I hate burpees. Even at my fastest clip I do them pretty slowly (10 in about 25 seconds), and in no time at all I feel like quitting from exhaustion and misery. About two-and-a-half years ago I managed 100 in just under 10 minutes, and the experience so scarred me that I’ve only worked them half-heartedly and sporadically since.
So, in the spirit of working on your weaknesses, I resolved to make them a staple of my regime, and just managed to get my time back under 10:00. My approach was pretty simple: do 100 burpees every Tuesday and Thursday. For the first workout, set the Gymboss (cool, new 2009 version of an already-great timer!) to 2 minute intervals and do 10 burpees at the top of each interval, resting during the leftover time (yes, that’s a lot of rest!). Every workout, subtract 5 seconds from the intervals. So 1:55 intervals the next workout, then 1:50, etc. Once you get down to 1:00 intervals, and you do 10 at the top of each, you will get your 100 in under 10 minutes.
Here’s how it went for me (date, interval time, total time):
1/14 2:00 18:40
1/19 1:55 17:11
1/21 1:50 16:21
1/26 1:45 15:12
1/28 1:40 14:44
2/02 1:35 14:10
2/04 1:30 13:55
2/09 1:25 13:06
2/11 1:20 12:25
2/16 1:15 QUIT (pulled shoulder at 17, bailed at 50)
2/23 1:15 12:06
2/25 1:10 11:02
3/04 1:05 QUIT (chickened out at 67)
3/05 1:05 10:15 (needed revenge)
3/09 1:00 09:51
This feels pretty close to my wall. The final 30 burpees of that set were ugly, ugly, ugly. Practically staggering to my feet to manage a 1-inch jump. Ugh. But I’ll take it. Not sure what I’ll do at my next workout. Shaving off another 5 seconds each round doesn’t sound like much, but it’d actually represent improving my time by more than 8 percent!
P.S. I know 10:00 isn’t an earth-shaking time. Remember this guy, who cranks out 100 in 5:00 and change? Unreal.
Here's a workout I've tried a couple times now that I like. I apologize, but it does call for a C2 rower, although you could simulate the fatigue with a 20-second all out exercise bike sprint (on a Schwinn Airdyne would be even better). Still, your gym may have a C2. Check the dusty, unused corner of the gym reserved for pieces of equipment that cause real misery.
Anyway, the workout probably doesn't seem like much (and maybe it's just that my off-season conditioning slide is worse than I thought):
- 100 meter sprint on the C2 (I do it in 18 seconds)
- 10 max. speed/jump burpees
- Rest as long as you want
- Repeat 10 times (I only did 5 today)
By round three I could feel the burn in my legs, and round five was pretty darn uncomfortable. Surprising, given how much rest I was allowing myself. I think what made it so hard was giving a true maximum effort. I can't pull 100 meters any harder, and on the burpees I made a concerted effort to (a) do them as fast as possible and, this is key, (b) jump as high as possible with each jump.
I don't know if you're like me, but when I do burpees I tend to short-change the jump in favor of getting the reps done faster (after all, more time in the air hurts your reps/minute). Burpees with a max. effort jump torch the legs in a hurry (and they are already fatigued from the C2 sprint).
Anyway, give it a shot, report back!
It's the simplest workout: 100 burpees, as fast as you can. I try this once in awhile, when I'm pressed for time, or when I just feel like testing myself. Getting all 100 inside of 10 minutes has been a goal of mine for some time. My typical strategy is to set the timer for one-minute increments, and try to knock off 10 every minute. This usually results in me quitting somewhere between 60 and 80. Or, if I don't pace myself and just do them as I'm able, I finish well over 10:00. For example, a little over a year ago I tried it for the first time and sucked mightily.
So today I tried it again with my "10 every minute" strategy. I'm pretty slow at these, so even at top speed I can only manage 10 in 30 seconds. And that's what I did for the first five minutes. 10 in 30 seconds, then 30 seconds to rest before the next minute starts. Then it gets hard. My pace erodes at the expense of my recovery time. I got to 70 with about 15 seconds to rest before the eighth minute was due to start. At this point I pretty much abandoned the clock and started counting down the 30 reps I still needed. This, by the way, is usually when I quit. I was at 89 with a minute to go, and hit 100 at 9:56!
