Burpees Exercise for Beginners

Burpees exercise is one of those movements that are instantly challenging. Burpees are a full-body combination exercise that improves strength, power, and cardio fitness. A small dose of burpees can have big fitness advantages, but this exercise isn’t winning any popularity contests.  

Let’s take the intimidation factor out of burpees by breaking down its four basic movements so that you can discover how to add burpees to your fitness routine.  

Burpees Exercise Basic Movements

You often see people in the gym performing burpees as a fast, explosive exercise, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Let’s explore how the four burpees exercise basic movements to perform the exercise safely and effectively to prevent injury and get the most out of the movement.  

Move 1: Squat 

The burpee movement begins with a squat. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Press your hips down and back as if you were going to sit in a chair. Once your thighs have lowered to the point where they are almost parallel to the floor, start to reach your hands down to move into the second movement, a plank position.  

Move 2: Plank 

Beginners can use a tabletop plank position during a burpee. The tabletop is where your wrists are directly under your shoulders, and your knees are on the ground under your hips.  

If your wrists cannot tolerate a plank pose, simply move your forearms to the ground to support your body weight. Your elbows should be placed on the floor directly underneath your shoulders. You still get the same benefit of a plank without straining your wrists.  

To progress this movement, move your knees back to support your weight until your head, neck, and hips are all in a straight line, but your knees are on the ground.  

Continue to make the pose more advanced by lifting the knees up off the ground and supporting your weight in the balls of your feet, similar to the start of a mountain climber.  

Move 3: Push Up 

Continue the burpee exercise by lowering yourself into a pushup. Using your arms, lower your chest toward the floor in a controlled manner.  

Though the pushup component is optional, most “traditional” burpees include some type of push-up movement. A burpee without a push-up is called a half burpee.  

Half Burpee

A half burpee modification works well for beginners as you build the upper body strength for push-ups. This is done when you walk (or jump) your feet out into a plank and then walk your feet back to a squat without the push-up.  

Move 4: Jump 

The final movement of a burpee is a jump. You start the jump movement from a plank position. A good place to introduce this movement is with a step up. Instead of jumping your feet to your hands, simply walk or step one foot at a time and rise to a squat position.  

From the squat position, jump into the air with your hands raised over your head. Once you land back into a squat position, that completes the full series of movements that make up a burpee.  

You can reduce the intensity of the movement by eliminating the jump but still raising your hands over your head as you squat.  

If you cannot do the jump, adding a dumbbell is another way to increase the exercise intensity.  

Dumbbell Burpees  

Dumbbell burpees are done when you hold dumbbells in your hands as you place them on the ground and step back into a plank move. You can choose to add a pushup to a dumbbell burpee but not perform the jump.  

How Often to Do Burpees 

Burpees are a combination exercise that combines strength and endurance and can be incorporated into any strength or circuit training class. Though, you don’t need to do burpees daily to get the benefit. According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults should do weekly strength training sessions. 

Add a single set of 8 to 10 repetitions of burpees to your strength routine. You can gradually increase the number of repetitions or the number of sets to your routine. Additionally, you could set a timer to try burpees for 30 seconds, then progress to a couple of minutes.  

Benefits of Burpees 

The combination of movements in a burpee exercise challenges all the major muscle groups in the arms, legs, and core. 

Sports researchers used a 3-minute burpee test to accurately depict an athlete’s lower body power and strength, as well as upper body strength and anaerobic fitness. However, you don’t need to be an athlete to add burpees to your routine now that you know the basic components of a burpee movement and how you can make the exercise work for you.  

Remember to check with your health care practitioner before starting this or any exercise program. 

References 

1. Yang YJ. An Overview of Current Physical Activity Recommendations in Primary Care. Korean J Fam Med. 2019;40(3):135-142. doi:10.4082/kjfm.19.0038.

2.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Washington (DC): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2008. [Accessed May 2, 2023].

3. Tai JQJ, Wong SF, Chow SKM, Choo DHW, Choo HC, Sahrom S, Aziz AR. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022; 19(10):5928. doi:10.3390/ijerph19105928.