<p>Yeah, I saw that article. Burpees, Walking and Squats (I only read the first page). I should probably put it in my Health Notebook for later reading.</p>
<p>Just finished the living room. Next up is the dining room. I don’t think I’m going to get to the kitchen tonight so will do that in the morning. The basement will be the most work.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, Arabrab. Yeah, I would say I’m batting 1000%. Walking, squats, burpees, and interval training.</p>
<p>The just published interval training study described in the article is breathtaking. I’ve seen it referenced elsewhere:</p>
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<p>The interval guys were doing four 30 second intervals a day with four minute rests in between. Ten days of training, for a total of 20 minutes of sprinting over two weeks and they got the same aerobic improvement as guys pedalling for an hour a day for ten days. That’s pretty astonishing. The great thing is that even an ol’ fat guy can do 1:8 intervals – 30 seconds of work and 240 seconds of recovery. This study is important, IMO, because it shows that short interval sessions can be very effective. I’m more than happy to get in a quick 20 minute workout and I’m pretty sure that I’m getting a lot of benefit from that. You can go pretty hard if you know it’s going to be over in 20 minutes.</p>
<p>Nobody seems to know why interval training works so well, especially for fat loss. My suspicion is that intense exercise (getting the heart rate way up there) triggers some kind of hormonal response that drives metabolism or fat burning. </p>
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<p>My vote would be for the burpee (with pushup) as the single best exercise. Upper body, lower body, and makes you pant like a dog in no time flat. As you get stronger, you can start really jumping from the squat position, which just makes it even more intense. It comes the closest I can think of to a full body workout in one exercise.</p>
<p>As far as functional quality of life improvement, I could see the argument for the squat. The downside is that it’s a long-term project. I think it’s taken me a full year of doing squats (or trying to do squats) three days a week to really get it. The payoff is strength and flexibilty of the legs that makes just about everything easier.</p>
<p>Hi folks! I’ve been lurking in this thread for months now but have never been brave enough to post since this is the Parents Cafe and I’m not a parent, but rather a 24-year-old law student. However, all the talk about burpees has finally made me so curious that I felt compelled to chime in with questions! I’ve been on my own diet/exercise/weight loss journey, and managed to get myself down from 136 lbs to 125 lbs doing Weight Watchers (since January) and strength training 2 - 3 times a week (since March). Not a super fast rate of loss, I know, but I’m just glad to be a bit smaller than I started out! I’ve hit a plateau recently though, and I’m wondering if incorporating some new exercises could help me out. </p>
<p>For the past two weeks I’ve done the elliptical for 50 minutes, 3 times a week, and that got the scale moving a tiny bit but not too much. So I’m hoping these burpees everyone is so excited about can jump-start the weight loss process again. I have a couple of questions: Namely, what does a standard “burpee workout” look like in terms of time, number of reps, etc. if I’m looking to use it as an elliptical replacement? Or is it something that should instead be used to supplement other cardio rather than replace it? </p>
<p>Thanks for any tips anyone can offer. It’s been really inspiring seeing everyone’s dedication and success in this thread. :)</p>
<p>I think that doing squats has benefits from the first day, even if done without weights.</p>
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<p>Regarding cardio, you can do HIIT with any cardio, including elliptical, for at least some of your workouts. When doing endurance cardio, do it hard enough to make it count – many people in the gym do cardio at fairly low intensity and do not make much in fitness gains from it. If rowing or swimming is available, you may want to consider that for cardio, since those are full body workouts.</p>
<p>Consider doing weight or body weight exercises to build up muscle. This includes squats (starting with body weight; hold dumbbells or a barbell or do one leg squats after body weight squats become too easy) for your legs. You can also do pushups and dips for your chest, and pullups and weighted rows for your back. Planks and side planks can work your core muscles.</p>
<p>One of the running groups at work used to do interval training at the track once a week. This was when that group was younger - in their 40s. Some of that group has decreased their running a bit to bicycle one day per week. We have a pretty active bicycling group at work too - you can tell them by them carrying them on the roof of their car or in the back for those with SUVs and station wagons.</p>
