Ahhh, burpees: the full-body exercise that hurts so good.
If you’ve been following my blog (or any CrossFit news), you know the CrossFit Open has begun. The first workout was posted last week, and it was: AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of burpees in 7 minutes. Go here to check out a crazy demo video.
Two hardcore CrossFit women doing the Burpee WOD
Being the naïve go-getter that I am, I went into this workout with bushy-tailed excitement. I’ve always loved burpees because they are challenging and painful. And, to me, anything worth doing for fitness is going to be painful. Pain (the healthy muscle-exhaustion type of pain) and challenging yourself is what gets you results. If it’s easy, what’s the point?
If you live by this school of thought as well, take on this CrossFit Open 7 minute workout. You’ll love it and hate it at the same time. Burpees are an incredible full body exercise; they are great for improving both strength and cardiovascular fitness when done for an extended period of time. For anaerobic conditioning, do them at a high intensity for shorter intervals with rest in between so your heart rate can slow down and recover before you start back up again. Either way, if you’re bored with running, biking, rowing, or swimming and want a change, throw some burpees in the mix!
In the spirit of promoting full-body functional fitness, here are 3 more high intensity workouts with burpees in them. Make sure you warm up before your workout and stretch afterwards; you’ll need to!
Workout #1
3 rounds of:
800m run
12 knees to elbows
15 burpees
1 min plank
Workout #2
Climb the ladder (from 10-1 reps, and back up):
Push ups*
Kettlebell swings
Pull ups (Jumping pull ups if necessary)
Burpees
*Make push ups more challenging by elevating your feet on a bosu ball or box
Workout #3
25-20-15-10 for time:
Jump lunges
Superman back extensions
Wall balls
Burpees*
*Make burpees more challenging by jumping up onto a box
Train hard,
Steph
steph@hitclubfitness.com
Twitter: @hitclubfitness
