Try burpees for that full-body exercise
IF you like to jump into other people’s business then you’ve got the first burpee step down to a T, and you’ll be happy to know that the high-intensity exercise can give you a flat tummy too.
Workout developer Mesha-Gaye Wright says the full body-exercise is excellent for strength training, and women especially will see a myriad benefits, to include strengthening the muscles in the legs, hips, buttocks, abdomen, arms, chest and shoulders, and shrinking areas like the tummy.
“The burpee was actually invented in the 1930s and adopted as a fitness exercise for the army, so you can understand the intensity of the exercise, and many people even fear and despise it because it’s so intensive,” Wright said. “But it’s really a set of the most badass training you can do, and it involves movement that includes jumps, squats and push-ups done in repetitive motion.”
How to do it
Named for US physiologist Royal Huddleston Burpee, who created the exercise as part of his PhD thesis as a quick and simple fitness test to measure agility and coordination, the burpee was adopted by the US Army to assess the fitness level of recruits when the country entered World War II. At that point it was a four-point test; today, there are several variations, including the two-part variation that many people do — which is simply a push-up followed by a leap in the air.
“It may seem like a ton of work, especially if you are doing several burpees in succession, but imagine the immense benefits of this versatile exercise, especially if you’re looking to build strength and endurance while burning calories fast,” Wright said.
To do the standard burpee you:
1) Get in the squat position — knees bent, back straight, and feet shoulder-width apart.
2) Lower your hands to the floor, and place them in front of you, inside your feet.
3) Place your weight on your hands, then kick your feet back. You should at this time be on your hands and toes, and in a push-up position.
4) Do one push-up, while keeping your body straight from head to heels. Do not bend your back or stick your butt in the air.
5) Kick like a frog and jump on your feet, then stand with your arms above your head.
6) Jump quickly into the air, and land back where you started. You should land with knees bent, so get into the squat position and do another repetition.
“If you’re just starting out your trainer may adjust this a bit, and omit the push-up, so you would squat and then jump; or you could skip the jump and just do push-ups then squat. You could also skip the push-up and jump from squats, and repeat,” Wright said.
She explained that along with the obvious benefits, exercises like burpees improve heart health, regulate blood sugar, improve muscle function, improve circulation, lead to faster weight loss, and decrease your risk of early death that would have resulted from inactivity.
