Exercise Of The Week: Burpee

photo credit: Run like a Girl

Burpee is an awesome, calorie-burning, strength-building, total body exercise.

Burpee is a total body exercise used in strength training and as an aerobic exercise. It is an ultimate example of functional fitness. With every repetition, you will work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and abs.

Burpee have a reputation for a reason. It is one of the most effective—and very challenging—exercises out there. And many fitness buffs just love to hate it! So should you 😁.

This  sweat-drenching move turns your body into the best piece of workout equipment ever, training virtually all  muscles in your body and raise your your heart rate for awesome calorie-burning, build strength and endurance while also testing your balance and co-ordination.

The variety of movements involved and muscles worked means the benefits of burpee will be manifested in your daily life, as every physical challenge becomes a little bit easier to conquer.
Burpee can be done almost anywhere. You don’t need any equipment, just a shed-load of heart and grit to power through each repetition.


Exercise Data

Skill level: Intermediate

Type: Bodyweight

Equipment: No Equipment

Muscle worked: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, 

Abs, Shoulders, Triceps, Chest, Total Body

 How To Perform Burpee

As with any exercise, the key to getting major fat-blasting results out of burpee is to do them properly. The stardard burpee is a four-point move.Use this guide to learn how to do a burpee, and make the most of the dynamic move.

Here is step-by-step tips on how to do a burpee.

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, weight in your heels, and your arms at your sides.
2. Push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower your body into a squat.
3. Place your hands on the floor directly in front of, and just inside, kick your feet back into a push up position. Shift your weight onto them.
4. Jump your feet back to softly land on the balls of your feet in a plank position. Your body should form a straight line from your head to heels. Be careful not to let your back sag or you butt stick up in the air, as both can keep you from effectively working your core.
5. Bow your chest up, then return your feet back to the squat position as fast as possible
6. Immediately stretch your arms up over  your head and explosively jump up into the air as high as you can.
7. Land and immediately lower back into a squat position. That is one repetition.
8.  Do 10 reps (or more as you build your build your endurance level) for 2-3 rounds.

Click here to watch video demonstration

credit: Joshua Spodek

Variations

Want to mix it up? You're in luck. Burpee is super versatile and can be tailored to any fitness level. To slow the move down and make it a bit easier, move into a plank position by stepping, rather than jumping, your feet behind you; this is called modified or quiet burpee.  Or if you want to crank things and up the ante, add a a pushup as soon as you get in a plank position; this burpee pushup. And you thought the basic burpee is hard. 😜😅

Other variations include: 

Squat thrust

Burpee squat hold

Spiderman Burpee

Burpee tuck jump

Burpee Jack

X or wide legs burpee

Split Burpee

Burpee with alternating knee twist

Burpee + Jumping Jack

Lateral burpee

Burpee with heel tap

Frog hop burpee or burpee 3-count pulsing squat

watch some of the variations here