10 Burpees On The Minute For 10 Minutes

I'm sure this workout or something similar has been done.

But as far as I know... Dan and I created this workout as our own bench marking workout.

We love EMOMs. (Even minute on the minute workouts.)

We love burpees. (It's true, some people love burpees.)

So we just combined burpees with EMOMs and choose 10 minutes because it hard... but not impossible. It's achievable by anybody with some practice.

And back when we had our studio... we would run all of our clients through this workout no matter their fitness level. And I'll show you the modifications we used with our clients below.

Kindal going down into the burpee and getting ready for her jump back into the pushup.

Kindal jumps back to the top of a pushup plank position ready for a solid burpee pushup.

Kindal showing how to do a solid burpee pushup which helps to build strength besides the pure conditioning of the exercise.

Kindal jumping back into a tuck position after her burpee pushup. She is ready to explode and complete the rep.

Kindal is exploding up into a fun burpee jump so she can fall right back down and into the her next burpee rep.

What's The Goal Of This Burpee Challenge?

The goal is to test your:

Sustained conditioning... prolonged cardio output...
Ability to breath and control your breath...
Mental ability to push hard and to no quit when things get HARD...

Let's briefly talk about each one of these.

Prolonged Conditioning

This is your cardio endurance... I like to think about it like this...

Everybody can feel fresh and put forth a strong output in the beginning of any endeavor. But how long can you sustain this level of output?

The better conditioned you are... the longer you'll be able to sustain a high level of output.

big idea

We'll talk more about this in the progresssions section below, but whenever you're doing any type of cardio workout...

Push yourself just on the edge of your comfort zone and see how well you do.

When you fail... take notice of where you totally crash. Don't just take notice... take note... write down where you crashed. Next time you're in a similar situation, you can see if you improved and by how much.

This is a great strategy for 5ks... 10ks... or doing half marathons... and this workout!

Control Your Breath

Kindal closing her eyes and focusing on bringing her heart rate down. This is vital to do when you have reset because you never have that much of it.

This is hard during this challenge. The whole point is to finish your 10 burpees as fast as you can within your minute so you can have more rest.

But this also means you're pushing harder and your heart rate will go up faster.

You'll need to manage your breathing, especially as you get to later rounds. Ideally you want to extend your exhales to help slow your heart rate. But this is tough and it takes practice.

Mental Strength

Doing burpees always tests your mental strength... and doing them under the pressure of the timer really tests you.

If you fall behind, it's easy to get frustrated. But can you buckle your mind down and keep going?

When we talk about the progression, I'll tell you what to do when you fall behind... because once you do... it's near impossible to catch back up.

But falling behind is also fun because it adds some pressure to the workout.

Burpee Breakdown

I love burpees. A classic and go to exercise for testing strength and cardio.

There are many burpee variations, but for this challenge we'll stick with the classic burpee.

A full pushup at the bottom.

No sloppy pushups or flopping down and peeling your body back off the floor.

Do your best to make each pushup great. As you get later into the 10 minutes... your pushup form will breakdown a little. That's normal and okay. Just do your best.

Keep Your Core Engaged

Kindal showing how NOT to get out of the bottom of a burpee.

Kindal showing how to do a correct pushup at the bottom of a burpee with a tight engaged core.

Progressing Through This Burpee Challenge

Use a Box For Box Burpees

Kindal showing how to use a box for a burpee to make it much easier to complete a burpee with less mobility.

Kindal showing how to jump back during a box over burpee so she can continue a pushup with greater ease. One of the best modifications for burpees.

Kindal showing how to do a great box burpee pushup with a tight core and straight body.

Kindal coming out of the pushup and jumping back in to jump up and complete the box burpee rep.

Kindal jumping up out of the box burpee to complete the rep before she fall right back down into the next rep.

Use a box for your burpees. Bring the floor up. This is similar to our pushup progression .

Using a box brings the floor up making the pushup part of the burpee much easier.

As you get stronger and you start to do half burpees or burpees from the ground... remember you can always move back up to the box when you need to. Make sure you track the round you go back to the box. This way you can tell if you're getting stronger.

Fall Back To Half Burpees

If you're struggling with burpees because you struggle with pushups... fall back to half burpees.

A half burpee is a burpee without the pushup. Just jump back and right back in to come up for your little hop.

Mix And Match Box And Half Burpees

I already mentioned this... but mix and match as you get stronger.

Do 2 burpees from the ground...
Do 5 half burpees from the ground...
Do 3 burpees from a box...

Try this mix and match.

Do 5 half burpees from ground...
Do 4 burpees from a box...
Do 1 burpee from the ground as best as you can...

Play with these mixes and matches with the goal of making the challenge hard to complete for your level of fitness. Be honest with yourself though... don't stay at a level where it's too easy. Always push your comfortzone.

Drop Reps

10 reps is a lot!

Drop reps when it starts to get overwhelmingly hard. What should you drop down too?

Whatever is doable but still tough. Then you can use the mix and match strategy to make things progressively hard for you. Here's an example:

2 burpees from the ground for 10 reps...
4 burpees from the vground for 7 reps...
4 burpees from a box for 10 reps...

Keep playing with these combinations. You'll have to find what works for you until you get to doing all your burpees from the ground.

Tips For When This Burpee Workout Gets Hard

Get To Round Seven

I've found when you get to and through round seven... your mindset hardens. For me at least, when I get through seven rounds... I say to myself...

"I can survive three more rounds!"

I get a renewed sense of energy and getting through those last three rounds is a lot easier.

So get to and through round seven and your chances of getting through all 10 rounds go up drastically.

Think Vacation

This is Dan's recommendation. He swears is works to help him drastically reduce his heart rate and control his breath.

He thinks of a tropical location and he's rocking in a hammock... just chilling.

He says when he thinks of this image... he can take a long exhale and calm himself down. Does this really work? Maybe... maybe not.

The point is to have a trick or something that works for you. One thing you can't do it lose your cool when the next minute is coming fast. You have to try and recover a little.

Even if you don't physically recover... mentally recovering is half the battle for this workout.

Don't Sell Yourself Short

This is a challenge where you can get negative very fast.

When you start to fall behind... it's easy to get frustrated and just as easy to give up because you know you're not going to make the full workout.

DON'T GIVE UP!

Push has hard as you can until you truly can't go any further.

There's a couple reasons for this:

You grow mentally stronger.
You realize you're stronger than you think you are.

Surprising yourself will boost your confidence and belief that you can succeed next time.

Can You Get Through 10 Burpees Per Minute In 10 Minutes?

This workout is a very tough challenge.

You may have to practice and work on your conditioning to eventually get through all 10 minutes.

You may get through all 10 minutes your first try.

Either way... this is a great benchmark workout.

I use it throughout the year to see where my conditioning is.

When you're ready to have more challenge workouts and fun exercising with me in person... go learn about Fit Women's Weekly LIVE. This is my small group personal training program .

You're able to attend live workouts every day...
You can replay the workout whenever you want...
You get access to me daily for personalize questions and coaching...
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