They may sound like a baby’s gas attack, but burpees are actually one of the best exercises to combine cardio and strength training. Not only do burpees improve muscle tone, endurance, and overall fitness, but you can do them anywhere, with no equipment required.
Why burpees?
If you ever watch those prison reality shows on television, you may have seen guys doing burpees as part of their “prisoner workout.” You can do them for the same reasons they do, even if you aren’t confined to a square cell. Burpees work the leg, shoulder, back, and arm muscles while getting your heart rate up quickly and metabolism soaring. The result is a stronger, leaner, body and increased cardiovascular fitness. And burpees require nothing other than a few feet of floor space.
How do I do a burpee?
The burpee basically takes the squat, pushup, and vertical jump and mashes them into one monster full-body exercise. For the basic burpee, start in a standing position, feet about shoulder width apart. Bend your knees into a crouch, and place your hands on the floor in front of you. Kick your feet out behind so you into the pushup position. Finally, kick your feet back into the crouch before standing up and finishing with a vertical leap, arms extended overhead. That’s 1. Sound easy? Try building up to 100.
How many burpees should I do?
This depends on your current fitness level, but if you have never tried burpees, you will feel winded very quickly. Practice stringing a set of burpees together faster before adding more reps. You can also do as many as possible in a set time , or add burpees into your current interval routine.
Variety breathes new life into any exercise, and burpees are no exception. Once you have mastered the basics, try adding these to your routine, or even coming up with your own variations.
* Burpees with dumbbells – Performed just like a standard burpee, but while holding a pair of light dumbbells.
* Pull-up burpees – Start underneath a pull-up bar. During the last phase of the burpee, jump up and grab the bar for a pullup before coming down for your next rep.
* Burpee with pushup – When in the pushup position of the burpee, go ahead and do, you guessed it, a pushup.
* “Prisoner” burpee – Keep your feet close together, and swap the pushup for a diamond pushup, pointer fingers and thumbs touching to form a diamond.
* Box jump burpees – Instead of jumping straight up at the end, jump onto a box or step.
* Squat thrusts – Squat thrusts are basically burpees without the jump at the end. Because they are easier to do, they are good alternatives if you are still working up to burpees, or run out of gas before your set is done.
Sources: bodybuilding.com
Bodyweight Training HQ
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