Burpee exercise for beginners: correct technique

To burn extra calories and make your body slim and fit, you should master the technique of doing burpees. This is a complex exercise that uses almost all muscle groups. Today it is often used in crossfit and cardio training. One of the main advantages of burpees is that it does not require special equipment. It is also not necessary to visit the gym, because you can exercise at home.

Burpee: what is this exercise?

Essentially, a burpee, or burpee as it's also known, is a plyometric exercise that combines a push-up, a jump, and a plank. It was developed by Royal H. Burpee in 1939. It was named after the doctor of physiological sciences.

When performing burpees, the body takes on a vertical and horizontal position in a short period of time. Your heart rate increases, so calories are burned faster. Depending on the phase of the exercise, the triceps, quadriceps, muscles of the buttocks, thighs and other parts of the body are activated.

Burpee exercise for varying degrees of initial physical fitness

Of course, depending on how physically prepared your body is for the loads, you will be able to perform one or another number of exercise approaches. What standards should you strive for in your training?

Beginners

If you are a beginner and have never done serious physical activity before, and have never done the Burpee exercise, you should start from the very beginning. In this case, perform the exercise for no more than 2 minutes, and you can perform 4 sets with a rest of no more than 1 minute between each set.

Average level

If you have an average level of fitness, the cycle becomes a little more difficult. In this case, each time the exercise lasts 2 minutes, a total of 6 sets are performed with a one-minute rest between sets.

High level of training

If your initial physical fitness is high enough, you should perform Burpee exercises for three minutes each. You should perform 6 sets with a one-minute rest between sets.

Experienced athletes

If you are an experienced athlete and have a high degree of physical fitness, then you should perform the exercise in the same way as with a high level of training. However, rest between sets should be no more than 30 seconds.

Classic burpee

In the classic version, the burpee technique looks like this:

Take the starting position. Stand straight, place your feet shoulder-width apart. The arms hang freely along the body.
Take a breath. Lean forward, then squat and place your palms on the floor. They should bear the bulk of the body weight at this moment.
Take a “lying position”, throwing your legs back. The body forms a straight line, it is parallel to the floor surface.
Do 1 push-up. Then sit down again, leaning on your hands and knees.
Exhale, jump strongly. Your arms should go up while jumping.

Without stopping, you need to do a few more repetitions. Then, after a short interval, repeat the exercise.

On a note! Before you start doing burpees, you need to soberly assess your own capabilities. For beginners, this exercise may be overwhelming. In this case, it can be made easier or performed after certain physical training.

Where to start training?

Not everyone can immediately start an intense workout that includes all the exercises. Therefore, the load should be increased gradually.

If you are new to burpees, you can start with the first three positions, excluding the high jump. This will allow you to reduce the load on your body for the first time. Instead of jumping, you can simply get up quickly. The effect of the classical technique will be lower, but for beginners this is enough. The main thing is not to forget about the regularity of classes. After some time, jumping can be included in the training mode.

After the entire set of exercises has been mastered, push-ups can be included in it. It is done after jumping backwards with your feet.

Athletes with experience in burpees try to complicate their training. To do this, they use various sports equipment. The set of exercises does not change, but their effect on the muscles and body increases.

For more effective training you can use:

Dumbbells;
Special weighted vest (this version was taken from the army);
Medicine ball or weighted medicine ball. In this case, during the jump, it is taken into the hands, which must be aligned above the head.

Technique for performing burpees with a medicine ball

When performing a set of exercises, you can use different positions of the arms and legs. This also increases the effect of training.

Alternating exercises with “shadow boxing” is great. After jumping, you do arm throws. In this case, the movements should be strong and energetic. This exercise allows you to rest your leg muscles without reducing the benefits of burpees.

Burpee technique for beginners

The exercise can be made easier by removing one of the elements from it. For example, eliminate push-ups.

Burpee technique for beginners:

Take the starting position. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. The arms hang along the body.
Breathe. Lean forward, squat and, as in the classic version, place your hands on the floor.
Throw your legs back, resting your toes and palms on the floor. The body is parallel to the floor.
Without doing push-ups, squat down, rest your knees and hands on the floor.
Exhale, jump strongly. Raise your arms up in a jump.

On a note! When performing burpees for beginners, you can exclude from it not only push-ups, but also jumping. This will make the exercise easier, but less effective.

History of origin and technique of execution

The exercise became popular thanks to CrossFit. But its history is older. Burpee was invented in the late thirties of the 20th century by the physiologist Royal Burpee. His idea was to combine several exercises into one. Over the years, the exercise has undergone changes, but has retained its name and general idea. Some also call it a burpee. There is no difference in the exercises, it's just different pronunciation.

