Burpees are a great exercise that works your entire body.
Let’s not kid ourselves though, burpees are really not fun to do. In fact, they pretty much suck.
Many people would rate them right at the top of the list of least desirable exercises along with thrusters and wall balls.
That being said some people actually do like burpees. Whether they are naturally good at burpees and don’t get tired out as easily or they are sick and sadistic and just enjoy the pain that a good burpee workout can bring burpee lovers truly do exist, and this article is for them.
While many people reading this article know what a burpee is some of may not. And, to be honest, some of you who think you know what a burpee is may be incorrect so we are going to tell you our definition of a burpee.
A burpee is pretty simple. From a standing position with your feet shoulder width apart you squat down then place your hands on the floor and kick your feet back to end up in a push-up position. Now go down so that your chest and belly touch the ground. Then return to a push-up position and jump your feet back up so they land next to your hands and stand up with your arms overhead and clap and jump. Then repeat.
I know all that might be a bit tough to follow so I have attached the video below to make it much simpler. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth ten thousand. This video should help a lot.
While some people may consider doing the motion without touching their belly and chest to the ground we don’t count that as a burpee. You must touch your belly/chest to the ground for it to count. If you can’t do that you have no business doing any of the workouts in this article.
Benefits of the Burpee
While people may hate the burpee there is almost no one that says it is a bad exercise. There are many benefits that come with doing the burpees.
These benefits include:
They burn fat and calories like crazy
They build endurance
Burpees can be done anywhere, no gym needed
They build strength
They work your entire body
They build speed
After looking at all of these benefits it is hard to deny that burpees are a great exercise to be doing. It doesn’t make them any more fun to be doing but there is a great benefit to be doing them. Now let’s get to the workouts.
5 Brutal Burpee Workouts
These burpee workouts will have you hating life, you have been warned.
#1 100 Burpees for Time
How it’s done: Do 100 burpees as fast as possible
Doing 100 burpees as fast as possible can be brutal. I have done this workout a couple times and every time I ask myself why I decided to torture myself. This usually happens at around the 50 burpee mark when you realize how tired you are and that you are only halfway done. Then you struggle through the last 50 and wish you had never decided to do this workout.
This one is a challenge due to the number of burpees and because if the monotony. It’s just burpees and more burpees, nothing else.
If you want to feel out of shape check out the video below of Danila Shokhin doing 100 burpees in 3 minutes and 23 seconds, I would be happy if I could 100 burpees in double that time.
#2 The Burpee Mile
How it’s done: Run 1 mile while doing 5 burpees every minute on the minute starting with 5 burpees at the beginning.
You will obviously need to be outdoors for this one, although I suppose you could likely do this workout with a treadmill but that might be more trouble than it’s worth.
Doing this workout at a track would be ideal but you could do it anywhere so long as you know how far it is for 1 mile.
Be prepared for this one to take a while and be prepared to really be sucking wind as well.
#3 Death By Burpees
With a name like that you know it isn’t going to be pleasant.
How it’s done: Death by burpees is pretty simple. You start a timer and do 1 burpee the first minute, 2 burpees the second minute, 3 burpees the third minute and so on until you get to a point where you can no longer complete burpees for the number of minutes on the timer
As you can imagine the first 5 minutes of this workout aren’t bad but that doesn’t last long. By the 10 minute mark, you will be huffing and puffing and wishing you had more recovery time before the next minute began.
# 4 The 12 Burpees Per Minute Challange
How it’s done: Do 12 burpees per minute for as many minutes as you can.
If you are not in very good shape this workout won’t last long but it will suck. If you are in good shape this workout will last a bit longer and will suck a lot more.
If you can do this one for 20 minutes you are in some seriously good shape.
#5 The Open 12.1
How it’s done: Do as many burpees as you can in 7 minutes.
This one is a classic CrossFit Open WOD from 2012. 7 Minutes of burpees, do as many as you can as fast as you can.
In this open event, Scott Panchick did 161 in 7 minutes for first place. If you can do anything close to that consider yourself godlike.
Let’s Wrap it Up
There you have 5 brutal burpee workouts that will make you wish you were never born. Unless you are one of those people that just love burpees, in which case you will be in burpee heaven doing these workouts. Feel free to post your results from any of these workouts below or post other burpee workouts we should include.
Ryan is a former college wrestler and lifelong fitness fanatic. He has run half marathons, done mud runs, placed in body transformation contests, coached wrestling, and now coaches girls’ soccer. Not to mention he has also tried literally hundreds of supplements over the years and has a vast and thorough supplement knowledge. He has written for Muscle & Strength, Testosterone Junkie, The Sport Review and other publications. He is also the editor-in-chief of this website and has over 25 years of experience in the fitness industry. Feel free to connect with him on his LinkedIn page below.
