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:
- Squat and put your hands on the floor
- Kick your feet back into a plank
- Do a pushup
- Quickly bring your feet to their previous position
- Stand quickly or jump
- Repeat
Doing these are challenging enough, but we are going to amp up the challenge. Try it as an 8 Count Bodybuilder:
- Squat and put your hands on the floor
- Kick your feet back into a plank
- Bounce lightly and spread your feet to at least shoulders width
- Bounce lightly and bring your feet together
- Do a pushup (this is considered two movements, the negative stroke and the positive)
- Quickly bring your feet to their previous position
- Stand quickly or jump
- 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:
- Squat and put your hands on the floor
- Kick your feet back into a plank
- Do a pushup
- Bring your right knee towards your left elbow
- Do a pushup
- Bring your left knee towards your right elbow
- Do a pushup
- Quickly bring your feet to their previous position
- Stand quickly and complete three squats
- 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.
