What Is A Burpee And How Did It Get That Name?

Currently I am teaching a session-based yoga and fitness series here on Kauai where I offer the women weekly challenges. This not only encourages a consistent practice, cultivates a deeper and more intimate connection with ourselves, but also reaps great fitness and well being results.

One of my challenges last week included “burpees.” One of my friends in class commented on my Facebook page, “What is a burpee? Or are you just making sure we are reading this.” (Hehe, I loved this comment!)
So, to answer this question here I would say, “Yes, burpees are for real, and they are an amazing exercise!”

Below I will list some of the benefits of this exercise and offer you a fitness routine where you will cycle through 50 burpees for an incredible workout that is fast and effective!

The Common Burpees

Burpees can be done in low impact for a beginner, or high impact for a more seasoned fitness fanatic. I show both versions in this short and descriptive video where I touch base on a couple places where you should really be conscious of your alignment. This will allow your burpees to support you in becoming stronger, not injured.

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Perks Of Da Burpee

Burpees are such an effective exercise because it is a full body exercise. It also:

builds great upper body strength
uses only body weight, no equipment required!
gets heart rate going when done repetitively
works both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers

50 Burpees

I am challenging my class this week to do 50 burpees during one of our home practices. The cycle looks like this:

10 Burpees, take a short rest, a few breaths or whatever you need

9 Burpees, take a short rest

8 Burpees, take a short rest

7 Burpees, …

You got the rhythm. Continuing to 1 to complete a total of 50 burpees! Feeling fired up? Climb back up the mountain, starting at 1 and going back up to 10 to complete a total of 100 burpees!