This is very similar to the Pushup Challange, except I am doing this with Burpees. I started it on Monday, as did Sepanto, and I hope to take my conditioning to a new level with this by the next year.
I invite everyone to join this challange! Why wait when you can do something good for yourself every day? Start now!!

P.S. 4 done today - total 10.

4 done today, 10 done overall, 66420 to go.

All in all going good.

Did 9 this morning, so the total for now is 45. After doing the 9 Burpees I was already puffing for air. A really good wakeup :)

Did 9 this morning, so the total for now is 45. After doing the 9 Burpees I was already puffing for air. A really good wakeup :)
Defintly enhances the effects of my morning bath...

I guess being the newbie, I have no idea what the pushup challenge is. Can someone enlighten me?Kris

I guess being the newbie, I have no idea what the pushup challenge is. Can someone enlighten me?Kris

Day one: do one push up.
Day two: do two push ups.
Etc until the end of the year.

In this case, they are doing burpees...which I belive is insane due to the difficulty of them. But if you are able to do 365 burpees in a row...that is worth an award. Which...btw...isn't a bad idea. If you can get it on video and post it, I feel a free t-shirt should be awarded. Admins?

Day one: do one push up.
Day two: do two push ups.
Etc until the end of the year.

In this case, they are doing burpees...which I belive is insane due to the difficulty of them. But if you are able to do 365 burpees in a row...that is worth an award. Which...btw...isn't a bad idea. If you can get it on video and post it, I feel a free t-shirt should be awarded. Admins?
Lol... 365 burpees for a t-shirt.... I feel like i'm kinda getting a really bad bargain.

Have done 11 today. Next post will be in a week due to the lack of Internet at my country place. Total - 66.

P.S. A free T-shirt does seem an akwardly small award.

P.S.2. I just discovered that I am doing the Burpee with the pushup! Actually, this is good, since I have always wanted to improve my pushup max and now I have the perfect chance to do it.
When going back to school in September I should be able to do at least 60 pushup Burpees in a row. Going to impress my schoolmates by then :p

Oh well, i do them pushup less
11 done.

Managed to do 18 Burpees today. It was hard! I didn't get sweaty but my heart rate raced up to about 165 beats/min. I guess I have to do them it sets soon... .

18 burpees ain't that hard...

I don't even do any conditioning..

You are right Koltz, they ain't hard for everyone. But they are hard for me because I have low muscle endurance in the upper body. But am working on that during deloading weeks from strength training.

Did 24 yesterday, going to do 25 today!

18 burpees ain't that hard... then do 100 hundred of them, then we will see :)

Did 41 today, although I should have done 44 already. Yeah, I missed out a few days in July due to relatives visiting me and surrounding me all the time. I am also going to skip tomorrow's session since I have a small wrist pain when I do pushups for the last few days. I think it is due to overworking the tendons in the hand.
But, when the pain disappears, I am going to continue from where I left off.

Hi I am Lee and am new to this site.

I get my students to do a burpee relay:

Split group in 2 lines andface eachother. One side does 1 burpee then theother side does 1, 1st side then does 2 and the other side does 2, 3 and 3, 4 and 4, 5 and 5, etc.

Great for fitness and have included it in the fitness eliment of my grading syllabus. In class we go to 12 but high grades have to go up to 20 on their grading...which in total is 210 each side.

I class a burpee as: hands on the floor, legs out then legs in thenstraight in to a tuck jump.

Other variations:

Easy - legs out then in and just stand instead of jump.
Hard - instead of tuck jump replace with a pike jump - jump up and touch toes infront or a straddle jump - jump up with legs split to the sides and touch toes each side.

Welcome to the forum, Lee. Those are some brutal relays you came up with; me like!

Cheers cheesedog! :-)

Today: 30 burpees in 57 secs.

I cannot fathom doing 365 in one set....On the days that I have done 100 for time ( 11 min 56 secs) I felt like I would die. Horribly insane.

Maybe im ahead of schedule but i do 55 every other day . Have been for awhile

I've never done burpees before, however I want to incorportated them into my routine.

hahahaha! Fat girl talking here. I have tried said burpee and I can tell you I will not be in this challenge. However, I will challenge myself to be able to do some without looking like I'm having an attack! LOL

Hei,

Haven't visited the site for about 2 weeks. Just wanted to say that I quit the Burpees program. Yeah, I just felt it got too boring for me. I kinda rethought my goals and decided that the priority for me is to get stronger and more coordinated. Also, I was in Finland for 3 days, then home for 1 day and then at a meeting for another 3 days. So I didn't have the urge to do burpees at that time. And I didn't miss them, either. But I still might do Burpees on my weeks off from max strength training.

I hope that me quitting this challenge does not make other people quit it. It is still a good challenge. If you are motivated enough, then do it!

Razor

The challenge is just that... a challenge. The ridiculous thing for me is that it is maintained for such a long period of time; a challenge is somehting you do every couple of months, not daily. As the volume gets high it would seriously interfere with your other training goals (like Razor's strength training); try doing a set of benches or squats ith a decent weight after 300+ burpees on the same day and you'll se why.

Now if your only training goal is to be able to do 365/730/however many burpees, that's another thing...

The actual post is the next one.

I quote Fatman:
"try doing a set of benches or squats ith a decent weight after 300+ burpees on the same day and you'll se why."

That is why I always did the Burpees after any strength training :)

P.S.1. I finally, yes, FINALLY! found a way to rope skip normally. I do it on the terrace. which has got a wooden floor. But since there are 1" openings between the woods, I place a yoga mat on the floor so that when I jump (barefooted) the gaps don't disturb me. At all!
I have a secret desire of jump-roping without pausing for 30 min in a row! Unfortunately, even 2 min of it exhausts me very much right now. Got to work on this... .

P.S.2. My max jumps/min rate is probably 110-120. Don't know if it is good or bad.

One thing I was wondering, can you perform the burpees throughout the day "Grease the Groove" style or do you have to perform them all at once.

If it is all at once...wow. If it is GTG, then it doesn't seem that overwhelming.

One thing I was wondering, can you perform the burpees throughout the day "Grease the Groove" style or do you have to perform them all at once.

If it is all at once...wow. If it is GTG, then it doesn't seem that overwhelming.

Well, even if it is GTG... 360 burpees over, say, 10-15 sets is 36-24 burpees per set. That seems an awful lot and would definitely impair one's recovery ability from strength training. Plus I don't see the purpose of performing such a large number of repetitions; anything over 100 of a given exercise per training session in my opinion is ridiculous, as you are a) wasting time because the exercise is too easy, or b) setting yourself up for a burnout.

365 burpees - good as a challenge, not so good as a training modality.

That is what I am saying. If it is only GTG then the overall effect seems to be nothing more than tiring. I mean, it takes about 1 minute to perform 30 burpees on average. If you do this 15 times throughout the day, I could see it useful for maybe maintaining an elevated metabolic rate throughout that day. I don't think that it would do any harm if done rarely and recovery methods were in place. But still I think that a better challenge could be instituted. One could do what is called a single motion mind f*ck, one compound strength movement such as: deadlift, tuck jumps, KB swings,dragon flags to a rep number base on your weight+age. This seems much more challenging.

Anyhow, a great challenge for burpees is doing 100 burpee chinup combos for time. When you jump up from the burpee immediately jump into a chin up. Fun stuff. My best time so far for just 100 burpees is 11:56. Still to chicken for the burpee chinup. ;-)

Dude, those sound evil...

Go ahead and superman at the bottom of that burpee chin. Come on, do it.

