Burpees: Curing Softies

If breastmilk is nature's perfect food then perhaps the burpee is nature's perfect exercise. Burpees are great for a couple of reasons they build strength, coordination, and conditioning. But best of all is that burpees can be done anywhere, anytime with no equipment. Burpees can be added to any workout and no matter your goal you can always use a few more burpees.


Named after a WWI vet named Royal Burpee, the burpee became one of the most popular exercises in the armed services. Initially it was designed as part of a battery of tests to assess a recruit's fitness. The military loves no frills training and lining up recruits and making them do pushups, situps, burpees, jumping jacks in a field somewhere is right up their alley. If you get a chance read this Popular Science article from 1944 that talks not only about the burpee but actually lays out a workout they used to do. (I like how the Popular Science article called the soldiers 'softies', couldn't imagine that today, even though we are 100x softer then that generation)

Another nice thing about burpees is there are a lot of different variations. The basic burpee is a four count exercise.  (1) Squat down with hands on the ground, (2) kick legs out straight, assuming a push up position, (3) return feet to squat position and (4) Stand straight up. That counts as one rep. The most common variations is to add a jump on the fourth and final count and/or add a pushup at the second count right after you get in the pushup position. As always start slow and start with the basic burpee without the jump, adding the variations as you get more comfortable.

Here's some popular burpee workouts out there.

• 100 Burpee Challenge: Day 1 do 1 burpee, day 2 do 2 burpees, day 3 do 3 burpees......until you reach 100.

• Set a timer for 15 minutes. Do the prescribed number of burpees each minute. Focus on good form and use your leftover time to rest.

          Level 1: 6 burpees/min, total 90 burpees
          Level 2: 10 burpees/min, total 150 burpees
          Level 3: 15 burpees/min, total 225 burpees

• Set a timer for 7 minutes. Do as many burpees as you can without resting. Try to beat your record every time. (This is a CrossFit staple)

• Pyramid workout: Complete 10 reps, rest, 9 reps, rest, then 8 reps until you reach 1 rep. You can either work your way back up to 10 or call that good. Also good to pair with another exercise like pushups, squats, lunges, or V ups. So 10 burpees followed by 10 V ups, then 9 burpees followed by 9 V ups; the possibilities are almost endless.