Understanding Burpee
What is a burpee workout move?
The burpee workout combines a jump, squat, plank, and push-up into one fluid movement.. When executed in the correct sequence and with proper form, this exercise aids in burning calories and fat, enhancing cardiovascular health, and engaging the entire body in a workout.
Burpees are an incredibly efficient workout tool, seamlessly blending cardio and strength training into a highly intense routine. This exercise targets the entire body, engaging muscles from head to toe.
What are the Benefits of Burpees?
Offers a full-body workout
Burpees, classified as a calisthenics exercise, leverage your body weight for resistance. This full-body exercise targets your legs, hips, buttocks, abdomen, arms, chest, and shoulders, aiming to enhance muscle strength and endurance across the entire body.
Improves cardiovascular fitness
How burpees benefits cardiovascular fitness:
- Elevated Heart Rate. Burpees are a high-intensity exercise that quickly elevates your heart rate. The combination of explosive movements like jumping and rapid transitions between positions increases the demand on your cardiovascular system, forcing your heart to pump blood more efficiently.
- Improved Oxygen Consumption. Burpees require sustained effort and increased oxygen consumption to power through the movements. This can improve your body’s ability to utilize oxygen over time, enhancing aerobic capacity and endurance.
- Lowering Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels. Regular cardiovascular exercise like burpees can help lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. By strengthening the heart and improving circulation, burpees contribute to cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of developing related conditions.
Burns calories
On average, most people can do around 20 burpees in one minute. Here’s a table showing how many calories (cals) you can burn by doing burpees continuously for one minute:
| Weight | Calories Burned |
| 125-pound person | 10 |
| 155-pound person | 12.5 |
| 185-pound person | 15 |
Burpees performed at a higher intensity result in burning more calories.
Burns fats
Burpees for weight loss?
Because burpees engage multiple large muscle groups and elevate your heart rate, they are highly effective for burning calories and promoting fat loss. Regularly incorporating burpees into your workout routine can help you maintain or achieve a healthy weight, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and heart disease.
It’s important to note that doing burpees for weight loss is more effective when when incorporated into a regular exercise routine along with a balanced diet.
Builds strength
One of the burpees benefits includes being a fantastic full-body exercise for building strength.
In the lower body, burpees target muscles like the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, improving strength, power, and explosiveness.
Burpees involve push-ups for the upper body. They strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core, improving upper body strength and definition.
The plank position in burpees engages the core, enhancing stability and strength in the abdominals, obliques, and lower back.
Serves as a functional exercise
Burpees are a highly functional exercise that mimics real-life movements, offering benefits beyond strength-building. By engaging multiple muscle groups simultaneously and requiring dynamic movements such as squats, push-ups, jumps, and planks, burpees promote whole-body integration, core stability, agility, and coordination.
The rapid transitions between positions and the explosive nature of the exercise enhance functional strength that directly translates into everyday tasks and sport-specific activities.
How to Do Burpees for Beginners
Set-Up:
Take a shoulder-width stance with your arms down by your sides. Keep your back straight, chin tucked, and chest up.
Execution:
- Place your hands on the floor directly under your shoulders. Kick your feet back and get into a push-up position.
- Lower your body to the floor, then push back up. Quickly bring your knees up to your torso and leap into a bottom squat position.
- Explode up into a vertical jump while reaching your arms overhead.
- Land on bended knees and then squat down to start the next repetition.
Reminders:
- Ensure you pace yourself to prevent a breakdown in form.
- Align your head, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles vertically during the jump.
Tips When Doing Burpees
- Warm Up Properly
Before starting your burpee workout, take the time to warm up your body adequately. Incorporate dynamic stretches or light cardio exercises to increase blood flow to your muscles. This can also prepare your joints for the upcoming activity. Warming up can help reduce your risk of strains or injuries and improve your overall performance during the workout.
- Maintain Proper Alignment
Throughout the exercise, keep your body aligned from head to heels. Avoid rounding your back excessively or overarching, as this can strain your spine and lead to discomfort or injury. Tighten your core muscles to help stabilize your torso and maintain proper form.