Just the burpees are hell. I know my time would be devestated if I threw in the chins. Not to mention I would feel awfully gassed afterwards.

http://www.geocities.com/rutgerseskrima/art_prison.html
I've gotten down to "8" once. I am usually sore for a couple days afterward.
Also, you might try 100 burpee/pullups for time.

That prison Burpee challenge sounds pretty damn tough.

The great thing about tough workouts: no matter how extreme they are, someone can come along and make the workout even more extreme.

Make sure you guys burp after each burpee, otherwise it dosent count.:eek:

Seriously though, how did it get the name burpee?

That prison Burpee challenge sounds pretty damn tough.

It is very though. I do it before each workout as a ''warm up'' but I basically die doing it. So far I've managed to be up to 18 descending sets, monday I'm going to try start at 20 down to 1, so if by tuesday I don't post anymore here it mean I died of heart attack.

Make sure you guys burp after each burpee, otherwise it dosent count.:eek:

Seriously though, how did it get the name burpee?

I read that the name is from a greek word "burpis" (sp?) that means push-jump. One of the old-time physical culturists invented the term around 1900.

Still alive and did 20 descending set from the prison challenge in 27.10 minutes. For each burpee I jumped around 1 feet in the air. Need to go down to 25 minutes this week.

I have been looking for various ways to change up my workouts. Doing a different challenge once a week not only adds variety, but motivates me the rest of the week. If I miss a workout during the week, then my Friday morning challenge suffers. Beside the descending sets challenge, max rep challenge and the adding one a day challenge, can somebody add any other challenge suggestions?

Circuit challenges could work, but personnaly I'll stick to the prison burpees challenge until I reach the bona fide stud level which is 30 descendign sets in 30. I feel there is no point in starting any other challenge until I successfully complete this one.
My time is now down to 20 in 19.17, so I can work towards level 2, 25 in 25. Anybody else worked on this challenge in the last month ?

Friday february 1

Jumping burpees challenge 20 descending sets in 18:08.

Friday february 1

Jumping burpees challenge 20 descending sets in 18:08.

Damn it boy!!! Knocking em' down quick now.

I was kind of pissed off because my plans for the day were blown up by the snowstorm so I took it all out on the burpees :p

I did the Prisoner as a warm-up starting @ 10 in 8'03". Could've done it in 7 or so if I'd had really pushed myself. My left wrist starts to bother me towards the end and can't figure out why; never had wrist problems before.

Oh well; No pain, No gain.

Do you warm up your wrists and elbows before you start doing burpees ?

Wrists rotations each side each way, then hold one elbow with one hand and extend the arm that begin held over the holding hand, palm facing up, then underneath palm facing down about 30-40 times, then switch arm. I find it helps with wrists/elbows pains.

It seems we've been doing our burpees at the same time today I also did them. Started at exactly 11:00:00 am and finished at 11:17:30 for a new personnal record of 17:30 minutes for 20 descending sets.

It seems we've been doing our burpees at the same time today I also did them. Started at exactly 11:00:00 am and finished at 11:17:30 for a new personnal record of 17:30 minutes for 20 descending sets.

Dang Phil, that is awesome. Since 20's are becoming a thing of the past time wise, moving towards 25's yet? I'm going to do the wrist rotations before I do them today. Going for 15 in hopefully 16 minutes.

Just can't hang w/ you yet, Phil. Did 15 desecnding sets in 18'59". I played soccer and football in high school and never did I breathe this hard. I had to go outside after I hit 9, and then when I was done, so the breeze would go in my lungs b/c i couldn't suck enough air inside my house.

Can't get enough of these. By the way Phil, did them on my fists and didn't give me any discomfort on my wrist.

Yeah I guess you're right, I should start to move towards 25 sets now. I just wanted to see to what extent I could lower my time. The thing is now I have roughly 18-19 seconds pause, and it's gonna be hard going lower than 17:30 while maintaining good form. I want each burpee to be done completely, by this I mean I don't mix the kicking my legs back movement with the pushup movement. I go down, kick my legs back, do a full pushup, then bring my legs back up, then jump, so each rep can't really be done faster than 3-4 seconds.

I think I'm afraid of breaking my rythm by adding sets. I've got the hang of the 20's now.

As for your own progress, 15 in 18:59 is good, with this rythm you could pull off 20 in 23-25 minutes.

As far as for using the fists, this is a good idea for reducing the pain in your wrists, I didn't think of that. Since this is not an issue for me I won't do it though, I tried and found it hurts my knuckles too much.

For the air thing, did you try to open the windows in your room and breathe right out of it during your pauses ?

I know I'm getting to the point where I work out virtually bare naked because I sweat way too much so going outside isn't really an option

Thanks for the pep talk on the times; its just a brutal beating when its all said and done. My shirt is definately soaked after my workout. Once I get 15 in 15 I'll move on to 20.

As for the air thing I'll just keep going outside for air unless weather won't permit it. Hell, the rain would feel good between sets.

Yeah I know what you mean but the problem is the time. Every time you shorten your rest time, you have less and less time to go all the way outside the house. Plus you are going to need to stay put except to drink a sip of water and make an x aside the set you are at during your pauses if you want to use it as good as possible.

I've found out not having to care about the sets lets me kind of go on autopilot and focus on the effort instead of numbers. I just write down a sheet with all the sets and after each one i make an x on the side, then drink a sip, then wait anywhere between 10 to 26 seconds and do another set. Why 26 ? Because I figured out I can't get more than 30 seconds pause on the first one and writing down, drinking takes roughly 4 seconds.

I like it when it's down to seconds heheh.

ABHPage (http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/member.php?u=26997) That is GReat!!!!!
I have a goal of 100 jumpers in under 6 min. Have you done anything like that yet?

Based on my calculations, the first five sets ( 20, 19, 18 , 17, 16) builds up to a total of 90. Each rep takes roughly 3 seconds to be completed.

That's 270 seconds right there.

Then, I have 4 rest times of 20 seconds between these five first sets.

That's 80 seconds right there.
Total 350.
Divide 350 seconds by 60 seconds and you get 5,833333333333333333 minutes. By that time I start the sixth set of 15, usually coming roughly to 100 in little over 6 minutes. By next month when I reach the 25 sets mark I will complete the 100 in little less than 6 minutes so your approximation was good.
Usually at 7 minutes I finish the sixth set (15) if I recall correctly.

So basically yeah, I do the 100 jumpers in 6 minutes almost everyday.

So ABHPage, your name is Phil also? Excellent.

The day i did 100 in 9:19 - that was at night and I did a hard/fast/hilly interval workout on the treadmill in the morning. My problem is I'm always...Always wiped out from some previous workout to be anywhere near fully recovered in order to tackle something as brutal at this Prison Burpee Challenge.

But now I'm motivated - 1st goal is 20 in 20 or 25 mins...then lower the time from there.

How much rest do you take between sets? More time in the first few higher rep sets?

Thx.

I can definately understand your problem man, since I too am always destroyed from a previous workout. For example today I did weighted barbell squats, deadlifts and stiff-legged deadlifts. Tomorrow is gonna be a hard one for the burpees, but with time I find I get used to always being sore here or there and I don't even notice it anymore on ''lighter'' exercises such as burpees. I mean this in the sense of muscular workload, since I consider the prison burpee challenge as my morning cardio workout. It is absolutely possible to do both at the same time, if this makes you worry a little less.

As for your question regarding rest time, it changes everyday since I always try to improve my overall time, but you grasped the essence of my strategy. I usually allow myself a total amount of seconds for rest which I distribute between the sets. So you are right about the first higher reps sets being allowed longer rest periods ( about 20 seconds) for the first three sets. Then I reduce by around one or two seconds at each set until I reach a brutal 2-5 seconds rest for the last sets.