<p>I woke up this morning, looked in the mirror and felt happy with my body. As someone who has struggled with weight for both health’s sake as well as for body image’s since middle school, this is a big step.</p>
<p>Been going to practice regularly and starting to re-incorporate the gym as well as just watching what I eat more carefully and it has finally, finally begun to pay off. I felt the weight loss but didn’t know how much until I stepped on the scale this morning - down 2 pounds in 11 days. That’s not much for many people, but it feels like a real accomplishment for me, mostly because I can see the difference (as can my jean size) and because I know it’s the right, healthy kind of change - I can feel myself getting stronger and being able to run more without getting out of breath, etc.</p>
<p>I went to pick up my racquet at the courts today and went to hit with the usual morning doubles folks because they were short one player. I hit two balls and left - the new racquet has softer strings and I could feel that they were softer but my arm didn’t like the stress - so anti-inflammatories and we will see how it is on Thursday. The knee joints heal up a lot faster than the arm does and I don’t think that running is a problem. It’s just the side-to-side stuff of tennis. Continuing with housework today and that’s my workout besides free weights here and there.</p>
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<p>11 pounds of weight loss in three months is a lot, especially for somebody who doesn’t have a lot of weight to lose. Nobody at 136 pounds is going to lose weight as fast as big ol’ fat guys who have 50, 100, or 200 pounds of fat to lose. Your 11 pounds is fantastic.</p>
<p>I’m glad to see you start some strength training. I think that it’s probably the single most important thing most of us could do and especially important for women, who tend to shy away from it, perhaps from an image of meathead body builders.</p>
<p>On burpees.</p>
<p>Burpees are really just the epitome of what is sometimes called “functional strength training”. This form of training emphasizes whole body, large muscle resistance training that incorporates compound movements (not just working one muscle on a machine) in range from bodyweight resistance to adding load with free weight (dumbbells or barbells or kettlebells). The benefits are increased strength, increased range of motion (flexiblity), and more core stability – it’s the approach all of the top athletic trainers are now using. It also burns a ton of calories and, depending on the pace, can be a great conditioning workout. For this reason, it’s also becoming the top fat loss training approach. </p>
<p>Burpees combine two of the four main movements: a squat jump (which works knees, thighs, and hamstrings) with a pushup (which works arms, shoulders, and back in pushing motion). It also strengthens the core muscles – the abs and lower back muscles. I will warn you that it is probably the most tiring exercise I’ve ever done. Doing four of them was my absolute limit at first and that would leave me literally in a heap, panting just to try to catch a breath.</p>
<p>The workouts I’m currently doing use burpees as “metabolic intervals” – strength training exercises that are done at a fast pace with short rest intervals that combine resistance training with interval cardio. The idea is to take advantage of the fact that these exericises are so tiring. His burpee workout is:</p>
<p>1st option:</p>
<p>Do 20 seconds of burpees (that’s 4 for me) every time the clock hits the minute mark for ten minutes. So 20 seconds of burpees, 40 seconds of rest, 20 seconds of burpees, 40 seconds of rest, etc. All you have to do is wait til the clock hits the minute mark and do 4 burpees, then pant for the rest of the minute. By about the 6 minute mark you will probably be dying. In fact, this is hard enough that he recommends the version of the burpees without the pushup. As you get a little stronger, do 30 seconds of burpees (which is 5 burpees for me). You can also go longer than ten minutes or do two ten minute sets with a rest. There’s an alternate workout that is exactly the same only using ketllebell (or dumbbell or sandbag or knapsack) swings instead.</p>
<p>2nd option:</p>
<p>The infamous Zuzanna at [BODYROCK.tv</a> | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos, Health & Fitness | Bodyrock.tv](<a href=“http://www.bodyrock.tv%5DBODYROCK.tv”>http://www.bodyrock.tv) combines the two exercises into one workout, alternating between burpees and swings (she uses a sandbag). I will warn you that her version, with 10 to 20 burpees in a row) is incredibly intense as you can see from her level of exertion. I couldn’t come close to doing this workout as written. Nevertheless, the video is really good in explaining the basic concepts:</p>
<p>[BODYROCK.tv</a> | Fitness Advice, Workout Videos, Health & Fitness | Bodyrock.tv](<a href=“http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/01/03/burpee-fusion-workout/]BODYROCK.tv”>http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/01/03/burpee-fusion-workout/)</p>
<p>3rd option:</p>
