Movement Mistakes: The Burpee - Dissecting a Fat Loss Staple

One could argue the burpee has become to most popular movement in the fitness world. Loved by few, hated by many, you would be hard pressed to find anyone that has never heard of this staple in fat loss and general programming. Memes, bumper stickers, t-shirts, you name it. Burpees are everywhere.

I work with a lot of fat loss clients, so I regularly include burpees in my programming as they are very taxing from a conditioning perspective. I'm not a huge fan of them on a personal level (I don't know many who are), but as far as bang for your metabolic buck, they are hard to beat.

As with many mainstream movements, burpees are butchered more often than the victims of Dexter Morgan. Walk into a gym anywhere and you inevitably see someone violently throwing their body to the ground and sloppily peeling themself off the floor with no rhyme or reason to how and why.

What a Burpee Is

To avoid going into a detailed explanation myself, in Becoming a Supple Leopard, Kelly Starrett describes the burpee as a push up, squat, and vertical jump layered into one seamless movement.

Taking this into consideration, before we incorporate this movement into any program we need to establish a reasonable competency in each of these three movements. The individual technique points of each goes beyond the scope of this post, so just understand you should at least know how to preform a decent push up, squat, and vertical jump (This includes correct landing mechanics. Ninja landing!).

What a Burpee Is Not

Instead of explaining what a moving train wreck looks like in detail, I'll just show you an example:

Obviously this is an exaggerated example, but you get the point. Here are a few things to make note of at various points through the video.

• Anterior weight shift (:01 and :04). This will totally fry your quads and low back.
• Knees moving too far forward increasing shear forces in the knee joint (:02 and :06).
• Unstable position at top and bottom of push up.
• Excessive lumbar flexion placing undue stress on the low back (:06)

All of these faults make for a sore lower back and knees, not to mention you looking just plain silly.

What a Correct Burpee Looks Like 

 
 As with any complex movement, it helps to separate into steps.

1. Begin with a hip hinge. Push the hips back by visualizing spreading the hip bones apart.
2. Keep the chest puffed out and low back flat until the hands touch down flat on the floor. This ensures you maintain a more neutral spine.
3. Jump the feet back at the same time into push up position. DO NOT allow your hips to sag down toward the floor. At the top of the push up your core should be stiff, glutes tight, and you should be actively pressing your body away from the floor. 
4. Lower the body to the floor as a unit chest first. If you struggle with push ups, this is the perfect opportunity to work on the eccentric (lowering) portion of the movement, which many struggle with. 
5. On the way up, simply push up quickly and replace the feet with the hands. The feet now should rest where your hands used to. Now you are essentially in the bottom position of a squat. The feet should be flat and shins close to vertical.
6. Stand up or jump into the air. I didn't jump because, well, I forgot. But you get the idea. Ninja landing!

Modifications
Many don't possess the requisite mobility or basic movement skills to preform a true burpee correctly. If this is the case, continue to teach/learn these basic skills and modify the movement until basic competency is achieved. I use two basic modifications:

1. Decrease the range of motion with a step.

2. Try taking a wider stance.

Just like a sumo deadlift, a wider stance will allow a trainee with less hip and ankle mobility to get down to the floor without stressing the knees and low back.

Summary

The above tips should help you move through the burpee with much more efficiency. By being more efficient and moving correctly, you will waste far less energy, be at lower risk of injury, and improve your overall performance.

So to wrap up, remember these points:

• Strive to master the squat, push up, and proper jumping mechanics first.
• Break the movement down into steps.
• Modify when necessary.

Have fun with your burpees!

3 Quick Finishers for Fat Loss and Improved Conditioning

I'm always on the lookout for non-traditional forms of cardio. From my perspective, nothing is more boring than plugging away for 30 minutes plus on a treadmill or elliptical trainer. I would rather watch Ozzy Ozbourne try and explain quantum physics.

To be clear, I'm not saying I don't like aerobic work. Steady state cardio definitely should be a part of any balanced training program. For more on that, check out this post. With that being said, I would rather get my aerobic work in through walking, hiking or a mobility circuit. For the rest of my conditioning, I use a lot of finishers.

I like finishers for a number of reasons:

• Great way to elevate heart rate after main strength work.
• Time-effective.
• Usually minimal equipment is required.
• Creates a "metabolic disturbance" without totally crushing the trainee.
• Can be used as a stand alone workout if short on time.  

Finishers are a fantastic way to get in some conditioning at the end of a heavy strength training session. A good finisher will elevate heart rate for a period of time, which is ideal for fat loss and improved conditioning. They usually take anywhere from 5-15 minutes to complete, and can be used as a stand alone workout if you are short on time. Here are three of my favorites.

