Even if you don’t consider yourself an avid workout enthusiast, you’ve likely heard of burpees, but in case you haven’t, here’s the rundown:
The burpee, sometimes known as a squat thrust, is a full body exercise used in strength training and as an aerobic exercise.
Here are some step-by-step instructions:
- Stand facing forward. Your feet should be hip-width apart and your arms should be at your sides.
- Lower yourself down into a squat by pushing your hips back and bending your knees. Focus your weight into your heels, rather than onto the balls of your feet.
- Lean forward and place your palms flat on the floor in front of you. The position of your palms should be narrower than your feet.
- Jump your feet back, stretching your legs and landing on the balls of your feet. Think of this transition as jumping into a full plank. During this position, engage the abs for support and be sure not to raise or sag your back.
- Jump your feet forward again until they are positioned next to your hands.
- Reach up with your arms over your head and jump up, then reach back down to cycle through the entire move again.
With this type of calisthenics exercise, you can improve not only strength and endurance, but also coordination and flexibility. In a 2014 community-based study, researchers found that bodyweight exercises such as burpees, were able to significantly reduce blood pressure in healthy adult women.
But burpees are really hard, and you may be wondering how many calories you’re actually burning during all that exertion.
Of course, the number of calories burned during exercise varies with weight, intensity, and other factors, but generally, according to Baton Rouge General, you can burn roughly 160 calories doing 17 minutes of burpees.
Let’s break this number down:
- Roughly 9.4 calories are burned for every minute of burpees performed.
- It takes most people around three to five seconds to do a single burpee.
- Three seconds per burpee equals 20 burpees per minute, depending on speed and frequency.
After doing some simple math, we can see that it takes a 125-pound person roughly 20 burpees to burn around 10 calories. However, weight can affect the number of calories burned during exercise as well.
According to Harvard Medical School, when performing 30 minutes of vigorous calisthenics:
- A 155-pound person will burn about 1.25 times more calories than a 125-pound person, or 12.5 calories for every 20 burpees.
- A 185-pound person will burn about 1.5 times more calories than a 125-pound person, or 15 calories for every 20 burpees.
So, the average person can burn anywhere from 10 to 15 calories for every 20 burpees. While that might not sound like a whole lot, if you think about it, 160 calories every 17 minutes (if you’re 125 pounds) means you’re burning over 480 calories an hour. That’s on par with jogging and running! Not that anyone could stand to do burpees for a solid hour.
Remember, burpees are considered an advanced move and it’s important that you do them properly and pay attention to form to prevent injury. On average, if you’re performing a single burpee every three seconds, you can expect to perform roughly 20 burpees per minute. If you perform your burpees more slowly, you might do 10 to 15 burpees per minute instead. Also, different variations (such as adding a pushup, plank jack, or tuck jump) of burpees may change the amount of time it takes you to do a single rep.
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