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The burpee workout is pretty much the ultimate bodyweight exercise one can do, in my opinion. And it’s one of those exercises we love to hate, and hate to love! But damn do they work.
It’s funny that the burpee has been around for so long, yet it’s something I only started doing regularly about 4 years ago.
My dad always used to speak about how they did burpees at school and in the military, but as a young adult growing up I kind of dismissed them.
I believed all muscle and fitness was built in the gym, using machines and weights, and that there’s no place on Earth for a bodyweight exercise.
Cut to 2014 when I embarked on a few years of travel and work around Europe and Asia, and I was officially introduced to burpees!
Whilst travelling and working odd jobs, getting a gym membership was aways out of the question. So I had to try and figure out ways to stay fit, in shape and strong.
All without any gym equipment.
This lead me to doing a lot of research about bodyweight exercises and workouts, and naturally the burpee was always top of the list.
The One Exercise Men Need To Try: The Burpee Workout
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Doing burpees has many fitness benefits.
It is the ultimate bodyweight exercise to do, and if you just do 10 in a row, you’ll being be sucking for air!
The Benefits Of Burpees
A burpee isn’t just a cardio exercise, nor is it one which just builds muscle.
It’s the complete combination, hence why it’s so popular amongst military organizations, sports team, cross fitters, and in school gym classes.
Below are just a few benefits that come from doing burpees:
Increased strength. Burpees are a full body workout, and work a variety of upper and lower body muscles. Fitness and strength go hand in hand, so doing burpees is the perfect combination. Just always start off slow with burpees, then gradually increase your reps.
Functional fitness. An exercise such as the burpee will actually increase your functional fitness, thus helping you perform better in your everyday life. Walking, lifting things, going up stairs etc become a lot easier.
Burns fat. Because burpees are so intense, you will most likely burn more fat doing an exercise like this one compared to any other. And at the same time, your cardio will increase a lot too!
It’s free & portable. This is probably my favorite benefit that comes along with burpees: they are free! No need to head to a gym or buy any sort of fitness equipment. You can literally do burpees in your underwear at home if you please.
How To Do A Burpee
The image above shows you the basic positions of a burpee, and the red areas on the body are the muscles that are being worked.
Make sure you do a burpee correctly before going on to do many reps, as it’s very important to get the technique right.
One thing that happens quite easily is we can sink our back a bit too much when in the push up position, and this can lead to back pains.
To perform a basic burpee, just follow these steps:
- Crouch on the floor in a squat position with your hands in front of you
- Kick you legs back to get in the push up position
- Return your feet to the squat position
- Jump up as high as possible
Below’s a quick video illustrating how to do a burpee.
You’ll notice the video adds a push up to each burpee, which is how I like to do them.
Feel free to leave the push up out if it’s too much for you to handle.
The Best Burpee Workout Routines
Burpees alone are already such a hectic workout that you don’t even need to add any other exercises.
There are so many variations you can do when incorporating burpees to your workout schedule.
Below I have put together a few quick burpee workouts you can try.
Some are strictly just burpees, whilst others include one or two other bodyweight exercises.
Workout #1
The 100 burpee challenge.
This one is simple, yet a real burner!
You simply do 100 burpees, and that’s that.
I find I can usually get the first 20 out the way quickly, then I break down the remaining 80 reps into sets of 10 reps.
Depends how I feel!
Workout #2
A ladder workout including push ups and squats.
Do 10 burpees, 10 squats and 10 push ups.
Rest for 1 minute then do 9 burpees, 9 squats and 9 push ups.
Continue doing this until you reach 1 rep of each exercise.
Workout #3
The last workout provides a great cardio workout combined with some strength training.
Start off with 10 burpees, 25 push ups, 10 squats and 50 jumping jacks.
Rest 1 minute and repeat a further 4 times, doing a total of 5 sets.
Conclusion
If burpees aren’t part of your life yet, then you should consider implementing them into your weekly workut routine!
They really are the one bodyweight exercise that trumps all others.
You’ll get fit, lose weight and get strong!
Try out a few of these burpee workout routines, but make sure your technique is good.
Cheers,
Richard