Burpee is a high-intensity exercise that promotes some benefits, such as facilitating weight loss, improving cardiorespiratory capacity and physical conditioning.
These benefits are possible because burpee works almost all of the body’s muscles, such as arms, legs and abdomen, strengthening the muscles, increasing the heart rate and promoting the burning of calories.
Being widely used in Crossfit, there are different burpee variations, such as the basic burpee, the over bar burpee, the pull up burpee and the half burpee, which should preferably be done with the guidance of a physical education professional, to avoid injuries.
Main benefits
The main benefits of burpee are:
- Improve physical conditioning, because it increases strength in the arms, shoulders, legs and hips;
- Facilitate weight loss, as it speeds up metabolism, stimulating the burning of calories;
- Improve cardiorespiratory capacityas it increases heart rate, improving cardiovascular capacity.
Furthermore, burpee exercises also improve balance and motor coordination, increasing performance in other activities and in everyday life.
How to do burpee
To do the burpee, simply use your body weight, starting with push-ups and ending with jumps, as per the step-by-step instructions below:
- Standing, feet shoulder-width apart and arms extended at your sides;
- Squat and place your hands on the floor, in front of your feet and wider than shoulder width;
- With a small jump, throw your legs back, keeping your hands in the same place and getting into a high plank position, with your back aligned;
- Do a full push-up of your arms, keeping your head aligned;
- With a small jump, throw your legs forward, keeping your hands and feet flat on the floor;
- Jump as high as possible, with strength and raising your arms;
- Return to the starting position and repeat the entire process.
The number of sets and repetitions of burpee varies depending on each person’s level of physical fitness. However, it is generally recommended to do 3 sets of 30 to 60 seconds, with as many repetitions as possible.
Burpee can be part of regular training or high-intensity interval training, or High Intensity Interval Training, cardiovascular training done in small series of intense exercises, followed by a short period of rest, which aims to accelerate metabolism and improve physical conditioning. Learn more about HIIT training.
Types of burpee
There are several variations of the burpee, which can be done with or without the use of equipment.
1. Burpee over bar
The over bar burpee is an exercise generally done in gyms, as it requires the use of a bar. To do this burpee, you must place a weight on a bar and place it on the floor.
Then, just do the simple burpee movement. When lifting, you must jump, quickly jumping over the bar, to do another burpee, as soon as you reach the other side. The number of sets and repetitions of burpee over bar can vary depending on the person’s conditioning.
2. Burpee pull up
The burpee pull up is a type of exercise where, in addition to the burpee, you also do a push-up on the fixed bar. To do this exercise, you must do a simple burpee and then jump, placing your hands over your head to hold the bar tightly.
Lift up quickly, pushing your arms, until your chin is above the bar. Lower down, letting your arms remain extended, release the bar and return to the floor, returning to the initial burpee movement. Do the number of repetitions as indicated by the physical activity professional.
3. Half burpee (half burpee)
The half burpee, also known as half burpee, is generally recommended for people who are starting to do burpees and are not yet able to do the full movement.
To do the half burpee, you must stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Then squat down and place your hands on the floor wider than shoulder-width apart. Throw your legs back, with a small jump, keeping your hands in the same place and getting into a high plank position. Finally, throw your legs forward, keeping your hands and feet flat on the floor, and jump as fast and high as possible.
4. Burpee box jump over
The box jump over burpee consists of doing the burpee and, at the end, jumping a box to the other side. So, to do this type of burpee, just stand in front of a box and perform the simple burpee. When lifting, jump hard and explosively onto the box, bending your hips and knees to absorb the impact. Jump to the other side, on the floor, and repeat the burpee. The number of repetitions of the burpee box jump over varies depending on each person’s physical fitness.
