youth know-ing how to vertical jump. When I can get them to jump with a barbell in their hands, putting momentum and elevation on that barbell, then learning to pull their bodies under the barbell, the light goes on and they become addicted to the sport.

What are some other styles that are effec-tive on the international level?

The Bulgarian style is more of a horizon-tal thrust if you will a big arc or a C-pull. Many Olympic champions, the pocket Her-cules, use this style and have been very suc-cessful.

Do you see any benets or short-comings of these styles relative to the Russian style?

I choose to teach the lifts with the Russian style because of the ease with which the kids learn them.

You have included things like The Patch and kettlebells in the training of your ath-letes for some time. This seems to y in the face of conventional wisdom. What do you feel these tools bring to your athletes?

Functional strength, core strength, core sta-bilization. It is amazing to see the athletes be-come much more functionally strong when doing the patch, kettlebells and CrossFit. What I am after is better Olympic weight-lifters, and using these modalities has made my lifters stronger and more powerful.

When did you rst hear about CrossFit?

In February 2004.

Did you expect it to take such a prominent role in your coaching?

I was not sure. I started reading about what Greg and Lauren were doing and the fact that the military and special forces and se-cret service were using it. I was intrigued to say the least. Lets just say I am a good

learner, so I was open to the CrossFit family and how it could make me a better coach.

Would you share with us some of your suc-cesses using this combined approach?

I use CrossFit daily in my teaching of physi-cal education. Josh Everett, a CrossFit mad man, uses CrossFit and the Olympic lifts to better his lifting. My son Cody and my daughter Sage are both athletes and lifters who use CrossFit to aid their performance.

You are the Strength and Conditioning Coach at Rancho Buena Vista High School. Could you tell us about your experiences with CrossFit and the Olympic lifts at the high school level?

My nal exam is the snatch, clean & jerk, back squat, front squat, and ten kettle-bell exercises. Now I am adding a CrossFit workout to that nal. The students will be allowed to choose between Angie, Grace, Helen or Fran for their nals. We will have a minimum standard for the students to per-form to pass.

Please ll us in on your desire to bring CrossFit to high schools everywhere.

Its a no-brainer: CrossFit brings us back to the hardcore, physically t lifestyle that we used to haveback in the day. It does not take much money, its easy to administer, and the kids will love it. Believe it or not, kids want to be worked hard. Kids want to be in shape. They may not know it initially, but I have found that the harder I work the kids, the better they like it. Putting the la-dies names on the board and the kids names on the board that accomplish the workout has done amazing things within my weight room. Braggin rights are abundant!

Do you modify how the O-lifts are per-formed if you are training people for sports besides the Olympic lifts?

Not really. I may not use a full clean or a full

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 5

Visit Coach Burgeners newly remodeled website for abundant resources such as train-ing programs and articles, a question & answer forum, workouts, and photo galleries.

www.mikesgym.org

snatch if I see a potential problem with ex-ibility, but I will always work toward getting that full range of motion.

Coach, the Olympic lifts are not popular in the US. What can we do to change that?

Get them into the schools: high school, mid-dle school, and elementary school. Getting

back to the tness age, i.e. getting our kids t again and introducing them to all kinds of activities other than football, basket-ball, baseball and track. There are many sports and tness activities that everyone can perform. That is why I like CrossFit: it is written across the board and everyone can do the workouts scaled down, sure, but everyone can do them!

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 6

GET CARRIED AWAYA Peek at Carried Away, the First DVD in the Upcoming Series by Coach Dan John

Carried Away is the rst of what is to be a series of DVDs by the big man himself, Dan John. If you have not checked out Dans website, make haste and go there now. In addition to his newsletter, GETUP!!!, he has some of the best writing available in the ar-eas of Olympic lifting and throwing.

Back to Carried Away. Get ready for a jour-

Every grunt knows that rucking 100 lbs. makes men. The problem is it builds toughness, but destroys the body through overuse. Not any more. Dan Johns Carried Away ingeniously spreads the load throughout the body and makes it resilient. Dan will make a man out of youwithout crip-pling you in the processoutdoors, with simple and inexpensive implements, even at a school on a tight budget or in a deployed military unit. I highly recommend Carried Away to the military, law enforcement and athletes from contact sports.

