Whether you hate them or love them, burpees are a classic bodyweight exercise that torches calories, gets your heart pumping, and enhances your overall fitness. They’ve never been my favorite, but I throw them into my workout plan now and again because the benefits are worth it. Burpees are a high-energy, full-body move that’s always been in fitness fashion. Let’s look at the benefits and reasons to try this timeless exercise.
What are burpees?
Burpees are a bodyweight exercise that involves multiple movements in one quick sequence. You start by squatting down and placing your hands on the floor in front of you before kicking your feet back into a plank position. From the plank, you perform a push-up before jumping your feet back to your hands to return to the squat and jumping up back to stand to complete the burpee. That whole sequence of movements counts as one single burpee rep.
The burpee elevates your fitness because it’s a strength training move that becomes an aerobic exercise when performed in succession over a longer period. It’s also known as the ‘four-count burpee’ due to the four steps involved.
What’s the history of burpees?
The burpee has a long and interesting history dating back to 1939 when U.S. physiologist Royal Huddleston Burpee Sr. invented the move as part of a burpee test to assess fitness. Burpee created the exercise as part of his PhD thesis with the goal of providing a quick and straightforward fitness test to measure agility and coordination. For the fitness test, participants performed the burpee exercise four times in a row, with five heart rate measurements taken before and after to measure how quickly the heart rate returned to normal.
By World War II, the United States Armed Services used the exercise to assess the fitness level of recruits. If a soldier can perform eight burpees in 20 seconds, it’s considered poor. 10 burpees in 20 seconds is considered fair, and 13 or more is excellent. The army also determined that a soldier fit enough for active duty should be able to perform 40 or 50 burpees without stopping.
What are the benefits?
There are plenty of reasons to try this old-fashioned exercise, including:
- It’s a full-body move.
- Engage multiple muscle groups at the same time, including your legs, core, shoulders, chest, and back muscles.
- Boost your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance.
- Modify the move to suit different fitness levels.
- There’s no need for equipment or a gym membership.
- Torch calories. Performing burpees at a higher intensity burns even more calories.
- Include burpees in your high-intensity interval training or HIIT regimen.
