The burpee is a squat to the floor, a plank, usually a push-up, and a jump back to standing, repeated until you are breathing hard. It is conditioning that needs no equipment and no space, and it gets your heart rate up faster than almost anything else because it moves your whole body up and down each rep.
How to do it
- Chest to the floor, then stand up fully — both ends count.
- Step back instead of jumping if the knees or the pace demand it.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the full stand at the top when the set gets hard.
What it trains
- Quads
- drive the stand-up and the jump — the biggest single contributor and the reason it is so tiring
- Chest and triceps
- do the push-up half, and it is the half people quietly drop when the set gets hard
- Glutes
- extend the hip for the jump at the top of each rep
- Abs
- hold the plank position so the hips do not sag as you kick the feet back
- Heart and lungs
- the actual training target once you get past about ten reps
Variations and alternatives
Common questions
How many burpees should I do?
Short sets with real rest beat one long grind — five to ten reps, several rounds, stopping while the movement still looks like a burpee. Sets of fifty mostly train you at doing bad burpees, because the push-up disappears and the landing gets sloppy long before you run out of will.
Can I do burpees without the push-up or the jump?
Yes, and it is the sensible way in. Step the feet back instead of jumping them, skip the push-up, and stand up rather than jumping — that is a full burpee minus the two parts that need the most control, and you can add each one back when it is easy.
Are burpees good for fat loss?
They are good cardio, which helps, but no single exercise does it on its own. What burpees are genuinely good at is getting a hard conditioning effect in a small space with nothing to set up — so they survive travel weeks and home sessions when nothing else does.
Why do my wrists hurt doing burpees?
Usually from landing hard on flat hands at the bottom of each rep. Place the hands rather than slapping them down, spread your fingers and take some weight through the fingertips, or put your hands on two dumbbells so the wrist stays straight.
In StackUp. Logged as reps per set. Add weight if you use a belt or a dumbbell and StackUp progresses it like any other lift. Get the app.
Full body
