THROWDOWN 304
Super Summer Sizzler Workout #1 On a 10 minute clock: 60 Double unders 30 Thrusters – 95/65lb 60 Double unders 30 Snatches – 135/95lb 60 D...
The burpee is a simple movement that can be both demanding and quite versatile in practice. Part of what makes the burpee such a versatile movement in the sport is its ability to combine with so many other movements; things like box jump overs, pull ups, or broad jumps. What makes the burpee so demanding isn’t the complexity of the movement, it’s the speed and volume with which we usually see them programmed. My goal with this blog is to help you level up your burpee game by understanding how to make them as easy and efficient as possible, regardless of what they’re paired with or how many you are tasked to do. With this understanding, we will then talk about how to build both capacity and speed on top of our new burpee principles.
In order to level up your burpees, you need to understand how to make them as easy and efficient as possible, then build capacity with this new efficient burpee and then finally develop the ability to do it fast for a long time. This blog covers how I approach breaking down the burpee and methods I use to train the burpee.
In my opinion, the most important principles for efficient burpees are
I’ll break down each in more detail below, and then give some training tips on how to build on these foundational principles going forward.
Often athletes end up in a less than ideal position when getting up off the floor in the burpee (first picture below). In this position, the ribs flare and the range that the diaphragm can move through is limited, creating an inability to take in a full breath. On the flip side of this, when athletes are able to maintain stacked positions off the floor, where the diaphragm and pelvis are in alignment (second picture below), breathing is far more efficient as the diaphragm is able to move through a full range of motion unimpeded.
Poor Trunk Stack Position:
Good Trunk Stack Position:
So how do we build strong positions off the floor? The first thing we have to consider is why positions are poor in the first place.
1 – Midline Strength: In order to maintain a stacked midline, you need to be able to resist the extension moment created when pressing your torso off the floor. This usually creates the “bowed” position off the floor.
2 – Lack of Awareness: Some athletes simply aren’t aware of what the stacked midline position feels like and so have a hard time finding this position when moving at speed and under fatigue.
3 – Upper Body Pressing Strength: In order to press the whole torso off the floor athletes need a requisite amount of upper body strength, we often see the “bowed” midline as a compensation for this as it reduces the effective weight of the torso.
Once we identify why positions off the floor are not optimal, we can start to address them specifically with drills and exercises.
What is the Drop and Pop? The idea is simple, get down fast using as little active movement as possible and “rebound” the chest off the ground back into a quadruped position as fast as possible. Keep this movement the same no matter what type of burpee you are doing or how many reps there are. By doing this you reduce the total time on the floor as well as reduce the effort required to get down onto the floor and back to the quadruped. Once you are back in the quadruped you can take as long as you want to do the rest of the rep, whether that is jumping over a barbell or up to do a pull up.
Having a set speed and cadence that you perform this portion of the movement at really helps to find and maintain a rhythm, which can be incredibly helpful when doing higher volumes of the movement
The caveat to this would be if you lack the capacity to drop to the floor with speed and bounce the torso off the ground. In this case, the sprawl burpee is an option where you would lower to the ground in a much more controlled manner. It’s important to note that the key position of a stacked midline is still a requirement here.
Drop Pop example – https://youtu.be/sB2a-0PsRBo
I want to encourage you to have set foot work patterns for each type of burpee. The more you can ingrain these patterns, the less likely you are to have to think about them when fatigue hits, and the more consistent you will stay.
Examples of various patterns of burpee footwork can be found below
1 – Bar facing burpee – step up, jump over. – https://youtu.be/bf8Ap0aTvVU
2 – Bar facing burpee – swing step, jump over. – https://youtu.be/mBuBYIczF20
3 – Burpee to target/pull up – step up, jump up. – https://youtube.com/shorts/nzABmaRo9IE?feature=share
4 – Burpee Box Jump Over – step up, jump over. – https://youtu.be/L0s9geVuNjE
Within the footwork options you’ll notice that there are two methods to going from the quadruped to standing. The first is the step up, where you are essentially doing a mountain climber rep to get one foot up then stepping up to both feet. The other is the swing step, where you are going from the quadruped to both feet on the ground. The latter is more taxing but faster and so you will see this used in sprint formats, where the step up is often used for higher volumes of burpees.
The main message that I want to drive home here is that whatever footwork pattern you use, it needs to be consistent. Always step up to the same spot off the floor, swing the other leg to the same spot. Drill these patterns until you no longer need to think about them so that when the fatigue hits 50 burpees deep, you don’t think, you just do.
10 min Foot Work Practice:
A. Drop-Pop – https://youtu.be/sB2a-0PsRBo
Accumulate 12-15 reps w/ full breath after pop to quadruped
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B. Drop-Pop-Lunge – https://youtu.be/GC96fZ8qOg8
Accumulate 8-10 reps/side w/ full breath in “Lunge” position
– it is important here that you learn to do this on both sides.
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C. Drop-Pop-Lunge-Step – https://youtu.be/cdRJLICwxHQ
Accumulate 8-10 reps/side
– it is important here that you learn to do this on both sides.
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D. Drop-Pop-Lunge-Step-Jump – https://youtu.be/8VRbZVhOVLc
Accumulate 8-10 reps/side
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E. Drop Pop Lunge Step Jump x2 – https://youtu.be/VtNuyj9R9ng
Accumulate 6-8 reps – alternating sides
** Take the time to breath in each position, as you are learning start with longer pauses then as you become more comfortable you can start to shorten and remove these pauses.
Speed Work Interval:
EMOM x 6:
5-6 Bar Facing Burpees – w/ Emphasis on smooth foot work & Rotating sides
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3 sets:
10 Bar Facing Burpees as fast as possible
Rest 90-120 sec
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4 sets:
6 Burpee Box Jump Overs as fast as possible – 20/24″
Rest 60-120 sec
*Estimated 80-90 Burpees during working sets
10 sets for times:
10 Bar Facing Burpees @ .5 sec faster than your sec/rep speed from initial test
Bike or Walk at an easy/recovery pace for 30 sec b/t sets
*Rest 5 minutes halfway if you fall off pace
*IE – if your speed is 4.5 sec/rep, aim for 4 sec/rep = 40 seconds to complete
This Blog is by no means an exhaustive list of ways to train and develop your burpees. I hope that it acts as a starting point from which progressions can be built by identifying proper movement, likely limiters, and specific ways to train with a set end goal in mind. Don’t be too quick just to increase the volume of burpees in your training with hopes of improving your craft. Piling extra volume on poor movement is very unlikely to be productive in the long run. Train smarter, not harder.
