Burpees are one of the most amazing exercises on earth for building strength, fitness and cardiovascular endurance. Yet somehow, outside of the Bodyweight Workout enthusiast, the exercise remains largely under the radar. You seldom see people doing a Bodyweight Workout at the gym, but even when you do, someone knocking out sets of Burpees is a rarity. However, the Burpee is such an amazing exercise that it deserves to be up on a bodyweight exercise pedestal with pushups and pullups. It is that good.
Let’s look at the step by to step in how to perform a burpee:
- Stand straight with your feet hip width apart and let your arms hang down by your sides
- Lower into a squat position with your hands flat on the floor in front of you
- Kick your legs backwards into a press up position and lower your chest to the floor
- Push your chest back up to the press up position thrust both feet forward so you are back in the squat position
- Jump up and raise both hands over your head
- Repeat
As you can see by the picture above, and by the step by step, the burpee works out your entire body, providing a full Bodyweight Workout. It uses multiple compound movements to engage the muscles of your shoulders, chest, arms, butt, upper and lower legs, back and core. Aside from hitting almost every muscle in your body, its full range of motion allows for a good deal of active stretching as well, which promotes full body flexibility.
One of the greatest attributes of doing burpees though is how hard it works your cardiovascular system. Again, because of the multiple, quick, compound movements required in just one rep, your whole body must work hard, which means your lungs really have to pump.
The burpee’s ability to strength train, increase flexibility while also providing an amazing cardio workout not only makes it a great exercise, but also makes it an amazing Bodyweight Workout in its own right.
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