- Engage Core Muscles
Actively engage your core muscles throughout the entire burpee movement. This will protect your lower back and enhance overall stability and balance. Keeping your core tight helps you maintain control and proper alignment, especially during the explosive phases of the exercise.
- Land Softly
When transitioning from the jump to the plank position, land softly on the balls of your feet. This reduces the impact on your joints, particularly your knees and ankles. Avoid forcefully slamming your feet onto the ground, as this can increase the risk of injury. Focus on maintaining control and absorbing the landing with your muscles rather than relying solely on momentum.
- Use Full Range of Motion
To maximize the burpee’s effectiveness, ensure that you utilize the full range of motion during each repetition. Bend your elbows and lower your body into the plank position until your chest gently touches the ground. Then, push yourself back up explosively before jumping into the air. When you move through the entire range of motion, you engage multiple muscle groups and challenge strength and endurance.
- Control Breathing
Coordinate your breathing with each phase of the burpee to optimize your performance and maintain a steady rhythm. Inhale as you lower yourself into the plank position, exhale forcefully as you push back up, and inhale again as you jump into the air. Focusing on controlled breathing can help you sustain energy levels during your workout.
- Modify as Needed
Don’t hesitate to modify the burpee exercise to suit your fitness level or accommodate any physical limitations you may have. If you’re new to burpees or find them challenging, start by stepping back into the plank position instead of jumping. You can also eliminate the jump at the end if it’s too demanding on your joints. As you gain strength and confidence, gradually go on to more challenging variations.
- Focus on Quality, Not Quantity
Remember that it’s more important to perform burpees with proper form than to complete many repetitions. Prioritize quality over quantity to ensure you’re targeting the right muscles. Pay attention to your technique throughout each repetition, and if you find your form deteriorating, take a break to reset and refocus before continuing.
- Hydrate and Rest
Stay hydrated before, during, and after your burpee workout to support optimal performance and recovery.
Allows rest and recovery between sets or workouts to prevent overtraining and promote muscle repair and growth. Listen to your body’s signals and adjust your training intensity and frequency accordingly.
Ways to Incorporate Burpees into Your Daily Workout Routine
- Start Slowly
How to do burpees for beginners?
If you’re new to burpees or haven’t done them, ease into it. Begin by incorporating just a few burpees into your routine each day. Start with 5 or 10 repetitions and gradually increase the number as you become more comfortable with the exercise.
- Interval Training
Burpees are perfect for high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Alternate between periods of intense exercise, such as sprinting or jumping rope, and short bursts of burpees. Aim for 30 seconds of burpees, then rest for 1 minute. Repeat for several rounds. This can keep your heart rate up and maximize calorie burn.
- Tabata Style
What is Tabata training?
It is a form of HIIT that involves 20 seconds of intense activity followed by a 10-second rest, repeated for 4 minutes. Incorporate burpees into a Tabata-style workout for a quick and intense sweat session. You’ll be amazed at how effective just four minutes of burpees can be!
- Burpee Circuit
Create a circuit workout that includes a variety of exercises, with burpees as one of the stations. Before going on to the next exercise, complete each one for the set amount of reps or duration. Include strength exercises like squats, push-ups, and lunges to complement the cardio benefits of burpees.
- EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute)
Challenge yourself with an EMOM workout that incorporates burpees. Start a timer and perform a set number of burpees at the beginning of each minute, then use the remaining time to rest. Adjust the number of burpees to match your fitness level to maintain consistency throughout the workout.
- Pyramid Workout
Mix things up with a pyramid-style workout that gradually increases and then decreases the number of burpees. Start with 1 burpee, then add one more repetition each minute until you reach your peak, then work your way back down. This format keeps your body guessing and prevents boredom.
- Burpee Finisher
End your workout on a high note with a burpee finisher. After completing your main workout, challenge yourself to do a set number of burpees as quickly as possible. This will push your limits and leave you feeling accomplished. Plus, it’s a great way to burn any remaining energy and boost your metabolism.