It was physically painful, but I have to admit the bigger obstacle until today has been mental. I simply haven't wanted to work hard enough to turn in a time like this.
Anyway, 100 in less than 10 minutes, very happy. It might not seem like much when you watch this guy crank out 100 in 5:00 and change, but for me it was a good day.
About a week ago I whined about being in a rut, and I received some nice supportive messages in response. The first one was from Dusty Rhodes, and suggested (among other things) doing a few workouts with a training partner. I figured I'd take his advice today, without letting my complete and utter lack of a training partner stop me. So I piggy-backed on today's Pike Workout (click through for exercise descriptions in the comments):
This was a challenge. The idea is to do it as quickly as you can:
Get a Deck of Cards.
Shuffle them.
Spades: Burpees
Clubs: Mahlers
Hearts: Pushups
Diamonds: Squats
2-9 = Face Value
10-K = 10
A = 15
Go through as quickly as you can and keep time. My time was 28:09.
So that gave me something to shoot for, but I fell short, finishing in 30:09, and I took advantage of the optional Mahler substitution (two-count Mountain Climbers), which has gotta be miles easier (or at least tons faster). Dang. Overshooting 30:00 by a mere nine seconds particularly rankles. Surely I could have gutted out another ten seconds somewhere in there?! Still, the training partner who had no idea he was my training partner certainly helped me push myself. With about a quarter of the deck to go I really wanted to quit, but since I swore to myself I'd post the results I couldn't bear the thought of reporting "failed to finish."
I really need to do more with this weblog than repost the Crossfit WOD when it looks like a particularly good one, but until then, today's looks great:
Five rounds for time of:
- 45 pound barbell Overhead walking lunges, 50 feet
- 21 Burpees
The guy leading in the video knocks it out in 9:10 (which, incidentally, beats my time for just the burpee portion). Monstrous.
I came up with a workout, heavily inspired by Ross Enamait's Work Capacity 101 (but easier), that takes advantage of all the equipment new equipment I've mentioned recently (my hanging pullup bar, my new jump rope and tire (the latter for sledgehammer training), and my horse stall mat as a nice burpee surface):
- 5 pullups
- 10 burpees
- 20 sledgehammer swings (10/arm)
- 40 high-knees, sprinting rope skips (if you miss, do them over until you get 40 in a row)
- Rest 1 minute
- Repeat 10 times
Well, my plan was 10 circuits, but the kids came home after the fifth. I say that like I blame them for cutting my workout short, but in reality I was grateful for the excuse. My forearms in particular were on fire, and I thought I was going to fling myself from the bar as I kipped at the bottom of the pullups, and my grip on the sledgehammer was so tenuous by the end that I feared for our car's safety (I workout in the garage). I would hate to have to explain a sledgehammer-sized dent in the door.
If that's too easy for you, you could switch up the sledge and the burpees like so:
- 5 pullups
- 10 sledgehammer swings per arm
- 20 burpees
- 40 high-knees, sprinting rope skips (if you miss, do them over until you get 40 in a row)
- Rest 1 minute
- Repeat 10 times
Better you than me. :-)
Lately a handful of us have been doing a mini-workout after pick-up. This one is fast becoming a "favorite":
Start a clock. At the top of every minute, do 10 burpees. Said another way, however long it takes you to do 10, you have the remainder of the minute to rest. Repeat until you can't do your 10 in during a given minute. Go until only one player's left standing.
Here's a burpee refresher. We tend to do 180-degree jumps to enforce a minimum performance on the leap.
So far we have yet to do the true "last player standing" challenge. After two solid hours of good pickup in the heat this past Sunday, we all quit by mutual agreement after six minutes (sixty burpees). I don't know how much better we would have done had we all been fresh, but I know that I personally don't have 100 in me at that clip (yet).
If you're like me, once fatigue sets in the first thing you start short-changing on your burpees is the leap. Here's a solution: mark off 100 yards or so and start at one end. Do a burpee, but instead of leaping for height, leap for distance. You aren't done until you get your feet past the 100-yard marker. Shorter jumps equals more burpees.
