Do Burpees Actually Work? The Evidence Behind the Hated Exercise

[0:00] Okay, you know it, you hate it. The burpee, the exercise that makes you question all your life choices. Okay, but you know it was not created as a form of torture, right? Does it really matter? It’s been used to torture middle schoolers and CrossFitters alike. All right, Kathy, I’m going to need you to take a deep breath. Otherwise, I’m going to make you do 50 burpees mid episode. Today, we discuss the dreaded burpee. Dun dun. What happens when a chiropractor and a physical therapist get together to make a health and wellness podcast?

[0:30] Chiropractors and physical therapists don’t like each other. Oh, think again. I’m Dr. Kathy Lynch, physical therapist who likes to help people move and get stronger. I’m Dr. Jason Young, an evidence-based chiropractor who uses humor just as much as adjustments to help people get better. Welcome to the PTCH Podcast. Remember, there’s no I in PTCH. Okay, folks. Welcome to another episode of the PTCH Podcast. I’m Dr. Jason Young, Dr. Kathy Lynch. Okay. And this is the PTCH where we discuss

[1:00] exciting, exciting healthcare information. I was going to say healthcare news. There’s nothing new. No, there’s news right now. Breaking news. No. So, as Kathy talked about, today we’re going to be talking about that exercise that you all love to hate. Now, this actually kind of goes back to our very first episode when we declared this a burpee-free zone. This is a burpee-free zone. But then on that same episode, I think that we said we should do a whole episode about burpees. Here we are. Here we are. Right. We’re listening to your feedback, people.

[1:33] Yes. There was a huge demand from everybody who watches the podcast and they all wanted to do an episode about burpees, and so here it is. All two of us. Okay. So, today we’re going to discuss a few things about burpees. We’ve done our homework and our research because honestly we didn’t really know a lot of this stuff before. Where did it start? Yeah, we went out and we got smart for everybody. We’re going to talk about the origins of the exercise and the most important question. What’s with that name? Where

[2:03] did the burpee come from? Right. Yes. We’re going to talk about the man who created it. We’re also going to discuss a little bit about how it became such a popular fixture in the world of fitness for some awful reason. We’ll get a little bit into the science of the burpee and you’re going to get our expert opinions on it. Okay. So start us off. Okay. What is a burpee? Oh, are you asking me?

[2:34] That’s the question. You always start with the question. Always start with the question. Yeah. So, the original exercise didn’t really look like what we have today, right? No. Many people have modified it, as one will say, right? Or some people — by modify what they mean is destroyed. Destroy it. Yeah. Researching this, we were looking at the creator of this and she’s kind of the defender of the family legacy. And she even said that he would roll over in his grave if

[3:04] he saw how it’s being used today. The variations. Yes. For evil and not good. Definitely for evil. Yeah. So, Kathy, tell us — why is it called a burpee? Well, it is called a burpee after the guy who invented it. Okay. Believe it or not, his name is Royal H. Burpee. Who knew? Okay. So, do you remember

[3:35] the first time you ever had to do a burpee? Because like nobody’s ever been like, “Yay, I get to do a burpee.” Like everybody the first time they did a burpee, it’s because they were forced to do a burpee, right? Do you remember the first time? I remember my first time. I think it was fifth grade. Okay. Mine was sixth grade. There we go. So yeah. I had a gym teacher, Chris Gand — I think his first name was Chris, but Mr. Gander. We called him Commander Gander. And man, I was going to say I hope he’s not watching, but wouldn’t

[4:05] it be a miracle if he was? Like, “Yeah, nobody’s watching.” So, it’s safe to say we did not like Mr. Gander. And so when he would make us do burpees, I thought that he was like punking us, like it was some sort of a joke. Like, okay, like it’s really a burpee. And he would do it and he just — he looked like a dork doing it and we felt even dorkier ourselves. And then like surprise, you get to be an adult and like you go to some sort of class or some sort of fitness class and people are doing burpees there. So, yeah. What

[4:36] about you? Like fifth grade? Like was it PE? Oh, absolutely. PE. What was her name? Your — that was high school. Miss Quinn. Miss Quinn. Yes. Okay. All right. So, this was not Miss Quinn. No, it was not Miss Quinn. I believe it was a nun. A nun. Taught PE. Okay. Middle school. Yeah. All right. So, it’s even being used for torture in the church. Absolutely. That was the main torture. I’m going to give a shout out to my middle school, elementary school, Epiphany Nomads. All right. Epiphany

