Day 10, Wednesday Dec 29

Are you able to complete 10 burpees without stopping for a breather? While this may not be your first set of 10 because of missing a day, or a “buy” into the program, from this day on you must complete at least 10 burpees a day. Attempting to bend the “rules” just a bit, I encourage you to place each day’s burpees into one workout vs spreading them out throughout the day. Slowly but surely, you improve with the practice of sets of “10”, “11”, or “12”. Before we hit the higher numbers, this “set” thinking will pay off as we discover some fundamentals of HIIT training.

Day 8, Monday December 27

Eight burpees today! Successfully you completed your burpees during a major holiday. Learning the benefit of just doing them and knowing you would not get off the couch from your sugar stupor, you probably completed your daily set of burpees before the major food fest. If not, then you have since learned this lesson. After eating my share of Christmas treats last night, I found myself demonstrating about 3 burpees to good friends who needed motivation to join the challenge. Encouraged that this guy could do a few after such a gorge fest, the family was suckered, I mean convinced, to join the challenge. Today is “buy in” day for them. Evil laugh sound track!

It is great hearing about more people joining in!

Day 2 - Tuesday, Dec 21

Day 2 - Think about it: if you have never performed a burpee before this challenge, you have already doubled the number of burpees you can do! One participant jokingly said, “I ain’t sore yet.”



As you are performing your 2 burpees I have to ask “Who is watching?” Do your kids look up at trying to figure out what is going on? Husband rolling his eyes wondering how long you will keep this up? Get your family and friends involved with you! Wonderful to hear that some of you are getting your family and friends involved. It is easy to coach from the couch! This is not a spectator sport. Keep add it. And remember: they can “buy in” tonight by performing only 3 burpees. 1 (from Day 1) + 2 (from Day 2) = 3 Burpees.

My own workout was rough today. Tue, Thur, and Sat is my Convict Conditioning strength training days (want to see some of that check out Kiltman's Bodyweight Culture Workout Log . Today was Push Up progression day that really burnt up my arms. So, when I started doing my burpees, I was so burnt out that I could barely do first 10 Burpee + Push up that is my family's standard. My next 22 was the standard burpee (no push up). Rethinking I may have to perform burpees on these days before my CC, but then will I not be able to give my strength training 100%?

Day 1 - Monday, December 20

Day 1. See, that wasn’t bad. Was it? On these early days, take careful note of form. Squat with appropriate hand placement, not slamming into the ground jamming your elbows or shoulders. Thrust your feet back while tightening your abdominal muscles, maintaining an even, full arm extension plank. No swayback! If performing the pushup, chest and thighs may touch the ground/floor on the burpee although this is not “official” push up form. Bring feet back underneath into a squat position. Jump up, clear the floor for at least a little distance. Perform your first few days more slowly than you would when you start hitting higher numbers of repetitions. Good job on the first day burpee!



What’s in a name? Burpee. Whatever images this word brings up (pun intended), it is unclear exactly how this came to be the name of this fabulous exercise. I lean more to the understanding that it is named after the person who invented it. Some, such as military basic trainees, football trainees, and even prisoners, have known this by its even less glamorous name of “pukers.” That is a term that only becomes evident at higher numbers after not giving enough time between the last meal and your burpee conditioning bout. Another variation well-known by basic trainees is the Eight-count bodybuilder, usually performed in a slow, excruciating pattern to emphasize strength development. We will talk about variations in a few more days. Whatever name you want to call it, the burpee still smells just as sweet, or sweat!

With my 33 (those of us that have been performing burpees regularly are encouraged to do the day 1-33 = 33 burpees each day; day 34-66 = 66 burpees each; day 67-100 = 100 burpees each) I am working on timing. For instance, starting with 10 reps then resting 30 seconds.

Time to Commit!!!

All of you that I have contacted, it is time to commit to the challenge! You can do it! Don't feel that you can do even some of the modified burpees in the video? Then start with what you can do, such as a prisoner squat. As much as I tout the beautiful benefit of the burpee, I really just want to see you moving! Challenge yourself! Comment below to show "I'm in!"

Good demonstration of several variations of burpees

Rules for the 100 Day Burpee Challenge:

Get ready to transform your body and your mind with the most incredible Anytime, Anyplace, full-body exercise known to man. This simple but effective routine will inject new life and vigor into that boring elliptical workout while increasing your energy and fitness capacity like never before!

We are going to perform one burpee on day one, Starting Monday, December 20, 2010 and add one burpee each day until we get to 100 burpees on the 100th day! After 100 days, you will have completed 5050 burpees!

The Rules:

1. Use any Burpee variation or sub-variation. See the attached spreadsheet for variations. (Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee_(exercise) for a great description. Watch YouTube videos for other examples. A great Youtube video for variation ideas is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGljX4bbps . You will understand how you can have a hate/love relationship with the Burpee. Just Do It!

2. You can complete each day's burpees all at once, or broken up and done at different times throughout the day. You can do it!

3. If for some reason you miss a day, you have to make up ALL the missed burpees the following day. Example: on day 21 you miss because of the kids’ piano recital. On day 22 you have 43 burpees to perform. Keeps you motivated!

4. If you don't start the challenge with us (on Monday, December 20, 2010), you can "buy-in" at any time by doing ALL the missed day's burpees on your first day. Example: If you start Christmas Day, your total burpees is not 6, but 21 burpees! Challenges you to start at the beginning and stick with me to the very end!

5. Any burpees you complete during your regular workout can count towards that day’s Challenge burpees, if you want them to. Get credit for the work you have done!

6. For performance tracking purposes, the 25 burpees, 50 burpees, 75 burpees and 100 burpees days will be timed. Keep working toward a goal of 100 burpees in less than 10 minutes. So at the 25 burpee test, you know you are on track if you can do them in about 2.5 minutes, 50 burpee test in 5 minutes, etc.