Everyday Systems

I couldn't think of a clever name. The exercise is called the burpee by most, the bastardo by some, and difficult by all who try it. There was some internet buzz on the burpee while back over a journal article in which prisoners in the California Correctional System or some such supposedly did burpees for strength and conditioning. I thought it was nothing more than an internet rumor, but grew intrigued with the exercise anyway. As I got acquainted with it, I began to really respect it. Later, I was watching an episode of the History Channel's "Gangland," and one CA prison gang leader actually described the burpee as important to training the gang's memebers. There are tons of Youtube vids of burpees, lots of articles, all just a google away, but here are some of the best:
http://www.geocities.com/rutgerseskrima/art_prison.html (this may be the first online article)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46VoSA-9Xd8 (burpees, manual labor, and Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs").

Here is the exercise:
stand comfortably w/arms at sides
drop down, placing hands on the floor
kick feet back so you are in the top position of a pushup
do a pushup
bring your feet back up
jump up, raising your arms over your head

That's one rep. There are some demos around of people doing insane amounts of these, some have extra steps and variations, and you can go a lot of wild places with the burpee. I really enjoy them.

Thanks, Storm!

I dimly remember seeing something about this as well, but these links are very compelling (and clear).

I do 2/3 of the component exercises already (squats and pushups), maybe time to add the combo...

What it proves is that you don't need any fancy equipment, not even a sledgehammer, to get into tremendous shape. And it doesn't even take much time (or space). Anyone here able to do 14 solid minutes of these? (rhetorical question, I hope)

Reinhard

Burpees are pure, hell-spawned evil, and unfortunately they require a shoulder endurance that I have yet to develop, otherwise I would be using them regularly.

Yeah, I totally underestimated the burpee until, for mere variety's sake, started doing them. As any fool would, I thought, "hey, I'm tough, how hard can it be?"
I rolled the Workout Randomizer (thanks, Dan John), and apparently I'm doing burpees for intervals of 1 minute on/1 off for 14 min tomorrow morning. Half my bodyweight exercise days are circuits of pullups/pushups/squats, and the other half are different burpee workouts.

Reinhard, I think it is more than possible to do these for 14 min, but just like running for 14 min, it would involve a good deal of pacing. Those prisoners were doing them at a rather deliberate pace, but I have seen some scary burpee feats on youtube.

Burpees seem healthier for my easily-strained pectorals and my testy knees than doing pushup or squat reps individually.

Loved the Mike Rowe video.

--david

These are BETTER on bad knees?

Seriously? I'd like to try them, but I'm still recouperating an injured knee.

This morning I drove at it decently hard, doing burpee intervals of 1 min on/1 min off. Pretty rough work indeed. I got 91 reps in 14 min. Long way to go, I know. Once the gut is burned off, I think I'll be doing better.

Finnigan wrote:These are BETTER on bad knees?

Seriously? I'd like to try them, but I'm still recouperating an injured knee.

Doing 10 burpees is easier on my knees than doing 10 deck squats or 10 hindu squats. Not sure why.

--david