Pavel Tsatsouline, author of The Russian Kettlebell Challenge

ney into the 3rd dimension of strength train-ing. You may be humbled, you may lose your lunch, but you will get strong in ways you never thought possible, and you will have The Coach, Dan John, to guide you through the process. You wont be alone, however. Dan, in his innite kindness, has brought along Judy and the BFR 2000. You will be great friends in no time!

Carried Away will be available soon at www.crosstnorcal.com

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 7

RECIPES FOR PERFORMANCEWhat about snacks? This is perhaps our most frequent question and it is a bugger. Snacks tend to imply shelf life, portability, ease of both storage and consumption, and, if at all possible, high marks for YUM factor. It is little wonder that Zone bars and simi-lar items hold a prevalent place for busy people. Unfortunately, quality DOES count, especially over the long haul, so reasonable alternatives to soy nuggets wrapped in sugar seem prudent.

Performance snacking has one real prob-lem: Protein. Fruit will cover the carbs, nuts ll in the fat blocks, but how does one take chicken breast to the beach or munch it in the car without wearing most of it? Then there is that issue of spoilage. I have only had food poisoning once after eating at a well known steak house in San Luis Obispo with the Glassmans (thanks again guys!), but

once was plenty good for me. This month we have snack options that are nutrient dense, tasty and Paleo friendly.

In addition to snacks, we present to you this month some ideas for enjoying the beauty, avor, nutrition and fun of summer dining. Each season has its own unique offerings and summer plays host to a stunning pro-fusion of fruits and vegetables. Break out of the supermarket rut and nd your local farmers market. This will put the best pro-duce available on your plate while putting money in the pockets of local family owned farms.

USA UK Australia Canada

So sit back, relax and enjoy our Summer Snack Extravaganza!

Jerky

Every culture on earth appears to have a dried meat recipe. From the Inuit of the Arctic to the Ache of Peru to the !Kung of Africa, lean meats have been dried for later use. The economics of food procurement for our ancestors necessitated the sharing of food for a variety of reasons, in-cluding social bonding (you may be feeding your neighbor today, but they may very well be feed-ing you tomorrow) and the efcient distribution of resources. It was far better to share food and ensure that none went bad than to allow excessive stockpiling and eventual spoilage. Dried meat t into this scenario beautifully as it allowed for easy sharing and distribution while extending the ben-ets of a successful hunt for weeks or even months depending upon the drying methods and relative moisture of the air.

Fast forward to today. Every convenience store and supermarket offers some form of dried meat. In a pinch, this may be a good option, but mod-ern meat products have some characteristics that are at odds with health, performance and longev-ity: high fructose corn syrup, wheat-infused soy sauce, and far too much salt. These items cause problems with insulin levels, can cause GI irrita-tion and dramatically increase the net renal acid load. These additives do however increase avor options and, in the case of salt, decrease the rate of spoilage. What to do? We are presenting a recipe that allows you to alter the ingredients as neces-sary while keeping avor, nutritional value and food safety in mind.

We recommend buying a food dehydrator as they

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 8

allow for large batches to be made and are a bit easier to monitor than the oven method.

Meat selection is all-important. You want very lean meat with little or no visible fat. London broil and rump roast are excellent cuts to use. These leaner cuts can be a bit tough for standard meat dishes, but they make excellent jerky and tend to be the best bargains for the price conscious mod-ern forager. A great time saving technique is to ask the butcher to cut the meat into 1/8-1/4 strips. If you tell them you are making jerky, and they know what they are doing, they will cut the meat against the grain, which makes for a tender nal product. Even the larger supermarkets will do this for you if you ask. If you cannot get the meat cut for you, freeze the meat partially and then cut into strips. This will simplify your task of keeping the strips thin and consistent. Once the meat is in strips trim away any visible fat. Time to marinate!

As mentioned previously, most commercial variet-ies of jerky contain soy sauce, added salt and other questionable items. You can add them to this mari-nade if you like as we are offering a salt free alter-native. In addition to avoring, the marinade helps to kill or slow the growth of potentially pathogenic organisms. All those who dislike food poisoning raise their hands OK, great, lets move on. The base of our marinade is lemon juice. This will im-part a tangy avor to the jerky and the low pH will curtail bacterial growth AND tenderize the meat. Holy multi-tasking marinade, Batman!

