A few years back I drove from Madison, Wisconsin to visit my brother in Avon, Colorado. I was relatively new to CrossFit, but knew that Colorado was huge into CrossFit and wanted to visit a few gyms while I was there. The closest one to my brother’s home was CrossFit Venture (now CrossFit Vail).
The people there were incredibly nice and very welcoming and I had a blast doing “DT” that day with them. It wasn’t until after the workout when I went back to the rental home where we were staying that I realized what I had just gotten to be a part of.
I am 6’ tall. That’s me pictured second from the right. The other four fantastic people in the photo are the owners of CrossFit Venture. The woman hanging in the middle, next to me, is Natalie McLain (now Newhart).
The photo was taken in March 2012, just weeks after Natalie won the South West Region CrossFit Games Open debut workout of 7 minutes of burpees with 132 completed.
Natalie is 5’1”. That is almost a whole foot difference in height between us!
I like this photo because I am not sure that people realize just how much height plays into a lot of CrossFit movements. Don’t get me wrong, I am not whining or complaining that CrossFit is unfair to tall people and all that. I love my height, I am proud to be tall. And there are many advantages to being tall, in CrossFit and in life. For me to hit the women’s target doing wall balls, I don’t even have to let go of the ball. That’s pretty cool!
But look at the picture. It’s great to see all of us hanging there. It’s fun to compare what a foot in height difference makes. Look where her elbows are vs mine. Look where her shoulders are vs mine. Look where her hips are vs mine.
Look at the difference in distance traveled for us each to do a pull up and get our chin over the bar. Think of the difference in distance we each have to travel to get to the floor for a burpee. And then get back up again. (It all seems like a lot of science and physics and stuff.)
Natalie rocks at burpees. She’s built for it. I despise burpees because I am not. But burpees are a really great movement to do and learn to love just the same.
Anyone can do them. Doesn’t matter if you’re 4 or 104. (All 3 of my kids get a choice between burpees and a chore to get stuff back when they leave it laying out, they always choose burpees…)
You can do them anywhere with no equipment. Nothing else is needed but your own body. They are a full body movement and they tire you out like nothing else can. Strength, fat burning, and conditioning are taken care of all at once because burpees work a wide range of muscles.
With every burpee, you’ll work your chest, arms, front deltoids, thighs, hamstrings, and abs. On top of that you will get some excellent practice loading your hips as you supply power to get you back up off the floor…so you can get back down on the floor again. And repeat. For an eternity. But all that hip power translates into so many of the other gym and everyday life movements. Everything starts with and is powered by the hip drive.
Burpees suck. That is their intended purpose. We can make them more efficient though. So, let’s talk about how to make your standard Burpees a more efficient movement!
For us at the gym, these don’t have to be pretty, 8 point military burpees – we are just looking to get our chest and thighs to the ground and then stand back up with a full extension (which we prove with a jump and clamp over head.) You don’t even have to jump that high, just enough to slide a credit card under your feet.
Now, for the execution. From the standing position, you may want to start in a wider stance which lowers your center of gravity and shortens the distance to the floor – especially helpful for taller athletes. Now put your Hands on the ground shoulder width apart. Kick your feet back. Your chest and hips will hit the floor, ideally your knees do not (but as you get tired, you will likely find that they do.)
Now, in order to make our hips do the work (because that is where we get the most power from) we will have to load our hips. Typically we would do that by bending the knees and getting into a dip or partial squat position, but since we can’t do that lying on the ground, we will do that by flexing our chest up (like Cobra in yoga) to load your hips.
We are going to use that hip power to pop up by driving your hips/butt to the ceiling. Keep your legs straight and have them land outside your hands. Stand up, jump, and clap.
Repeat the whole process…over and over again…
One tip: Don’t let yourself hop up from the ground and land in the bottom of the squat, you then have to use your quads and stand up from a squat – this wastes time and energy and will tire your legs out faster.
We also want to avoid what we call “shark-finning.” Make sure that clap is overhead, not in front of the chest or with the head ducked. We are looking to get full extension and range of motion in this movement.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, burpees are here to stay. I am not sure there is any other single movement that does as much for the body as the burpee. Learn to love them. Repeat after me. “I love burpees!” Now keep saying it until you believe it…