Brand-X Burpees

You hate burpees. You pansy. There is no exercise on earth that puts your lungs into your throat faster. The metabolic effect is astronomical.

The standard burpee:

A drop to plank position, followed by a chest-to-deck pushup. The feet are quickly pulled back between the arms, and the athlete jumps vertically, clapping his/her hands above the head.

A lot of trainees half-ass the vertical jump, conserving energy and short-changing the effect of the exercise. Jeff Martin, the Big Dawg at Brand-X Martial Arts, has a remedy for this problem.

It's called a Beck's Burpee, ostensibly named after the sado-masochistic bastard who thought it was a good idea. Instead of a vertical jump, the trainee executes a broad jump at the end of the burpee. The workout specifies the distance to be traveled instead of prescribing a number of burpees.

This eliminates the tendency to half-ass the jump. If you don't jump as far as you can, you'll end up doing more burpees to cover the requisite distance.

In honor of this Beck guy, I'm planning a Saturday workout consisting solely of Beck's burpees, distance TBD. Odds are we'll be doing this one in the rain at Harvard. If you'd like to join in the fun, send an email or give me a call.

Go faster!