Why Would You Want To Do A Burpee?
If you’re looking for an exercise that will work your entire body and get your heart rate going, try and do a burpee. This move will help you tone your body and build strength and endurance.
A friend of mine had a dad who was in the military. He picked us up from school one day and we asked him if he’d drop us off at the gym. His answer was we didn’t need to go to the gym ever.
He explained all we had to do was burpees until we passed out. He said it would solve all our physical fitness needs.
Now in retrospect I don’t know if that was the greatest advice. Sure, it was the eighties. Everybody was looking for quick do-it-yourself workouts. I just don’t think doing anything until you pass out is the best idea.
This guy was also a little nuts. In a good way. He was in good shape and to us he was old. So, good shape for an old guy. To be honest, he was in good shape for any age. He was in better shape than us and we were less than half his age.
Respect The Burpee
In any event, this was my introduction to the burpee. As a goofy kid I thought it was some weird ab exercise. It’s not.
The first time I tried to do a burpee I think I did three. The last one was pathetic. I found out very quickly that I was not in good shape. Trying to do a burpee will do that to you.
Even though it was tough to do more than a few at first, I didn’t get discouraged. It’s easy to get discouraged trying to do a burpee. They are tough to do one after the other.
Once you get going with burpees you’ll see how good they can be for you. I would go so far as to say including burpees regularly in your workouts is a good exercise habit.
Nowadays I incorporate burpees into my warm up block of exercises, doing as many as I can in thirty second increments. You’re whole body gets in on it, you’re heart gets going and you should develop a good sweat. It gets your energy up and feels like the best time to exercise.
The burpees are great because depending on your technique, it is like incorporating jumping rope, push ups and mountain climbers all in a single exercise. Maybe that military dad wasn’t so crazy after all. Nope, he was crazy. Take it from me, he was certifiable. (By the way. These also help strengthen your calves. Little known fact.)
How To Do A Burpee… Because You’re Crazy
So if after reading this you still want to try to do a burpee, here is the basic technique:
Start standing straight up with your feet shoulder length apart and your arms relaxed at your sides.
Reach your arms up over your head as you jump straight up into the air. Do it all in one motion. As you come back down, bend your knees so that you come all the way down into a squat, putting your hands flat palms down in front of you.
From this position, kick your legs straight out behind you while holding yourself up with your arms straight and back straight into a plank position.
Then, without moving your hands, bend your knees back up towards your chest until both feet are flat on the floor under you again and then, stand up.
If you did all that you just completed ONE burpee. Congratulations. Now try and do another before you take a nap.
Turns Out Crazy Is A Good Thing
I found a good video from Fitness Magazine showing proper technique to do a burpee. It also includes a couple variations on the movement to incorporate other muscle groups.
When I do a burpee I like to incorporate a push up as demonstrated in the video. It’s a little exhausting but it works well with my warm up block. Remember my warm up block? Of course not. We’ll get to it.
To be honest, that military dad was right. If you can do a bunch of burpees in a single session, that is a killer workout all by itself.
Also, if you’re looking for something to burn calories and strengthen your core, alternate between a set of burpees and another abdominal exercise like reverse crunches. This should give you some strong abs before you know it.
This is the adventure known as burpees. For me it has been brutal but worth it. In the beginning I could hardly do any. Stick with these and I think you’ll find a lot of your other exercises will become more enjoyable and enable you to push yourself to the next level of physical fitness.
For some great ideas about how to incorporate burpees into your exercise routine, check out these amazing related articles:
Best At Home Workout Routine For Beginners To Start Today
A Great Beginner Workout To Burn Fat and Strengthen Your Abs
