Burpee

The burpee is one of the most efficient bodyweight exercises you can do — a single rep trains your legs, chest, shoulders, arms and core while driving your heart rate up faster than almost any other calisthenics movement. It needs no equipment and almost no space, which is why it shows up in CrossFit workouts, military and first-responder fitness tests, boot camps and home HIIT circuits alike. This guide covers exactly how to perform a burpee with efficient, joint-friendly form, the muscles and energy systems it trains, the mistakes that wreck people's wrists and lower backs, and how to program burpees for conditioning without letting your technique fall apart under fatigue.

What muscles does the burpee work?

The burpee moves through four phases, and each one shifts the muscular demand. The squat-down and jump-up phases are driven by the quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings, while the plank-to-push-up phase loads the chest, front shoulders and triceps the way a floor press would. Through all four phases, the rectus abdominis, obliques and lower back work isometrically to keep the trunk rigid as you transition from standing to horizontal and back. Because the load is your own bodyweight moved quickly and repeatedly, the burpee trains muscular endurance and power far more than maximal strength.

How do you do the burpee?

To do the Burpee: stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, chest up and arms at your sides; push your hips back and bend your knees to drop into a squat, planting both hands on the floor just outside your feet; shift your weight onto your hands and jump or step both feet back into a high plank, keeping your body in a straight line from shoulders to heels; perform one push-up by bending your elbows and lowering your chest toward the floor, then press back up to plank (skip this step for the easier no-push-up version).

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, chest up and arms at your sides.
2. Push your hips back and bend your knees to drop into a squat, planting both hands on the floor just outside your feet.
3. Shift your weight onto your hands and jump or step both feet back into a high plank, keeping your body in a straight line from shoulders to heels.
4. Perform one push-up by bending your elbows and lowering your chest toward the floor, then press back up to plank (skip this step for the easier no-push-up version).
5. Jump or step both feet forward just outside your hands, returning to the squat position.
6. Drive through your heels to stand up explosively and jump, reaching your arms straight overhead — that's one rep.

What are the key burpee form cues?

Hand placement

Plant your hands just outside your feet at shoulder width so your wrists stack under your shoulders once you kick back to plank.

Plank alignment

Keep a straight line from shoulders to heels in the plank — don't let your hips sag or pike up, which strains the lower back.

Soft landings

Land on the balls of your feet with slightly bent knees whenever you jump your feet back or forward — stiff-legged landings jar the knees and lower back.

Full hip extension

Stand all the way up to full hip and knee extension before you jump — cutting the stand-up short turns the rep into a half-squat bounce.

Breathing

Breathe rhythmically through the rep rather than holding your breath — burpees are cardio work, and breath-holding will gas you out faster.

Breathing & tempo: Exhale as you drop into the squat and push-up, inhale as you stand and jump — most people naturally fall into this rhythm once they stop overthinking it. For technique work, use a controlled 3–4 second tempo per rep; for conditioning work, let the pace rise as high as your form allows without breaking down.

How should you warm up for the burpee?

Spend 2–3 minutes on general movement — jogging in place, arm circles and a few bodyweight squats — then do 5–8 slow, controlled burpees at half pace to groove the squat-to-plank-to-stand transitions before you go fast. If your wrists feel stiff, add a few wrist circles and push-up-position holds beforehand.

What are the most common burpee mistakes?

• Letting the hips sag or pike in the plank/push-up phase — Brace your core hard for that one moment in the plank — think 'straight board from shoulders to heels' rather than racing through it.
• Crashing into the plank or landing stiff-legged — Bend your elbows slightly to absorb the drop into plank, and land jumps on the balls of your feet with soft knees.
• Skipping full hip extension at the top — Stand completely upright with hips and knees locked out before you jump — a half-stand turns the rep into a squat hop, not a burpee.
• Rounding the lower back to stand up fast — Drive through your heels and use your legs, not your spine, to come up — slow the rep down if your lower back is doing the work.
• Bent, unstacked wrists on the floor — Plant your hands flat with fingers spread and wrists stacked under your shoulders, or use push-up handles/dumbbells if wrist pain persists.

Why does the burpee hurt — and how do you fix it?

Most burpee pain comes from rushing the floor transitions under fatigue, not from the exercise itself. Match your symptom to the fix below, and stop and see a professional if pain is sharp, sudden or persists after you correct your form.

How many sets and reps should you do?

Choose your sets and reps by goal: heavier and fewer reps for strength, moderate for muscle size, lighter and higher for endurance.

RPE / RIR: Because burpees are a conditioning movement, rate of perceived exertion and heart rate matter more than a fixed rep scheme. Keep interval work around RPE 8–9 (breathless but able to keep moving), reserve all-out RPE 10 efforts for short bursts or a timed test, and drop to RPE 5–6 whenever you're drilling technique so your form doesn't break down under fatigue.

Burpees work best as a conditioning tool layered on top of your strength training, not as a replacement for it. Use short, hard intervals (20–40 seconds of work) for fat-loss and cardio sessions, or add a set of 10–20 reps as a finisher at the end of a strength workout. Progress by adding rounds, shortening rest, or adding the push-up/box-jump variations once the basic pattern feels easy — not by sacrificing the plank position or landing mechanics for speed.

How often should you burpee and where does it fit?

Train the Burpee 2–4 sessions per week as a conditioning block or finisher, placing it after your main strength lifts, or as the centerpiece of a dedicated conditioning session — never before heavy compound lifts, since it pre-fatigues the exact muscles you need for those.

• Frequency: 2–4 sessions per week as a conditioning block or finisher
• Best split days: HIIT/conditioning day, End-of-session finisher on any strength day, Warm-up primer (light volume only)
• Where to place it: After your main strength lifts, or as the centerpiece of a dedicated conditioning session — never before heavy compound lifts, since it pre-fatigues the exact muscles you need for those

Because burpees are high-impact and metabolically demanding, cap sessions at 10–15 minutes of interval work for most people and build up total volume gradually over weeks rather than maxing out reps on day one.

