Burpees: They Get the People Goin!

Burpees! They get the people going! Ok ok... I don’t know about them getting the people going but they get my heart rate going for sure! Initially I had planned on this being my Monday post, however I obviously couldn’t get it together yesterday…  You see my relationship with Monday morning is very similar to that of the ongoing relationship which I maintain with something called the Burpee… If you are unfamiliar with this exercise take a look at my 6 Steps to a Burpee drawing below.

1.Start in standing position and then begin to sit down into a squat.

2. From the squat place your hands onto the floor.

3. Kick your feet behind you and get into pushup position.

4. Lower your chest to the ground & then push yourself up into full push-up position. 

5. Jump your feet back up twoards your hands.

6. Jump back up to standing, and dont forget hands over your head!

Repeat!

If you still don’t understand (which is likely) than I have included a great video as well as some additional explanations to help you.

This video is the best i have found!

Make sure your chest hits the floor!

Easy as A B C! ha!

The name of this exercise is not pretty and neither is how I look while doing them… but what is pretty are the results. The Burpee is truly the ultimate full-body exercise, as this seemingly simple movement poses to challenge a wide range of  muscles! From your chest, to your arms, your thighs, your hamstrings and even your abs! And since exercise is a lifestyle choice I swear by, but the burpee isn’t a movement Im in love with, I have decided to revamp my relationship with the burpee by creating a list: Reasons Why I "Love" Burpees! 

How could I possibly have a rough relationship with the Burpee you may ask (or more specifically a relationship with an exercise movement all together…) You might also be asking yourself how tough can these things actually be right?! My "detailed" drawing above seems fairly simple… As do the additional individual descriptions/videos I have provided. While each of them vary somewhat, they are all variations of the same theme; all you really have to do is the following:

Squat, Sprawl, Execute a pushup, Jump back to the squat position, And lastly execute a vertical jump.

Sounds easy enough? Well then you try it for yourself… As a matter of fact how about you try it for like an entire minute straight (which btw is NOT a long time at all) and then you just might find that you too are entering the beginnings of what could become a hateful relationship with the Burpee. And if that’s the case reading my list below might help you remedy those bad feelings… but please, make sure you are doing it right… use your fatigue level as a good indicator to gauge this… And after performing 10, no matter how fresh you are, you will be breathing heavily! After performing 75 consecutively, you’ll be on the floor for 5 minutes or maybe even down for the count... I promise!

 Reasons Why I "Love Burpees

They get my heart rate going!

I have read that because you're using your full body when doing burpees, it's one of the best exercises to burn fat. (who doesn’t want to burn fat…)

They require very little equipment and space so can be done virtually anywhere.

Since I totally live for that heart-pounding breathlessness and boy does a burpee cause physical fatigue, than how can I not love them?

Burpees not only challenge me physically, but mentally as well putting my inner voice to the test which helps me to keep pushing when times get tough.

The name is silly too and I like all things silly!

Burp on!