Burpees are one of the most exhausting bodyweight exercises. Whether you’re into your fitness or not, you will have heard of the humble burpee.

Some appreciate them, others fear them but without a doubt, they are one the most challenging bodyweight exercises there is. Whether you want to build muscle, lose fat or simply improve your physical fitness, burpees can help.

Why burpees are great

To explain more, David Wiener, Training Specialist at leading fitness app Freeletics (www.freeletics.com) shares his 6 reasons why burpees really are badass:

They target all of your muscle groups

Unlike isolation exercises, burpees are a full body exercise which incorporate the large, major muscle groups like the chest, back and thigh muscles, but also smaller accessory muscles in the torso, shoulders and arms. To perform a burpee correctly, almost all parts of the body are demanded simultaneously, and that’s the main reason why they’re so exhausting and effective.

Training ‘accessory’ muscles in addition to the core, main muscle groups is really important. Without them, bigger muscles can neither work or train efficiently and effectively. They are the ones that give you an athletic appearance, improving your posture, stabilising the skeleton and making your main muscles appear more apparent.

They burn fat

Burpees do not only train your muscles; they are also a real silver bullet in the fight against body fat.

During a burpee, the body has to provide a lot of energy to the muscles – and this in turn burns a lot of calories.

One of the beauties of high intensity exercises like the burpee is the after-burn effect, which means you reap the calorie burning benefits long after your session has finished. This is because burpees increase your respiratory rate and stimulate the metabolism. The greater the difference between metabolic activity during exercise and at rest, the longer the body needs to reach its normal state. This means that the calorie consumption is still increased even hours after the workout – increasing your body’s ability to burn fat.

They help you get stronger

Burpees are a great example of a functional exercise, which means they’ll not only help you to reach your weight loss and exercise goals, they’ll also help you perform better during everyday activities. With every rep, you’ll work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles which will tire you out, but result in you getting stronger and fitter.  

The advantages of doing burpees are not only visible from the outside. There is no other exercise that is so well suited to training strength and endurance at the same time, also improving reaction time and your coordination. This is thanks to the complex sequence of movements involved in a burpee and the intensive use of large muscle groups.

They can be done anywhere and require no equipment

One of the best things about burpees is that they require very little space and no equipment, meaning that they can be performed virtually anywhere and at any time. This eliminates any excuse that you may have not to do a workout.

They save time

If you want a quick and effective full body workout (who doesn’t!?), then burpees are a great addition to your fitness regime. Because they recruit all the major muscle groups you won’t need to include such a large variety of exercises to ensure you’re getting a great workout. Combined with plank switches, lunges and mountain climbers, the burpee can make up an excellent, time saving HIIT workout which will get results. If you’re on the lookout for time saving full body workout ideas that include burpees, try the new 15-minute Training Journey from Freeletics (www.freeletics.com). This six-week training plan is complete with 15-minute workouts that are tailored to your specific goals, fitness ability, and will surely help exercise become part of your already busy lifestyle.