The burpee is a full body body-weight exercise. Burpee was created by American physiologist Royal H. Burpee who used it as part of his Ph.D. thesis. It was to serve as a quick way to assess fitness, especially agility, coordination and strength.
Burpees are a great way to warm up before actual training. They also serve as an effective workout to burn fat and build strength. However, they can still serve as a good way to build muscle, especially if done using a lot of variations to make it harder and ultimately more interesting. Some of these variations will be discussed later in this article.
How to do burpees in five steps
- Start in a standing position
- Move into a squatting position and place your palm facing the ground
- Swiftly move your lower body backward in a way that you are now in a flat or plank position, like you’re prostrating or getting ready to do push-ups.
- Swiftly bring your body back to the squatting position
- Go back into a standing position.
Variations of burpees
- JUMP UP BURPEE– here, the athlete jumps as high as possible after the last movement, before starting a new burpee.
- BOX-JUMP BURPEE– this is done by jumping onto a box or an elevated platform, rather than jumping straight up and down.
- LONG-JUMP BURPEE- the athlete jumps forward instead of upwards.
- JUMP OVER BURPEE– this is done by jumping over obstacles after each burpee.
- BURPEE PUSH-UP– the athlete performs one or more push-ups after assuming the plank position.
- DUMBBELL BURPEE– the athlete does the exercise while holding a pair of dumbbells.
- PULL-UP OR MUSCLE UP BURPEE- the athlete combines the jump at the end of the burpee with a pull-up or muscle up.
- ONE-ARMED BURPEE– the athlete uses one arm for the whole exercise.
You can also figure out more varieties on your own after you’re able to do the regular burpees comfortably. All these variety are to make the exercise a little harder for you so that you can reap more rewards from your workout!!! So, always aim to get creative while doing this exercise.
Now that you know how to do burpees, you should try doing one now!!