Remember burpees? Probably from gym class, unless you’ve taken a boot camp fitness class recently.

Burpees are … not our favorite thing to do. But they are effective, and they work a lot of major muscle groups, as well as calling on smaller muscles for stabilization. And they raise our heart rate, too, but we’re not sure that’s an intended benefit.

1. Start by standing with your feet a little wider than shoulder distance apart.
2. Squat into a frog-like stance, planting your hands inside your feet.
3. Jump your feet back, so you’re in a plank position (the “up” pose of a push-up).
4. Do a pushup. If you need to put your knees down to do a pushup, that’s okay. Make sure you have good form.
5. Jump your feet back up to your hands, so your knees are outside of your arms.
6. Stand up. (Or jump up.)

That’s one. (And one is a lot of work! But it’s working for you… for your body and for your health. Think about the benefits. Think about being strong and powerful.)

Start with three sets of eight burpees. Build up from there!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 12th, 2011 at 3:07 am and is filed under Exercise and fitness, Fitness Friday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.