Burpees: everyone’s favorite exercise to hate. But they are just so darn good for us.
So, what exactly is a burpee? It is essentially a push up to a squat to a vertical jump. Fun stuff.
Here is how to do a basic burpee:
- Lower down into a squat position and place your hands on the ground in front of you
- Kick your feet back into the push up position and lower your body to the floor
- Raise your body back up and return your feet back to the squat position as quickly as possible
- Immediately jump up as high as you can
Watch this video to learn more.
So, why exactly are burpees so good for us? If you are familiar with burpees you know that they are not easy. They work your entire body and get your heart racing, which is exactly why they are so great to do.
Here are the primary benefits:
- Full body strength workout, working upper body, lower body, and core
- Quickly raises heart rate
- High intensity exercise, helping to increase anaerobic capacity
- Scorches calories
- No equipment needed
- Able to do anywhere and add in any workout
Awesome, right? So many great benefits. Let’s do burpees every day!
Just kidding. It is important to switch things up and not do the same thing day after day. So maybe, let’s do burpees… every three days?
As mentioned in the benefits, you can add burpees to pretty much any workout. #convenient. Let’s spruce up a regular ole 3-mile run by adding in 125 burpees. Ok? OK!
Here’s what we’ll do:
For the .25 mile run sections, push your speed a little bit since they are fairly short intervals. Then bring down the speed a little bit during the .5 mile sections. You’ll need your energy for the set of 24 burpees. Also take a 10-30 second rest after each set of burpees. Catch your breath and get ready for another round.
I will warn you, this is not easy. But man, it is a gooooood.
I did this on Friday afternoon and it was definitely one of those workouts where I needed a mantra running through my head to keep me going. A mantra that I frequently use is “Don’t cheat yourself.” If I am going to spend time in the gym, I might as well make it all worth it. It really helps. Like, a lot.
I did this in my condo building gym on the treadmill, but you could easily do it outside so you can get some color (wear sunscreen though) and Vitamin D.
Let me know if you try it out! Happy Tuesday!