Anyways I gotta go to bed soon, since I have to get up early tomorrow and I still want to do the challenge. Tomorrow I'm starting the excruciating ascension towards 25 sets in 25 minutes. Starting at 21. .

Last night's sleep has been a nightmare in many ways. First off I had a dream that felt as if it were really true. We had our home invaded and I've been fighting the guys for the whole night, got a bullet in the left arm and finally I managed to break the guy's nose, steal his gun and shoot him 4 times in the gut, then making my family escape by the bathroom window in the basement, then rescued another girl (which I never say in my life) and saved her from the pursuers by jump off a cliff into cold waters until I woke up in the dead night with my blankets full of cold sweat.

I got up 3 hours earlier than usual and ate a very large breakfast with tons of fruits, oatmeal and yogurt. This has been a REALLY bad idea since I felt like shit and almost puked at every set of my burpees. I should've done as usual and just drink a V8. I think diary products make a weird reaction in the stomach while tomatoes are less hard to digest. Overall I felt really weak and bad throughout the whole morning. I think I also caught some sickness from one of my girl friends (friend that is) who works with kids (kids are a very good way to catch the flu).

Anyways I said I'd start shooting for 25 sets so little inconveniencies aren't going to stop me. So today even though I had all these conditions working agaisnt me I pulled off 21 descending sets in 21.59 minutes, which is not bad but not as good as I expected. I couldn't seem to maintain my usual rythm of 20 secs rest, so I had to bring it up to 30. Had I been able to do as usual I could've done 21 in a flat 20.

So right now I wonder if next workout I should do 21 again until I reach 21 in 20 or if I should set myself a maximum time of 25 minutes to get used to the total duration and work my way up in the sets instead of down in time. What do you guys think would be the wisest way ? Keep on working in maintaining my rythm or set the ladder up to 25 minutes and getting used to that duration ?

I'm still shaking. Hope I won't be sick anytime soon. At least I increased total reps if not bested my time.

Back in my pot-smoking days I used to have really long complex interesting dreams too. That's really the only thing I miss about it. My dreams now are usually boringly mundane.

Thumbs up on persevering through a tough workout!

If it were me I would try to keep the rhythm I had established, it was working until you threw it off with a big breakfast. Go back to your usual morning routine and it'll probably work again.

abh page yer pretty good at that stuff. Do you find all that lactic acid makes it hard to strength train afterwords, or do you mostly work on endurance training, your body immune to lactic acid?
Just curious, im having a hard time getting strength training and conditioning workouts done in the same day, and anytime ive ever combined the two i feel real weak after conditioning. Really want to start up burpees though soon.

Phil, your sick and still pull off 21 in 21:59?! That is impressive, man. I couldn't even do that 100% healthy. Hope you don't catch the flu.

Cheesedog : I think you are right. Right after my post I drnak my usual V8 and started feeling better. Although I’ve kept a small feeling of dizzy until 7 tonight. I will keep on doing what I previously did. It was better.

Dominator350 : Honestly I don’t really feel a lot of burning lactic buildup. I try to incorporate recovery training as well with my conditioning and strenght an dit seems to work. Not that I am not sore or anything. But it’s tolerable.
I haven’t had time yet but this weedend I will post in my workout thread what I have done this week. Since Monday I’ve been secretly doing an experiment and tried going back to weights on top of the burpees challenge and see if my body could handle it. Waiting for Sunday to complete a full week and see how I feel.

BaTerrell : Yeah I really hope I don’t catch the flu. It’s gonna be hell to do burpees with the flu or anything. But I must tame this body that is mine !


Aside from that I am getting these ripped lines in the shoulders which I hadn’t seen since 3 years. It’s kind of nice. This challenge really works.

Aside from that I am getting these ripped lines in the shoulders which I hadn’t seen since 3 years. It’s kind of nice. This challenge really works.

Indeed, indeed. Like I said before, haven't seen my body change so rapidly by doing one exercise as this one has.

While you guys are out killing the burpees and progressing, I'm laid up sick as a mofo in bed. So I shave my legs like most cyclists, runners, etc. Sometimes I'll get a little ingrown hair....no big deal, it goes away without issue. (Oh, squeamish stomachs should stop reading) :-P

On the weekend my little ingrown hair on my inner thigh decides to pop some 'roids, HGH, crack, speed, you name it and becomes The Infected, Pus Filled Uber Abcess from Hell...complete with flu-like symptoms, high fever, cough, etc etc. I even did m first Filthy 50 Tuesday night while I was sick and dealing with this fawker. It was so bad / painful yesterday I couldn't even apply any pressure to it, as in sitting or laying.

So I go to the doc today and he slices the beotch open and "drains" it. On a scale of 1-10 the pain of the novacaine shot was about a 14. Draining equals squeeeeeezing like there's no tomorrow. And he tops it off with a an antibiotic shot in my ass. It's now feeling better but the fever and other symptoms remain.

I'm PISSED at missing workouts. If that was TMI....uh, sorry!

Hey Phil, Cheesedog and the other regular posters, I'm curious as to your stats: age, height, weight, length of time doing the burpees., etc. I'm 45, 6'0" and about 188lbs.

And I need a bonghit. : )

21, 5'6'' , 160 and I started the burpees hmmm... maybe end of november or december up to now with two weeks off in between the christmas time.

I know it sucks to tell you that but you gotta be careful about these infected, Pus Filled Uber Abcess from Hell...complete with flu-like symptoms, high fever, cough, etc etc because someone I know got one and since then it never seemed to stop appearing.

The break on my burpees is my muscle endurance - after about 10 burpees i let the pushup part out because i cant push myself up anymore. The second thing that gives up, are my legs. They just start to burn. My cardio system could handle more than my muscles. (I do burpees with a jump at the top)
Any advice how i can make my legs more endurable?

hey im pretty new to this site but readin all this really gets me motivated, i like the sound of these prison burpees, might start at 15 in whatever time i finishing promising im still alive

i do a set of 30 like once a week... kinda lazy, most ive done was 52 to but that was the very first time i ever did them and before i did much cardio

abhpage, dude your like nearly my goal, your 5"6 at 160lb right? im 5"5 wanting to be 165lb, can i ask how you got there?

reitz90 : The only slution I know is to keep doing it over and over. If you find yourself unable to complete the set, wait 5 seconds, then do one, again and again until you reach final count.

Lelle : 15 is a good starting point. As for how I got there I guess it's trough 8 years of training. I started at around 120 then in 5 years went up to 170 and then down to 160-165 depending on my type of training.

Friday February 8th. 22 descending sets in 22:55. Rythm was better than yesterday, also witht he second extra set in only two days this is getting harder for the muscles than the heart. I still breathe and sweat like never but I feel less out of air. Each extra set is felt much more than before since its always 20 + reps each time. After only five sets I begin to feel the pain while before it took at least ten. Next monday I'll increase to 23 since I'm still under the 25 minutes limit for level two. The problem yesterday was definately diary products. Also note that I slept very little again yesterday since I got home at 3am because I had to go to the airport to pick my dad up. Maybe I could've lowered today's time by 30 seconds or one minute. I'll make sure to plan nothing sunday night and get a good night's sleep so that I can see the results on monday for 23 sets.

Anybody else worked on the burpee challenge today ?

i started at 120lb too hahah, and after a 1.5 years im at 139lb, thats on off though, lost alot when i had pneumonia...

do you do this prison burpee thing every day? cuz i was thinkin of like every 2nd day... or less hahah

4 days a week.

Day one: do one push up.
Day two: do two push ups.
Etc until the end of the year.

