Ask most people about how they feel about the burpee and, in most cases, it's probably not going to be a positive response.
I have yet to include any burpees in any of my online workouts. With the majority of them being live and online, although having the bonus of being in the comfort of your own home, it can potentially mean less space. I want to try and avoid jumping around the house to be courteous of the others in it, at mine and the clients houses. This is especially true if there’s young children we are desperate to keep sleeping for those following 30 minutes.
My live workouts need to be a mix between resistance and high calorie -burning, without the high-energy jumping moves that burpees require.— Another theory for my lack of burpees in sessions is indeed my for lack of love for them.
If there's one move that the fitness world over uses, it's the burpee.
Upon sourcing the internet for inspiration on low impact, high calorie burning alternatives I came across Charlee Atkins insta page with her “burpee alternatives”. Charlee Atkins is an insta famous fitness coach from New York.
She believes the burpee doesn't translate well to every day use and, therefore won’t use them in her routines. Instead of totally ignoring the exercise, Atkins suggests to put the focus on the burpee's component parts.
To master the basic exercise that the burpees utilises:
jump squats
pushups
and plank
along with hip mobility
These basic, functional exercises, and the effect that they have on the active joints and muscle groups, are used more widely in life (and sport) than the combination of all of them together.
Rather than huffing and puffing through sets of burpees (and potentially hitting the floor too hard and injuring up your wrist), I’m going to attempt to incorporate the ‘ Deconstructed burpee’.
I still want to get the heart rate-rising benefits of the full movement so, I’ll need to make sure myself, and the clients are doing them the correct way.
Some sessions are about learning skills as well as burning calories and we should avoid just rushing into the session. To begin the session with a few exercises to open the hips and shoulders before going into these deconstructed burpees.
I’ll be performing each exercise for 45 seconds, then rest for 15 seconds
Jump Squat (these need to be performed with your legs absorbing as much energy on the decent)
Pushup
Plank Hold
And taking on the workout for 3 to 5 rounds.
They’ll either love me or hate me. But its great to know we have a burpee alternative with out the ground booming sounds to the floor.
