How To Do A Burpee Effectively 

The burpee. You have seen the t-shirts, heard about how good they are from trainers but why is everyone doing them. What are the real burpee benefits? What muscles are worked and how to do a burpee properly is amongst the many things we will cover so you aren’t missing out on any of the benefits 🙂

Fun fact:

The exercise was named by US physiologist Royal H. Burpee who earned his PHD from Columbia University and invented the burpee as a quick and simple way to assess fitness. 

We will discuss:

• How To do a burpee and the benefits
• Burpee variations and options for beginners
• Provide a few burpee workouts
• Full 30 day burpee challenge

You can do this exercise you can do at home or anywhere! So let’s get into it! 

What is a Burpee?

A burpee is a total body exercise that gets your heart pumping and is simple that anyone can do. 

How to do a Burpee:

There are many variations which we cover below but the standard is:

• Start standing
• Place your hands on the ground and control your chest to the ground
• Straighten your arms and jump or step your feet up towards your hands 
• Then jump and clap your hands over your head

Burpee Benefits? 

1. Simple, anyone can do it. 
2. No equipment needed.
3. Exercise you can do at home. 
4. They build character. 

Okay really though. Burpees are a great way to improve your cardiovascular strength. Throw them into any workout and your entire body gets fatigued due to the muscles worked your arms, your legs, and your lungs. Keep moving. Just like life, when you get kicked down you get back up!

Burpee For Beginners

We stand strongly behind getting people into the proper body positions to avoid injury. Having adequate mobility plays a large role in that with any of our online training programs. To do this we use our K2 Level system.

 For example: 

If you can’t get your feet flat when attempting the burpee and you are landing on your toes this can affect your knees long term. We don’t want that. Here are some alternatives or “levels”. 

You should master #1 with perfect form before attempting #2 and etc. 

Level 1 – Elevated Hand Release Push Up + Alternating Lizard Step Up

Develop the arms strength and get your feet flat first. 

Level 2 – Elevated Burpee

The elevated burpee variation allows your back to get into a better body position.

Level 3 – Burpee

Enjoy 🙂

What Muscles Do Burpees Work?

Burpees are a total body exercise. You will work your triceps, glutes, calves, quads, chest, and your lungs. They are great exercise you can do at home when you don’t have a lot of time or equipment. Our K2 Executive Program is a tailored workout routine that will give you a total body workout with minimal equipment. 

Burpee Exercises, variations, and alternatives:

You often do these burpee exercises in crossfit wods (workout of the day). We provide you with some burpee workouts, challenges, and answers to FAQ’s below but let’s master these movements first before you start ripping away. 

Burpee + Touch Pull Up Bar

Burpee + Kipping Pull Up

Bar Facing Burpee

Burpee Box Jump Over

Now people are just getting crazy. For this variation you perform a burpee and then a Lateral Box Jump Over.

Burpee + DB Deadlift 

Burpee + Knee Hug Jump

Burpee Crossfit Workout

Here are a few workouts you can do at home. If you want more than a few workouts. Check out a workout at home plan – K2 Executive . Minimal equipment, maximized time.

Burpee Workout 1:

Five Rounds for Time:

1. Run x 400 meters

2. Burpee + Touch Pull Up Bar x 15

3. Pull Up x 10

Burpee Workout 2:

Every 6 minutes x 5 sets

1. Run x 400 meters

2.  Ground To Overhead x 10 

3. Burpee + Kipping Pull Up x 8

4.  Ring Muscle Up x 6 or Push Up x 12 

Burpee Workout 3:

15 Minute AMRAP (As many reps or rounds as possible)

1. Deadlift x 6

2. Bar Facing Burpee x 6

These are sample conditioning workouts pulled from our K2 Fitness Program.

Burpee Challenge

You can look at these fitness challenges like benchmark workouts. Take the challenge then re test in 30 days to see if your fitness has improved. The test and retest model is something that should be taking place in every training program. The re test gives you a goal to work towards and helps you strive to become the best version of yourself. 

Burpee Challenge Test 1:

5 Minutes AMRAP (As many rounds or reps as possible

1. Burpee 

The challenge is only five minutes. The shorter the duration of the workout = the more power output aka effort you should put into the challenge and go as fast as possible. Yes you are going to get fatigued but remind yourself of this…

• In ten minutes you are going to be just fine, you will either be happy with your efforts or wish you could have gone a little faster.

My Top Score – 101 Reps!

Post how many you got in the comments below! 

Burpee 30 Day Challenge

Okay if you took challenge #1 you have already completed day one of our 30 day Burpee Challenge! Follow along for the next thirty days and see how much you can improve your score. The hardest part? Showing up everyday. Commit. Challenge yourself. Create a reward for yourself if you improve your score or define WHY this really matters to you. 

Over the next 30 days in 10 minutes or less per day we are going to give you a daily burpee workout you can follow. 

Day 1

For Time:

Burpee x 5 minutes

Note your score as we will use it as our baseline data and retest in 30 days. 

Day 2

Every 2 Minutes x 4 sets 

Complete 15% of your baseline reps 

Example: If your baseline is 60. You would perform 9 burpees then rest until the clock hits 2:00 then repeat. 