I wouldn't want anybody here to actually think I'm good at the stuff I write about. So, details on my embarrassing workout of the day, 100 burpees, as fast as possible. While burpees figure prominently in my routines, I've never actually tried this before.
My time? 15:58.
Shhh... Hear that? If you listen real close you can hear hear folks clicking the "unsubscribe" button in their newsreader of choice.
15:58!? Fer cryin' out loud. That's barely over six per minute! Anyway, enough lamentation. Here's how it broke down for me. I figured I'd tackle it in 10 as-fast-as-I-can blocks of 10, with the minimum rest between blocks. My first block of 10, which is when I should be able to record my best time, took 40 seconds. That is not very good. I'm not sure why I'm so slow at burpees, but I keep working at it. Anyway, if I did them straight through at that pace I'd be looking at around 7 minutes. Of course, fatigue sets in, so subsequent sets take longer, and rest between sets takes longer, and before I knew it I'd nickle-and-dimed my time to death.
My pipe dream was 10:00. At 13:00 and two sets to go I was gunning for 15:00. Pretty much killed me to get under the 16:00 wire.
Consider this a public service. On many a gung-ho site (you know who you are :-) you are encouraged to post times, and one notices a preponderance of superhuman times. One might develop an inferiority complex ("everybody can do these workouts better!"). My theory is that folks with non-superhuman scores are less inclined to post, skewing the sample. That, my friends, is where I come in.
P.S. Score above recorded with a bad shoulder and pulled abdominal muscle.
P.P.S. Immaterial. Even healthy I doubt I would have cracked 15:00.
P.P.P.S. Yet.
I thought every now and then I'd post notes on my "love/hate exercises". These are exercises I hate doing because they leave nowhere to hide, and they crush me. And yet, because I hate them I must also love them, as what better sign is there that they are working?
I have applied many different exercises to the Tabata protocol, but far and away the worse two (and therefore the best two) are sprints and burpees.
Sprints are "fun" to do as Tabatas because 20 seconds (the work period) is roughly the time of Michael Johnson's world record in the 200 meters (19:32). So find a 200m straightaway and mark it off with cones. For your first interval, run like you are trying to beat MJ. When the timer goes off, note in amazement how far away you are from where he'd be standing. Walk during your 10 second rest. On the next interval, sprint back to the original cone, your goal being to get to it. You won't. Repeat a total of 8 times. Pure death. The best tip I can give you is this: as everything else is pounded out of you conciousness, try to focus on your form. Picture your knees, your arms, your hip drive, instead of the misery.
I can't decide if burpees are less painful, as painful, or more painful than sprints. It's that close. Even though I've written about them in many other posts, let me repost a bit here:
After five weeks of the program, I have a love/hate relationship with burpees. They are great, but I suck at them and they kill me. Make sure you're doing the right kind of burpee (here's a demo clip). Let me emphasize a couple points:
- Drop down into a full squat while putting your hands to the floor before you kick out.
- Kick out and drop into the pushup simultaneously.
- "Kick in" at the same time as you are pressing out of the pushup (even after five weeks, I still suck at this part).
- From the squat, leap as high as you can and then drop into the next squat, all in one fluid motion.
I think the above tips are all key to both good form and speed. Also, as you progress in the workout above and you start to die, try to focus on the fluid progression of each movement to the next. It will be very tempting to kick out first, then do a pushup (while catching a bit of rest in the upright pushup position), or to land the jump without flowing into the next squat (again catching rest, or at least a breath). There are a million ways to cheat. Resist the urge. Focussing on form and fluidity will help you get the most from the workout.
Above all, remember this: the key to getting the most out of Tabatas is to do each and every work period as hard as you possibly can. Do not pace yourself so you have gas for the last (or third, or whatever) interval.
