BeWOW: The Ultimate Burpee Challenge

Our latest Be Well Workout of the Week.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

This week, let’s do some burpees. Lots of burpees. I know it sounds painful, but focus on this: Afterward, you’ll be so stinkin’ happy and proud that you tackled this week’s workout challenge.

If you don’t know what a burpee is, here’s an explanation: Start standing up, then put your hands on the ground, jump your feet back to a push-up position, collapse all the way to the ground, then press yourself back up, jumping your feet in wide beside your hands, and stand up. It’s basically like an up-down in football. Need a visual? Check this out.

Here’s your burpee-filled—or should I say fun-filled?—workout this week. Start with 20 burpees, then do the circuit of exercises below. On round two, you’ll tackle, 18 burpees before moving on to the exercise circuit. Then it’s 16 burpees followed by the circuit, and so on until you do two burpees and one final set of the exercises. Oh, and in case you were wondering, that’s 110 burpees total. Good luck!

BeWOW: The 110-Burpee Challenge
Begin each circuit with burpees, following this pattern: 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2

Then, tackle these exercises:
10 squat jumps
10 sit-ups
10 lunge jumps
5 pull-ups
5 V-ups

Explanation of circuit exercises

Burpees: Just like an up-down in football. Put your hands on the ground, jump your feet out behind you so you’re in push-up position, hit your chest to the ground, and bring your feet back in, stand up.

Squat jumps: Stand with feet hip-width apart and perform a squat, dropping your rear until your knees are just behind your toes and your hamstrings are parallel to the floor. As you stand, propel yourself upwards and jump. Return to standing and squat again.

Sit-up: Lie on your back with feet on the floor and knees bent. Put your hands behind your ears. Without pulling on your neck and using only your abs, lift your shoulders off the mat and come to a full sit-up position. Lie back down slowly.

Lunge jump: Position yourself in a lunge. Jump upwards switching the front and back legs. Once landed, repeat. For more of a challenge, hold the weights you used for your reverse fly during your jumps.

Pull-ups: Suspend yourself on the pull-up bar with your hands a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Pull yourself up, keeping your body as straight as possible, until your chest reaches the bar. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat.

V-ups: Lie flat on your back with legs outstretched and arms above your head. Sit up, lifting arms and legs and reaching your hands and feet toward the ceiling. Shoulder blades should come off the mat as you reach for your toes. Hold for a beat, then return to the starting position.

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