In this case, they are doing burpees...which I belive is insane due to the difficulty of them. But if you are able to do 365 burpees in a row...that is worth an award. Which...btw...isn't a bad idea. If you can get it on video and post it, I feel a free t-shirt should be awarded. Admins?



Forget the free t-shirt... how about some heat and ice packs and a 2 hour massage... LOL. .. Well, I have been doing plain burpees (no jumping, no pushups).. and I can do 25... If I add the jumps and push ups.. I am good for about 12 and I am spent. :)

Sup Phil. Took these past 2 days off as I've been doing them everyday. Today I'm doing 20 in whatever time I get. I'm breathing @ 15 for sure but I gotta catch up to ya somehow. My heart's beating around 160-163 bpm and I want it around 180 or so. Don't get off work till 3 so I'll report back this evening some time.

My stats are as follows:

28 years old
6'
188 lbs.
Been doing the challenge off and on since December. Got really serious about it for time starting in January.

I just did 100 burpees. 5 reps at time. Some resting times were longer, some shorter. Anyway, it took me 18:58 to complete it. I left the puspup part out when i reached 50 and continued doing them 15 reps later.
Later, when i could breathe again i did some sets of pullups, situps and back extension.
Just felt like sharing.

BaTerrell : Great man that's the way to go. Sometimes you gotta force your body into something. Doing 20 in whatever time is the way to improve. Then you will have a basic time that you can work on. If you find doing 20 really too hard, you can do like I did. Monday 15, tuesday 16, wednesday 17 etc up to 20, then weekend break and the next monday you're already at 20 and start working on bringing total time down, seconds by seconds !

Reitz90 : Setting goals like this is also a good way to begin the challenge however I don't think you should leave the pushup part since then your burpees become simple jumping squats. Take more rest time but get used to doing it all the way. Worry about time when you get used to the motion and exercise.

It's nice having people testing the same thing. All my 'reality' friend have quit the challenge more than a month ago. I guess they didn't have what it takes.

SO, the body does build up immunity, and is able to cope. Thanks i needed the assurance, cause i need to get my heart pumping, been neglecting it for too long.

I don't understand what you mean about the body building up immunity. Immunity to what ?

If you've neglected your heart from pumping in a while, these will put you on the floor... seriously. Your heart will beg for mercy. For me, running 3 miles in 18 minutes ain't shit compared to these.

Don't be discouraged if you only get 10 and feel like you're dying. Your body is in so many positions in a matter of seconds and your heart is trying to rush blood to the whole body.



Phil, I took 2 days off b/c my muscles were fatiguing before my heart, so I know I'm ready for 20. I'm going to follow suit and do them 4 days a week. Let me know what days your doing them so we can stay on the same cycle.

yes what days do you do them! and do you do any weights training alongside these? if so before or after? (i think i may have read this earlier but i cant remember..)

I don't have fixed days as long as I do the challenge at least 3 times a week, usually 4, but every monday I do it for sure.
Next week I am planning on doing em monday tues thurs and friday.

And yes I also follow a hypertrophy program along with the burpees challenge. I basically use the burpees as an efficient warm up. Usually I do the challenge around 11 or dinner time, then I eat vegetable soup, eggs and more vegetables, I take a short nap and about 1 hour later I go to the gym where I do my hypertrophy program, staying in the 8-15 reps ranges or blasting up to 20. When I reach 15-20 I bring the weight up.

For example monday I did the burpees challenge, then I went to the gym and did triceps(5 sets of 12 weighted dips with 45 pounds then cable overhead extention) along with chins and pull ups and then barbell hammer curls superset with concentrated dumbbells curls for biceps.

Wednesday my afternoon hypertrophy workout was legs, I did squats, deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts.
Friday I did back (5 sets chin ups, 4 sets wide pull ups, 4 sets body rows) then I did a quick down the rack one arm lateral raises with no pause between the different weights, followed by inverted dumbbells flyes for the rear shoulders and romboids.

If anybody wants to know, yes, I do get very sore during a week with 4 burpees challenge, three hypertrophy trainings and recuperation workouts (abs, fast walking with my dog), in fact when I get to friday night my whole body is a huge mass of hurting beaten meat, but hey, I like it this way.

I don't care about people saying biceps are useless or not spartan or whatever. I like having big guns and chicks crave them.

I don't care about people saying biceps are useless or not spartan or whatever. I like having big guns and chicks crave them.

haha love that

well did the 1st session, not in the best condition i could of been at the time, done without push ups just to see how id handle and i made 15 sets in 8.40.

so next time i might pick a time where im a lil more prime and do them with push ups

legs hurtin!

Lelle, don't cheat yourself and go for huge numbers. Do the pushup b/c your not really doing a true burpee if your not. Don't worry about how much time it takes since you're just getting started. Get the form down doing a complete burpee.

Start @ 8 or 10 and do full burpees. Try to keep rest around 1 minute starting out.

Lelle, don't cheat yourself and go for huge numbers. Do the pushup b/c your not really doing a true burpee if your not. Don't worry about how much time it takes since you're just getting started. Get the form down doing a complete burpee.

Start @ 8 or 10 and do full burpees. Try to keep rest around 1 minute starting out.

I second that motion !

This site has a bunch of goofy, BS info about burpees:
http://www.offeroftheday.com/post/burpees-antisocial

The vid at the top shows a guy doing burpees and he basically "jumps" directly into the bottom position of the pushup. He is only in the squatting position - with both his hands and feet also on the ground - during his first rep.

I'm sure this allows him to do the burpees faster. Does anyone else use this method? If you read definitions of burpees, I'd say this method is cheating a bit because you are first supposed to squat down and put your hands on the ground before shooting your legs back.

Plus, I think if I tried this method, after I did a few and got tired, I'd just end up hitting the ground like a sweaty sack of potatoes...

You are right GreekPT these are not real burpees, I think they are called half burpees. I certaintly don't to them that way. This kind of website should make sure they put the right video with the right name for the right exercise.

Monday february 11th.
Today I decided to go all out on the burpee and jump directly from 22 sets to 25. I pulled it off in 31:33 minutes.
So last monday I was able to finish 210 burpees in 17:30 and now I'm completing 325 burpees in 31:33.

I completed the 25 sets in 31:33 using and average of about 35 seconds rest. The first 6 sets (25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19 ) I used 45 seconds. By the 19, 18, 17 and 16 sets I had to take a 5 seconds pause at around 10 burpees then finished the remaining 6-7 burpees. Everything came back to normal by set 15 down to 0.

This stuff is getting to a ridiculously hard point. I still get headaches in the last few sets and especially right after the workout is completed although my body seems to be even more able to cope with the pain, the exhaustion, the effort and the urge to simply give up.

I have now reached the total amount of reps for level two prison status. My goal is now to lower the required time to 25. I have no idea how long this is gonna take. I also had no idea it would get that hard. If I had a watch to calculate my heartbeat I bet it would display ''ERROR 101''.

I have now come to fully grasp the meaning of the sentence ''A world of searing pain''. It's simply impossible to understand the pain and mental toughness this challenge requires without giving it a serious shot. Looking back at the 20 descending sets I would say the difference between completing a full 25 descending sets and a full 20 is the same as the difference between Mario Kart on SNES and Forza 2 on XBOX 360 Elite. 30 sets would definately have to be compared to real professionnal drifting races.

With a lot of work I know I can complete the 25 in 25, but I am having reserves right now as to if 30 in 30 is actually humanly possible. Anyways, if it is possible I know I'm getting closer and closer everyday.