When I started the 10-week sample program from Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity I was worried it would be too hard for me, and that I'd have to scale it back to the point of meaninglessness. But I just finished week five, so I'm halfway there! I've definitely had to do some scaling back, but not as much as I would have thought, and I feel like I'm in the shape of my life. In celebration of the halfway milestone, let me share with you a (modified for Ultimate) version of the last workout of the first half:
Burpees x 30 seconds
Pivot and Fake x 30 seconds
Burpees x 30 seconds
Pivot and Fake x 30 seconds
Burpees x 30 seconds
Pivot and Fake x 30 seconds
Rest 60 seconds
Repeat 4-6 times.
After five weeks of the program, I have a love/hate relationship with burpees. They are great, but I suck at them and they kill me. Make sure you're doing the right kind of burpee (here's a demo clip). Let me emphasize a couple points:
- Drop down into a full squat while putting your hands to the floor before you kick out.
- Kick out and drop into the pushup simultaneously.
- "Kick in" at the same time as you are pressing out of the pushup (even after five weeks, I still suck at this part).
- From the squat, leap as high as you can and then drop into the next squat, all in one fluid motion.
I think the above tips are all key to both good form and speed. Also, as you progress in the workout above and you start to die, try to focus on the fluid progression of each movement to the next. It will be very tempting to kick out first, then do a pushup (while catching a bit of rest in the upright pushup position), or to land the jump without flowing into the next squat (again catching rest, or at least a breath). There are a million ways to cheat. Resist the urge. Focussing on form and fluidity will help you get the most from the workout.
In each 30-second block, if you can do 10 burpees that's very good. 12 is excellent. 15 is ungodly. I think I do 8, maybe 9, in the first 30-second block, and then never quite get that high again (I'd like to blame my height for those crappy numbers, but I probably lose a second per burpee from my subpar "kick in"). And in the third round I cheated all over the place (I hate myself), catching rest and only managing 4-5 per 30-second block. The last round was better.
(Yes, when given a choice of 4-6 rounds, I chose four. Sigh.)
It seems like you should be able to catch good rest pivoting and faking, but if you do it aggressively, practicing low-release fakes, there's not much rest to be had. I found myself travelling a ton as fatigue set in, and by the last round my pivot was so. very. slow.
Fantastic. Can't wait for half #2. I know I'm going to do better on the workouts that repeat in weeks six through ten.
The Crossfit WOD has a link to several Crossfitters doing a 1-minute burpee race. Very impressive scores, I thought, but the thing I found personally interesting was the form: when I descend from the leap I drop into a squat before kicking out and simultaneously descending into the pushup (like Ross, but not as quick (yet)). But these folks don't seem to squat much at all, and do a simultaneous drop-down/kickout/pushup-descent from a much higher point.
I'm not making value judgements; I just found it curious.
To date I've been a Burpee man exclusively, but some digging turned up two other full-body plyometric exercises, bringing the list to:
Here's a quick Thunder Rolls vs. Burpees thread. I just tried a quick set of Thunder Rolls without a medicine ball (don't own one yet), and it does seem like you get quite a bit of help from momentum that you don't get with Burpees in the lower part of the exercise. Maybe I'll feel differently when I add a ball, but I could add a ball to Burpees as well.
I haven't tried the Mahler Body Blaster yet, as it's dark outside right now so I don't want to brave the wolves, and I can't do them in here as the exercise covers more horizontal space than my basement allows. I don't think I've figured it out though. Do you ever stand up again after the initial squat, or do you just keep going roll-pushup-roll-pushup-etc.? Also, after the pushup do you keep your feet in place and use your arms to return to the squat and then roll back, or do you jump your feet up to your hands and then roll back? If the latter, you could do Body Blasters for distance, as you'd move forward with each rep.
The prisoner's workout would be fun for any of these, I bet. I tried this yesterday for the first time, but I started at a paltry 10 burpees and laddered down from there. My walk was about a 10-second walk. Concentrated on form and speed, making sure I exploded on the jump, and then flowed into the next burpee immediately upon landing (i.e. rather than catch myself on the landing from the jump, I pretty much let gravity pull me right down into the squat, with minimal slowing and no hitches). 10 wasn't too bad, 9 was uncomfortable, 8 through 5 truly sucked, 4 showed the light at the end of the tunnel, while 3, 2, and 1 were a welcome home stretch. I really must get better at these.
