Intermediate

Burpee

The burpee packs a squat, a plank, a push-up, and a jump into one relentless rep, which is exactly why it spikes the heart rate so fast. It trains the legs, chest, and core all at once and needs nothing but floor space. Scale the push-up or the jump to fit your level, and use it for intervals, circuits, or a lung-busting finisher.

Equipment
Body Weight
Body part
Chest, Quads
Type
Cardio, Plyometric
Browse by movement
Horizontal Press, Squat
Muscles worked
Target
Rectus Femoris, Vastus Lateralis, Gluteus Maximus, Pectoralis Major Sternocostal
Secondary
Deltoid Anterior, Triceps Brachii Long Head, Triceps Brachii Lateral Head, Triceps Brachii Medial Head, Gastrocnemius Medial Head, Gastrocnemius Lateral Head, Upper Rectus Abdominals, Lower Rectus Abdominals
Tertiary
Erector Spinae, Deltoid Posterior

How to do it

  1. 1

    Stand tall, then squat down and plant your hands on the floor in front of your feet.

  2. 2

    Jump or step your feet back into a plank position.

  3. 3

    Lower your chest to the floor for a push-up, keeping the body in a straight line.

  4. 4

    Press back up and jump or step the feet back toward your hands.

  5. 5

    Explode straight up into a jump, reaching the arms overhead.

  6. 6

    Land softly with bent knees and immediately begin the next rep.

Tips

  • Keep the hips level in the plank; letting them sag turns the push-up into a back strain.
  • Land the jump with soft knees to absorb impact rather than crashing down stiff.
  • To scale, step the feet back and skip the push-up or the jump while keeping the flow.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • Dropping flat onto your stomach and pushing up from there breaks the straight line and lands the impact on your ribs; lower your chest with your arms instead.
  • Bringing the feet back only halfway leaves you standing up out of a hunched position before you can jump; land them close to your hands so the hips come under you.
  • Slamming the hands down with the arms locked drives the shock of every rep into your wrists; spread the fingers, let the elbows give a little, or use push-up handles.
  • Racing the clock until the push-up becomes a wiggle and the jump becomes a shuffle wastes the reps; slow down enough that each of the four positions still looks like itself.
  • Grinding out very high rep sets on concrete stacks up a lot of jumping impact on the knees, ankles, and wrists; use shorter sets, land on a mat, and step rather than jump if joints ache.

Frequently asked

How many burpees should you do when you are new to the exercise?
Four to six rounds of 5 burpees with 45 to 60 seconds of rest, two or three times a week, treated as sets rather than a race. As your conditioning improves, work toward rounds of 10, or switch to a time structure such as 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest for eight rounds. End the set when the push-up or the landing gets sloppy, not when you hit the number.
How do I make burpees easier or harder?
To make them easier, step the feet back and in instead of jumping them, skip the push-up, stand up tall and reach overhead instead of jumping, or put your hands on a bench so the whole movement sits higher and takes less load. To make them harder, add a tuck jump at the top, pause a second at the bottom of the push-up, or hold light dumbbells and press them overhead as you stand.
What are burpees good for and when should I skip them?
They raise your heart rate faster than almost anything else, train full-body endurance, and need nothing but a patch of floor, which makes them useful for intervals, circuits, and finishers. They are not a way to build strength or much muscle, since the load never changes. Skip them if your knees, wrists, or lower back object to repeated impact, or if you need low-impact conditioning, and use mountain climbers, rowing, or squat thrusts without the jump instead.

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