<p>There’s nothing sacred about any of the exact numbers, so you can do whatever suits your level of fitness. I do a version that blends these two, alternating between a dumbbell swing (for 30 seconds) and burpees with the pushup (for 30 seconds) with 30 seconds of rest in between, so it looks like:</p>
<p>30 sec: 12 swings
30 sec: rest
30 sec: 5 burpees
30 sec: rest</p>
<p>I repeat that three times non-stop for a total of six minutes – three rounds of swings and three rounds of burpees. I like alternating two exercises because I get bored and because it gives the burpee muscles an extra minute of rest while doing the swings and vice versa. It’s just as tiring from a cardio standpoint, but not as likely to produce sore muscles.</p>
<p>I then take an extra minute or two to fully catch my breath and do a second round of six minutes. Then rest again and do a third round of six minutes. That’s a full workout. 18 minutes after my little warmup routine.</p>
<p>Or, you could just do one six minute (or eight minute or ten minute) round to finish up one of your other workouts. There are infinite variations to fit your own preferences and schedule and fitness level.</p>
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<p>That’s a great feeling! Save it and us that feeling as motivation the next time you are tempted to pig out on some kind of fat food calorie binge. I believe this is what Rachel Cosgrove is getting at when she gets her clients to “think” like fit females. Being fit really is a state of mind and knowing that you can grab anything in the closet and it will fit is a big part of that.</p>
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<p>Uh, oh. I was hopin’ that the tennis elbow was in the rear view mirror. You are smart to walk away and let it settle down.</p>
<p>I’m paying attention to a little shoulder soreness and trying to not do things that give me a little twinge.</p>
<p>Such is the life of the ol’ geezer, huh?</p>
<p>I’ve been doing burpees everytime I work out – five at a time. Today I did five at a time, six times. I still hate them, but since I’ve been doing them for a while now, I hate them less. And I’m getting better at them. Even at the fifth time, I can still really jump up – maybe a foot in the air – instead of the pathetic little two-inch blip that I was doing when I first started them.</p>
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<p>Yeah. I couldn’t even muster the energy to raise my arms at first! Now, I’m like you… I actually jump up in the air.</p>
<p>To me, the killer now is coming up from the bottom of the pushup on my fifth burpee in a row. That starts to become a real test in the later rounds as fatigue sets in.</p>
<p>I received a lot of invitations to play in the last three weeks and it was tough to turn anyone down. There’s two core groups of players and a long list of subs - I’m on the subs list. Sometimes it’s hard to get subs because of scheduling conflicts.</p>
<p>This is a pretty good list for anyone who is thinking about setting up a home gym:</p>
<p>[Set</a> Up a Home Gym on the Cheap](<a href=“Health | Yahoo Life”>Health | Yahoo Life)</p>
<p>Almost all of the mentioned equipment is available at TJMaxx.</p>
<p>idad…what was the web site that had the good deals on bands???</p>
<p>PerformBetter.com</p>
<p>Free shipping ends tomorrow… I just ordered a couple new mini-bands and a book from them last night…</p>
<p>Thanks!!! Will do that now!</p>
<p>Here’s the direct link to the minibands:</p>
<p>[Product</a> - Exercise Bands (Mini-Bands)](<a href=“http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_3893_A_CategoryID_E_327]Product”>http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_3893_A_CategoryID_E_327)</p>
<p>Their superbands are also very popular, especially for assisted chinups:</p>
<p>[Product</a> - Superbands](<a href=“http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_3889_A_CategoryID_E_352]Product”>http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_3889_A_CategoryID_E_352)</p>
<p>As far as regular resistance tubes, I am really happy with the set from the Perfect Pullup folks:</p>
<p>[Perfect</a> Bands Perfect Fitness - Makers of the Perfect Pushup, Perfect Pullup and Perfect Situp](<a href=“http://www.perfectonline.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=PerfectFitness/itemdetl.html?item=Perfect_Bands]Perfect”>http://www.perfectonline.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=PerfectFitness/itemdetl.html?item=Perfect_Bands)</p>
<p>WalMart sells 'em. I have two sets, so a pair each of three different strength bands. The handles are detachable and I bought some cheapo carabiner clips so I can clip a handle on any combination of bands. Or use them without the handles, just the loops at each end. I’m finding the whole attachment system makes a very flexible package.</p>
<p>For example, I do the Big-X walks with a mini band around my ankles and a pair of these tubes, each looped around one foot and extending up to the opposite hand. Think of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous man, arms outstretched, doing lateral walks with resistance for the legs and arms.</p>