Burpees Exercise
When one starts exercising, we naturally want to know which exercise will be of great help. In other words, we want an exercise which will work the entire body out. One such exercise is the Burpees exercise. According to the Oxford English dictionary, this exercise was named after an American psychologist Royal H. Burpee. He was the inventor of the Burpee test, which consisted of an exercise sequence. These exercises were to be performed right one after the other without a break. The aim of this test was to measure agility and coordination. However, it is not clear if Royal H. Burpee indeed was the inventor of the exercise.
Burpees Exercise Benefits
It has been named as one of the best full body exercise. This exercise is not only great for strength training, but it also a good aerobic exercise, which can be included in aerobic workouts. With every repetition, the arms, chest front deltoid muscle, thighs and hamstrings are worked out. It is also a great core exercise. Since there a number of jumps involved along with the intense workout, a high percentage of fat is burned. The calories burned with this exercise are 50% more than the regular strength training exercises. At the same time, this exercise helps in speeding up metabolism, which ensures more calories are burned, long after you have stopped exercising. This exercise helps in building endurance, therefore is often a part of endurance training. An advantage of this exercise is that one does not need any machine to do this exercise. It can easily be done at home, at the same time, even when you are traveling.
Burpees Technique
The technique to do the exercise is not easy to understand, but most people will find it difficult to do it. To do the exercise, stand with your feet right next to one another. Slowly come down into a squats position with your hands extended straight up in the air. Bend down and place both your hands in front of your legs. Once your hands are firmly grounded, jump up and kick your legs backward. You should now come into a position where your weight is balanced on your hands and feet and you are in a four limbed staff pose. Now press your hands again into the floor and lift your legs off the floor to jump back in front. Come back into a squat position with your arms extended back up. Stand straight, get into a squat and repeat the entire sequence. According to some, you do not stand straight, but from the squat, you jump back again. You can decide, which the best for you. You can also alternate between both the exercises.
Burpees Variations
Apart from the variations mentioned above, there are other variations of the exercise as well. The Burpees can also be done without push ups, and/or without jumps. For increasing the intensity of the exercise, you can opt for long jump Burpees, where you will jump forward and not upward. Another variation is to pull the knees towards the chest, when you are jumping. For endurance, you can try to do the Burpees over an obstacle. A variation similar to the Burpees with obstacle is to jump onto a box as opposed to jumping straight up and down. Athletes, who have been doing the Burpees for a long time, can choose to do them using just one hand. This exercise can also be done using a dumbbell. The person will have to hold dumbbells in both the hands. The next variation are the incline Burpees also known as wall Burpees. In this variation, you will have to jump so that your feet either land on the wall or on a table. Normally one does not do the four limbed staff pose, when one is doing the incline Burpees. In one variation of the Burpees, you do the push ups multiple times. Similarly you can jump back and forth a couple of times as well.
Now that you know the benefits of the Burpees exercise, along with the techniques and variation, when do you plan to start doing the exercise regularly? You can initially start off with 5 repetitions of the exercise and then gradually increase the number of repetitions. After you are accustomed to the exercise, you can try the different variations of the exercise as well.
