The Daily Omnivore

The burpee is a full body exercise used in strength and aerobic training. It is performed in four steps: 1) Begin in a standing position; 2) Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground; 3) Kick your feet back, while keeping your arms extended; and 4) Immediately return your feet to the squat position. The athlete then stands up from squat position and repeats the procedure. There are many variants of the burpee such as the ‘Burpee push up’ (the athlete performs one push-ups after assuming the plank position); ‘Jump up Burpee’ (the athlete jumps up as high as they can in at the end of the movement and before beginning the next Burpee); and the ‘Long-jump burpee’ (the athlete jumps forward, not upward). For the ‘Burpee Mile,’ the athlete performs the Burpee exercise, then performs a Standing long jump. This sequence is repeated until the athlete has traveled one mile.

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, the exercise was named in the 1930s for American physiologist Royal H. Burpee, who developed the Burpee test. He earned a PhD in Applied Physiology from Columbia University in 1940 and created the exercise as part of his PhD thesis as a quick and simple way to assess fitness. The exercise was popularized when the United States Armed Services adopted it as a way to assess the fitness level of recruits in WWII. Consisting of a series of the exercises performed in rapid succession, the test was meant to be a quick measure of agility, coordination and strength.