I didn't want to tell anyone of my disappointing attempt @ 20, but I'll spill the beans. I was doing just fine as I was sitting around 15 minutes and starting on 11, and then all hell broke loose.

Couple hours before I started I had eaten my bagel w/ peanut butter and cup of coffee. Yeah, y'all know where this is going. It came so close to coming up that I just quit b/c I was so dizzy and my heart felt like it was about to blow up. I shouldn't have jumped from 15 to 20 I guess. I'll try 17 instead tomorrow. My legs were on fire, too.

Phil, congrats on the 25. I will be there... eventually.

Yeah you can't jump 5 ladders at a time. 3 is the most I've tried and every time I feel weird after. You gotta trust the V8 man coffee is not a good idea.

Just started up on the burpees challenge. All I can say is oh my god, it's a killer, lung busting and heart popping, brilliant. Just managed 12 descending set, 30 second rests. Not much but it's a start.

Good start. I started at 10 !

Today I brought my time lower too aswell. Did 25 in 30:20.

I didn't do my leg workout after though because of some major event that turned my day (not to say my life) upside down. I will continue training however I don't know about my performances for the next week or so.

Let's just say I'm lucky to be still alive right now. I almost got my head literally chopped off 4 hours ago. Dead serious.

ABH - keep that head attached man, I need someone on here to inspire me to keep plugging away. With your latest PR, you averaged 5.6 seconds per burpee, including rest periods, that's freakin awesome.

This sickness bullshit I've had completely wiped me out. I finally tried 20 burpees this morning (no not descending sets, just a lame 20) and they kicked my ass. I still have a few more days of recovering and trying to get my lungs and legs back but I will be trying 17 or so sets soon.

Yeah I know I gotta keep my head on my shoulders but it's kind of hard when a 2 inches thick steel rod held by two enormous cocnrete block on each side comes crashing trought the windsheild of your car nearly chopping off the top while exploding the windsheild, opening the doors of the car, exploding the windows of the doors, and basically destroying the whole vehicle. At least the rod stopped 3 inches in front of my face before chopping my head off !
And here is how today I had 7000 $ explode in a big crash of smashed glass and bent metal frames.
My GSR is dead :_(

Damn! You're lucky to be alive.

Yeah I know. Lucky I was driving only at 30. Usually it's more like 170 but today I had a passenger.

I don't even have a scratch. Oh wait, I do have. One about 1-2 millimeter long on top of one finger when I touched the windsheild while I was trying to revome my hand from between the glass steel rod and steering wheel. That's it ! And my passenger was a little shocked and has a little pain in the neck or trapezius I'm not too sure.

You are damn lucky.

Too bad about the car.

Fortunately, cars can be replaced. Heads on the other hand...

Yeah. I had news about my passenger today (an ex girlfriend of mine) and she said her neck is completely stiff she's gonna need to go to hospital. I told her not to fuck around and get going with it but she wants to do it in secret because she doesn't want her current boyfriend to know she was withme yesterday.

I mean, fuck him, get your neck fixed !!

ABH - glad everyone's OK. A bud went off the road in his Vette, hit a guardrail which came up over the low hood and intruded into the passenger compartment. He was not touched but if his wife were with him she would probably have been killed or maimed. You just never know.

Today was my first attempt at what I'm currently calling the Bronchitis Burpees. Fuck this being sick and not working out BS -so I just went for it.

I did 17 descending sets - my first attempt at descending sets - in 16:40 - coughing and wheezing the whole time. My rests were approx 30 seconds for many of the first sets, then I did the last 10 burpees in 45 seconds. That's an average speed of 6.5 seconds per burpee with rest...total of 153 burpees. Getting to 20 in 20 or 25 in 30 at this point seems nearly impossible. The rest periods simply have to get shorter. I better get busy.

~Phil M45, 6'0" 188lbs.

As long as you get to do the sets under 20 in the same time frame as your highest set ( in your case 16 minute 40 for 17 sets applies) you are using the right rest time.

Although after you pass the bar of the 20's you need to shorten the rests to around 15 secs instead of 30 if you want to keep the sets/minutes ratio equal.

16:40 on 17 while being sick is very good. Hopefully you recover soon and we can see how much you improve. I have no doubt in one month you could be a machine.

I'm 34 and only in moderate shape and I can do 17 jumping/no pushup burpees easily.

C'mon, man, shoot for 15 the next workout!

ABHPage,
I was wondering if you have noticed an actual physical difference in you body composition from doing these burpees as you have.

This post is weird, like it's split into two threads or something.

Hayhurst - no pushup = no burpee, sorry dude. And you are aware we're talking about "17" or "20" as descending sets, right? Do 17 rest a bit, do 16, rest a bit, etc, down to 1, for a cool 210 - at 20 sets.

c_hayhurst : burpees with no pushups don't count in the prison burpee challenge.

daeinwolf : Yes I have noticed a great many differences. First off every other workouts I do are easier on the lungs and heart. Second I seem to be gaining some mass along with a different density than what I am used to, like my muscle look somehow 'harder' instead of bulked than with any other kind of training I've tried. Third I also lost a good layer of thin fat I had, maybe a slight 2% but the difference between 11 and 9 means a lot. I also feel like I can carry my body and hold a better posture with no required efforts. I walk better. I also sleep better. I had problems falling asleep but now it seems to be a thing of the past.

Yeah GreekPT is right about that I forgot to mention it. It's not just 17 burpees.

And also the other statement about the wierdness of this thread. It is really confusing. A lot of threads seem to be doing this though ? I think it's meant so that you can better answer a single question, but that means everybody should post an answer to the first post and when the thread gets too long it doesn't work anymore or something.

daeinwolf : Yes I have noticed a great many differences. First off every other workouts I do are easier on the lungs and heart. Second I seem to be gaining some mass along with a different density than what I am used to, like my muscle look somehow 'harder' instead of bulked than with any other kind of training I've tried. Third I also lost a good layer of thin fat I had, maybe a slight 2% but the difference between 11 and 9 means a lot. I also feel like I can carry my body and hold a better posture with no required efforts. I walk better. I also sleep better. I had problems falling asleep but now it seems to be a thing of the past.

Very good. I am glad to see others have had the same development. I completely agree with you that it makes you "harder". My brother compared it to having typical hypertrophy as being "puffed up" and the kind of density that is built up by burpees and such are like "being built like a tree root". In my opinion they just make you hard as hell.

On a similar note, have you tried to attempt bench lately? While I am not a huge proponent of it, I found that after a month of doing burpee workouts that my bench actually went up a tad. Found it curious.

So....when you gonna move on to doing burpee chins? I currently hate them :-) .

Very good. I am glad to see others have had the same development. I completely agree with you that it makes you "harder". My brother compared it to having typical hypertrophy as being "puffed up" and the kind of density that is built up by burpees and such are like "being built like a tree root". In my opinion they just make you hard as hell.

On a similar note, have you tried to attempt bench lately? While I am not a huge proponent of it, I found that after a month of doing burpee workouts that my bench actually went up a tad. Found it curious.

So....when you gonna move on to doing burpee chins? I currently hate them :-) .

Yeah this is a good comparison. Built like a tree root. I like it ! As for the bench press I will be doing some tomorrow after the burpee challenge. I'll tell you about it after. I don't think my 1RM will have increased (even though it did for the dips), but my 10 RM probably will have.

The sooner I reach 25 in 25 the sooner I can pass the test for 30 in whatever time. When I get to complete the whole 465 reps I'll be satisfied to have reached level three and will then move on to doing burpees the same as right now but when reaching the top position of the jumping squat I will hold onto a bar, make a chin, and then drop back down the the finishing position of the squat, thrust my legs back, pushup, bring legs back up, jump, chin, etc. But, one thing at a time, and right now I'm working on simple burpees.

