Basic Burpee workout

This is a baseline workout that anyone (who is healthy/has doctor's permission to work out) can do! You do not have to have a gym or any fancy equipment. I would recommend starting with at least two five pound free weights (you gotta lift something heavier than your purse!!). At the bottom I listed a few 'what's that' answers & some demonstration videos that might be helpful if you've never seen a burpee or some of the other moves.

Again, this is basic--- if it's hard, it's working. But if you get into this and find that it's not hard, be honest with yourself and increase your reps to get results!

The sets of exercises should be moved through at a pace that focuses on form and getting the most out of each movement. If you get hectic or rush, you're not getting the most out of each movement--- this is different than frantic cardio, it's weight bearing activity. Move with purpose, think about each rep and really get everything out of it. Make sure you're breathing and drinking water as you need to- and do rest if you need to- listen to your body and know the difference between pushing and pushing too far.


Basic/Beginner's Burpee Workout:

5 minute warmup with dynamic stretches (time this and make sure you do five minutes. This is absolutely essential to warm up your muscles, get circulation/oxygen supply going and avoid injury--- remember, if you hurt yourself, you're not going to be able to work out and progress will be lost! Always warmup!)

Set 1:
10 star jumpers
10 pushups
25 situps (or 40 crunches)
5 Burpees
50 stork biceps (switch feet every 25)

-- 2 minutes of cardio (if you have stairs in your house, you can walk the stairs--- or jog in place, do jumping jacks, jump rope, doesn't matter what you choose but don't cheat out of this, time it!)

Set 2:

5 Burpees
25 Chest fly w/weights
25 situps (or 40 crunches)
10 mountain climbers
30 bent over row w/weights

---2 minutes cardio

Set 3:
5 Burpees
25 chest fly w/weights
25 situps (or 40 crunches)
10 mountain climbers
30 Plie row w/weights

--- 2 minutes cardio

Set 4:
5 Burpees
10 mountain climbers
25 situps
20 squats with overhead press (weights)
5 Burpees

---5 minutes cardio
---5 minutes cool down--- Do NOT skip cool down. This is what safely returns you to baseline, keeps you from getting nausea, and helps your body start the repair that gets you visible results!!




What's a star jumper?
Squat on the ground like a little monkey then jump as high as you can, stretching your arms and legs out in a jumping jack position. It seems ridiculous but it is very tiring, and the more effort you put into it, the more you will get out of it. Of course make sure that you're not jumping into your ceiling fan (been there, done that).


What's a burpee?

You'll find a lot of variations, but the basic burpee is this set of postions/movements: Start standing in a neutral even postured position. Drop to a squat and put your hands out in front of you on the floor, shift your weight to your hands and jump your legs to a pushup position. Variations at this point might include a pushup in this position, but for this basic burpee workout, don't do the pushup, jump back to squat, then stand- that's 1 burpee. Okay, now don't get discouraged--- if the hopping is still too difficult, you can step down for the most basic burpee. This is demonstrated REALLY well in this youtube video (which I had nothing to do with the filming of) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiTPFTMlags

What's a stork bicep?
A regular bicep with weight but add standing on one leg. Bring your lifted leg to a 90 degree angle. Focus on holding your core in, and get tension in both legs, really getting every bit out of the single exercise that you can.

What's a mountain climber?
Get in a pushup position. Now bring one leg forward as if you were a runner about to take off. Keeping your hands forward, switch which foot is forward. This is a four count (each foot will be forward twice to count for 1 towards the 10). This is demonstrated well in this youtube video (which I had nothing to do with the filming of) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyeZM-_VnRc