Why burpees are king of the bodyweight exercises

If you haven't heard of the burpee exercise, I'm going to assume you've been languishing in a 10-year coma. Glad to have you back.

To catch you up, burpees in their most basic form involve a series of movements that take you from a standing position into a plank position, then back to standing again. Even beginner-level sequences and modifications can be physically taxing, but in the last few years, sadistic personal trainers have gotten a hold of the exercise and turned it into a fast-paced, often varied, plyometric torture mechanism used to brutalize clients into better shape.


The exercise is tough, no doubt, but as a certified exercise physiologist with a master's degree in exercise science, I can also attest that it's effective, seating it rightfully as the king of bodyweight moves. Here's why.

The burpee is incredibly efficient

Space, equipment, and time are three of the most common barriers to exercise, and the burpee makes fast work of knocking all of these excuses down. Burpees require no equipment, almost no space, and a strikingly short amount of time when performed as part of a high intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol.

In fact, Julia Buckley, a personal trainer and author of the book, The Fat Burn Revolution, points to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that compared the effectiveness of burpee interval training with sprint training on a bicycle, "This study compared the metabolic effects of high intensity cycling and rapid burpee reps performed in 30-second intervals. Both exercise protocols elicited similar cardiovascular responses, but unlike cycling, where most of the work is concentrated in the lower extremities, burpees elicit a similar cardiovascular response while simultaneously incorporating upper body and lower body strength training without any equipment required."

Pretty great, right? But that's not all.


The burpee works everything

Burpees don't just work your whole body, they require all your muscles to work together as a single unit as you perform the burpee movement pattern. Ultimately, this type of compound exercise series helps you develop strength, power, agility, and coordination.

Christian Koshaba, a trainer at Three60Fit Gym outside of Chicago told me, "Burpees work your entire kinetic chain, incorporating a multitude of functional movements from jump and squat, to deadlift, to push and press. With advanced modifications you can achieve movement in all planes of motion — side to side (frontal), forward and backward (sagittal), and twisting and rotation (transverse)."

This means with regular practice, burpees can help you move better as an athlete, and really, just as a human being. Don't you want to be a better human being?

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