[5:06] Nomads, let’s go. Let’s go, Nomads. Oh my goodness. All right. Well, why don’t you take us through a little bit of the history of Mr. Royal H. Burpee? Actually, did we show a picture of him yet? We should probably — we should show a picture, Scott. Do we have a picture? Yeah. Of Royal H. Burpee, also known as Popeye the Sailor. Now that is a manly looking man right there. He’s a good looking guy. Yeah, he’s got the barreled chest. I’m

[5:36] pretty sure that he is bodybuilding posed up there. He sure looks like he invented bodybuilding. He does. He looks like he invented muscles. That’s for sure. So yeah, there he is. Royal H. Murphy — or Burpee. Burpee. Let’s go with Burpee today. All right. All right. That’s enough of that. All right. So tell us about good old Roy Burpee. Roy — born in 1897. Okay. um had an athletic and academic

[6:07] background. I believe he got his PhD in physiology. Okay. His father was in the fitness industry and actually ran a YMCA in New York City. Okay. Are you going to tell me that he also invented the dance, the burpee, and he invented the — I think that was his brother Carl. Carl was the guy who dressed like the Indian. Yep. Got it. Okay, cool. Yeah. All right. Yep. Very good. Carl — got it — Carl Burpee. All right.

[6:38] So, Royal invented this burpee move as a fitness test. Okay. So, it wasn’t even an exercise. No, no, no, no. He wanted to figure out how do we test how physically fit people are. Okay. And so, this is one of many exercises he came up with. All right. So, he sat down and came up with seven exercises. Let me list those out for you. Okay.

they put the push-up in and then after the push-up they do the cobra stretch. Like you’re you’re doing yoga now. Yes. Yoga burpees. Yeah. The yoga burpee.

[7:08] The burpee. And do I reveal that he originally called this a squat thrust? I think that’s a good revelation. Yeah. Well, and I think that that’s a good time to talk about what it was in the beginning. It was not this like, you know, get down, kick your legs, spin around a few times, jump in the air, grab onto a rope, swing back and forth, twist your ankle. No. There were just a few simple parts to it, right? And here’s

[7:38] how he had people do it. He would say — dude, sorry, I don’t have this pulled up. Okay, this is how he would tell people to do the burpee. He would say, “Bend your knees. Place your hands —” Oh, wait. I’m not doing it right now. ”— on the floor in front of you. Okay. Subject performs. Okay. Jump your legs straight out to the rear

[8:08] and leave them there.” Okay. So, like a plank, like a push-up thing. Get into a plank. Now, jump your legs back to your hands. Stand up. Period. No hop. That’s it. There’s no hopping. There’s no clapping. There’s no push-ups. Right. And he wanted just four reps. Yes. Right. Because I think the original intent was not to get you jacked, or to punish children. No. Or to make some

[8:38] CrossFit instructor look like the devil. Yes. The original intent was: you do this four times and then we measure how quickly you recover cardiovascularly. That’s right. And it was kind of a genius move, though, because that’s a pretty challenging move. The challenge is proportional to your size, right? So if you’re very small or very big, a burpee is a challenge because it’s a body weight exercise. It’s explosive. It’s dynamic. And it will get your heart

[9:09] rate up. Four reps will get most people’s heart rate. Yeah. One rep will get a lot of people’s heart rate. It will. Yeah. One rep is some people’s last rep, right? PR. Yeah. So, what were the other — so that’s the one that got his name. Yes. Because, like, big move, right? And what were the other signature — so, in his dissertation, his PhD project, what were the other measures of physical fitness that he was using? You did leg lifts. Okay. Love

[9:39] them. You got to lift those legs. Yes, you do. The step test. Okay. The sit and reach, which you’re famous for. I am famous for — Highland View Middle School. Scotty Dogs, record holder. Yeah. Watch a previous episode. You’ll see what I mean. Yeah. Most people know me for my sit and reach. I also do chiropractic. That’s the sit and reach guy. Yeah. Like I get stopped in the grocery store. Oh my gosh. If I get out my camera,

[10:10] will you sit and reach for me? Terrible. The 50-yard dash. Okay. Chin-ups, jump and reach. Okay. Wait, can we go back to the sit and reach real quick? Don’t you think that he had an athlete like me in mind whenever he was like, we need to see if somebody is like him, right? And I am him. Yeah. He’s in the set. Who’s going to hold the record? Sit and reach only, right? This guy will hold the sit and reach record. Let’s think about his hamstrings.