Now let's look at how to do burpees correctly in sports. The exercise includes the following sequence of actions:

The starting position is standing.
Next you need to squat down in a squatting position, with your hands resting on the floor.
Next, due to the ejection of the legs, a prone position is adopted.
One push-up is done.
The legs return to a sitting position.
A jump is made with clapping hands above your head.

After this, the exercise is performed again.

There are various variations and techniques of burpees, but they are all derivatives of the classic version described above. To better study the technique, you can watch a video that clearly shows how the exercise is performed by athletes.

We bring to your attention an informative article about the treatment of the spine using the Bubnovsky method.

Burpee technique for girls

In fact, the burpee technique for girls is no different from the classic version. However, to increase the effectiveness of the exercise, you can complicate it a little:

jumping onto a step platform or other suitable height;
jumping over an object - left or right over an obstacle.

Such changes will allow the calf and gluteal muscles to work more actively.

Burpee exercise for women can be done as follows:

Stand up straight, place your feet shoulder-width apart. Hands are along the body.
As you inhale, bend forward, then squat down and place your hands on the floor.
Take a “lying position” and do push-ups, keeping your body in one straight line.
Squat down again, placing your hands and knees on the floor.
As you exhale, jump over the obstacle.

Burpee Exercise Technique

The burpee is beautiful in its simplicity and straightforwardness. Nothing supernatural or complicated, easy to learn, easy to repeat, you can do it wherever you want.

Answering the question of what specific effect burpee has on the body, it should be noted that during training all joints and muscles receive the necessary load. You will literally feel exhausted after just a few sets. The muscles that work the most are the upper shoulder girdle, abdominal muscles, as well as the calf and gluteal muscles.

However, the main reason for the popularity of burpee exercises is the ability to burn a record number of calories and significantly increase endurance. In addition, burpees can be used as an effective interval cardio workout: simply take two-minute breaks after each set of 30 seconds of burpees.

It's very simple - follow the gif:

1. Sit down with your hands on the floor - starting position.

2. While jumping, move your leg back and take a push-up position.

3. Immediately return your legs to their original position.

4. From the starting position, jump as high as possible.

It is necessary to carry out the above sequence of actions as quickly as possible. Just a few minutes of such training will prove that loading with your own weight is very, very effective!

Burpee exercise with additional load

The body has a sneaky ability to get used to the load. How to avoid this? Make the exercise more difficult in time!

1. With classic push-ups. While lying down, push-ups are performed.

2. With wave push-ups. While lying down, a wave push-up is performed.

3. With pull-up. During the jump, you need to grab the horizontal bar and pull yourself up.

4. Run in place. While running in place, it is necessary to perform burpees at a given frequency.

Burpee exercise in practice

Modern experts have developed several burpee complexes for people with different levels of training:

1. For beginners. Perform two-minute rounds in four rounds, with no more than one minute of rest between each round.

2. Average level. Two-minute rounds are performed in six steps, with a one-minute rest.

3. High level. Three-minute rounds are performed in six bursts, with one minute of rest in between.

4. Mode for the most experienced. It is performed in strict accordance with a high level, only the rest time is reduced - to thirty seconds.

Benefits of Burpees

1. Strength. Burpee trains all muscles at once, making the human body much stronger. Each exercise puts a huge load on the arms, legs, hips and abs, bringing all these parts of the body into ideal condition.

2. Fat burning. During burpees, your entire body is tense. Moreover, it refers to exercises of increased intensity, due to which the process of burning fat more effectively occurs. According to studies, burpees burn 50% more fat than any strength training. In addition, it significantly speeds up metabolism, which increases the efficiency of daily calorie burning. That is why it is an excellent option for those who need to lose excess weight.

3. Keeping fit. Most people spend a huge amount of time in the gym. They need this in order to get their body into ideal shape. Undoubtedly, it doesn’t look bad, but such muscles are of little use when you are overweight. Burpee exercise is the most effective exercise for losing excess weight, as well as developing endurance and energy, which are so necessary to overcome various obstacles.

Burpee with jumping

4. Economy. In order to regularly perform burpee exercises, there is no need to pay for a gym, swimming pool or personal instructor. All that is needed is a body, a flat surface and, of course, a great desire.

5. No restrictions. Burpees can be done anywhere - at home, in the gym, in the park or anywhere else.

6. Anaerobic performance. Burpees increase the body's anaerobic performance and endurance. As a result of regular burpees, you will increase your own lung capacity, improve your heart function, and become faster and stronger.

If you want to lose extra pounds and still stay in great shape, burpees are a great option. No expense, minimum time spent, moderate workouts in the shortest possible time can give you a slim body and an incredibly healthy appearance.

Basic recommendations

At first glance, burpees may seem like a difficult exercise. However, just a few regular workouts will prove that there is nothing difficult about it. The main thing is to master the technique to do burpees correctly.

