Intermediate

Dumbbell Burpee

The dumbbell burpee keeps your hands on a pair of dumbbells throughout the floor phase, which raises your torso slightly and lets you press through a stable, neutral-grip handle. That grip lights up the forearms and shoulders while the elevated push-up angle keeps the chest and triceps working hard. Unlike the devil press, there is no overhead swing here, so it stays a pure conditioning burpee that simply adds load and grip demand to every rep.

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

How to do it

  1. 1

    Stand over two dumbbells set just outside shoulder width and hinge down to grip them.

  2. 2

    With hands locked on the handles, jump your feet back to a plank over the weights.

  3. 3

    Lower your chest between the dumbbells, then press back up to the plank.

  4. 4

    Hop your feet up to the handles and stand tall, keeping hold of the dumbbells.

  5. 5

    Add a small jump at the top if the workout calls for it.

  6. 6

    Set the weights back down under control and repeat.

Tips

  • Grip the handles hard and keep the wrists stacked so the dumbbells do not roll under you.
  • Widen the dumbbells slightly if your chest cannot clear them at the bottom.
  • Choose a modest load; the point is steady breathing under fatigue, not a max press.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • Round dumbbells are the wrong tool here, since they roll the moment the plank shifts; hex-shaped bells keep the movement a conditioning piece instead of a balance problem.
  • Feet jump back while the hands are still settling on the handles, and the dumbbells skid apart underneath you on the landing.
  • Hips pike up on the way into the plank because the hands sit higher than the floor, so the position is shorter than it looks; squeeze the glutes and hold a line from shoulder to heel.
  • The bells drift a little wider on every rep because nobody resets them, and by rep ten your hands are outside the width your shoulders can press from.
  • Setting the weights down at the end of a rep turns into dropping them, and the next rep starts with the dumbbells nowhere near where you left them.

Frequently asked

How many reps of the dumbbell burpee should you do when you are new to the exercise?
Five sets of six with a full minute of rest is a reasonable start, using light bells of 10 to 15 pounds each for the first month. Because grip is part of the exercise, judge the load by whether your hands are still locked on at the last rep rather than by what you can press. Add reps to eight or ten per set before you add weight, and switch to timed rounds of 30 seconds on and 30 off once the movement runs automatically.
What can I use instead of dumbbells for a dumbbell burpee?
Push-up handles or parallettes give the same raised, neutral-grip hand position with no load, which is the closest match if your wrists are why you chose this version. Kettlebells work too, though their handles sit higher and tip more readily. Two low, stable objects of equal height, such as thick books or small boxes, will do in a pinch, but test them under your bodyweight before you jump your feet back. With nothing at hand, do a plain burpee on your fists to keep the wrists neutral.
What is the dumbbell burpee good for, and when is it a poor choice?
It adds grip work, shoulder stability and a little load to plain burpee conditioning, and the raised hands suit anyone whose wrists complain about flat-palm push-ups. It fits neatly into circuits where the same dumbbells are already being used for other movements. It is a poor choice when speed is the goal, since the setup costs a second on every rep and a plain burpee will out-pace it, and a poor choice while your push-up strength is still developing, because the deeper range between the bells makes each rep harder rather than easier.

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