[10:41] Okay, so the jump and reach, just to clarify — that was basically just, I mean, it was like a squat jump without the squat. It was just jumping high and reaching up, right? So these are very old-school exercises and pretty good fitness assessments. Yes. Okay. So, yeah, he used these measures of physical readiness and we talked about the protocol, and this earned him a PhD. They were just giving those suckers out back then. I guess they still are,

[11:12] I guess. Yeah. My doctorate required a little bit more than that. And I’m pretty sure that yours did, too. Had to do some kind of licensing something-something or other. But no, like, you just list seven exercises — because he didn’t have the internet. No, he didn’t. Now you just list seven exercises and now you’re Dr. Burpee. Yeah. Burpee. And did you have a bibliography? No. You are the bibliography. That’s right. Because you are the first one. As long as you name an exercise after yourself, it’s official. So yeah. Okay.

[11:43] So, then how did it kind of get co-opted into — like, who screwed this up? I guess that’s the question. How did we get to where we are today with these things? I’m going to say the US military. It is the US military. That is correct. And so, as — if you remember his picture where he was dressed as Popeye the Sailor Man — he was also in the Navy. And the Navy used his fitness assessment to

[12:15] basically see if people were ready to go. Like, you know, for you youngsters out there, if you remember the first Captain America movie, when Steve Rogers wanted to be in the military and he couldn’t be because he was so scrawny, and they had him do all those fitness tests, right — it was that kind of thing. And so, yeah, if you couldn’t do the burpees then, well, you were toast. But they did it like on steroids, so — I believe the military wanted you to be able to perform like 50

[12:46] continuous burpees in order to hit your rating for physical fitness. And I believe that they also added the jump in there, which the jump is just diabolical. Yeah. Right. And so the military, though, was still using it as an assessment, not so much as an exercise. That’s right. One of the interesting things about assessing things — anything — is that if you use it as an assessment, you’re also going to end up using that as training.

[13:16] So it happens in education, too, where — I think we call it studying for the test, right? That’s right. Where it’s like, okay, I don’t know why this thing is important or how it applies in the real world. I just know that I need to pass this test. And so all the time people are like, I need to be able to pass this test. And so I think that’s how it crossed over into the world of fitness, right? Cool. Yeah. So, let’s see, where

[13:47] are we in our timeline now? So this is like 1939. Yeah. Right. And it went right up until 1942. What are some of the crazy things that you’ve seen people add to burpees? I have seen — well, we all know the glorious push-up that they put in. Oh, yes. So you go down — the original, you don’t just kick your legs back. You got to do the push-up. Mm-hm. Okay. All right. Mm-hm. Have you seen

[14:18] push-up with a clap? I have seen — yes. Mm-hm. Yep. And then as you bring your legs back up and jump, I have also seen a clap at the top. Clap at the top. Okay. Classic modification. Because why not? Yeah. Or like clap behind your back and stuff like that. Like you got Billy Blanks making DVDs and VHS tapes about these burpees. Oh my god. I’ve seen the one too where they

[14:48] Jason:…you do the star — I’m a star. The star jump. I’m a star jump. You know what? This is a family show. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Let’s keep it above board. And so now they use them. You know, we talked about the military. They use them. CrossFit is big on burpees. They love burpees in CrossFit. Any sort of boot camp class — you’re not going to have a boot camp class without burpees, right?

Kathy: That’s right.

Jason: You’ll see them all over social media. People will talk about them. So,

[15:21] there’s a love-hate relationship with burpees and how they’re used. Sometimes people feel like they’re purely being used as punishment, because frankly they are.

Kathy: Right.

Jason: I know football teams use them as punishment.

Kathy: Absolutely. Because it really looks close to like one of those up-downs, right?

Jason: Yes. Which I gotta admit, in some context it’s a useful movement, because like something like that where you’re getting knocked down a lot — yeah, you’ve got to be able to get back up as far as the skill set.

Kathy: Mm-hmm. So let’s talk a

[15:51] little bit about the science behind it. So why is it even a good assessment? Like, is a burpee — or those movements — is it a good measure of physical fitness, of strength, anything like that? What’s your opinion?

Jason: Yeah, if we’re testing for strength, for sure, because you’re using all the muscle groups — upper body, lower body, shoulders, knees — you’ve got to have some ankle mobility in there. You have to have hip mobility, and we’ll talk about that later. To

[16:21] do that, and then the cardiovascular fitness in order to do a series of them. So yeah, you know, it’s a good, solid, very hard exercise, right?

