“I Love Burpees…Said No One Ever!”
This phrase can be found on t-shirts and memes the world over. I was in full agreement with this sentiment, until I completed the 100 Burpee Challenge. Strange, I know, let me explain:
What Is It?
The Challenge is to complete 100 Burpees as fast as possible, as a test of your cardiovascular endurance, muscular stamina and mental toughness.
A Burpee?
What I am calling a Burpee is technically a “Flopee”, as a Burpee requires a strict push-up and a Flopee does not.
- Place hands on the ground
- Jump or step feet out into plank position
- Lie down on the ground
- Push back up to plank
- Jump or step feet back toward the hands
- Stand up, jump up, clap overhead
- Repeat
Why Is This Movement Important?
Functional Fitness is a buzz-word in the fitness community. A functional movement is one that applies to everyday life (it is also a multi-joint movement). How does a Burpee matter in your life? What if you fall down? Can you get back up? That's the importance of a Burpee. As we age, the risk of falling increases. You want to maintain the ability to get back up as long as possible. That's functional fitness.
The Challenge
Here's what you've been waiting for! I'm challenging our Steemit Community to complete the 100 Burpee Challenge for the benefit of testing your baseline fitness and as a way to improve your endurance and stamina. As if that's not incentive enough, I'll award a random Challenger 50% of the SBD from this post once it is paid out.
To enter:
- Complete the 100 Burpee Challenge and time yourself!
- Comment on this post with your completion time
- Upvote this post to increase the reward pool
- Re-steem this post to increase visibility of and participation in this Challenge
After payout, I will use pick.esteem.ws to randomly select the winning comment from a Challenger and transfer 50% of the SBD from this post to their wallet.
Are You Crazy?!?!
Hold up! Stay with me here. I realize this may sound crazy to most people. But, this is a great way to get a baseline test of your fitness. You repeat this Challenge, periodically, and thereby measure how much you've improved your aerobic capacity and stamina. The added benefit is that once you do 100 Burpees, a handful of burpees in a workout feels like a breeze, hereafter, and is the reason I no longer agree with that opening quote about loathing Burpees.
100 Not Happening
No problem. 100 IS a lot! If you haven't been working out, 100 is NOT a good place to start. However, that does not mean you're excluded from this Challenge. Do as many as you can do or accumulate 100 over the week and record that in the comments. You'll still be included in the contest. My goal is to get people moving, work within your abilities, challenge you a little bit, and inspire our Community to work together toward improved health and fitness.
Never Too Old
And don't think this is only for the young ones. I'm 42 years old, but that's nothing compared to the countless videos an internet search will reveal of much older people doing burpees. I just watched a video yesterday of a 92 year old woman doing burpees with her trainer. No excuses, but do get the approval from your doctor before starting any exercise regiment.
My results are below:
It's About Health And Fitness
Sure, the possible award is great, but do it for YOU! Do it for the sheer exhilaration of setting a formidable challenge before you and overcoming it! The time doesn't matter; it only matters as a measure of your fitness for you to know and retest in the future. Have fun! Move with excellence! Be proud of your accomplishment!
Get moving today! Comment, upvote, resteem! I look forward to your entries!
If you enjoyed this post, follow me @coachjj for Fitness-related inspiration!