Oh, the dreaded burpee. We love to complain about this uniquely punishing movement, and try to avoid doing them as much as possible. But have you ever stopped to wonder where the burpee came from and why this torturous exercise is a favourite of fitness professionals across the globe?
Burpees: A Short History
Royal H. Burpee was a physiologist in New York City in 1939. He invented the first version of the burpee as a part of a fitness test. The original movement was milder than the burpee we know and love hate today.
Mr. Burpee never intended for his fitness evaluation tool to become the form of exercise that it has become today. The burpee was intended to be performed 4 times in a row, and he would measure the participant’s heart rate before and after in order to assess their heart’s efficiency at pumping blood, thus determining their overall fitness rate.
Burpees: An Evolution
Over time the burpee was modified from its original, fitness evaluation form to the more vigorous modern movement. I made this short video to explain exactly how to execute the burpee minimising injury and maximising effectiveness. Watch the video here:
Burpees: The Most Effective Exercise Ever?!?
When you perform a burpee you are essentially doing a vigorous multiple bodyweight exercise movement that requires you to move between four to six unique positions as quickly as possible.
Everything burns as you go through a series of burpees: your lungs, your legs, your arms, and most of all…calories. Burpees cultivate agility, strength, coordination and stamina while burning fat.
So the next time that you are told to do 20, 30, or 100 burpees: smile to yourself, think of Royal H. Burpee and be happy that you are doing an exercise that gets you enviable results in the shortest possible time.