Kathy: I think — and I agree with that, too. And I think anything where you were — beyond just the physicality of it — I think one thing that I’ve noticed, and this is not science, this is just my observation, which is not the same thing

[16:51] as science, but — I mean, we even see this with stretches. Like, for example, I like that doorway stretch, right? And that’s a good one, except I always have people lunge into the doorway rather than lean into the doorway. The reason is because leaning into the doorway, your brain automatically goes into a mode where it’s like, “I might fall forward and break my nose.” And so then when you need to relax into that, you can’t really, because you’re trying to keep yourself from falling.

[17:21] And I think that any exercise where you are going with gravity instead of against gravity — you get a little bit of an adrenaline rush. Yeah. And so I think from a cardiovascular standpoint, it’s that extra little adrenaline bump.

Kathy: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, how does this compare to other exercises though? Like, could I just do burpees instead of running —

Jason: which we could do a whole — we will do a whole other episode on running and how wonderful that is. But like, what could a burpee replace from a cardiovascular standpoint?

[17:51] Kathy: What could it replace? Yeah, in terms of like a full-body fitness type of thing —

Jason: Mm-hmm. Is it maybe a more efficient form of exercise?

Kathy: It can be. Okay. Yeah, for sure. If you can do it safely. Okay. Without causing pain. Mm-hmm. And can you return to normal life the next day?

[18:22] Jason: Right. Well, and it’s interesting that you bring that up, because in my deep, deep research for this episode — one of the things I thought I’d look into — I mean, because I think the reason that you and I are both, let’s say, dubious of burpees is we have seen firsthand the aftermath of some people. You will remain nameless. You’re not going to be named here, don’t worry. We’re not going to out you. But we’ve seen the aftermath of what can happen with burpees, especially a lot of

[18:53] burpees, especially in environments where we’re sweating alongside other people and we feel like we’ve got something to prove. And so sometimes it does not feel like the safest exercise. Yeah. Like, what are some of the things that you see injury-wise from burpees?

Kathy: Well, let’s talk about personal experience here.

Jason: Okay, let’s do that.

Kathy: Several years ago, once upon a time, I did CrossFit. And that CrossFit gym will remain nameless.

Jason: Okay. Unless — unless you’re interested

[19:24] in sponsoring us. Then we will name you all the time.

Kathy: Yes. We’ll name you all the time. Right. Okay. My first class. Mm-hmm. I was slightly late, rushing from seeing a patient in my very important job. I was slightly late because of that. The first thing the coach said to me was, “Do 20 burpees.”

Jason: Wait, as an adult?

Kathy: As an adult.

Jason: Hey, adult — 20 burpees. Okay. All right.

[19:54] Kathy: I was late.

Jason: Oh, jeez. Okay. You were an intermediate exerciser. You were a physical therapist.

Kathy: Yeah. Not a beginner, but not advanced.

Jason: Physical therapists only have to do one rep, right?

Kathy: That’s right. 20 reps. Intermediate. Yeah. Okay. My SI joint — my sacroiliac joint — did not recover for at least two months from that episode.

Jason: Wow. You got smacked. So you have a personal vendetta — a beef.

Kathy: Okay.

[20:26] With the burpee.

Kathy: Yes. I wasn’t ready for it. Okay. And that is my big beef — it’s not a beginner exercise.

Jason: Yes. And we give this to children.

Kathy: Thank you. Right. It’s an advanced exercise. It is. It is.

Jason: Well, let’s put it this way — if you’re doing more than four reps, right, and you’re adding in all the twists and the clapping and the sparkles and everything — like the one where you have to jump and you have two ignited sparklers in your hands —

[20:58] that’s advanced level, right? But you can do a burpee safely. Yes. Okay. And you know, this kind of gets to — I won’t say it’s a beef, but my concern —

Kathy: Yeah.

Jason: — about some of these boot camp style exercises or some CrossFit gyms. I’m by no means lumping all of you together, but it’s one of the — the challenges, we’ll call it. We’ll say challenges. It’s a very soft word.

Kathy: It’s gentle. But one of the challenges that comes with doing these

[21:29] group fitness exercises or activities is — I like to call it the perceived oversight, or perceived supervision.

Jason: Supervision. Yes. And like I think we talked about before — so you have a gym. Helix — like, you could be a sponsor.

Kathy: Oh, you could be a sponsor. Exactly.

Jason: But one of the things I like about that is the sessions have about eight people, which is a good number of people to supervise. There are some boot camps where you have dozens

[28:08] having a chiropractor or physical therapist tell me?

