The burpee is a body weight exercise that works the entire body. It combines 3 different movements into one fluid exercise for a heart-pumping and head- spinning workout that builds muscular endurance, explosive power, and improves overall cardiovascular conditioning/aerobic fitness. Great for fat loss. Great when used in a GPP session. Great for recreational fitness when you have no access to a gym. This is also one of those exercises that look easy on paper and video but proves surprisingly challenging when you actually do it yourself.
photo credit: scragz
You're squatting, jumping, and pushing up during a single burpee. You can do a burpee workout anywhere and everywhere. Check out the bodyweight exercise training primer to get a better idea of how you can mix burpees into your current body weight training program. Also, the 100 burpees workout challenge is a routine that's powerful and minimalist (one of the core principles of ProjectPhysique.com) in helping you achieve your fitness and conditioning goals.
Here's a 4-step rundown to performing a burpee:
Check out Ross Enamait of RossTraining.com for a video demonstration here
1) Squat all the way down until hamstrings are touching and pressed against the back of your calves (you'll need some hip flexibility for the squatting portion). Keep your fingers on the floor. Your head and eyes should be looking straight forward or slightly down towards the floor. Relax your back (however don't round or overextend the back or neck). This is the starting position for the movement.
2) Kick your legs back to get into a pushup position with hands/palms on the floor. Make sure the elbows are straight, extended, and fully locked to support the entire body. Again, don’t over-arch the back or flex your neck to look up like a turtle. 
3) Drop down and do a full push up (upper arms should drop down until they're parallel to the floor or past parallel for a deeper range of motion to make the movement more challenging). As you come up, kick your legs back into starting position (step 1). Keep the movement fluid and smooth. The dropdown, kickback, and pushup should be continuous without pausing for more than half a second.
4) From starting position, jump straight up in place as high as you can using your forefoot. Don't just do a lazy hop. Really jump as high as you can (you will do this for each repetition so you can already imagine how tough the workout can be ). While in the air, the arms can be either at your side or raised high for added difficulty. For starters, keep the hands at the sides and over time, you can raise both hands. Land on the forefoot rather than the heel. Immediately as you land, squat down to get into starting position again (step 1). This is one repetition. Now repeat until you complete the desired number of reps.
The easy alternative to a burpee is the burp. If you can't perform a full burpee, then start with the burp. The burp does not require any jumping or pushup motion. Just squat down, thrust legs back into a plank position (starting position for the pushup) and then kick legs back front again to starting position, and stand up. That completes one rep. Drop down and repeat again Over time, you'll be able to do a complete burpee.
Burpee Demonstration
Here's an 8-year old, Owen Isham, doing the 100-burpees challenge at Titan Fitness gym,
Burpees Variations:
- burpees without doing the pushups; you can do a burpee without pressing down for the pushup portion of the movement, simply drop down, kick legs back into the starting pushup position (kick the legs front) and jump up, the form is the same as the regular burpee except for skipping the pushup
- jumping distance burpee; you jump forward with each leap at the end of the movement and continue for desired distance or repetition, do this at your local football park or track field with plenty of distance and space and have a friend or training partner record the distance and time
- burpee with chinup/pullup; do burpees under a bar, on the jump phase grab the bar and do a pullup/chinup, drop down and repeat the movement
- burpee with muscle-up; similar to chinup/pullup except you're combining burpee with the muscle-up movement
- burpee with added resistance; use a weight vest (10-20 lbs would be ideal for most people) or ankle weights for extra loading and resistance to make the exercise harder, this can be tough on the knees, shins, and ankles so do this variation with caution
- wall burpee; both feet are slammed against the wall on the pushup position, the body should face away from the wall
- single pushup burpee; burpee done with a single-arm pushup; extremely challenging but is a good variation for progression if regular burpees become too easy
- burpee with fist pushup; use fist placement for pushup portion
Always remember to use good and proper form for the burpee and any of its variations. Try them today and reap the results.
Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.
If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com
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