How do you progress the burpee?

To get faster and more efficient at burpees, drill the transitions slowly until they're automatic, build general conditioning with shorter, harder intervals over time, and strengthen the underlying squat and push-up patterns separately so fatigue doesn't wreck your form mid-set.

What's the right range of motion?

A full-range burpee takes your hips from a standing lockout down through a full squat and a flat plank, and (if including the push-up) chest close to the floor, before returning to a full standing jump with arms overhead. General fitness use doesn't require the chest to touch the floor on every rep, but competitive standards (like the CrossFit Open) require the chest and thighs to touch the ground and the hips and knees to reach full extension with a hand clap overhead on the jump.

What are the benefits of the burpee?

• Trains cardiorespiratory endurance and muscular endurance in the same movement, with no equipment required
• Combines lower-body power (squat/jump) with upper-body pressing (push-up) in a single, time-efficient exercise
• Elevates heart rate quickly, making it one of the most effective bodyweight options for HIIT and fat-loss circuits
• Builds work capacity and mental toughness — it's a standard test movement in CrossFit, military and first-responder fitness assessments
• Scales from a fully bodyweight beginner regression to loaded, jump-heavy advanced variations

Who should do it: Burpees suit general-fitness lifters and runners who want a fast conditioning finisher, CrossFit and HIIT athletes training for timed workouts, and anyone preparing for a military, police or fire-service fitness test that includes burpees. They're a poor fit as a primary strength-building tool and should be scaled back (or the push-up/jump removed) for anyone with acute wrist, shoulder, knee or lower-back pain, or uncontrolled cardiac conditions.

Is the burpee safe?

The burpee is safe for most healthy adults when the plank stays rigid, landings are soft, and pace is built up gradually — most injuries come from rushing the floor transitions under fatigue, not from the movement pattern itself.

Wrist or shoulder pain

Drop the push-up (half burpee), elevate your hands on a bench, or use push-up handles/dumbbells to keep the wrists neutral.

Knee or lower-back sensitivity

Step instead of jump on the transitions, and keep the core braced through the plank so the lower back never has to round.

Heart or blood-pressure conditions

Get medical clearance before high-intensity interval work, and start with the step-back, no-push-up version at a conservative pace.

Pregnancy (especially 2nd/3rd trimester)

Skip the jump and the prone plank/push-up phases and substitute a lower-impact conditioning movement instead.

Spotting: No spotter is needed for burpees — they're an unloaded bodyweight movement. If your form is breaking down (sagging plank, stiff landings, rounding back), the safe move is to slow the pace or drop the push-up/jump, not to push through with worse mechanics.

How do grip and stance change the burpee?

• Hands shoulder-width (standard): Balanced wrist load and the most stable base for the plank-to-push-up transition.
• Hands turned out slightly: Reduces pinching wrist strain for lifters who feel discomfort with hands pointed straight ahead.
• Push-up handles or dumbbells: Keeps the wrists in a neutral, straight position — useful if floor-contact wrist pain persists.

Burpee variations

How does the burpee compare?

Burpee vs. Mountain Climber

The burpee is a full standing-to-floor-to-standing cycle that trains legs, chest and core together and spikes heart rate the fastest. The mountain climber stays in a plank the whole time, isolating the core and hip flexors with less overall joint impact — a good lower-impact substitute when knees or wrists need a break.

Burpee vs. Jump Squat

The burpee adds an upper-body pressing phase on top of the squat-and-jump pattern, making it more metabolically demanding per rep. The jump squat isolates lower-body power without the floor transition, so it's a better choice when you want to train explosiveness without upper-body fatigue.

Burpee alternatives

How many calories does the burpee burn?

Calories depend on your bodyweight and how hard you train. Resistance training has a MET value of about 11. Enter your bodyweight and minutes to estimate the burn (calories = MET × kg × 3.5 ÷ 200 × minutes).

Burpee strength standards

Burpees aren't a loaded lift, so instead of a bodyweight-multiple table, use the validated 3-minute burpee test — max full-cycle reps performed in 3 minutes — as your benchmark. Standards below come from an international study of 9,833 university-aged adults.

By age: These bands were measured in 18–25-year-olds. Older lifters, beginners, or anyone returning from a break should treat 'Average' as a solid target and expect the top bands to require dedicated conditioning training to reach.

What counts as a good rep?

A standard fitness rep counts when you move from standing through a squat, a plank (chest optionally touching the floor), back to a squat, and finish standing with full hip and knee extension, whether or not the jump is included. Competitive standards like the CrossFit Open require the chest and thighs to touch the ground in the down position and a full jump with an overhead hand clap to complete the rep.

References

1. How to Correctly Do a Burpee: Step-by-Step Instructions. Cleveland Clinic
2. The Burpee — Instruction, Benefits & Technique. CrossFit.com
3. International Standards for the 3-Minute Burpee Test: High-Intensity Motor Performance. NIH / PMC, 2019
4. The Relationship Between the Burpee Movement Program and Strength and Endurance Performance Measures in Active Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Analysis. NIH / PMC, 2024
5. Burpee Interval Training Is Associated With a More Favorable Affective Valence and Psychological Response Than Traditional High-Intensity Exercise. PubMed, 2022
6. Safe and effective high-intensity interval training. Harvard Health Publishing
7. How to Do a Burpee: Step-by-Step Guide, Benefits, Variations. Healthline
8. Conditioning Exercise MET values (code 02214: high-intensity interval exercise incl. burpees, vigorous effort). Compendium of Physical Activities, pacompendium.com