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[22:02] of people and they do a good job of demonstrating the exercises and they give everybody a chance to give feedback like give me a thumbs up if you like this exercise or if you understand it and you know people give a thumbs up but they don’t know and sometimes there’s peer pressure to just be like yeah I get it right and they end up getting hurt and they come see you they come see me and so we see this all the time and that’s why we have concerns about exercises like burpees right. Yeah. So maybe it’s not the burpee itself, but it’s the way that

[22:33] it’s deployed. I’m going to say deployed because of its military roots. Yeah, I think that’s appropriate. Yeah. Yeah. So I don’t have a beef with Royal Burpee. We love you, Royal. Yeah, we do. You’re good with us. Rest in peace, Roy. But yeah, so I decided, you know, I was going to look at what the science has to say. Like, Kathy and Jason, are we right about this being a

[23:03] high-stakes exercise when it comes to people’s safety? And do you know what the science says?

Kathy: Tell me.

Jason: The science says that it is not high stakes. But we have to take this in context. Okay? Because when you think about it — I don’t know if there’s been many — so there’s different types of studies, right? There’s a randomized control trial where we’re going to get together a group of people. We’re going to do this experiment. We’re going to find out about burpees. You know, is it good for your body? Is it bad for your body? Like does it build muscle? You know, all

[23:33] the things you’d want to know. Okay. So that’s a randomized control trial. That’s a lot of the context in which they’ve studied this exercise. And then you have observational studies where you’re doing like a longitudinal — you’re looking at groups of people that are exercising and maybe you’re asking questions about what kind of exercises do you do, like are you on the treadmill, are you doing push-ups, are you doing sit-ups, do you do burpees, right? You might look back at healthcare data, right? And look at what kind of patients have been in for what kind of injuries related to sports. And so,

[24:05] they aren’t really doing these observational studies about burpees. A lot of the safety data comes out of these randomized control trials, right? Where it’s like, we’re going to be doing this exercise. Now, in these studies, if you’ve ever been involved with one of these studies, you know that there is a very good amount of training, supervision, all that kind of stuff, because we want to reduce the risk of having bias or other confounding factors, right? If we want to look at

[24:35] burpees and how they do building muscle, we have an interest in making sure that somebody’s not going to shatter their wrist doing burpees, right? A lot of these studies also — they’re going to take people who have a higher level of training, right? So they might go and they look for college athletes and they say, “Hey, we’re going to have you do, you know, 60 burpees and we’re going to test your heart rate.” So these are not the average people — the folks who are going to the gym for the first time and they show up a little bit late from their very important job.

Kathy: Right. Very important.

[25:05] Jason: Exactly. And then they end up getting smashed by the burpee. So the data says that they’re safe — if you look, there’s like no reports of injuries, adverse effects, and things like that associated with burpees. But it’s kind of a trick because it’s the wrong type of study. So it’s important to understand how to read that research, right? Yeah. So, burpee is not bad.

Kathy: Did the study actually say people didn’t get hurt from doing a burpee? 50 burpees?

Jason: It said that there was no

[25:36] reported adverse effects, or that there was nobody who had to drop out for that reason. Yeah. And this is not just one study. I think I probably looked at about eight different studies where they used a burpee for whatever purposes they were looking at. So I think that that’s the important thing — if you’re doing it under the right circumstances, in some cases with the right supervision, definitely with the right preparation. Yes. Right. If you have a wrist strain, yeah, don’t do a burpee.

[26:08] Don’t do even one. No, just wait. Right. So I think that you’re right. It’s nice because it is full body. It’s exercises that we tell people to do otherwise, right? Do a squat. Yeah. Right. Do a plank. Right. Do a push-up. Right. Or, you know, the very advanced level is the push-up. Or jump — even at the jump. But it’s when you put it all together, and it’s usually about — I would guess the 10th burpee — that somebody with a low level of training

[26:38] now — they’re playing with house money. Yeah. And you add speed to it.

Kathy: Oh, yes. Oh, right.

Jason: It’s — what’s the term they use in like CrossFit? The EMOM, every minute on the minute. Yeah. Exactly. And so it’s like, get 15 done in

Kathy: Yeah.

Jason: a minute. And you start looking at Dave from accounting who happens to be there in your boot camp class and it’s like I’m not going to let this guy beat me. He’s crushing it. No. Yeah. But he’s not

[27:08] going to beat me with his weak ankles. He’s wearing the black dress socks and penny loafers and basketball shorts while we’re working out. He’s got knee sleeves and elbow sleeves.