1. Countdowns

Countdowns are pretty straight forward. Simply pick a rep range and count down, decreasing the amount of reps performed with each circuit. They are best when performed with 2-3 multi-joint movements such as squats, kettle bell swings, pull ups etc. For example:

Burpees
Push Ups
Kettle Bell Swings

On the first set, perform 10 reps of each. The second do 9 reps. Third 8, and so on until all reps are completed.You can use virtually any combination of movements for these so they provide plenty of variety for the trainee. You can also do count UPS, or combine count downs and count ups if you are really sick and twisted.

You can also use them in a lower rep range for extra strength work or to work on some weaknesses. Higher rep ranges can also be used with countdowns in increments of 2-4 reps.

I'll throw in a few more of my favorite combinations. These are all done in countdown format, but you can use them however you like.

5 Hang Cleans
5 Front Squats
5 Pull Ups

10 Front Squats
10 Back Squats

20 Kettlebell Swings
20 Push Ups

10 Inverted Rows
10 Rollouts
10 Deadlifts

2. Ladders

Ladders are performed with 2 exercises performed in ascending/descending order. A third movement can be added as a "constant". For example:

Burpees: 1-10 done in ascending order
Squats: 10-1 done in descending order
Pull Ups: 3 constant

The sets will look like this:

Burpee x 1
Squat x 10
Pull Ups x 3

Burpee x 2
Squat x 9
Pull Ups x 3

All the way down to...

Burpee x 10
Squat x 1
Pull Ups x 3

Sometimes it helps to remember the sum of the first two movements will always be the same. In this example it will always be 11.

I find that the constant is a great way to work on any weaknesses. For example, if you are terrible at push ups or chin ups you could use a low number of these as your constant. You could also add some sort of corrective exercise as your constant such as a hip or shoulder mobility correction. A corrective ladder might look like this:

Kettle Bell Swing x 10
Push Up x 1
Bench t-spine mobilization x 5 each

As with the countdowns, ladders provide a seemingly endless amount of variety, so you should never get bored with these.

3. Minute-On-the-Minute Sets

Minute-On-the-Minute sets are a great way to be held accountable for your rest periods while sustaining a metabolic effect. The amount of work will be limited by how fast you can complete the interval before the time expires or by the amount of reps you can perform. Simply set an interval timer or stop watch for one minute work/one minute rest intervals (there are a ton of free interval timer apps out there for your phone).

There are three ways I use this method:

1. Pick a compound movement (squat, deadlift, bench press etc.) and load it with 75-85% of your one-rep max. At the top of each minute, do 1-3 reps. Do this for 10 minutes. By the end you will have performed a pretty decent number of reps with a large percent of your 1RM.  This is a good stand alone workout because it builds strength and work capacity simultaneously.
2. Pick a compound movement and load it with 50-60% of your 1RM weight. At the top of the first minute do 1 rep. At the top of the second minute do 2 reps and so on and so fourth. Continue in this fashion until you can no longer complete all the reps within the minute time frame. It will seem easy at first, but trust me it will catch up with you. 
3. Combine minute-on-the-minute with countdowns and ladders. This adds a timed element to the aforementioned methods. So on the first minute you could do 10 swings and 1 chin up. Second minute 10 swings and 2 chin ups and so on until failure. 

With all of these methods in your toolbox, you now have an endless variety of ways to add finishers into your training. These are simple, effective methods that can easily be added regardless of the equipment and time you have at your disposal. Enjoy!


 P.S. Don't forget to like and share!

The 4 P's of Positively Prodigious Program Design

Well, I did it. I survived January. I train at a local YMCA and January is always insane. People seem to come out of the wood work. It is a chore to simply navigate my way through the sea of people without getting a dumbbell dropped on my big toe.

On the bright side, January is always the best time of year to people-watch at the gym. There are times where I will just sit back and watch random acts of silliness and poor gym etiquette between sets. People standing on BOSU balls, teenagers using way too much weight, and lets not forget my favorite; curls in the squat rack. Nothing makes me want to punch a kitten more than when I see some glove-wearing bro Montana posted up in the squat rack banging out sets of barbell curls.

Another thing that drives me nuts is the lack of individuals out there following a program. Many of you may realize by now that I am very passionate about assessment and programming. I've dedicated a lot of time to learning the ins and outs of assessment and the art of designing good programs, so one might imagine I get a little fired up when I see the lack of people out there following a program.

