Intensifying The Burpee
September 1, 2010 by Admin: Joe Hashey, CSCS
Filed under Strength Training
Hello. My name is Jedd Johnson and I am a strength coach and co-founder of the Diesel Crew. At Diesel, we are dedicated to helping our athletes achieve beyond their potential.
When it comes to conditioning for sports, Burpees are an excellent choice. Even though they are a bodyweight exercise, they are very intense.
If you’re not sure of how to do a how to do a Burpee, this is the sequence:
- 1. Begin in a standing position
- 2. Move into a push-up position by dropping to the hands and moving the feet back
- 3. Perform a push-up
- 4. Pop the feet forward
- 5. Return to the standing position and perform a jump
Burpees are a great movement for athletes to perform. I work mostly with baseball players, so I like them because they are similar in movement to many facets of baseball, such as like leaping for a line-drive, catching a high throw from the outfield, or diving for a line-drive.
Because they involve dropping to the ground and then quickly recovering to the standing position, Burpees are also very close to the baseball situation of diving for a groundball and then quickly getting back to your feet to throw out a runner.
Burpees in their natural form are great, but I have found many ways to make them more challenging and rewarding. Here are some of the ways to intensify the Burpee, not only for baseball players, but for athletes in all sports.
Ways to Modify Burpees
- 1. Load the athlete (vest)
- 2. Take away a point of stability (leg)
- 3. Emphasize one or more components of the movement (push-up)
- 4. Add stimuli to the movement that do not exist normally (holding something)
- 5. And many more.
So, with these ideas in mind, here are a handful of ways to make the Burpee even more intense.
Video 1 – Diesel Burpees – Upper Body Emphasis
Video 2 – Diesel Burpees – Lower Body Emphasis
These are just the beginning of the ways you can modify Burpees to increase their difficulty, the challenge level, and the coolness of the exercise.
For more ways to modify the Burpee, I have two more videos for you.
One is at the site I co-operate with my buddy Smitty at DieselCrew.com. Go here to check it out = > Diesel Burpees – Various Random Modifications for Athletes.
I have a complete training videos designed for baseball players at the new Baseball site I just recently launch. You can see it here = > How to Modify the Burpee for Baseball Players.
In closing, I just want to say Thanks to Joe for the opportunity to write for his site again. Want more? You might be interested in viewing Common Grip Training Mistakes
Keep up the good work and all the best,
-Jedd-
PS. Do you burpee? Post up any burpee thoughts in the comments for Jedd!!!
Jedd is a strength coach in Bradford County Pennsylvania. Check out his strength training blog at DieselCrew.com and Ultimate Baseball Training Manual.
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The burpee is one of the best exercises that an athlete can do anywhere! These are some great variations! Thanks for sharing Jedd!
Jedd,
Nice article mate. I use the burpee mostly for a conditioning and warm-up protocol for my athletes. I utilise the push-up component during the warm-up but if I’m using it for conditioning or even a challenge (ie. 100 burpees in shortest time) then I cut the push-up out cos most ppl fatigue on the push-up quickly and lose the speed/conditioning part of the burpee. I rate doing burpee into pullups also. Outside of physical conditioning, it’s great for spatial awareness…knowing where the pull-up bar is above you after having just done your burpee. Big thing I always look for is core stability (no sagging) and jumping back with both feet (not walking the legs back). Getting those components right keep the movement explosive. Did 100 on the beach today. Was awesome followed by a swim.
Matt, I agree with the burpee warm up, I toss a few in on each day for my guys!
Joe
RT @jhashey: Intensifying The Burpee http://www.synergy-athletics.com/effecti...
joe and jedd,
want to thank you guys for the sharing of information !! just when you think that you have seen everything to do with a burpee, you guys show me a couple of variations that i have not seen.
thanks again guys !!
house
That burpee-renegade row should be illegal… I´m sore just by watching it… I´m so gonna try it out tonight
Jedd/Joe
What I love about this post is that fact I have just created a burpee variation video, just in the throws of editing it and has none of the variations that Jedd has demonstrated apart from a push up burpee.
This is my favourite all round conditioning exercise, it is so versatile, it hurts and it works. Too many people shy away from it, I just continue to look for different ways of doing it. My Med ball variation is doing the push up with both hands on the ball and then jumping up holding it.
Love the clapping and renegade row variations, they will be added to my list.
Cheers Guys
Dean
How very cool! Now which one should I try first? Heheheheheh
NICE!!!!
Joe and Jedd thank you for some new ideas. I like to also do an alternating jumping lunge, jumping knee tuck, jumping knee tuck lunge, and a quarter squat into jump for some lower leg emphasis. A variation that I also like for upper body is a plyo hand switching push up, spider-man push up, x-knee cross push up, and for the really hard core single arm push up. I also like taking the renegade row and adding on either an alternating press or a strait press with either a db or kb.
I first saw how fun the Burpie might be at Gym Junkies (Vic’s website). Then, I was hooked. My conditioning soared, and my bodyfat MELTED off. It is the standard movement for conditioning, and I appreciate the new ways to approach it. There were movements here in the video I’d never even thought of.
These are all Great variations of burpees! I will definitely try some of these variations myself! I also like using a light keg for Snatch burpees as well as clean and jerk burpees. You can also throw a push up in between in you like! Push ups on the keg are very unstable since the keg wants to roll up or down while you are doing the push up.