Kathy: Knee sleeves and elbow sleeves. And he’s got the protective goggles, the sports goggles.

Jason: I’m not going to let Dave do more burpees.

Kathy: Right. We love Dave. So then I break my nose because —

Jason: Yeah. On the 12th burpee.

Kathy: On the 12th burpee. Exactly. Golly. Yeah. I mean, I’ll see people with — you know, got hurt doing

[27:38] burpees — and people get hurt doing a lot of other things, but — you know — I’ll test them and I’ll say, “Okay, well, they don’t even have the hip mobility to get all the way down to the ground.” See, and this is good because I was going to ask you — in your opinion, what are the right conditions for somebody to decide, yes, I want to add burpees into my fitness program? Yep. And so, when you don’t have the hip mobility, right, you’ve got to flex your back. Okay. So tell me — for people who don’t know what you mean by hip mobility, how would I know if I have poor hip mobility besides

[28:09] the things that to me are obvious in my life already? Well, there’s many things that go into the hip mobility, but let’s just say, can you — well, hip and knee mobility — can you squat all the way to the ground? Okay, so your butt to the ground. Okay, can you do that? Like, I think that that’s called — and I think this is okay to say even in 2025 — the Asian squat. Okay. Have you heard that before? I have not. Okay. I’ve seen it in science. You can say it. So I’m going to say that. I can say it’s safe.

[28:39] Do not cancel us. Right. Although nobody — literally nobody — would notice if you did. No. But yeah, they call it that because it’s really prominent in Asia where you see people that are squatted all the way down. They’re doing their work. It’s in their culture, right? Yeah. That’s what they do. So, can I do something like that where I’m doing a full squat? Right. Okay. And then when you plank out and you plank your legs straight back, do you have the trunk strength? Do you have the abdominal strength? And do you have your back muscular strength to keep your

[29:10] spine relatively neutral and not arched? Okay. Because when it arches down, that’s what happened to me. Yes. Because you get in trouble because every time you go down and you jump out into that position, you’re actually — wham. Yes. Slamming those joints together, slamming those back joints together, right? Um, at that point, you’re lightheaded. You’re sweaty. You got Dave from accounting. Dave is still going, so you got to keep going. Dave’s over there smoking a cigarette on the combat bike. That’s right.

[29:41] Remember that Miss Quinn told you that pain is just weakness leaving the body. It is. So you keep going, right? Exactly. Yeah. The pressure from your peers. Yeah. Okay. So those are the people I see that, you know, they’re just not ready for it. And that’s — it’s not a beginner exercise. It’s barely an intermediate exercise. So, just to review, if I’m at home and I’m like, “Okay, so when am I ready for a burpee?” Um, first of all,

[30:11] want to make sure that I can do a squat. Okay. Because that’s going to assess my ankles, my knees, my hips. Yep. I want to make sure that I can hold a plank. Yes. And one thing that I tell people in terms of holding that plank — have you ever tried to teach a child to do push-ups, like coaching? Oh, that’s just your children. Oh, yeah. And they’re like doing the tent thing, like downward dog, and it’s like — yeah, I’m getting them. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, we want to make sure that you

[30:42] can do a plank. So it’s helpful in this day of phones and cameras to just take a video of yourself doing a plank. And if it looks like you’re doing something weird — yes — right, then you’re not doing a plank. If your back is tented either way. Yes. Exactly. You got to be straight like a board. Tented up. Or what I tell people sometimes is you can take like a pillow and put it on your back and see if you can hold that pillow on there. Right. Right. Or if you’re feeling really adventurous, a glass of water, right? And that’s a fun game. That is a really fun one. And you know, I

[31:12] have had people do that because the stakes are high. Oh yeah. It’s a good time. So that’s good. And when you have that level of stability — and I think the other thing that we have to assess also is, when you’re doing that, what is that doing to your wrist? Because there’s some people that they can’t do this well. I cannot bear weight — if you have rheumatoid arthritis or you have an ankle — or sorry, a wrist sprain or something like that. Always trust a chiropractor who knows where your ankles are. Exactly. So

[31:43] some people have anomalies in their wrist that just don’t let them do that very easily, and so you shouldn’t feel bad because you can’t do that. Sometimes you can just do this straight movement instead of doing this, because it’s easier. Um, and then the other thing — which is kind of an outlier and I see this sometimes — you need to make sure that you have good enough circulation, because what I have seen is especially people who have peripheral neuropathy, type 2 diabetes, or something like that, and they go and they do an exercise like

