What Are Burpees? How To Do Burpees The Right Way?

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 urpees often used interchangeably with ‘squat thrust’ is the total body strengthening exercise and one of the most challenging moves in the fitness world. It’s a plyometric exercise that involves the speed and force of different movements to build muscle power.

Burpees ranks among the most functional full-body exercises; that target multiple muscle groups. If you are unaware of what ‘burpees’ means, they are one of the few equipment-free, body-weight exercises that challenge many of the major muscle groups in your body and require strength, agility, and coordination.

To give you; a little info on the history of burpees, the Burpee exercise is named after Royal H. Burpee, a physiologist who invented this exercise in the 1930s when he was working on his Ph.D. thesis. Mr. Burpee; came up with this exercise to evaluate the overall fitness, agility, strength, endurance, and coordination of the US armed forces.

In this article, we’ll go over how to perform burpees, what muscles are used in burpees, the benefits of performing burpees.

HOW TO PERFORM BURPEES?

1. Stand upright facing straight ahead with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees held straight, back straight, core engaged and your hands hanging by your sides.
2. In one smooth motion, drop your body into a low squat position. You’ll need to hinge forward with your hips and bend your knees slightly and lean forward as you lower your body down to enable your palms to touch the floor.
3. Thrust your feet and legs backward so that you land into a plank position, resting your body on the hands and toes of your feet. (your shoulders should be over your wrists, and you should maintain a straight line from head to heels). Optional: You can lower your body into the pushup position all the way onto the floor.
4. Immediately move into the supported squat position.
5. Use an explosive motion to push through your heels, jump up with arms raised over your head and then land into the standing position. (You can jump as high as you can or simply do a little hop in the air to finish the burpee).
6. You now complete one rep. Do 15 reps to complete one set of burpees.

*{The goal of a beginner should not be how fast they complete the reps. The beginners should focus on how to nail the burpee modification correctly. If you have been sedentary for quite some time, you should consult with a physician before you begin any exercise program to make certain that you are fit enough to perform the exercise}.

BENEFITS OF BURPEES

IMPROVES COORDINATION AND BALANCE

Burpees are full-body workouts, the correct execution of which improves coordination along with body balance. Burpees combine various patterns of exercise, which demands your muscles and joints to perform symmetrically; as you move from squat to plank to push up and back again into a squat and upright position. When your body works at so many levels and moves from one position to another in a rapid fashion, you build good stability, strength, body balance, and coordination.

Also read: 6 Best Warm-Up Exercises To Do Prior To Your Workout

IMPROVES ENDURANCE

Muscle endurance is the ability of muscles to exert force and continue contracting against resistance before the muscles reach a state of fatigue. Increasing muscle endurance means increasing the power of muscles to continue to contract and work against forces. You get to challenge yourself and push your limits while doing burpees. Burpees are explosive, high repetition workouts that requires you to use your whole body weight which is effective in increasing muscular endurance. As you increase your reps, you build better aerobic capacity and see improvements in muscle endurance.

Also read: Aerobic Vs Anaerobic Exercise - Know The Difference  

INCREASES CALORIE BURNING

Burpees involve intense bursts of aerobic exercise, which are highly effective for weight loss. When trying to lose weight, you should burn fat and build lean muscles to continue to burn more calories. Since burpees are a high-intensity, full-body workout that targets several muscles in your body, they can speed up your metabolism and burn a lot of calories. It combines both strength training and cardio and sets an example of ultimate functional exercise. With every rep and set that you perform, your body will get conditioned and toned. The energy expended to complete the rep can make for a great calorie burn.

Also read: 6 Tips To Train Efficiently On A Low-Carb Diet

IMPROVES MUSCLE MASS & STRENGTH

Burpees target multiple body muscles, including your chest, arms, shoulders, hamstrings, butt, abs, glutes, legs. While some isolation exercises (like ab crunches, dumbbell shoulder press) stimulate only one muscle group, burpees are compound exercises that are great to work your full body fitness as they recruit several muscles at a time. The four- step movement exercise does not require any equipment which makes it ideal to carry out at any time and place.

Also read: What Is The Difference Between Bulking & Cutting

If you want to work all the major muscle groups in one killer combo move, burpees are the way to go…

Always remember to pace yourself, eat healthier, stay hydrated, and not over-exercise when attempting to get fit…

Also read: Planks Vs Crunches - Which Is More Effective For Core?

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