Why Burpees?

 I’ve recently posted a Burpee workout routine and some variations to work on. The question I want to look at is why. Why Burpees?

Burpees are a High Intensity Functional Traing (HIFT) technique that is a nearly full body plyometric exercise. 

What this means, in short, is that it’s pushing your cardio to maximal or near maximal levels for the duration of the exercise. It is as effective as box jumps for lower body training as box jumps, but without the box. Less equipment is great. 

This exercise will torch body fat. You’re employing almost all of your muscles to complete this event. I add pull-ups and chin-ups to finish that card out. Think about it, Burpees are using at least two thirds of your major muscle groups in the squatting, planking, pushing movements. This movement, or series of movements, works the chest, shoulders, triceps, core, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. Adding pulling movements is simple logic. In ten, fifteen, twenty minutes or so all major muscle groups have been stressed as well as the supporting muscles. 

It is plain to see how through consistent training in these will torch body fat over a few weeks. Pushing your cardio at near maximal levels will also increase your overall aerobic capacity. 

These are intense movements. If you do not have access to a running track you can substitute one minute of Burpees for a 400 meter run. I bring in running as an illustration and a comparison. Moderate intensity jogging can be performed for a far greater time interval than Burpees. Due to this time factor jogging can and will burn more fat during the event; however, due to post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) your body continues to burn fat at an accelerated rate as compared to jogging. 

30 minutes of Burpees will burn more fat and tighten your waist line faster than jogging. Time constraints are real for many people. At the beginning of a routine based on Burpees you cannot expect to get one every 10-15 seconds. Not could a beginner expect to go out and jog for 30-45 minutes and not gas out and walk from time to time. My point here is to start, stick with it, and your capacity will increase. In a few weeks of regular training you will find that you have gone from doing three or four Burpees at the start to 10 or 20 before having to pause to catch your breath. 

In conclusion, Burpees are hard training but with fast results. You will lose body fat and gain both physical and cardio capabilities. 

Before you start doing these cold talk to your physician first. Make sure that you are medically ready to begin a fitness plan. 

Train hard. Train happy.

Burpees Revisited

 It may be odd to enjoy Burpees, yet we exist. There are many of us who enjoy the mental and physical challenge of these exercises. In this piece we will look at Burpees and consider the calories burnt per cycle or rep. I will also present you a challenge to make Burpees more difficult and add a sort of drop set mentality to them. 

First, how many calories burned per Burpee? The precise answer will vary based upon your body weight and current fitness level. If you have not done these before talk to your doctor before beginning an exercise program. Now, calories burned at 150 pounds body weight is about .5-1 calorie per full cycle. Online information shows that a 125 pound person will burn approximately 8 calories for 20 Burpees. Doing your Burpees faster will burn more calories per rep. Also, us heavier people will burn more calories per rep than the 125 or 150 pound person.

That does not take into consideration the post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Due to this being a high intensity interval training (HIIT) tool you can comfortably know that your caloric consumption for the next 24 hours has increased. This is good stuff. 

The Basic Exercise 

A Burpee, if you haven’t done them, is a series of connected movements that will use almost your entire muscular system. A basic Burpee goes as follows:

1. Squat and put your hands on the floor
2. Kick your feet back into a plank
3. Do a pushup
4. Quickly bring your feet to their previous position
5. Stand quickly or jump
6. Repeat

Doing these are challenging enough, but we are going to amp up the challenge. Try it as an 8 Count Bodybuilder:

1. Squat and put your hands on the floor
2. Kick your feet back into a plank
3. Bounce lightly and spread your feet to at least shoulders width
4. Bounce lightly and bring your feet together
5. Do a pushup (this is considered two movements, the negative stroke and the positive)
6. Quickly bring your feet to their previous position
7. Stand quickly or jump
8. Repeat

But, wait! There’s more! Now that you’ve done some Burpees and a few 8 Count Bodybuilders, try this, the SEAL Burpee as I’ve seen it:

1. Squat and put your hands on the floor
2. Kick your feet back into a plank
3. Do a pushup
4. Bring your right knee towards your left elbow
5. Do a pushup
6. Bring your left knee towards your right elbow
7. Do a pushup
8. Quickly bring your feet to their previous position
9. Stand quickly and complete three squats
10. Repeat

We can add pullups and chinups, which is something I do. For every pushup I do one pullup or chinup. The math is simple on the first two examples it’s a one to one ratio. Well, even in the third one it’s a one to one ratio for push and pull. It just gets difficult doing math after a few reps. 

Say you do ten of the third example, the SEAL Burpees, you still do three chinups or pullups per pushup. Each one of these requires three pulling exercises. If, like me, you cannot perform that many pullups and chinups cheat. Cheating on reps is permissible under the Weider Principles. You can hop or jump up to get to the top position of the pullup. You then hold it for as long as you can or ten seconds, whichever is longer. Then lower yourself to the bottom slowly. This is accentuating the negatives. 

Cheat reps and negatives will quickly build your strength up to where you’re cranking out the reps. Using exercise bands is also an option. 

Bonus Suggestion 

To put these into a drop set sequence you start with the SEAL Burpees to failure. Then, continue with the 8 Count variation. Finish with the standard Burpee.