[32:14] this and they’re going, they’re kicking their legs out, and when they land they’re smashing their toes and they do not know it. You got to check your toes. Exactly. So if you know that you have problems with peripheral neuropathy, poor circulation to the feet and everything like that, you really want to consider if it’s a good idea to kick your legs out and be landing on your toes. Because I had a patient once who had a broken toe that they were walking around on and it did not hurt. That sucker just swelled up and

[32:45] they got darn close to losing their toe, and it was all in an effort to get in shape and everything like that. But that is a consideration too. It’s not very common. Some of you are watching like, “I got bad circulation, I can’t exercise.” No, no, that’s not everybody. But seriously, if you have difficulty with sensation in your feet — like some people, they’re like, I’ve had patients who say it feels like I’m walking with somebody else’s feet because I can’t feel it — this might not be a great exercise for you, because you’ll just pound your

[33:15] feet and you won’t know it. So, but then I think that once you can do those things, it’s okay to get a little crazy with it, right? Like jump up, do a backflip. I’ve seen that before. Like gymnasts, they do burpees with backflips and I’m just like, “Oh my gosh.” Right? Every time I see that, I see their life flash before my eyes. So, okay. So let me ask you this. If I’m assessing and I find out I’m not — I’m not burpee guy yet. I can’t do a

[33:46] burpee. What’s a good alternative for me in terms of being able to get these types of benefits without good old Roy’s exercise? Well, there’s a lot of different choices, but what I would suggest too is just break it down into pieces. Okay? Like, I think you kind of talked about — okay, work on your squat, work on your hip mobility. Then you can work on your planks, right? Um, and then you can move to jump squats so that you are getting the jump, and then work on

[34:19] the plank kickback. So, standing, put your hands down and kick back and kick back up. Okay. Right. So break the burpee down into pieces before you do the whole thing in series. And certainly before you do 50. Yes. Okay. And start marching the perimeter with a rifle. Yes. This is what I should have done. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, well, I think that we’ve done a good job of breaking this down. We’re like experts. I think we are. We looked at the science. Yeah. We dug into the

[34:50] history book deep into the catacombs of history. Do you want to play a game? I do. Okay, great. All right. Well, I’ve come up with a game, Kathy. A game that is themed for this very occasion. I call this Burpee or Baloney. Okay. Okay. All right. So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to present you with three statements about burpees or fitness history. Okay. Two of them

[35:23] are going to be true and one of them is going to be false. It’s going to be baloney. All right? So, all you have to do is you just have to spot the fake, right? Which one is not true? Okay. And if you can do this, then you get a point. Okay. And your goal is to answer all of my questions, right? I got to — I got to find — what happened to my questions? Where’d they go? Oh, okay. I think I got them.

[35:53] Yes. And so if you can get through and you get like a million points in the questions, each one I think is like worth like 150,000. I don’t know. Sounds right. Then you win. Okay. But there’s a shortcut to winning too. Do you want to know the shortcut? I do. Let’s do the shortcut. There’s a sudden death aspect to this. Okay. Because when you say burpees, what’s the first thing everybody thinks about? A burp. Yeah, like a good belt.

[36:23] Right. That’s what I thought. That’s what I thought Gander was talking about in middle school. All right. So, here’s a trick. If you burp at any time during this game —

Kathy: Wow.

— you lose. Okay. But also, if I burp at any time during this game, I lose. All right, sudden death. Boom. Instant loss. Okay, but here’s the other twist because I know you’re thinking, “Shoot, I can do this. I can get through this without burping.” All right, hang on. Oh, he’s got props. Yeah. Not yet a sponsor. Bubbly. Bubbly. Yes.

[36:55] Carbonated beverages. Kathy, you get a question wrong, you got to take a drink. Okay. If you get a question right, I’ve got to take a drink. Okay. All right. And then you got to hold your burp. All right. Good. And so if I burp, game over. If you burp, game over. If you answer all the questions correctly or incorrectly, I guess. I don’t know. If you get enough points, you win. All right. You got the flavor you want. You got what? Grapefruit there. We got mango. All right. Oh, yeah.

[37:29] Thank you for doing that. That would have been a total waste if we would have missed that. Get it on my ASMR. Okay, good. There’s a whole demographic on the internet that we need to reach out to. We just got — my kids explained to me what ASMR was and I knew that this was the end of the world that we were witnessing. It’s like, oh, okay. This is what we’re doing. I’m so confident. I’m just going to take a little sip. Wow. All right.

