One of the most effective fat burning workouts, you will have seen them performed by military personnel, (it has been used by the US military since the early 1940’s as a way to gauge fitness) participants of Spartan Races, bootcamps, fitness classes, crossfitters and many others. That’s right, we’re talking about burpees. It’s a high intensity bodyweight exercise that combines multiple movements into one swift flow of moves. It’s a combination of the squat, plank, push-up and squat jump. Want to know what you gain by doing them? Then read on for these Top 5 Benefits of Burpees!
1. Burpees give you a full body workout
As mentioned above, this exercise is a combination of the squat, plank, push-up and squat jump. This results in a great bodyweight workout, utilising your chest, shoulders, core, legs and back muscles. Forget two birds, you’re hitting several with one stone or, in fitness terms, hitting multiple muscle groups in one exercise.
2. High-Intensity Fat Burner
Since we change our body position from vertical to horizontal and then back to vertical within a fraction of a second, this exercise is very intense. It means, your heart rate will shoot up quickly helping you burn lots of calories during and long after the workout due to EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), an after-effect of intense exercising. Studies have found that such high intensity exercise can help burn calories at rest for around 36-48 hours, resulting in fat loss.
3. Highly Effective
When performed correctly and with good form, burpees give you both a cardiovascular workout while also strengthening the muscles in your arms, chest, glutes, legs, shoulders, core, and back while also enhancing your explosiveness as you perform the transitions. Done with concentration, they can also strengthen the many joints, tendons and connective tissue involved in this movement.
4. Super Efficient
Being a very high intensity exercise, you can start reaping the benefits in a surprisingly short period of time. Whether you do the numbered challenge (where you do as many as you can in one go) or a circuit, you can get your heart pumping and get yourself out of breath in less than 15 minutes. But make sure that you increase the tempo based on your current fitness levels.
It’s also perfect for warming you up during these wintery chilly days that are now coming upon us!
5. Extremely Simple
While not necessarily an easy exercise (especially at the beginning) still, fundamentally it is actually very simple.
Burpees do not require any equipment whatsoever, the movements aren’t complicated and it doesn’t even require much space (your bedroom, lounge, garden, hotel room, workplace or local park will do)! You don’t need to use the gym when you go on holiday either, and you can still keep yourself in fantastic shape!
Very Informative article!
Yes, burpees are effective but for obese people you need to cut the movement a bit, either the squat jump or push up part. If your body posture while landing is bad, it might hurt your elbows and wrists as well.
Thank you Ambrish for your feedback. Yes, that’s a great point you made about cutting down or lessening the movement for people who are unable to perform at a faster pace.
The beauty of the burpee is that it can be done at various speeds and it will still prove to be a great, intense workout. For those who are obese, they can perform it at a much slower pace and the jump can be replaced by simply standing up, then raising their arms straight up. It’s always important to use good technique which means we should always focus on the quality of the reps rather than the quantity.