Most people have a love/hate relationship with burpees. We hate them because they challenge us and they are sooo hard, right? We love them because they're done! Haha.
Burpees are an incredible exercise that combines strength, endurance and functionality.
1. Strength: It targets every single muscle group, over and over, and over. Your legs, arms, chest, back and core. Everything is getting worked. Even when modified, there is no group of muscles getting out of the work on this move.
2. Endurance: The repetition of moving down and up, down and up helps build endurance. It doesn't take long at all to feel the heart rate increase and the body to warm up. Just one minute of burpees will have you breaking a sweat.
3. Functionality: The burpee can be broken down into three parts: the squat, the plank, the rise. Each part benefits the way we move in every day life.
Squats help us to tie our shoes, pick up our children or pets, get up off the toilet, fill up your tires, pick up your suitcase...
Planks make it easier to look under the bed for something, put your carry-on in the overhead bin, stand up and sit up straight, prevent back pain, hold laundry baskets...
The rise increases our ability to get up off the ground after playing with the kids or having fallen, be ready to move quickly out of the way if needed...
I love how practical this exercise is, even though it is really hard to get excited when I see it on the workout plan.
How do you feel about burpees?