[38:00] I’m not ready for that yet. Okay. Here we go. Some of this we may have already covered. Okay, so they might be easy, so I should prepare to drink. Here we go. Ready? Round one. Yes. Ding. Royal H. Burpee earned his PhD in applied physiology from Columbia University. Wait, you haven’t heard them all. Number two, the original burpee included both a jump and a push-up. Or number three, Burpee developed

[38:33] the exercise as a part of a fitness test for the New York YMCA. Which one of those is false? Sorry.

Kathy: B. Final answer. That the original burpee included both a jump and a push-up.

All right. Here we go.

All right. Okay. Correct. Ooh, I can feel it. All right. Here we go. I got to go faster. I’m going to win. Sudden death. Burpee records. Number one, the record for most burpees in 12 hours is over 7,000. Number two, a man once completed over 1,000 burpees in an hour. Or number three, someone once burpeed their way up the stairs of the Empire State Building. Burpeed their way up the stairs. Oh, why am I drinking? Don’t drink yet. Yeah, only one of those is fake. Only one of those is fake. According to ChatGPT,

[39:33] I’m going to say the world record is over 7,000 in 12 hours.

Jason: Oh, that is incorrect.

Kathy: I don’t think anybody has ever burpeed their way up the stairs of the Empire State Building, which is like 80 stories. That would be — oh, that’d be insane. Let’s do it. Yep. Yep. Give a good chug. I’m not — I’m not — I’m an intermediate level exercise. I think we should try it. All right, here we go. Burpees in pop culture. Number one, Ryan Reynolds said burpees were his least favorite exercise while training for Deadpool. Number

[40:05] two, the TV show American Gladiators featured a challenge called The Burpee Gauntlet. And number three, Jillian Michaels, fitness expert, incorporated burpees into many of her 30-day shred programs.

Kathy: I’m going to say B is incorrect.

Jason: That is right. There was no Burpee Gauntlet. I never saw that — I’m going to win this right here. Okay, that’s kind of nice because I think that it — oh jeez. No, it did not. Okay, here we go.

[40:36] Round four, fitness facts. Number one, burpees elevate your heart rate more quickly than jogging. Number two, a well-paced set of burpees can burn up to 10 calories per minute. Or number three, burpees are the best way to build large muscle mass.

Kathy: Number three is false.

Jason: Okay. Jeez, that was such a stupid number three. ChatGPT, you’re not helping. Okay, number five. Round five. Final

[41:06] round. Oh my god. Sudden death. Sudden death. Sudden death. All right. Number one, the US military adopted the burpee during World War II as a fitness test for soldiers. Or two, burpees were once used as a punishment in Navy SEAL training. Or number three, Royal H. Burpee was a commissioned officer in the US Army.

Kathy: Oh man. Number two, that is incorrect.

Jason: That is incorrect. Royal H. Burpee was in the Navy, not the Army.

Kathy: Navy. Oh, you got

[41:36] me. Okay. I’m so sorry. Sudden death. Okay. Okay. That means I win. That was the last question. I don’t know. It might be a tie anyway. No. Okay, I’ll give it to you. Oh — sudden death. A burp. This is sudden death. Yeah, that is sudden death. I need to declare victory.

[42:06] Oh my goodness. All right. All right. So, here are the final takeaways. First of all, key lessons from Royal H. Burpee’s life. He was a scientist, not a sadist. Right. Burpees were never meant to be an extreme workout or a punishment. And whether or not you should be doing burpees depends on your fitness and your goals. Yes, exactly. Your level of preparation and what are you trying to do? Like, are you trying to not do a second burp right now? So, listen to your body. Use proper

[42:38] form. Don’t overdo it. And I got to wipe away the tears. All right. So, if you have — have you ever done like a burpee challenge, leave a comment. Let us know how that worked out for you. Let us know about all the injuries you’ve received doing burpees. And definitely, if you do nothing else, make sure to subscribe to this. Oh my gosh. Smash the subscribe button. Or maybe not now. Make sure to subscribe to the

[43:08] podcast. We’re on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Yes. A new mic. Okay. And Apple Podcasts. Oh jeez. I think I’m just still trying not to burp. So that’s the PTCH Podcast. Thank you all. I’m going to remind you again to subscribe because boy, does it seem like we’re desperate? Maybe. I don’t know. And it also helps if you

[43:39] leave a review, suggest this podcast to a friend, somebody who is crying because they had to do burpees or something like that. So I think that’s it for us, and I think there’s one more thing that we need to mention before we go, and that’s that there is no pitch. All right.

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