Burpee
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
- Squat down and place your hands flat on the floor just in front of your feet.
- Jump or step both feet back so you land in a push-up position, body in one line from head to heels.
- Lower your chest to the floor and press back up to straight arms.
- Jump or step your feet back in toward your hands, landing with them flat.
- Stand and jump straight up, reaching your arms overhead, and land softly into the next repetition.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips sag as the feet land back. The push-up position is a plank, and a sagging one passes every landing into the lower back.
- Landing the feet short when they come back in. Flat feet under the hips are what the stand drives from; landing on the toes far behind the hands leaves you folded over, and the jump comes from the back.
- Letting the push-up and the jump fade into half of each. Leaving either out is a fair version to choose; what goes wrong is a set that drifts into a shallow dip and a shrug off the floor, where neither part is happening.
- Landing stiff-legged from the jump. The knees bend to absorb it, and the landing becomes the start of the next squat.