Originally called the “squat thrust,” the modern burpee was utilized as early as World War II as a method of determining the fitness levels of enlisted troops. If you’ve ever seen burpees performed in a CrossFit class or done a burpee-heavy workout yourself, you know that they are one of the most grueling movements you can perform without using weights. Fortunately, the benefits can be just as potent. In this article, we’ll go through everything you need to know about the burpee.
How To Do Burpees
Unlike other calisthenic movements that can be highly technical, the burpee is a fairly simplistic maneuver. Combining a push-up and jump squat can engage almost every muscle in the body to some degree. Let’s break the technique down one step at a time.
Equipment Needed: All you’ll need to start doing burpees is your own body and some space to work. You may consider using an exercise mat as well.
- Step 1 — From a standing position, descend into a crouch/squat. As you get low enough, plant your arms in front of you. Once you have stable contact with the ground, kick your legs out behind so you end up in a straight-arm plank position.
- Step 2 — From the straight-arm plank position, take a breath, brace your core, and lower your torso to the floor like you would for a standard push-up.
- Step 3 — As you press your body off the floor, “jump” your legs back underneath your body and release your grip, such that you return to the crouching position you began with. In one fluid motion, drive upwards with the legs and perform a small vertical jump.
Coach’s Tip: Be sure to perform burpees somewhere stable and flat — avoid working on surfaces that wobble or compress. Contrary to what you may hear, intentionally exercising on unstable surfaces or with equipment designed to challenge your balance may not improve muscular control or stability. (1)
Burpee Variations
When it comes to variation, the inherent minimalism of the burpee means it isn’t the most customizable movement out there. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make some quick adjustments to make it easier or harder. Try out a few of these burpee variations:
Burpee to Stand
[Read More: 11 Burpee Variations for Next-Level Muscle Conditioning and Strength]
Why Do It: If you’re new to burpees or high-intensity interval training generally, there’s no shame in toning down the difficulty. The burpee can be easily scaled down by omitting the vertical jump at the top and simply standing up from the squat portion. This will reduce stress on the knees and hips while still providing some work for the leg musculature.
Equipment Needed: There’s no special equipment required for this variation.
- Clear some space and drop into a plank position on the floor.
- Descend into a push-up. If you can’t do a push-up yet, you can rest your knees on the ground for support.
- As you complete the push-up, pop your feet under your torso and then stand up.
Box Jump Burpee
[Read More: Renegade Row with Push Up/Burpee: Movement Tips and Uses]
Why Do It: A quick way to scale up the challenge of the burpee is jumping to a box instead of straight up into the air. By adding a minimum height threshold to the jump squat, you can increase more than the difficulty. Incorporating plyo work alongside regular training has augmented speed, coordination, and even muscular strength. (3)
Equipment Needed: You’ll need some open space and a plyo box for this variation.
- Set a plyo box on the ground in front of you.
- Get down into a plank position, then perform a standard push-up.
- As you extend your arms, shoot your legs forward and get yourself into a deep squat position.
- From here, jump and forward and land firmly on the box.
Weighted Burpee
Why Do It: If you’re truly into punishment, wearing a weight vest during burpees will dramatically increase the difficulty. The added resistance will slow you down as you attempt to move through different planes of motion, taxing your muscles to a higher degree rapidly.
Equipment Needed: The safest way to add weight to your burpees is to wear a weighted vest.
- Perform a standard burpee by going from a push-up to a squat to a vertical jump.
- Accommodate for the extra weight by monitoring your form and pacing yourself until you adjust to the added resistance.
Burpee Alternatives
If you’re intimidated by the burpee or have a personal vendetta against the exercise after seeing them in one too many WODs, but still want to reap some of the burpee benefits it affords, you can look to other movements that provide a comparable stimulus.
Thruster
[Read More: From Jumping Jacks to Burpees: The Origins Behind 7 Common Exercise Names]
Why Do It: If you want to get in a full-body workout that won’t leave you wheezing, consider trying thrusters. The barbell thruster works many of the same muscle groups while also being loadable, making it great for packing on muscle.
Equipment Needed: You’ll need a barbell and some plates to perform thrusters. If you’re doing them from the floor and performing a clean or power clean, you’ll also need bumper plates.
