Beginner

Half-Burpee

The half-burpee trims the push-up out of the burpee while keeping the fast up-and-down cadence and the finishing hop, which makes it the go-to scaling for long conditioning sets. You drop your hands, shoot the feet back to a plank, snap them in, and pop up, so the legs and lungs still do plenty of work without the shoulder fatigue of a full chest-to-floor rep. It is ideal for beginners, for high-rep intervals, and any time you want to keep moving fast without grinding to a halt.

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

How to do it

  1. 1

    Stand with feet about hip-width apart and brace your core.

  2. 2

    Squat down and plant both hands on the floor in front of you.

  3. 3

    Jump your feet back into a plank, holding the chest off the floor.

  4. 4

    Immediately hop your feet back up toward your hands.

  5. 5

    Drive up into a small jump, reaching the arms overhead.

  6. 6

    Land softly and flow straight into the next rep.

Tips

  • Keep the plank brief and rigid; you touch the position but never lower the chest.
  • Land the jump with soft knees so the fast cadence does not pound the joints.
  • Find a repeatable pace you can hold for the whole set rather than sprinting early.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • The jump at the top shrinks to a heel lift by rep fifteen, and the rep quietly becomes a squat thrust; either keep the feet leaving the floor or plan the set as squat thrusts from the start.
  • Hands leave the floor before the feet have landed, so you are already rising as they arrive and the rep finishes as a stumble rather than a jump.
  • Hands get planted right at the toes, which puts the shoulders behind the wrists and leaves the feet nowhere to land on the way in; set them about a hand's length ahead of the feet.
  • Feet arrive so far apart that standing up becomes a wide sumo squat, which is slower and heavier than it needs to be at a pace you are trying to hold.
  • The hips sink to the bottom of a full squat as the feet come in, so every rep includes standing up from the floor; catch the feet in a quarter squat instead.

Frequently asked

How many half-burpees should a beginner do?
Ten rounds of 20 seconds of work with 20 seconds of rest, about seven minutes in total, teaches the pacing better than any rep target. If you prefer reps, five sets of eight with a minute of rest works. The thing to build toward is 50 continuous half-burpees at a pace where you can still take a full breath at the top of each one. Add work time before you cut the rest, and treat any set where the jump disappears as that set's finish line.
How can I make the half-burpee easier or harder?
To make it easier, step the feet back one at a time, raise your hands onto a bench or a wall so the plank is higher, and drop the jump in favor of standing tall and reaching. To make it harder, add the push-up so it becomes a full burpee, add a tuck to the jump, or hold light dumbbells at the top. The most useful progression is none of those: keep the reps the same and shorten the rest until your pace holds across ten rounds.
What is a half-burpee good for, and when should I choose something else?
It is the workhorse scaling of the burpee, giving full-body conditioning at a fast cadence without the shoulder fatigue of a chest-to-floor rep, which suits long intervals, beginners, and days when your upper body has already been trained. It builds almost no strength; the value sits in the heart rate and the pacing practice. Choose something else if the hop bothers a knee or an ankle, where the squat thrust removes it, and choose the full burpee when you want the pushing work this version deliberately drops.

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