Anyone who has exercised within a CrossFit or Functional Fitness facility or knows any person that has trained in those facilities has heard this before. I hate burpees. Burpees are the worst. Who even thought of burpees. What's the point other than to make our lives miserable? Well let's explore the question of why burpees?
Where did it start?
The burpee was named after a physiologist, Royal H. Burpee and it was designed as a quick way to assess fitness. It was popularized during the 1940s to assess new recruits into the US Military during WWII.
History lesson over. Your next question is - “Why do we even have to do Burpees?”
To put it as simply as possible, there is no better full body exercise out there to test all round fitness. They make you stronger, fitter and with each rep you are using your arms, chest, quads, glutes and hamstrings. Simply put, no functional fitness program worth its salt won't have some form of burpees included.
Burpees are also very versatile in their ability to be scaled to every person's abilities and or movement limitations.
That's all you ask. And do we really need to do them every week?
Yes we do. We incorporate burpees into our program not just for the fitness aspect. There is a mental aspect to them as well. You are aware when you train at our facility that there will be burpees sometime during the course of each week.
Whether you loathe them or just experience mild hate feelings towards them, you know they are coming. So at some point you’ll have to face the reality that it's going to happen. When you get to the gym and the dreaded burpee makes its appearance you also have to deal with completing said burpees.
What people don't realise is that you are indirectly also working on your mental game. If you can show up and do the burpees every week, then you can put that same mental strength to any other difficult challenge in your daily life. Struggling to cut down on sugar in your diet? Attack it like you would a burpee. Hands on floor - jump back - lie down - jump in - jump up!
Start to seek out burpees. Attack the things that make you uncomfortable and you'll see how you start to enjoy it more and seek out new challenges.
Long story short - burpees are here to stay. Not just for this reason that your coach can have a giggle at your expense, but they are excellent physical and mental tools used in fitness programs to make you a better and stronger version of yourself.
Stay Safe!
Coach F
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