Day 3

Every 2 Minutes x 5 sets

Complete 15% of your baseline reps. 

Day 4

For Time:

Burpee x 40 reps

Day 5

Every 15 seconds x 7 minutes 

Burpee x 1 

Day 6

Take a break from burpees today and complete:

This workout for abs by clicking here

Day 7

Three sets: 

Complete 20% of your baseline reps as fast as possible. 

Rest x 2 minutes 

Day 8

Three sets:

Burpee x 15

Rest x 90 seconds then repeat

Day 9

Every 90 seconds x 4 sets

Complete 15% of your baseline reps 

Day 10

For Time:

Burpee x 50 reps

Day 11

Take a break from burpees today and complete:

This workout for abs by clicking here

Day 12

Three sets:

Burpee x 20 

Rest x 2 minutes then repeat 

Day 13

Every 2 Minutes x 5 sets

Complete 15% of your baseline reps 

Day 14

For Time:

Burpee x 18 reps

Day 15

Death By EMOM (Every minute on the minute)

Minute 1 – 2 Burpees

Minute 2 – 3 Burpees

Minute 3 – 4

Minute 4 – 5

Etc until you can no longer successfully complete the reps within the minute. 

Day 16

Take a complete rest day today. 

Day 17

For Max Reps:

Burpee x 60 seconds

Day 18

Five sets of:

Burpee x 15 reps

Rest x 60 seconds then repeat

Day 19

Every 90 Minutes x 4 sets

Complete 15% of your baseline reps 

Day 20

For Time:

Burpee x 60 reps

Day 21

Rest Day or take some time to master a new exercise like the Kettlebell Swing

Day 22

Three sets:

Burpee x 18 reps

Rest x 90 seconds

Day 23

Tabata Style Burpees

Work x 20 seconds + Rest x 10 seconds

You can even try one of their songs like this. They will guide you through the reps via the song, it’s pretty cool! Give it a shot here!

Day 24

Rest Day or take some time to mastering the hollow body hold

Day 25

For Time:

Burpee x 45 reps

Day 26

10 Minute EMOM (Every minute on the minute)

Day 27

Complete 10% of your baseline reps every minute on the minute

Day 28

Every 2 minutes x 5 sets

Complete 15% of your baseline reps

Day 29

Complete:

Burpee x 30*

Complete 1 rep every 10-15 seconds

Day 30

RETEST!

For Time:

Burpee x 5 Minutes 

Did you improve? Were you able to complete all the days? Post in the comments below which day was hardest for you and how much you improved your score!!

Burpee Frequently Asked Questions

Do Burpees Burn Fat? 

Low intensity exercise burns fat. But higher intensity exercise burns more calories. The trick is to get your body to burn a lot of calories by building muscle. Building muscle will raise your body metabolic rate. 

How many burpees should you do in a day? 

However many you will commit to. Then gradually build yourself up. Week 1 “I’m going to do 10 a day”. Then next week do 15 a day. It’s not about how many you are doing, you know this. It’s the habit itself that you probably need to work on. I challenge you to complete our 30 day burpee challenge.

Do burpees build muscle? 

Burpees work your entire body which is why they are so tiring. Building muscle with burpees is a stretch. You build muscle by tearing down muscle fibers from putting a lot of muscular stress on your body. Although burpees are challenging there are other more effective ways to build muscle 

What will 30 burpees a day do? 

It will create an awesome habit of moving daily and overcome an exercise that most people dread doing. Do it for 30 days and you won’t fear them anymore. Or better yet take our burpee challenge for thirty days 🙂

How many burpees should a beginner do? 

More than how many you do it’s really important to make sure you are doing them properly with good form. 

Start with this → Elevated Hand Release Push Up + Alternating Lizard Step Up

Then → Elevated Burpee

Then → Burpee

Is a 100 burpees in 10 Minutes good? 

Did you give your best? That’s what matters. Work to improve your speed and efficiency and work on you. Here are some baseline numbers for burpees per minute you should be able to do.

Beginner – 10 per minute

Intermediate – 15 per minute

Advanced – 20 per minute

Do burpees get you ripped? 

High intensity exercise burns a ton of calories and since burpees are so simple you can throw them into any workout routine to increase intensity. To get ripped, try out our K2 Interval Program. 

Do burpees get easier? 

They get easier for one the more flexible you get you. Try this stretch to help loosen your hips up so you can get your feet near your hands when you jump up like this. Other than that, yes they get easier. It’s just like everything else you have to work at it and most importantly change your mindset about how you feel about them. I don’t like burpees. Versus… I don’t like them but I know that they are good for my body and burn a ton of calories. Replace your negative thoughts with a positive. 

Conclusion

Burpees aren’t going away. You are going to continue seeing them in workouts and the benefits are worth it. So get the form down, try some of the alternatives and tackle some of our favorite workouts. 

Want an awesome 30 minute workout plan to follow? Check out our K2 Interval program or our K2 Abs program. Everyone has time for abs!

Post in the comments below which burpee workout was your favorite!