ENTER THE BURPEE

Burpees are a comprehensive full body exercise that is both modular and easily scalable to accommodate any range of fitness levels and individual capabilities. These movements are well-known for their intense ability to challenge your cardiovascular system and push your physical limits within a remarkably short period of time. They evoke a mix of emotions, being simultaneously loved and hated—much like owning a high-performance sports car that delivers exhilarating speed and power but comes with a monthly insurance premium that far exceeds the cost of the car loan itself.

A CUSTOM SANDWICH

Think of the burpee as a custom sandwich of movements. Pick your fillings, keep the bun:

BOTTOM BUN: Squat, rear kick to plank

TOP BUN: Rise or jump back to standing

A burpee without a filler is just called a squat thrust.

FILLERS: Pushup (Multiple or variants), mountain climbers, kick-throughs, scissors, shoulder touches/reaches/punches, jumps (instead of upward squat), crawls (forward, back, left/right), etc.

THE BURPEES DIRTY SECRETS

The burpee is known for its ability to challenge even the most seasoned athletes. It can take your heart from baseline to redline in less than a minute. This is efficiency. The burpee has an uncanny way of testing your agility as well by requiring you to shift positions quickly without skipping good form and while maintaining control. This constant control and plyometric movement are what gives the burpee its punch.

So why do coaches love burpees? This full body pushing exercise allows individuals to get their heart rate up to the zone they need (zones 2, 3, or 4) with the least amount of time or risk to the individual. It evenly distributes the stress throughout the body, and demands a constant control while moving vigorously.

When the burpee is conducted with proper form, the legs, arms, abs, shoulders, chest, hip flexors, calves, all get a good distribution of the load. The better your form, the more you will get from this exercise. Make your transitions seamless and snappy for the most benefit. The burpee is a compound calisthenics exercise that allows you to stack many different other calisthenics exercises in between for the most bang for your buck.

If you are new to burpees and the first one shoots your heart rate high, great. If you are a cardio beast and it takes 20 to get you winded, that is great too. It is not about the number but rather about your adherence to form. It is a test of your ability to keep going even when your brain is screaming that you shouldn’t. This is where the burpee is a secret weapon for special forces-level mental toughness. The exercise won’t kill you, but it will test your ability to keep going.

EFFICIENT HEART & MUSCLE EXERCISE

Maintaining a high heart rate (zone 3+) for a few minutes a day will help strengthen your heart. This is one thing the burpee can give most people without needing to run or use a weight or too much room. You can use the burpee to get a decent cardio training session in. This is a better way to get your cardio in for the day as it uses all the pushing muscles in your body and will keep your muscles preserved.

Runners get string bean legs and chicken arms because they’re basically one dimensional. The burpee fixes that by having you push through the floor with the chest, triceps, shoulders all while firing stabilizers. Over time this keeps the muscle you already have while adding in your cardio endurance and tolerance for applying force over a period of time.

A QUICK REALITY CHECK

Burpees won’t turn you into the Hulk, despite the feeling of being pumped after a few sets of them. You may add some muscle size in the beginning, but it will not generally be enough stimulus to cause any meaningful hypertrophy. Any growth you will see will most likely be in muscles that are generally neglected or respond better to an explosive stimulus or time under tension. Burpees will give you functional strength, work capacity, and even strength endurance, if you are consistently explosive. This is a compound bodyweight conditioning exercise, but it is not a Swiss Army Knife.

MODULAR AND SCALABLE

Burpees are one of the few exercises that can be done by almost anyone, and anyone can get benefits from doing them. No special gear is required, no gym or age requirement. If you can get down to the floor, you can get back up again, you can do a burpee. It is not that difficult to start and don’t feel like you need to be some super burpee champion the first time you try out burpees. Just focus on form and do the best you can and enjoy the benefits that it offers.

BEGINNER

If you follow the sandwich analogy, a basic burpee (squat thrust) is like having two slices of bread with nothing in between. It will still give you nutrition, but it won’t be much compared to if you put some cheese and meat in between. If your conditioning levels are relatively high, you can stack a good amount in between the buns and get a hearty little stack.

NOVICE

For a more traditional exercise, the 6-count burpee is a good start. It involves squatting down, thrusting into the plank and doing a proper pushup (chest touching the ground) before thrusting your feet forward before jumping explosively in the air. This can be done smoothly with a slight pause between movements while you get used to the transitions, and then you can eliminate the pauses and make the entire chain of movements like one solid movement. This is like your grilled cheese of burpees; classic and timeless.

VETERAN

If you are looking for a little more meat on the sandwich, you could add the 8-count bodybuilder pushups, which simply adds in spreading your feet apart after the pushup. This may not sound like a lot, but it works your Adductors and Abductors, which just adds to the long list of muscles taxed by the burpee. Think about what it takes to work those tiny muscles. They are often neglected, and it doesn’t take much to get them a stimulus. Also, you are spending more time in the plank and having to stabilize your midsection while you pop your feet apart and then back together. Just this little addition can make a big difference.

EXPERT

For a real meaty sandwich, I recommend my version of the burpee kick-through. In this exercise, you do a pushup, but then you rotate your hips and kick your left foot out to the right as far as you can without taking your hands off the ground, reaching as if to kick something. Then you do another pushup and do the same with the right foot. Finally, you do one more pushup and complete the burpee with a jump. This exercise is really meaty and it includes one of the most neglected planes of motion; the transverse plane. This adds in a lot of core stability, and obviously triples the load applied to your chest and arms. Remember that this exercise requires a vigorous rotation, so don’t try to keep your hips static and just cross your legs.

MY ANECDOTAL EXPERIENCE

I used to absolutely hate burpees, but I could not deny the fact that they were very good at conditioning the body to handle compound movement over time without getting gassed out. I started out being able to do five or six before getting gassed. I decided to make burpees one of my primary exercises when I quit smoking (Yes, I used to smoke Marlboro 27s and unfiltered Lucky Strikes and unfiltered Camels).

When I started trying to condition myself, I set out to make a daily habit of moving as often as possible in as many ways as possible. The burpee allowed the most bang for my buck because I could get winded real quick with them. I would do five perfect 6-count burpees right away when I woke up until they were easy. I would do them every chance I got throughout the day, and try to get over 50 in a day.

After just 2 weeks, I was doing 10 with relative ease and my performance in other areas improved as well. I was better at running and it didn’t feel like I was going to have a heart attack while running for long durations. I also found myself able to recover from being winded a lot faster too.

The burpee was not the only exercise I did, but it was one of my favorite exercises to use as a filler and something to throw in when I had time and I didn’t know what to put in. Did pullups, then did burpees right away. Did sandbag presses, then did burpees right away. Did burpees and then ran an agility course. I like to use burpees whenever I want to get my heart rate high in order to test my firearm skills.

WRAPUP

Nobody is asking you to become a burpee machine overnight; I certainly am not a burpee machine. I stand behind this exercise because I have seen firsthand the kind of conditioning it can provide in just 2 weeks. It is efficient and its status as one of the most feared exercises should make you want to conquer it. It is a challenge you can do without a membership and at y our own pace. You can hold a steady zone 2 heart rate or redline it and see what you are capable of. The only thing you need to do is decide the speed and get after it.