Just finished 25 sets in 27:49.

BaTerrell, are you still doing them ?

15 in 24:45, weak, but I'm just starting to do this.

BTW my car problem seems to be resolved. I feared I'd lose my job since I'm broke and can't work anymore ( I'm a delivery guy) but I must say I have increadible friends. Of of them sells me his car for cheaper than he asked and proposed that I pay him over 25 weeks !

BTW my car problem seems to be resolved. I feared I'd lose my job since I'm broke and can't work anymore ( I'm a delivery guy) but I must say I have increadible friends. Of of them sells me his car for cheaper than he asked and proposed that I pay him over 25 weeks !

Good for you, that's great news!

15 in 24:45, weak, but I'm just starting to do this.

When I began I had to start at 10 ;) . How many times a week are you planning to do the burpees ?

I try and alternate CrossFit workouts or Ross's workouts on the days I don't try a burpee challenge. Like I said before, it's so hard to be fresh for the Challenge cuz the other workouts spank me so hard. I'm heading out to try CrossFit's WOD and the Challenge again tomorrow.

I'm either too weak, or weigh too much to be able to do anything near 15 legit pullups so I have to focus some efforts on pulling moves. I just found a nice sturdy pipe in the stairwell at work that will be great for pullups.

ABH - you say you do the Challenge as a warm up? Holy shit. I only did 17 and after many minutes of rest I tried a few steep decline pushups (trying to eventually get to HSPU's) and I was spent.

Who's got the hookup for HGH? ;-))

The car incident sounded scary, glad to hear you're ok and back up and running.

Second set of burpees tonight 13 descending, felt much better, felt hard but sustainable. I was thinking about cranking it up to 15 sets.... Then after the second step (live in a flat) major cramps in the solues? (lower calf). My mum and sister thought I'd been shot. Howling like a little girl, it's been a long time since I felt cramp like that. In some what sadistic sense it was quite satisfying after the pain had gone.

Yeah calf cramps are real ugly. But hamstring cramps during your sleep are the worst.

I'm using the burpee challenge as a warm up in the sense that it gets my day going. About 1 hour after the challenge I feel ready for some muscular work because the cardiovascular effort it requires seems to loosen my joints ( I have lots of joints pains) so I enjoy being able to lift weight without the joint pain. Of course, I have less energy for my lift but I don't get injured anymore so I consider it a fair trade.

HGH is too expensive man I'm broke and can't afford that. Also I don't want to make my body ingest any more chemicals. I don't even use protein powder anymore.

This morning I did only 20 descending sets because this afternoon is chest muscular workout and I want to keep some juice for the heavy lifts. However I lowered my total time for 20 sets from my previous record of 17:30 to a new 15:15 !! Had to use around 15 secs rests and 5 secs rests for the last 9 sets.

Dude, you are a freakin Machine!

Yesterday I did deep squats with 95lb barbell, then pressed it at the top (Crossfit calls them Thrusters) 21-15-9-6 reps. Gets the heartrate soaring right now. Right after one set, you do the same number of pullups and the whole thing is supposed to be done nonstop or as close to that as you can. So I did that and then a bunch more pullups, horizontal ones, etc and some glute ham raises.

Today I did 18 sets of burpees in 18:06. I really felt it in my quads from yesterday workout. I'm a numbers guy and when you do the math, I have to improve/lower my average rep time by like 27% if I have any hopes of doing 25 in 25:00.

20 or 30 seconds have NEVER gone by so quickly as they do between those fucking sets.

Started last Tuesday, am up to 8 today.

Ahaha when you start to do the math you are already addicted :P But you're still in the range of equality regarding sets versus total time. When do you plan to jump to 20 ? You're then gonna be level one prison in the challenge prison status !
Funny that you mention those thrusters because I actually was told about them today at the gym fort he first time. It does seems hard to do.

Wumpus don't forget to keep track of your time.

By the way, has anybody here gotten weird looks from people when you tell them about this workout ? People tend to think that this is like... I can't describe.

By the way, has anybody here gotten weird looks from people when you tell them about this workout ? People tend to think that this is like... I can't describe.

Weird?

Odd?

Insane?

Absolutely nuts?

They'd be right, but it sounds like fun, too. :)

Absolutely nuts would fit perfectly. Then when they say that only somebody with a deranged mind would come up with that kind of crazy workout, I tell them it's a workout created by convicts. That's when I get the second look, the kind of ''you don't know the first thing about training if you think that this is not going to overtrain you'' look.

Funny enough that after about two month of doing the challenge now the same people start asking me questions. I've even seen people at the gym starting to do body rows like I learned here, HSPU and GHR (well, attempts at GHR since I never saw anybody able to perform one), but none seems to be ready to cross the line and try the challenge.

I'm still doing them Phil. Almost @ 20 for 20. Not posting again till I do. You, my friend, are killing me w/ your times. Congrats on the times but it does piss me off and thats what drives me.

Seriously, job well done. Do you take ibuprofen or advil to ease the soreness? I'll pop 2 200mg ibuprofen when I feel the need. I'm so sore right now but I just keep doing them. 4 days a week of this challenge is the SHIT.

Hey nice to hear from you man. I'm anxious for you to get to 20 in 20. We're going to build a band of shredded convicts here hehehe.

I don't take ibuprofen or advil or anything. In fact I haven't been sore since I started this challenge. Even muscular workouts don't seem to make my msucles sore. I wonder why is that because in my previous workouts I did get really sore and now it's just like... I wake up with fresh muscles every morning. My mind has more problems keeping up than my muscles. Maybe it has to do with all the high quality food I eat. I also try to get as much of them as possible to be bio.

I was just about to say my nutrition is probably the problem. I don't eat unhealthy, just not enough calories more than likely since my metabolism's on fire now. Its hard to get quality meals in working a full-time job w/ a wife and 8 month old son.

I know your quitting the powder but that is probably my only option right now. Might start doing the Rocky route and chug them little chickens raw. LOL

I'm not sure when I can tackle the challenge again. I just got back on my bike - first time in 2 weeks, still hacking up a lung - and we did fucking hill repeats today! 3hrs total riding time. And tomorrow is a brick: ride hard for a couple hrs then jump off and (try to) run. You legs feel like bricks, hence the name.

My next attempt will be 20 sets but my legs will be destroyed after tomorrow and i'll need a couple days recovery. I seem to feel the burpees most in my quads, probably cuz I have short legs and I'm pushing 190lbs.

A guy I know in the gym, he came up later and was pretty much amazed and bewildered at how I can do my workouts, burpees or otherwise, because they're all super high intensity. Most everyone else there just goes thru the same basic, boring, low intensity motions. But hey, they sure chat more than I do.

What is a GHR??

GHR = Glute Ham Raise

I also did long distance biking but when I was around 14-16. I basically used my bike as a car, riding to see friend living 50 kms away almost every day. One time I did a 7 hours ride. They next day my legs were dead. When we came back the following day, the ride lasted 10 hours. And then I got a car.

BaTerrel, don't forget to cook your eggs.

It takes a long ass time to find the bottom of this thread!!

CHEESEDOG - you're a moderator? Can you please do something about this? I open the thread, scroll to last page, then have to find the icon for "More replies below..." about 3 different times in order to get to the last posting. WTF??

ANYHOW - the weather's been excellent, so I rode hard both days then ran right after the ride yesterday. My legs are fried. I'll hit the gym for core work today and bust out a few burpees, but I'm waiting til Wed to try the challenge again.

