Sage Burgener is a wellknown Olympic weightlifting coach carrying on the legacy of her father, Mike Burgener, a coach of more than 50 years including many in the CrossFit space.

While she has several lofty goals such as running a 100mile race and building her own legacy, one goal supersedes them all.

“To show up for myself in this life and to show up for my kids in a way that helps them navigate through life — that’s my goal,” Sage says.

A mother of two, Sage’s approach to parenting empowers her kids to be good people, speak their minds, be respectful, and stay in shape, says Sage’s mom, Leslie Burgener.

“I really hope that my kids want to continue on the Burgener legacy,” Sage says. “They fight me every day on working out, but once they do a workout, they buy into it.”

Sage’s upbringing influences her parenting. As a child, she’d frequently watch her dad coach athletes in their garage affiliate, CrossFit Mike’s Gym. Although she doesn’t remember formally learning the Olympic lifts, Sage absorbed the experience and it stuck with her into adulthood.

“I remember the day my dad told me, ‘Wow, you have a really good eye,’” Sage says. “He never complimented me unless I really deserved it, and so when he told me I had a good eye, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a good eye with this stuff?’”

From there, her passion for coaching grew. Experiencing the impact her dad left on her and others inspired her to help people the way he did.

“I have experienced firsthand someone believing in me, and then seeing what that did for me and how it kind of changed the trajectory of my life, how it changed my confidence, my selfesteem,” Sage says.

While continuing her dad’s legacy, Sage is also creating her own with Bad Bitch Camp, a threeday fitness retreat where women train with Sage at CrossFit Mike’s Gym. She hopes to empower women to love themselves and lead with confidence.

“I believe to be a strong woman, you just have to be secure in what you're presenting and you have to believe in what you're presenting, and that's gonna come out in being confident in who you are,” she says. “If you're confident in who you are and what you have to say, people will listen … and we absolutely need those women to show up in this industry.”

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"The CrossFit Coach” is a sixpart series that highlights the impact CrossFit coaches have in the lives of the people they train, from those who have never walked into a gym to professional athletes in sports of all kinds. The best CrossFit coaches are those who can pair their unparalleled fitness expertise with an equal level of care about each person’s goals. They are continuously learning and seeking out ways to refine their craft and reach new people with the magic of CrossFit. These are a few of their stories.

   • The CrossFit Coach: Scott Panchik  
   • From Team Athlete to Career CrossFit ...  
   • The CrossFit Coach: Sage and the Burg...  
   • How Voiceover Artist John Calvert Bat...  
   • The CrossFit Coach: Adrian Conway Has...  
   • The CrossFit Coach: Cristina Anderson  

Chapters
0:00 Sage Burgener's goal as a mom
1:07 Growing up Burgener
6:18 Making an impact
7:43 The Bad B*tch Camp
9:55 A 100mile race
11:30 Falling in love with running
13:42 Becoming stronger with CrossFit
14:10 Continuing the Burgener legacy
15:02 Being a "bad b*tch"

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CrossFit is the world’s leading platform for improving health and performance. In the 20 years since its founding, CrossFit has grown from a garage gym in Santa Cruz, California, into the world’s most effective program for improving health and performance through nutrition and exercise. CrossFit is the world’s leading provider of accredited performancebased training courses and certifications and has more than 125,000 credentialed coaches across the world. The program can be modified to welcome people of all ages and abilities and millions of people have already experienced CrossFit’s transformational benefits in more than 13,000 affiliated gyms across 158 countries. CrossFit also directs the CrossFit Games season, beginning with the annual CrossFit Open, through which athletes at every level compete worldwide, and culminating in the CrossFit Games, where top athletes compete for the title of Fittest on Earth®.

Learn more about CrossFit → https://www.crossfit.com/whatiscros...

Find a CrossFit gym near you → https://www.crossfit.com/map?utm_sour...

Find CrossFit Courses near you → https://www.crossfit.com/coursesnear...

View CrossFit workouts → https://www.crossfit.com/workout?utm_...

Learn more about the CrossFit Games → https://cf.games/gameslearnmore

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