A potential marinade for 1lb. (400g) meat:

. 4 tbsp lemon/lime juice

. Minced garlic

. Minced ginger

. Hot pepper

. Black pepper

This recipe is purposefully vague; experiment and use avors you like.

Marinate meat in the above sauce for at least 1 hour. Drain in a colander and place on dehydrator trays. Do not overlap the meat and turn once while drying. Dry at 145 degrees for 8-10 hours. If one is using an oven, hang the meat on oven racks with no overlapping. Try to distribute the meat as evenly as possible and place any noticeably larger pieces near the heat source. Turn the oven on to its low-est setting with the door propped open 3-4. This allows for an internal environment fairly similar to that of the dehydrator: 140-160*F and constant air circulation. The jerky is ready when it bends like a willow without breaking. Keep in mind that drying times vary widely depending upon ambient moisture, thickness of the meat, etc. Keep track of both your methods and results to modify future batches. Store in the refrigerator. If you are gur-ing out Zone blocks, jerky is about four times as nutrient dense as meat, so a quarter ounce is ap-proximately 1 block of protein.

Pemmican

With a good amount of jerky on hand, the opportunity for pemmican has arrived. Pem-mican is the original power bar and consist-ed of rendered fat, ground dried meat, nuts, seeds and dried berries. Choking back bile at the thought of a fat bar? Dont! Pemmican prepared with coconut oil is surprisingly light and the wily addition of nuts, seeds and a bit of dried fruit make pemmican a contender against any mass-produced snack food.

Start with dried meat that is ground ne-ly. A food processor works great for this, although I have used a blender. A good amount of dried meat to start with is one half pound (200g). This is a good time to consider what type of container to use. A mufn pan works pretty well, especially if you are tracking Zone blocks. A small glass pie dish works also. Once the meat has been ground, you will need to add this to either the mufn pan or pie dish. Keep the amount

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 9

of meat consistent if you are using the muf-n pan. You can now add nuts, seeds and a very small amount of dried fruit. Dried rai-sins, cranberries and blue berries work great for this but remember dried fruit is a highly concentrated carb source and can be easily over done. Wilderness Family Naturals is a great resource for freeze dried fruit.

So you now have meat, nuts and a bit of fruit, all you need is some coconut oil to hold things together. You can nd good quality coconut oil online or at better health food stores and co-ops.

A note on coconut since we have a couple of coconut containing recipes this month: Some people like Prof. Loren Cordain feel that coconut has a prole of saturated fats that COULD be problematic with regards to LDL cholesterol levels. The people selling coconut oil paint a picture of nearly super-natural powers from our hairy and well-pro-tected friend. So, whats the deal? I think the LDL/saturated fat issue is of particular importance if one is facing a hyperinsulin-emic state. Epidemiological studies of cul-tures with high coconut and palm oil con-sumption show remarkable cardiovascular health until rened carbs hit the scene. If one is active and eating Paleo/Zone diet there should be no problem, but I do want to make it clear this is a complex question with many variables and no easy denitive

answer.

You will now melt the coconut oil and pour it over the meat/nuts/fruit just covering the dry ingredients. Allow the pemmican to cool in the fridge. If you are using the muf-n pan method the pemmican wafers will come out easily and can be individually stored in wax paper or in mass using a jar or other glass container. If you are using the pie pan method you can cut the pemmican into pie wedges and store as described above.

Zone blocks

This can be a bit of a challenge! One lb. (440 g) of raw meat makes ~4oz. (110g) of jerky and both are equivilent to 16 blocks of protein. In the recipe provided we have ~32 blocks of protein. If we divided that even-ly into 8 portions with the mufn pan that would be 4 blocks of protein per mufn. It is fairly easy to add 4 blocks of dried fruit per mufn but one must pay attention to the amount of nuts added to each mufn and coconut oil weighs in at 1 fat block per 1/3 tsp. If one is at 5x on fat blocks that means about 1 Tbs. of coconut oil per mufn and that may not be enough to make the pem-mican stick together. I have experimented with this a lot and found it difcult to keep the fat blocks within 5x. Maybe you will have better luck!