- Stand upright with your feet in your preferred squat stance while holding the bar across your shoulders in the front rack position.
- Descend into a deep squat.
- As you bounce out of the bottom, continue pushing into the floor with your legs while you stand up.
- As you come to a standing position, keep pushing and use the momentum to fling the bar off your shoulders without relying on your arms.
- As the bar passes your head, engage your arms to press it out overhead.
Sled Push
[Read More: Tired of Air Squats, Burpees, and Lunges on Repeat?]
Why Do It: At a glance, the sled push might seem like it strays too far to be a sufficient replacement for the burpee. It does lose massive points for convenience, but a good round of sled pushing will provide similar benefits, particularly full-body muscle engagement.
Equipment Needed: You’ll need to have access to a weight sled and some turf to do this one.
- Load up a weight sled with some plates and face it down an unobstructed line of turf.
- Grasp the pillars of the sled with each arm and lock your elbows.
- Get into a split-stance position with one leg straight back behind you; think of forming a straight line from your back ankle through your shoulders.
- Use your front leg to push against the ground and get the sled moving.
- Push the sled with your legs without relying on your upper body, keeping your arms locked the whole way.
Who Should Do Burpees
The beauty of the burpee is that anyone can do it, even rank beginners, if it is taught and supervised properly. There are more scalable exercises out there if you’re worried the burpee might be too easy or too hard, but the odds are that you’ll get something out of the exercise if you put the work in.
Athletes on the Go
Staying in shape while traveling can be hard, especially if you don’t have easy access to something like a hotel gym. Fortunately, you can do burpees basically anywhere (as long as your ceilings aren’t too low!). This makes them a great option if you want to get a quick cardio session while also ensuring you hold on to your hard-earned muscle.
CrossFit Enthusiasts (or Masochists)
Burpees were first included in CrossFit way back in 2004 but have become a staple in boxes since — as well as being included in the Open or Games almost every year for the last decade. This comes as no surprise since the burpee is the ideal tool for packing in a dense amount of work in a short amount of time. This obviously earns the burpee a bit of a nefarious reputation with CrossFitters, some even ranking it among the dreaded assault bike or muscle-up. If you’re a CrossFit loyalist, you probably have a love-hate relationship with the burpee.
Powerlifters, Weightlifters, & Strength Athletes
It’s no secret that many people get into the iron game precisely because they hate doing cardio. While that is an understandable notion, even dedicated strength athletes shouldn’t neglect cardiovascular training. A low-impact option like swimming is probably best for full-time strength athletes, but not everyone has easy access to a pool — or even a treadmill — in their warehouse gym.
[Read More: How Mr. Royal H. Burpee Invented the Most Despised Movement in Fitness]
Burpees offer unparalleled convenience for anyone who understands the importance of getting a good sweat in and can be tacked on to the end of a weight-centric workout with ease.
Burpee Sets & Reps
One of the major draws of the burpee is its versatility. It can be tuned up or down at will according to your needs or goals, making it a valuable inclusion into a workout program.
- For General Fitness: Perform 3-4 sets without a timed interval or repetition target. Listen to your body and stop just before your technique starts to degrade.
- For CrossFit: Try 1 set of AMRAP burpees, and then 3 subsequent sets of half your AMRAP number with one minutes’ rest in-between.
- For Strength & Power: Perform 3-5 sets of burpees on a moderate interval (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off) 2-3 times per week at the end of your workout.
[Read More: 4 Awesome Cardio Finishers for Your Next Strength Workout]
Burpees Benefits
Even though calisthenic movements won’t always build strength like a heavy deadlift or grow muscle like a brutal arm exercise, the burpee affords some unique perks to supplement your overall training.
Convenient Cardio
The simple, equipment-free setup and inherent customizability of the burpee make it a great option for getting your cardio in. If you want to use burpees as a warm up, you can take them nice and slow until you feel ready for your main workout.
[Read More: The 12 Best Bodyweight Cardio Exercises You Should Be Doing]
If you need to get a good sweat in on your lunch break, performing burpees in timed intervals will leave you drenched. The ability to easily turn the difficulty dial-up or down helps the burpee stand out from other bodyweight exercises.
Full-Body Stimulus
Push-ups are great for getting a chest pump, and the air squat remains a go-to in group classes and CrossFit. By combining two multi-joint movements and adding a ballistic element, the burpee helps you engage almost all major muscle groups at once.
