The first time I ever heard of a burpee was whilst I was reading the book, Solitary Fitness by Charles Bronson.
No, Charles Bronson in this case is no relation to the late actor – this guy is actually Britain’s longest held prisoner (unfairly in my opinion) and many might also call him Britain’s most violent prisoner.
Yet beneath the veneer of a quick temper lies a man who has developed both mind and body whilst living in a solitary prison cell. His book is very interesting and full of simple bodybuilding exercises that you can do without any formal equipment.
Back to burpees – I remember him talking a great deal about them as a great form of exercise.
Burpees look like a push up followed by a jump in the air and then returning to a push up and repeating the entire process. It takes a little coordination to perfect but what will follow is a very fast and explosive type of exercise that is guaranteed to burn a ton of calories.
You can see why Charles is a big fan of it because it can be used in combined spaces without any equipment, however it is also used by many sportsmen too (particular those in mixed martial arts). By the way, Charles does 2,500 push ups every day and also holds several world records!!
There are many variations of this exercise such as the classic squat thrust, the explosive burpee, the man-maker and more. I found a great article here on the many variations possible:
Many people also try out different challenges such as the 100 Burpee Challenge which is a challenge to see how quickly you can do 100 repetitions. This can vary depending on how much you weight and how tall you are but the best athletes can get a time of just over 5 minutes which is very difficult indeed.
Here is a good video showing how to do a burpee:
Also check out Charles’ book here: