Burpees

A few days ago, I was finishing up my workout with some cardio on the recumbent bike. As I was getting close to the end, a young lady walked over and began her cardio work on the Elliptical Machine. What caught my attention was what she wore, and believe it or not, not her youth or attractiveness. Her workout gear had in very large bright lettering the phrase "I Hate Running". I think if I had finished, I might have gone over and let her know that running loves her.

Well, it didn't happen because she got going at a pretty good clip and I don't want to look like a creep.

Made me think about what I would wear if I thought of expressing my opinion on various exercises. It didn't take too long because if I wore such a t-shirt it would feature the words "I Hate Burpees".

Well, maybe hate is a bit strong. Well, probably not. I have mixed feelings about burpees. One feeling is, I despise them, another is, I avoid them and a third, I would rather do anything else before doing burpees.

This might be one of the brilliant parts of the Skimble workouts, there is always the risk of doing Burpees. Last year, I was part of a team that did a series which included burpees. I did dread them, but I went on and did them. Just a few weeks ago, I did another workout that included, burpees. Yes I decided to do a couple of sets of burpees. I have to say, it is a great way to work up a sweat.

Doing a search of images of burpees contain a large number under the catagory of "Hating Burpees".

I did my research and discovered burpees are actually a very efficient and effective exercise. I also learned about the origin and reason for burpees. I didn't realize that someone decided to invent this form of exercies. In fact:

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, the exercise was named in the 1930s for American physiologist Royal H. Burpee, who developed the burpee test. He earned a PhD in applied physiology from Columbia University in 1940 and created the "burpee" exercise as part of his PhD thesis as a quick and simple way to assess fitness.[1] The exercise was popularized when the United States Armed Services adopted it as a way to assess the fitness level of recruits when the US entered WWII. Consisting of a series of the exercises performed in rapid succession, the test was meant to be a quick measure of agility, coordination and strength.

So we can thank Doctor Royal H. Burpee for bringing this to the world. I hope he got a good grade and I hope part of his presentation and defense of his thesis was to do the burpees.

I'm not going to pretend and say I'm getting the burpee and are developing a love for them, but I can see that it is an important exercise and I should do them, because they will not hurt my knees for running. As for the style, I understand there is a burpee style that doesn't the jumping at the end. Could be just as effective without the pain.

As always, I went to YouTube to see what videos are out there and I found this:

I'm not going to be a total convert to the Burpee, but as I read more about them, I realize I should incorporate them into my weekly workout.

To conclude: