Nobody loves burpees—that's a given. But if your goal is to improve overall strength, mobility and fitness, they're an exercise you need to include in your workouts.
That's because burpees are one of the best bodyweight exercises around. Burpees take you quickly from standing to hitting the deck and back up again. It's a practical skill worth mastering, but do them at pace and you'll be out of breath in next to no time.
Fortunately, fitness expert Gustavo Vaz Tostes, also known as trainer Gus at digital fitness platform FIIT, has a couple of pointers that make this exercise infinitely more manageable, by addressing two form mistakes.
Common burpee mistakes
"The two most common mistakes I see with burpees are squatting into the movement and using a very narrow foot stance throughout," says Vaz Tostes.
1. Squatting into the movement
"Bending at the knees and dropping into a squat with every rep will overload your leg muscles," says Vaz Tostes. Since the large quadriceps muscles on the front of your thighs demand a huge blood supply, squatting too deep will spike your heart rate, causing fatigue to set in uncomfortably early.
2. Keeping a narrow foot stance
Keeping your feet too close together forces your legs to work harder and puts you in a weak position. Keep your feet hip-width apart and you'll feel stronger and sturdier. It's like trying to do a narrow-grip press-up, "it's infinitely more taxing than with your hands out by your sides," says Vaz Tostes.
How to make burpees easier
Now you know what to avoid, Vaz Tostes has two tips for making every rep quicker, more efficient and less taxing on your legs. This will also reduce the strain on your lower back and the risk of injury, helping you power through more burpees.
1. Keep your feet wide apart
"Always keep your feet wide [apart] throughout the movement," says Vaz Tostes, noting that it also means you start closer to the floor than with your feet close together.
"Keep your feet wide apart at the start—and finish—of each rep," says Vaz Tostes. "This way you will be quicker to extend to standing and more efficient."
2. Hinge from your hips
"Always think about hinging, instead of squatting," says Vaz Tostes. "At the start of the rep, send your bum back, hinging to go down. As soon as your hands touch the floor, that's when you kick [your feet] back."
It's the same on the way up. "As soon as you pop your chest up, send your hips high, once again landing with your feet wide."
Put it into practice with this burpee workout
Vaz Tostes suggests putting these tips into practice with a death-by-burpees workout. You can use this workout as a challenging finisher at the end of a session, or on its own, but note that this should only ever be performed after a thorough warm-up and use this drill sparingly, at most once per week.
Here's how to do it:
- Start a running clock and perform one burpee in the first 30 seconds.
- In the second 30 seconds perform two burpees.
- In the third 30 seconds perform three burpees.
- In the fourth 30 seconds perform four burpees.
- Continue adding an extra rep every 30 seconds until you can't hit the target number within the 30-second window.
Make a note of your score when you tap out, then try to beat this number next time round. As you get fitter, you should be able to complete more reps in each round.
"My top tip with any 'death by' workout—and I can tell you from lots of personal experience—is don't think faster is better," says Vaz Tostes. "People often start really fast, thinking they will have more time to rest. The problem is this will only spike your heart rate, without enough rest for your heart rate to come down again."
The result, he says, will be a "quick and painful death".
Instead, he urges you to start slow, and try to keep your heart rate "as low as possible for as long as possible until you need to move fast to get everything finished within the 30 seconds".
