Performing a Burpee is one of the most challenging exercise and a full body workout. Burpees will provide muscle building, fat reduction and improvement in the fitness level. Burpees exercise the whole body at once, that’s why there are so many physical benefits by performing these exercises regularly. Almost all areas of the body are strained directly and simultaneously. That’s why Burpee is a very tough but very effective exercise.
How to Perform a Burpee
Warm up before starting the burpee, as all the muscles are going to get a lot of impact.
Start in a standing position
Drop into a squat
Put your hands on the ground and jump into plank
Perform a push up
Jump back into squat
Jump up arms up
Benefits of Burpees for Runners
Strength
Burpees will help improve the overall strength of the body. This exercise targets the upper body like arms, chest, upper back, torso throughout the push up. It also targets the lower body like the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, hips and glutes during the squat up/down movement and jump.
Speed
Burpees are so difficult as you aim to perform them at a reasonably fast pace. If you perform burpees slowly, you won’t get as many benefits if you perform them quickly. You can add speed to every part of the Burpee, from jumping down into plank, to how quickly you do the pushup, to how quickly you jump back into squat and jump up. If you really want to push yourself, calculate how many you can perform in one minute, then try to do a couple more in the next session.
Endurance
Burpees are so effective for increasing your cardio endurance and your muscular endurance. This exercise is so efficient for runners, and especially long-distance runners, Burpees recruit a very high number of fast-twitch muscles fibers. Training those fibers allows runners to keep on going. Normal running training doesn’t recruit the same amount of fibers, so it inhibits performance. Burpees are a combination of resistance and cardio training, which triggers both aerobic and anaerobic responses from the body. That is why Burpees are so effective for increasing the fitness level.
Fat Loss
Due to the stop-start nature, Burpees are part of the HIIT (high intensity interval training) category. Some research found that HIIT is one of the most effective training to burn fat. Performing Burpees will burn a significant amount of energy, and you will continue to burn energy after the workout (afterburn effect), for hours after the workout, due to the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, the EPOC effect.
Performance
Burpees also drastically improve overall performance. Many runners notice large improvements in performance after a few weeks of Burpees and HIIT workouts. Burpees will increase strength and endurance, improve reaction, coordination skills, and muscle resilience in a short time. Due to the complex sequence of movements and the intense stress put on large muscle groups while performing Burpees, other exercises like pushups and squats will be easier to perform. In addition, the cardiovascular system and the functioning of the lungs will benefit greatly. During an intense Burpee workout, your muscles will be in their anaerobic range. Respiration and blood circulation are in overdrive, working hard to compensate for the lack of oxygen in the muscles, so it will also be exercised with each Burpee. Performing Burpees will have so many benefits for runners as it will increase the elevation and sprinting strength and power, everything will get easier and stronger and faster.
Enjoy Burpees, Run Faster and Stronger!
Video Burpees- 22 Variations:
