Badass Burpee Variations

It’s the exercise everyone loves to hate — and it’s easy to come up with an excuse not to do them. But here’s why burpees should be a part of any bodyweight workout: Burpees hit every major muscle group in the body, amp up your cardiorespiratory fitness, torch 50 percent more body fat than moderate exercise, and they don’t require a single piece of equipment. Plus, if you go all-out, you can complete a full-body workout in mere minutes!

Think about it — with every rep, you work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings and abs, making the burpee the ultimate in strength training. They are so efficient that when researchers at The College of New Jersey compared burpees to free weights, they found that a bodyweight burpee workout was significantly more metabolically demanding than a traditional session with moderately heavy weights — and that translates to faster results.

Whether you add a few burpees to your normal workout or design your very own Tabata-type workout, here’s the 411 on burpee basics.

Need more of a challenge? Try these variations!

Box-Jump Burpee

• Stand in front of a bench or plyo box with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Quickly lower into a squat position with your hands on the floor slightly in front of your feet.
• Jump your feet back into a plank position and perform one push-up.
• Jump your feet back toward your hands so you are in a low squat.
• Perform one box jump. With your knees bent slightly, jump up onto the bench or box and land lightly on the top.
• Step down and repeat.

The Mountain-Climber Burpee

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Quickly lower into a squat position with your hands on the floor slightly in front of your feet.
• Jump your feet back into a plank position.
• Perform five mountain climbers by quickly bringing one knee up to your chest while keeping the other leg extended.
• Alternate your legs. That’s one mountain climber.
• Jump your feet back toward your hands so you are in a low squat.
• Then jump straight up, exploding from your heels and raise your hands over your head.
• Repeat, keeping your core tight and focusing on your form.

Candlestick Burpee

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Quickly lower into a squat position with your hands on the floor slightly in front of your feet.
• Jump your feet back into a plank position and perform one push-up.
• Roll onto your back, beginning with your glutes and ending with your shoulders, keeping your knees tucked into your chest.
• Roll from your shoulders back to a standing position.
• Jump straight up, exploding from your heels and raise your hands over your head.
• Repeat, keeping your core tight and focusing on your form.

Lunge-Jump Burpee

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Quickly lower into a squat position with your hands on the floor slightly in front of your feet.
• Jump your feet back into a plank position and perform one push-up.
• Jump your feet back toward your hands so you are in a low squat.
• Stand up straight, then jump into a lunge. Lower your body until your forward thigh is parallel to the ground and your back knee is almost touching the ground. Then explode back up and alternate leg positions in the air.
• Return to your starting position and repeat, keeping your core tight and focusing on your form.

The Standard Burpee

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Quickly lower into a squat position with your hands on the floor slightly in front of your feet.
• Jump your feet back into a plank position and perform one push-up.
• Jump your feet back toward your hands so you are in a low squat.
• Then jump straight up, exploding from your heels and raise your hands over your head.
• Repeat, keeping your core tight and focusing on your form.