What Are Burpees And How Can They Help?

Despite its name, burpees are a fairly intense workout that has the potential to improve a variety of muscular groups in the body. It is essentially a series of two movements performed quickly one after the other: a lunge and a squat. This type of exercise, when done consistently, can be exhausting but is really good for your body, especially if you're trying to increase your strength, endurance, cardio, or just burn off some calories.

How to do a burpee correctly

The easiest way to describe a burpee is to think of it as a push followed by a lunge. Here's how to do burpees correctly:

i) Lie on the bed with your knees bent and feet shoulder-width apart.

ii) Lower your hands and place them on your knees.

iii) Shifting your weight on your hands, move your legs back until your hands and toes are parallel and get into the lifting position.

iv) Keeping your body straight from head to toe, do push-ups. Remember not to arch your back and keep your hips toward the sky.

v) Return your legs to the starting position and perform a lunge.

vi) Stand up straight and raise your hands over your head.

vii) Quickly jump into the air to return to where you started.

viii) Bend your knees, return to a squatting position and repeat the exercise.

The Benefits of Burpees

Firstly, if your aim is to burn a few calories, here’s the basic math of it. According to Healthline, the average person takes around 2 - 3 seconds per burpee. It takes 100 burpees to burn half as many calories, meaning you can burn around 50 calories in 5 minutes.

Secondly, they are excellent as a resistance-building exercise or a calisthenics exercise. This involves building up the muscles in your arms, chest, shoulders and thighs using your body weight. Burpees are another type of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercise. A particular type of cardio session known as HIIT consists of brief intervals of very intense activity interspersed with short rest intervals. This is advised as research indicates that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an effective method of burning fat, particularly in the area around the stomach and belly.

The biggest benefit of burpees is that you don’t need any equipment to get started!. You just need your body weight and plenty of room to move. You can easily change the default burpee position if you want to change it too!