The GHR's are so hard. Ross does them over and over with ease...makes me sick. I can sort of slowly descend to the floor then the last couple feet is a free fall and i have to throw my hands out or it would be a major face plant. I'm sure getting stronger at those would help biking and running.

The thread is getting awfully long GreekPT this is why we have to scroll through a lot of pages. Nothing can be done about it.

As if God didn't piss on me enough last week, he decided to make me shit a little bit more. The new car that I just bought was MINT 0 rust perfect perfect condition. Then yesterday right when I was coming back from work the goddamn lower front ball joint on the right side decided to give up and the wheel took off and damaged the body a little bit. It pisses me off a great deal because this car was in awesome shape. So I'll have to spend these extra buck to repair the paint damage and fix the wheel. Fuck.

So anyways I didn't sleep well again last night ( obviously with my debts going up by the thousand of $ additionnal every day) and this morning I felt like dying when I woke up. I still did my burpee but went for an easy 20 instead of 25. Today I needed a whole 19:49 to finish them instead of friday's 15:15. At least I didn't make excuses and still did it, if slower.

It's a dog eat dog world out there ABH and it appears you're wearing milk bone underwear. (Not sure which comedian first said that line) I've been there man - I once bought these spacers for some wider wheels, got it all together, took off down the street and the front wheel went flying off and fucked up the quarter panel.

I just did 100 burpees, sorta 'nonstop' in 8:47 - my last PR was 9:18. My quads simply burned with each jump so I'll have to rest them a bit. I focused the rest of the workout on pullups, then dumbbell snatches/swings then dips.

There is a guy at my gym who seems to be following a nice program involving lots of compounds movements and body weight exercises. Today I saw him doing circuits of snatches, leg-switching stuff while lifting a dumbell, and sets of triburpees (pushups squat pullup).

I am starting to be tempted by triburpees. I bet it could increase my total reps for pullups. I am starting to think I should try 20 descending set of triburpees in 20 minutes.

Would you eliminate the jump at the end of the burpee and just do a squat instead? I think the pullup would add way too much additional time, not to mention effort - to be able to do that many reps. I might try 50 burpees jumping to a pullup to see how that goes. Good luck if you try it.

Yesterday marked the first day of my new diet - after reading on this site I'm going to try 4+ smaller meals per day and only protein with veggies or salad at night. I also started drinking lots of green tea.

Tomorrow will be my first attempt at 20 sets in hopefully sub 22:00.

Did you find it hard to diet or are you enjoying what you eat ?

I will not eliminate the jump. I'll try the whole 210 reps and if I can't because of the pullups I'll go down to 15 and then work my way up. Imagine the strenght and development of lats that do like 1000 pullups a week.

I try to calculate my exercises by reps/week and maximum poudage/week. So since I was doing about 1400 pushing motions a week with my arms and only around 250 pulling motions there was some loss of balance somewhere. I'd rather start straight. Triburpees will guve some push, pull, and legs along with the core from the plank position. Hey, even one day who know if we get crazy enough we might try a 10 descending sets of quattroburpees (dips on top of the pullup-a muscle up then). That would be impressive.

Easy there Champ, I'm still trying to become a man. It's a bit disheartening to think regular burpees are only the start and it could easily get much harder.

My first attempt today at 20 sets took me 22:46. Hurt like a motherfucker. I went to bed at 11:30 last night then woke up at 3AM, which never happens, then it took me a long time to fall back asleep, so my sleep sorta sucked last night.

As far as the diet - I'm eating what I like but it's only day 3. I cooked a bunch of food on Sunday, but I'm already out of meat/protein, so I have to cook fish tonight.

You are way more calculating than me when it comes to working out. I just mix up the Burpee Challenge, biking, running, core, and high intensity workouts from Ross or Crossfit. If you want a ballbuster, try the Filthy 50: http://www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/002988.html

There are a lot of exercises which I don't knoe about in this challenge such as :

50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions ( are these hyperextentions ??)
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Double unders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn3mCzzML_w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvOLGsMumO0

I do knee tucks instead of double unders (that's jumping rope) and jumping pullups is just using a bar that you can reach with semi outstretched arms.

new up here, anyway been doing a set of 20 condescending set of burpess with a minute break between each set for a little while. if you want your heart to race and sweat like crazy i can recommend doing it that way as well.

I can only do ten burpees (I add a pushup to the burpees!)
Boy I am tired:D

Comfortinn, welcome to Pain Central. There are a few of us doing these crazy sets of burpees. I shoot for 30 seconds or less rest per set and the resident stud ABH, he doesn't know what the word rest means.

Scint - the pushup and the jump from the second squatting position (after the pushup) are mandatory to be condsidered real burpees. Keep plugging away.

ABH - not sure if you will see them with this jacked up thread, but I posted a couple vids that show the evercises for the Filthy Fifty.

Hahaha I know what the word rest means I think it's the word pain that I forgot.

But this pain that I got in my back this morning is starting to teach me how to be humble man. It's so painful I have problems breathing. I'm definately going to see a therapist tomorrow morning first thing. I almost fainted when I tried to sit in my car.

How'd you jack up your back? Hopefully the therapist is cute AND she fixes it.

Last night I did a running workout on the track - 4x800m 3:01-3:12pace.

This morning I did the Filthy 50. Last time was 32:xx when I was sick, today I did it in 27:47. The 50 fucking burpees took me nearly 7 minutes because of yesterday's Prisoner Challenge and speed work, but I'm happy about the time I shaved off.

what is the filthy 50. never heard of it

I posted 2 vids yesterday that show/describe all the exercises. I know it's a bitch to scroll and find old posts on this thread so if you can't find them, just search "Crossfit Filthy 50" in Google or Yahoo and you'll find the vids.

It's a real ass kicking, uber high intensity, whole body workout.

I fucked my back at the very last rep of my legs workout.
Did heavy back squats, heavy deadlifting, heavy stiff leg deadlifting, and then some barbell shrugs and at the very last rep something snapped between my right shoulder blade and my spine.

My therapist is a dude, he's fucking awesome at his job he knows what he's doing, honestly I prefer having a guy so good to fix my injuries than trying to meet ladies. When it comes down to my body I get more serious tahn for anything else.

Anyways he forbid me to any kind of physical effort until at least monday when he says I could try some light exercise.

Apparently it has something to do with my working positions, my driving position in my car and my computer sitting position and then on top of that the stress I put on my nerves from the thousands of reps of various exercises I do each week. :( I hate shit like that. Anyways he said my muscles and nerves are stiff as hell and that it had to happen some day.

I guess I need ot learn to relax.

alright, someone please help me out?!!! what was the original challenge? do the number of burpees for the day of the month? i'm curious as to what this is but i can't seem to find the original message or the original workout???!!

It takes a long ass time to find the bottom of this thread!!

CHEESEDOG - you're a moderator? Can you please do something about this? I open the thread, scroll to last page, then have to find the icon for "More replies below..." about 3 different times in order to get to the last posting. WTF??

On the right side of the screen near the top you will find "display modes", click on that then click on "linear mode", it puts all the threads in reverse order so it's easy to follow these long rambling conversations.

ABH, for almost anyone not on steriods doing squats, deadlifts, AND stiff-leg deads all in the same workout would just be too much!

Why is it so ? I figured since the exercises work opposite muscles it was appropriate ? The workout really isn't all that long by itself.

Have done 11 today. Next post will be in a week due to the lack of Internet at my country place. Total - 66.

P.S. A free T-shirt does seem an akwardly small award.

