Oh for the Love of Burpees | www.obstacleobsessed.co.za

For those of you unfortunate enough to have been forced into more than 10 burpees at a time, I’m sure you’ve felt that SEETHING hatred for the exercise and whichever military fart who created it.  Funny thing is, it’s actually an extremely effective full body workout that starts showing its effects fairly quickly…

It was created in 1933 by physiotherapist Royal H.Burpee (yes, his surname was in fact Burpee).  He was a World War 1 veteran who designed these in order to test the readiness of soldiers conditioning for the coming of World War 2.  After that it has been used and is still being used in bootcamps (not the girly ‘lets-have-a-ten-minute-rest-while-we-sip-from-our-vodka-infused-cocacola-thermos bootcamps, the real deal tire you, burn you and break you bootcamps).

Embrace the burpee into your reguar workout routines.  It’s an exercise for a full range of athletes from the couch potatos to elite military forces to obstacle racers.  Here are some straight forward benefits of doing burpees that’ll have you on the floor burpeeing before you’ve had a chance to finish reading.

• Burpees are a major calory burner – it is an all over muscular and cardiovascular workout that burns up to 50%  more fat than other exercises.
• Good news ladies, it kicks up your metabolism so if you do them in the morning, you’ll be burning fat all day.
• It’s a great strength training and conditioning exercise.  Burpees work out several muscles in your body because of its triple action movement.
• IT’S CHEAP!  At last, for those of us who hate forking out cash for exercise, here is one that won’t cost you a penny.  You can do it just about anywhere – in a park, at home on your lawn or even in a hotel room (just try to keep the grunting to a minimum, we don’t want them thinking we’re doing something untoward).

Here’s a how to of burpeeing for those of you who have seen other people doing them, and probably laughed, but are warming up to the idea:

STEP 1 Start from a standing position, arms at your side.  Bend your legs, bringing your knees to your chest while lowering your hands to the floor just in front of your feet (shoulders length apart)

STEP 2 At this point you should be in a squatting position.  Now jump your feet out straight behind you and land in a lowered push up position.

STEP 3 Push your upperbody up using your arms at full extension while jumping your feet back to a squat.

STEP 4 Jump straight up in the air, raising your arms extended into the air above you will allow for a slight stretch before lowering into the next burpee.
So next time you’re in the middle of an obstacle race doing compulsory burpees and thinking WHYYYY MEEEE…just think of all the awesome benefits your getting from it.  And remember, we don’t just exercise to get fit, we also do it to look sexy as hell naked!  Now drop and give me 20!!!