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Health & Fitness

What's a Burpee?

Looking to get in shape? Try this exercise.

Weekend Challenge:  Run three miles at moderate pace; 50 burpees; Run three miles for time; 50 burpees.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The burpee is a full body exercise used in strength training and as aerobic exercise. It is performed in five steps:

  1. Begin in a standing position.
  2. Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground.
  3. Kick your feet back while lowering yourself with a pushup.
  4. Return your feet to the squat position while straightening your arms.
  5. Leap up as high as possible from the squat position with your arms overhead

 

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VARIANTS

Less challenging variants

  • Non-jump burpee -The athlete returns to the standing position without leaping off the ground.
  • Knee push-up burpee - The athlete bends their knees and rests them on the ground while performing the push up.

 

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More challenging variants

  •  Long-jump burpee - The athlete jumps forward, not upward.
  • Tuck-jump burpee - The athlete pulls their knees to their chest (tucks) at the peak of the jump.
  • Jump-over burpee - The athlete jumps over an obstacle between burpees.
  • Box-jump burpee  - The athlete jumps onto a box, rather than straight up and down.
  • One-armed burpee - The athlete uses only one arm for the whole exercise including the pushup.
  • Dumbbell burpee  - The athlete holds a pair of dumbbells while performing the exercise.
  • Hindu push up burpee-  Instead of a regular push up, do a hindu push up.
  • Pull-up burpee - Combine a pull-up with the jump or do a pull-up instead of the jump.

Other variants
Wall / incline / air burpee 
The athlete kicks his feet up against a wall / up on a table / up in the air, instead of back. Usually, these variants are performed without a pushup.


Origin
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the exercise was named in the 1930s for American psychologist Royal H. Burpee, who developed the Burpee test. Consisting of a series of the exercises performed in rapid succession, the test was meant to measure agility and coordination. It is not clear whether the exercise itself was invented by Burpee, or if his test merely popularized it.

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