P.S.2. I just discovered that I am doing the Burpee with the pushup! Actually, this is good, since I have always wanted to improve my pushup max and now I have the perfect chance to do it.
When going back to school in September I should be able to do at least 60 pushup Burpees in a row. Going to impress my schoolmates by then :p

good call adding a push up ,do you also jump off the ground when you stand , or even harder do what your doing then jump off the ground and whilst in the air make your arms and legs form a star shape ,that would really push your fitness.
make sure you land with heels making contact with the floor and that you bend your knees to absorb impact,good luck

good call adding a push up ,do you also jump off the ground when you stand , or even harder do what your doing then jump off the ground and whilst in the air make your arms and legs form a star shape ,that would really push your fitness.
make sure you land with heels making contact with the floor and that you bend your knees to absorb impact,good luck

Basic burpees are pushup + squat. If you don't do your pushup your not doing burpees.

Adding a pushup would mean doing two pushups for each rep.

Dude, I think you are running low on your 9 lives. Watch, I bet you'll come back stronger after resting a few days. You're never giving yourself a chance to recover.

I haven't done ANY core work for well over a week - just the burpees and the KTE in the Filthy 50 and I did core today and I was way stronger with my weighted incline trunk twists.

The track work Wed night fucked up my knee (recurring injury) so I gotta chill out too for a while.

I think I used up at least one of my nine lives last week in my accident :P

Why is it so ? I figured since the exercises work opposite muscles it was appropriate ? The workout really isn't all that long by itself.

Squats may put more stess on the quads and deadlifts and SLDL might put more on the back, glutes, and hams, but your back is very involved in all of them. That might be why you had the back pain a short while ago. If you are going to do all 3 every time you do the lower body I would only do 1 or 2 of them heavy, with the third less intense.

Why is it so ? I figured since the exercises work opposite muscles it was appropriate ? The workout really isn't all that long by itself.

You're doing way too many reps for it to be safe. Each and every rep is placing a strain on your upper and lower back. After re-reading your last leg workout post, I crunched some numbers (surprise!):

66 squat repetitions
56 dedlift repetitions
34 stiff-leg DL repetitions
36 shrug repetitions

Total: 192 repetitions. All more or less targeting the same general area (back and lower body).

This is an enormous number of reps. Fair enough, most of them are done with weights that are relatively light for you, but they still count. The problem with doing a lot of reps is that the supporting muscles get fatigued (even with a light weight) from the repeating movement patterns. Bear in mind that all the above exercises are compound exercises, therefore no muscle group really gets a break - all of the same muscles participate in all of the repetitions.

The way you've arranged your sets is also risky. Taking the squat as an example, you're doing 52 reps with light weights first, then you do another nine with a weight that's moderately heavy for your strength levels. 60+ reps in the squat will wear you out pretty bad. This means that your stabilizer muscles and your joints are already pretty battered from the squatting volume. THEN you force a heavy weight onto them for a final, heavy set. It's very likely that your stabilizers will give out, your form breaks down, and you end up with a horrible injury that will put you out of the gym for weeks. Squatting injuries are usually very serious.

Then you continue to do another 124 reps in the deadlift, stiff-legged deadlift and shrug, each time working in the same repetition pattern. Your body must be tough as hell - one of these workouts and I'd be bound for the hospital immediately.

You upper back region was suffering a lot of stress. Squats require upper back activation to stabilize the barbell. Deadlifts rely on scapular retraction at the top of the movement to lock out the weight. Stiff-legged deads maintain this tension throughout the movement. Shurgs - well, they just hit the upper back directly. Done for 192 reps, even with monstrous concentration, your form must break down and injury occurs.

My advice is to cut the reps down on the weight-training days. Increase weights instead. Doing 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps is all you need. If you're doing all four exercises mentioned above, do 3 sets of 8 reps with a moderate weight, then try to increase weight as you see fit. You're already doing lots of repetition work on your other days. By doing high-rep sets before the "money" sets (usually your last two), you're robbing yourself of strength and size gains. I bet you could lift a lot more weight in the heavy sets if you cut out the unnecessary high-rep work prior to them.

You're doing way too many reps for it to be safe. Each and every rep is placing a strain on your upper and lower back. After re-reading your last leg workout post, I crunched some numbers (surprise!):

66 squat repetitions
56 dedlift repetitions
34 stiff-leg DL repetitions
36 shrug repetitions

Total: 192 repetitions. All more or less targeting the same general area (back and lower body).

This is an enormous number of reps. Fair enough, most of them are done with weights that are relatively light for you, but they still count. The problem with doing a lot of reps is that the supporting muscles get fatigued (even with a light weight) from the repeating movement patterns. Bear in mind that all the above exercises are compound exercises, therefore no muscle group really gets a break - all of the same muscles participate in all of the repetitions.

The way you've arranged your sets is also risky. Taking the squat as an example, you're doing 52 reps with light weights first, then you do another nine with a weight that's moderately heavy for your strength levels. 60+ reps in the squat will wear you out pretty bad. This means that your stabilizer muscles and your joints are already pretty battered from the squatting volume. THEN you force a heavy weight onto them for a final, heavy set. It's very likely that your stabilizers will give out, your form breaks down, and you end up with a horrible injury that will put you out of the gym for weeks. Squatting injuries are usually very serious.

Then you continue to do another 124 reps in the deadlift, stiff-legged deadlift and shrug, each time working in the same repetition pattern. Your body must be tough as hell - one of these workouts and I'd be bound for the hospital immediately.

You upper back region was suffering a lot of stress. Squats require upper back activation to stabilize the barbell. Deadlifts rely on scapular retraction at the top of the movement to lock out the weight. Stiff-legged deads maintain this tension throughout the movement. Shurgs - well, they just hit the upper back directly. Done for 192 reps, even with monstrous concentration, your form must break down and injury occurs.

My advice is to cut the reps down on the weight-training days. Increase weights instead. Doing 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps is all you need. If you're doing all four exercises mentioned above, do 3 sets of 8 reps with a moderate weight, then try to increase weight as you see fit. You're already doing lots of repetition work on your other days. By doing high-rep sets before the "money" sets (usually your last two), you're robbing yourself of strength and size gains. I bet you could lift a lot more weight in the heavy sets if you cut out the unnecessary high-rep work prior to them.

Just seeing the numbers makes it very clear bro. I have to agree with Fatman. Also, when you look at the fact that you have not done this sort of training in at least 6 months and you are still working the burpees...it does seem like a bit of overkill. When I hit the weights, my reps tend to be in the 5 reps of 5-8. My bodyweight stuff keeps me good in the high rep department. In this case, less is much more.

I didn't take the time to actually count the reps and now that you point it out it is true that the numbers are quite high.

I will remove some sets and aim for no higher than 8 reps.
That is, when my back permits it. I think my biggest mistake was to add shrugs on top of all this. I will eliminate the shrug movement, anyways I think my traps get enough beating.

Personally bro, I feel that shrugs are of the same caliber as rack curls....a useless exercise. Your traps should be gettign hit with the deadlift, cleans, etc. Moving a bar 2 inches is the furthest thing from useful. Get more bang for your buck and clean it if anything.

You are right but I have never done clean and presses before and don't personally know somebody competent enough to show me how. I could probably find one but I never actively searched for it... I figured deads squats HSPU worked the same things with less possibility of injury ? I get injured easily.

after doing burpees my bench jumped from maxing at 205 to 225 for 3 reps after 3 weeks or so of doing burpees 3 times a week... the effects and benefits of this exercise are undeniable. :D

Wow!

Never in my mind would I have known that the 'Burpees Challenge' would become such a popular topic at BodyweightCulture.
It has taken such a wide scale and I am very pleased to read how many benefits the challenge gives to people.

Keep going!
Razor