Marissa Nieves, Fitness Expert for the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenges has shared her tips on how to perform a perfect burpee and why you should include them in your regular exercise routines:
Burpees are one of the most fiery full body exercises of all time. They target a wide range of upper and lower muscle groups, including chest, core, shoulders, legs and are unique in that they provide high resistance and cardiovascular activity at the same time for greater strengthening, toning and more efficient fat burning.
It is important to note if performed incorrectly, burpees can add extra pressure to your back and knees, so it is important that you are fully aware of proper technique and that you perform each burpee with good posture and alignment.
Perform a 2-5 minute warm up before you attempt a burpee workout and ensure you cool down and stretch once you have completed your workout.

How to Perform a Burpee:

• To perform a burpee, stand tall on a mat with your feet together hands by your sides. Engage your core by tucking your bellybutton in towards your spine, keeping your torso strong and stable. Prepare to jump down to the floor on the balls of your feet. Lift your arms overhead, push off your toes and jump down to the floor.
• As your hands reach the floor, place your palms face down on the floor outside of your feet, just wider than shoulder width apart. Keep your arms strong and straight to support your body, leaving a slight bend in the elbows.
• Jump both feet backwards at the same time into a full plank position. Support your body with your arms, legs and torso. Keep your core strong through the movement and maintain alignment through your spine.
• Stay strong through the torso and limbs as you jump your feet back in toward your hands, tucking your knees in toward your chest and placing your feet flat on the floor as you carefully return to standing upright and tall.

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Workout Structure:

You can use sets of burpees for a quick, structured full body workout to raise your metabolism and strengthen and tone. Perform burpees on their own or add them to your current outdoor walking or jogging regime to create a HIIT workout.
Due to their dynamic nature, burpees can be challenging to both the body and mind!
Performing just 5-10 minutes of a burpee workout can increase your heart rate and very quickly tire your muscles. It is important to choose the correct time frame and repetitions for your workouts so if you are unsure where to begin, start with 5 sets of 5 burpees with a 10 second rest period in between each exercise and then move up to 5 sets of 10 with a 20 second interval break. If you feel like stepping up the challenge by adding some jumping jacks or a jog on the spot in place of the rest intervals, feel free to keep the cardiovascular activity going in between. Similarly, be sure to lengthen your rest periods if you feel you need a longer break in between sets.
Remember your body needs time to rest and repair in between these workouts so if you’re performing them on top of your daily workout, you may only like to perform them twice or three times per week. Otherwise up to 4-5 times per week can produce maximum benefit. Of course, these short workouts can be added to other strength training routines to increase the cardiovascular output while still focusing on overall strength and conditioning.

Variations:

As a variation, you may enjoy taking shorter rest periods and adding a leg lift to each burpee.

• Burpee with Leg Lift

Of course, if you would like to get the absolute maximum benefit out of your workouts, you may prefer to join our 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge which provides tailored and timed HIIT workouts to ensure you are working in your most efficient and effective state.
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You can also get a FREE 1 day sampler of recipes & exercises on the 28 Day Challenge here  to see what other great exercises and meal plans the Challenge offers.