Fits In Anywhere
While you can alter the burpee to your liking to become the centerpiece of your training, it can also serve as a modifier to other workouts. It is common to see burpees woven between heavier movements in CrossFit WODs as a devilishly effective way of cranking up the intensity. As long as you don’t go too hard, burpees can have a place before, after, or between almost any other exercise.
Burpees Muscles Worked
No single movement will adequately target every muscle in the body at once, but the burpee comes close without being clumsy or time-consuming. If your primary goal is growing new muscle, calisthenics usually won’t work as a main course, but that doesn’t mean a few sets of burpees aren’t a good appetizer. These are the muscles worked by burpees, in order:
Core
Most bodyweight exercises make for a killer ab workout, and while the burpee isn’t as challenging as a front lever or dragon flag, it can still stimulate your core effectively if you perform it well. Forcefully tucking the legs back under the torso roughly mimics a hollow body position, engaging the lower abs and hip flexors, while the obliques and rectus abdominis (aka your six-pack muscles) work overtime to keep your spine stable while you press yourself up.
Chest & Shoulders
It is common knowledge that the push-up is a fantastic exercise for the chest, shoulders, and triceps, so dedicating one-half of the burpee to that movement will obviously reap the same benefits. While push-ups themselves are still better for muscle hypertrophy and strength, burpees are a decent stimulus in their own right.
Quads & Glutes
Many people head right to the squat rack when they want to grow their legs. They’re right to do so, but sleeping on the burpee as a lower-body finisher is a mistake. The dynamic power output required to launch the body into the air from an ass-to-grass squat position is more than enough to fry your quads, hamstrings, and glutes.
Heart
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t neglect cardio — the heart is a muscle too. While any exercise can have heart-related benefits, research suggests that a combination of resistance training and aerobics is best for reducing long-term health risks. (2)
Common Burpee Mistakes
The burpee exercise may be a bodyweight move, but that doesn’t mean you have an excuse to slack off or be lazy about your technique. Steer clear of these common mistakes next time you go to perform some burpees
Lower Back Sagging
The first part of the burpee is a plank, and the second part is a push-up. During both stages of the movement, strive to ensure you properly brace your core and keep your spine in a neutral position. Don’t allow your lower back to dip or sag along the way.
Jumping Too High
If you’ve got hops, fair play, but the burpee isn’t a vertical jump test. When you ascend from the squatting position into a vertical jump, don’t obsess over leaping as high as you can. You’ll waste energy and may risk taking a nasty fall. You should leave the ground, but don’t try to catch as much air as you can. As long as you fully extend your legs, you’re good.
FAQs
Yes, although they do not adequately train every aspect of fitness. If you’re trying to build a balanced routine, make sure you have all your bases covered. That said, if you’re in need of a single movement that efficiently targets most major muscle groups and will have you breaking a sweat, you can’t go wrong with the burpee.
Yes. The burpee is like any other exercise — it can be dangerous if overdone or performed without attention to technique, but is perfectly safe otherwise. The lack of heavy external load coupled with a relatively low stability demand makes the burpee a good choice for anyone getting started in the gym.
As long as you account for total volume, there’s no reason why you couldn’t perform burpees every single day. Doing so would ensure that your weekly activity level is above bar, but make sure you consider the impact it may have on your resistance training or other cardio sessions.
References
- Lehman G., Gilas D., Patel U. (2008) An unstable support surface does not increase scapulothoracic stabilizing muscle activity during push up and push up plus exercises. Manual Therapy 13(6), 500-506.
- Schroeder, E. C., Franke, W. D., Sharp, R. L., & Lee, D. C. (2019). Comparative effectiveness of aerobic, resistance, and combined training on cardiovascular disease risk factors: A randomized controlled trial. PloS one, 14(1), e0210292.
- Ramirez-Campillo, R., Garcia-Hermoso, A., Moran, J., Chaabene, H., Negra, Y., & Scanlan, A. T. (2020). The effects of plyometric jump training on physical fitness attributes in basketball players: A meta-analysis. Journal of sport and health science, S2095-2546(20)30169-1.
Featured Image: Iryna Inshyna / Shutterstock