Experts give beginners the following recommendations:

you need to start the exercise slowly, because at the first stage it is very difficult to understand and master the coordination of legs and arms;
if physical endurance is not enough, you can do push-ups from your knees, and skip jumping altogether;
As you gain experience, the speed of the exercise must be increased;
The overall effectiveness of burpee depends on proper breathing;
It is preferable to train in the morning on an empty stomach, which will allow the body to recover faster and also enhance metabolic processes for the whole day.

Contraindications

In some cases, the Burpee exercise is strictly contraindicated. Since this can lead to a deterioration of the condition and cause an exacerbation of diseases. What are these cases? Let's consider the disadvantages:

If you have existing diseases of the cardiovascular system, performing the exercise is strictly contraindicated.
It is contraindicated to perform the Burpee exercise during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
If you have recent injuries, it is better to refrain from performing the exercise for some time.
After absolutely any surgical intervention, the exercise is also not recommended.
If you have pathologies of the musculoskeletal system, performing the Burpee exercise is strictly not recommended.

If you doubt what exactly you can do, and you are tormented by some doubts, it would be best to visit a doctor and consult with him. Since if there are still contraindications, then performing the exercise will only harm and not support the body.

Preparation for training

Before you start doing burpees, you need to warm up your muscles. To do this, you will need to warm up before each workout. This may include the following:

easy jogging (5 minutes) – you can use a treadmill, run in place;
rotations with arms, wrists (up to 30 times);
body tilts in different directions (7 times);
tilt your head in different directions (7 times).

In addition, squats, jumping jacks, push-ups and other exercises will not hurt. They should be light and in no case overload the muscles, otherwise by the beginning of the workout you will feel fatigue and loss of strength. The load received by the human body during warm-up depends on the physical fitness of the person.

How to do burpees for different purposes

The exercise can be performed in different ways: with or without push-ups, with squats or practically straight legs. This does not mean that one option is correct and the others are not. It all depends on what goal you are pursuing.

To place more stress on the muscles of the arms and shoulders

Do burpees with push-ups until your chest touches the floor. The number and speed of movements will decrease, but you will get more stress on the muscles.

Alternatively, at the bottom of the exercise, lift your palms off the floor and only then perform a strict push-up, returning to the prone position. This way you will definitely work in the full range and pay enough attention to the shoulder girdle.

To take the strain off your back

Go into a squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor and from there take a lying position. Make sure your back remains straight.

The same is true when coming out of a prone position - first jump into a squat, and then straighten up. Don't lift your heels off the floor: do a full-foot squat.

If you don't have enough stretch to lower yourself into this squat, you can start by using an arm rest. This way you won't have to reach to the floor and bend your back.

When lowering to and rising from the floor, avoid bending the lumbar spine. To do this, tense your abs and buttocks.

To do as many timed burpees as possible.

This can be useful if you are participating in some kind of speed challenge, CrossFit competition, or functional all-around competition.

To prevent your arms from becoming overextended after the first dozen reps, do not push up, but fall to the floor. When you lower slowly, you waste muscle power in the eccentric phase. When you fall, gravity works for you.

The hands only lightly hold the body, preventing a strong impact of the chest on the floor.

As soon as the chest touches the floor, it immediately rises. You straighten your arms, straightening your back. At the same time, she does not relax in any way - all the muscles are tense, the torso is rigid.

From a low position with your back arched and chest lifted, in one powerful movement, bend at the pelvis and place your feet on the floor next to your hands.

Try placing your legs wider - this reduces the range of body extension, which means you spend less strength.

After straightening, do not jump high - it is enough to lift your feet off the floor for the repetition to count. So don't waste your time.

How many burpees should you do?

The exact number of repetitions and approaches when performing burpees depends on the physical fitness of the athlete.

On a note! There was a belief in the US Army that a soldier who did 40 simple burpees in 1 minute was in good shape.

Of course, for the civilian population the time frame is somewhat compressed. They can be expanded to 90 seconds, leaving the same 40 simplified exercise cycles as a reference. The number of approaches should be selected for yourself.

The following examples will help answer the question of how many times you need to do burpees to achieve results:

Tabata method – 20 seconds of continuous exercise with an interval of 10 seconds, 8 approaches;
classic program - 10-20 times, up to 4 approaches;
The standard for people involved in sports is 12-15 repetitions in half a minute.

On a note! The record for the most repetitions of burpees, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, was 47 times in a minute. It was directed by an Italian in 2020.

Description of the exercise

Burpees are an excellent functional exercise that alternates between the top and bottom of your body. The exercise develops almost all the muscles of your body, tones them, and burpees also improve endurance and actively fight excess weight. The advantage of the burpee exercise is that it can be performed in almost any conditions.