Pomi Really Quick Ceviche

Its Italian for Tomato! (OK, its really pomodoro, but Pomi is easier to say)

We wanted to run recipes with Pomi for our premiere issue, but the Pomi supply was dicey due to a strike of Italian tomato pick-ers (so said the Trader Joes guy), so we had to wait until the sup-ply looked stable. We bought two

cases on our last TJ foray just to make sure our own supply was secure, and it looks like all is well in Italia now, so we intro-duce to you Pomi, the best little tomato product in the world.

Our favorite Pomi product is the marinara sauce that comes in the easy open box. The other Pomi products such as stewed

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 10

tomatoes and tomato sauce are great and we highly recommend you check them out, but we think you will agree the marinara sauce is the most versatile and delicious of the Pomi products. Why is Pomi so good? In a word: quality. Excellent tomatoes and sim-ple ingredients make the thought of compar-ing Pomi to other sauces like a comparison of CrossFit and jazzercise just dont do it.

In accord with our snack issue theme we present to you the Pomi Really Quick Cevi-che!

To a bowl add cooked seafood such as shrimp, scallops etc. Many supermarkets offer a cooked frozen mix or you can make your own. Add a bit of red onion, cilantro, and lemon juice to taste. Cover with 1 cup of chilled pomi. For a creamy consistency, blend the above recipe. If one is in a serious

hurry, Trader Joes Wild Alaskan Salmon or a can of tuna will work.

This quick ceviche can be made in advance and stored in individual to-go containers.

Zone blocks

Each cup serving of Pomi contains 1 block of carbs and 2 blocks of fat. One need only to start with the desired amount of protein and add Pomi, some additional fat blocks in the form of olive oil, and a piece of fruit to round out the carbs.

4 block meal at 5x fat:. 4 oz seafood mix. 2 cup pomi. 1 tsp. lemon juice. 1 Tbsp. Olive oil. Seasonal fruit

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

. 1 can coconut milk

. 2 cups fresh fruit

. 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

This is an easy recipe that can be used to satisfy your hankering for a cool and refresh-

ing dessert. We especially love using fresh strawberries, blueberries and peaches.

Simply place all ingredients in a blender and puree. Pour into dessert cups (coffee cups work equally well) and put in the freezer for about 1 hour or until it has chilled to an ice cream-like consistency. Enjoy!

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 11

The Best Salsa Recipe

. 2-3 large tomatoes (or about 4-5 Roma to-matoes)

. red onion, diced

. yellow onion, diced

. 3 green onions, nely chopped

. 4 cloves of garlic

. 1 can El Pato sauce (bring on The Duck!)

. Handful of cilantro, chopped

We bring this salsa to BBQs and din-ner parties and its always a hit. We sometimes add a Serrano pepper and a jalapeno to the mix, and if you re-ally like spicy food you may want to try that. The El Pato has a fairly good kick to it already, so when we make this to share with others, we usually

leave the extra peppers out.

Chop all ingredients fairly small to ensure a good consistency. This can be done in a food processor if you have one. After chop-ping all ingredients (mince the garlic), place in a bowl. Add the El Pato, stir, and garnish with a few extra sprigs of cilantro.

Makes about 6 cups; you may want to double the recipe if bring-ing it to a gather-ing.

Zone blocks

One cup of salsa is one block of carbo-hydrate.

Summer Salads Take Off With Rocket!

Where greens and lettuce are concerned, arugula, or rocket as it is known in the UK and Australia, ranks high. It has superb avor, with slightly peppery undertones and a hint of anise. In Italy you can order rucola as a pizza topping; you are served a pizza with a base of tomato sauce and cheese completely covered in greens (non Paleo of course, but illustrative of arugulas many uses).

Everyone knows how to get creative with a salad. Start with a base of lettuce and greens and go crazy with the other ingredients. Adding nuts and seeds and fresh fruit is just the beginning. Just root around in the fridge and see what you can put together!

To prepare arugula for a salad, dunk it in a bowl of cold water, then drain. Repeat sev-eral times until the water is clean. Then pat it dry or spin in a salad spinner.

One of a zillion tasty combinations:

. Arugula

. Red leaf lettuce

. Yellow bell pepper

. Sliced strawberries

. Chopped walnuts

. Olive oil for dressing

Look for arugula at your farmers market!

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ISSUE 5 JUNE 2005 12

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