"Remember there is a huge difference between training and working out. Workout is "for the day". These are the people that go into the gym do a few of these, a few of those, and measure their fitness and "progress" by how tired they are. Yes, they may remember their best bench press or fastest mile time, but they don't train specifically to be better; only to be tired. Somehow this makes sense to them. And it well make sense if your goals in life are to be average. If you fall into this category, I applaud your working out and general fitness efforts. But we are here for a different reason: to put together a comprehensive system with an end goal." - Jim Wendler

Aside from laziness and pure lack of common sense, I would argue one of the biggest ailments affecting the average gym-goer is Training A.D.D. Training A.D.D. occurs when those with a short attention span go to the gym and do whatever random workout they feel like doing that day. There is no rhyme or reason to what they do. These individuals continue to spin their wheels, week after week, following whatever workout was posted in the latest edition of Shape magazine or FLEX.

Training ADD is the single biggest reason for stalled progress in any fitness program. It's like throwing darts blindfolded. Do you think most successful athletes take this approach? Think again.

 Don't be like Mike

Look, I know we are all busy. Work, family, house, the list is long, but it's really not all that complicated. You can still train 2 times per week and follow a good program. I have several clients that do exactly that.

So what defines a good program you ask? Well, there are 4 main elements and they all start with the letter P so you should easily be able to remember them.

1. Program

Successful programming implies you have to be following one in the first place. It really doesn't have to be that complicated. Just make sure your program revolves around these elements/movements.

• Nutrition
• Strength Training
• Squat
• Hinge
• Press
• Pull
• Lunge
• Core
• Conditioning
• Recovery

Set some goals, keep a training log, and have a plan.

If you are following all of the guide lines above, congratulations! You are actually following a program. If not, you are still wearing that blindfold and trying to hit that damn piñata.

If you still aren't sure what to do, educate yourself or seek help from a qualified professional. I have several resources listed throughout this site (including me) that can help you.

2. Progression

Progression involves increasing the stress placed on the body through an increase in difficulty. There are several elements of progression, but to simplify I will categorize into two types:

• Movements - This involves making movements more challenging by decreasing the mechanical advantage the body has against load. For example, a conventional deadlift is more challenging than a trap bar deadlift because the load is placed farther away from the body's axis of rotation. If a particular movement feels too easy or you feel you have sufficiently mastered it, you may progress it to the next step. A progression chart for the deadlift might look like this:

Pull through > Single KB RDL > Barbell RDL > Trap Bar DL > Sumo DL > Conventional DL

• Progressive Overload - Adding weight and/or repetitions over time. Pretty straight forward right? 

3. Periodization

Periodization is the planning of training to prepare the body for an event or end goal. Periodization is most commonly used by athletes, but you can use it to get better results if you understand how to simplify the principles.

The water gets a little murky when discussing periodization, largely because many coaches have different beliefs and it depends on what population you are working with. Some coaches believe it doesn't work at all.  Several types of periodization exist. Block, concurrent, linear, and soviet to name a few.

My belief is that periodization, in the traditional sense, only works with those who have very specific goals. Examples include powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters that are striving to make a certain total by a specific date, high level track and field athletes, and endurance athletes (marathoners, triathletes etc.).

For those who have more general goals (probably most of you reading this), a more simplified approach is needed. For this I will turn to whom I consider to be the Yoda of the strength and conditioning world, Mr. Daniel John.

In Dan John's first book, "Never Let Go" he discusses the AIT formula. With this approach, one simply breaks their training into three distinct phases:

1. Accumulation - Play time. During this phase one might try some new things such as participating in a new sport or developing a new skill. Maybe you never tried kettlebells before or you want to take up golf. Have some fun. Through this process you continue to work on your body composition goals or whatever else drives you, but through the lens of this new endeavor you begin to rethink and re-imagine your primary goals. Sometimes when we try something new we realize exactly what we have been missing.
2. Intensification - Time to ramp things up and take it to the next level. In this phase we zero in on exactly what we found was missing in the accumulation phase and set out to improve it. This involves setting some goals and getting a little more specific with our training. For example, if you found your strength was lacking you might prioritize improving your deadlift during this phase. Be specific!
3. Transformation - Putting it all together. Take everything you have learned and accomplished in the first two phases and put it to the test. By now you have expanded your mind and improved a weakness. Now make a big push, train hard, and hit that goal.

Each phase should last anywhere from 4-8 weeks. When you have completed the cycle, take some well deserved rest, then begin the process again. I think this is a great way to approach training for the general population year round.

4. Patience

In today's world of instant gratification nobody wants to actually give the process time to work. Anything good does not come easily or quickly. Rome wasn't built in a day. Keep the big picture in mind.

Speaking personally, it has taken me years of perseverance to clean up my squat technique. I've never been a great squatter, but I refuse to let that get in the way of my strength goals. After what seemed like an eternity of reading everything I could get my hands on, extra core and mobility work, and simply squatting more often I finally hit my goal of a 405 (double bodyweight) back squat last month. There were times when I considered giving up the lift altogether, but that's not in my DNA so I kept grinding.

Any good program takes time. Stay the course, train hard, stay focused and the gains will come.