Variations of burpees (burpees) to diversify your training. In order in the video:

Burpees are a classic.
Burpee + jumping on a stand.
Burpees + dumbbell deadlifts.
Burpees with dumbbells
Burpee with barbell
Burpee + side jump over object.
Burpee + jumping over an object facing forward.
Burpee + double kettlebell snatch.
Burpees + kettlebell clusters.
1 leg burpee
Burpee + dumbbell snatch
Burpees with dumbbells + step-ups.
Burpees in length
Burpees + pull-ups on the horizontal bar.
Burpees + power-ups on the horizontal bar.

Do you want maximum performance of your body? Try different variations of burpees (burpees).

Let's take a closer look at some of the variations.

Burpee with box jump

Burpee over the bar

Complexes with burpees.

Alternative Exercises

Several reasons why you should do burpees

Since burpees burn a huge amount of calories, this exercise is ideal for weight loss. Almost all muscle groups take part in its implementation. In addition, the following facts testify in its favor:

the cardiovascular system is strengthened;
physical endurance increases;
respiratory organs develop;
You can train at home, without using special equipment or going to the gym;
it is possible to adjust the difficulty level of the exercise by removing or adding elements;
for athletes who actively practice strength training, burpees will help build muscle mass;
This exercise restores coordination.

On a note! If you want to pump up the muscles of the lower body, it is recommended to include two jumps in the complex exercise. To give more attention to your chest and arms, it's worth adding a couple of push-ups. If you need to strengthen your abs, it is enough to pull your knees to your chest in a plank position.

What you need to know about burpees?

Despite the fact that the burpee set of exercises is simple, many questions remain about the technique and its effect on the body. Here are ten interesting facts about style:

Burpee exercises can burn half as much fat in one workout as other techniques. This is due to an increase in metabolism, which is responsible for fighting calories.
The athlete’s endurance increases within two weeks;
The technique can be used as training for strength exercises;
Thanks to training, the stomach becomes elastic. To increase the effect, you can keep it in constant tension during exercise.
Burpees are great for building arm muscles. After just a month of training, the outlines of your biceps will appear, and the skin in the shoulder area will become more elastic.
A set of exercises trains the leg muscles: the thighs become slimmer and the calves become beautiful;
After some time of daily training, you will notice that your buttocks have become toned. To improve the effect during exercises, especially the high jump, they need to be tensed.
During training, your heart rate jumps after the first movements. However, this is not a disadvantage, but rather an advantage of the technology. Exercise improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system and heart, blood delivers oxygen to cells and tissues faster. Thanks to this, a person gets tired less often and becomes more energetic.
Burpee strengthens the spinal muscles, which makes your posture correct;
A set of exercises in different planes, transition from a horizontal to a vertical position, requires special endurance and coordination of movements. These qualities improve after just a few training sessions.

How many calories do burpees burn?

Since burpees are one of the most effective exercises for weight loss, it's easy to imagine that doing them burns a lot of calories. Experts gave approximate calculations and found that for 7 repetitions performed in 1 minute, you can get rid of 15-20 kcal. According to experts, the speed of metabolic processes increases, as with a bicycle printer for 30 seconds. Thus, to burn 100 kcal, you need to perform approximately 35 burpees in 5 minutes. In turn, for 100 burpees done in 14-15 minutes, including several rest intervals with a total duration of 2 minutes, you can lose approximately 225-250 kcal.

However, the above are only average indicators. The exact number of calories burned depends on the athlete's weight. The higher your body weight, the more calories you can burn. On average, you can burn up to 1,200 kcal in an hour.

Thus, burpee is an ideal exercise for people who play sports to lose weight and also want to pump up the muscles of the chest, abs, and arms. Of course, you will have to put in a lot of effort to complete it, and for a beginner it may even seem impossible. However, burpees help you get rid of the same amount of calories in just 15 minutes as you can lose during an hour-long workout on the treadmill.

Common mistakes during the Burpee exercise

As they say, those who do nothing make no mistakes. However, in sports, mistakes can not only render training useless, but also lead to serious injuries. Therefore, it is worth knowing in advance what not to do.

At the moment when you return from a lying position to a sitting position, you must remember that it is important to throw your legs not bent, but almost straightened.
When returning from a lying position to a sitting position, you should land only on your heels. If your legs are straight and you land on your toes, the risk of knee joint injuries will increase.
Always observe moderation in everything. This is necessary in order not to overload the cardiovascular system. Refer to the above training examples for various levels of initial training. As soon as you realize that you are performing the cycle quite easily and are not tired at all, it’s time to move on to the next level of training, a more complex one.

By systematically and correctly performing the Burpee exercise, over time you will become more resilient and strong, and your body will become more toned. All muscles will be toned, and every day you will be a cheerful, active person.

Watch a wonderful video on how to do burpees correctly