Burpees, Burpees, Burpees: Your Guide To Advanced Burpees with Weights

Burpees are simple, brutally efficient, and endlessly customizable. Whether you're learning your first burpee or looking for advanced burpee variations with weights, this guide covers proper form, regressions, progressions, workout ideas, and what burpees can realistically do for your fitness.

Most people have a love-hate relationship with burpees. They combine a squat or crouch, plank, push-up variation, and jump into one fast-moving exercise, which is exactly why a few reps can send your heart rate through the roof.

Burpees are especially useful for conditioning because they require no equipment, use a large amount of muscle mass, and can be scaled from beginner-friendly step-back versions to demanding variations involving pull-ups, box jumps, dumbbells, weighted vests, and steel maces.

They aren't magic, though. Burpees don't automatically "shred" body fat, replace a complete strength program, or need to be performed until you collapse. Used intelligently, they're simply a very effective conditioning tool.

What Is a Burpee?

A burpee is a full-body conditioning exercise that moves you from standing to the floor and back to standing, usually finishing with a jump. There are many definitions of a "standard" burpee. Some include a push-up and chest-to-floor contact, while others use only a plank before returning to standing.

For this guide, our standard burpee includes a push-up and vertical jump. Both can be removed when you need an easier variation.

6 Benefits of Burpees

1. Burpees Are Excellent for High-Intensity Conditioning

Burpees rapidly increase heart rate because they repeatedly move a large portion of your body through multiple positions. That makes them useful in HIIT sessions, circuits, finishers, and other conditioning workouts.

Research on high-intensity interval training more broadly shows that HIIT can improve cardiorespiratory fitness and can contribute to improvements in body composition. But burpees themselves haven't been proven to burn "50% more fat" than conventional exercise, and there is no special burpee-specific fat-loss effect.

2. They Train Multiple Muscle Groups at Once

A standard burpee involves the quads, glutes, calves, trunk, chest, shoulders, and triceps. The exact muscular demand depends on the variation. Removing the push-up reduces upper-body work, while adding a pull-up, row, box jump, or external load changes the stimulus considerably.

3. They Can Develop Muscular Endurance

Repeated burpees challenge your ability to continue producing force while fatigued. Higher-repetition sets primarily emphasize muscular endurance and conditioning rather than maximal strength.

4. Burpees Can Include an Explosive Component

The vertical jump in a burpee requires rapid force production from the lower body. However, if your primary goal is maximizing power or jump performance, dedicated plyometric exercises performed while fresh are generally more appropriate than high-rep burpees performed under heavy fatigue.

5. You Can Do Them Almost Anywhere

No equipment is required for a standard burpee. You can use them at home, outside, while traveling, or in the gym, provided you have enough floor space.

6. Burpees Are Easy to Scale

You can make burpees easier by stepping instead of jumping, elevating your hands, removing the push-up, or removing the final jump. You can make them harder by adding external resistance, more demanding jumps, pulling movements, or other exercises.

More on the Benefits of Burpees

How to Do a Standard Burpee

Before you begin: Warm up before hard burpee sessions, especially if you're going to perform high reps or explosive variations. Practice the individual pieces first if the complete movement feels rushed or awkward.

1. Stand with your feet around hip-to-shoulder width apart.
2. Bend your knees and hips and place your hands on the floor.
3. Jump or step your feet backward into a strong high-plank position.
4. Perform a controlled push-up. If your chosen burpee variation doesn't include a push-up, skip this step.
5. Return to the high plank.
6. Jump or step your feet forward toward your hands.
7. Stand and jump vertically, reaching overhead if desired.
8. Land softly with your knees and hips prepared for the next repetition.

There is no need to maximize jump height on every rep during a long conditioning set. Once fatigue makes your landing or trunk position sloppy, slow down, reduce the variation, or end the set.

Beginner Burpee Progressions

1. Elevated Burpee

Place your hands on a sturdy bench, box, or other elevated surface instead of the floor. Step your feet back and forward, then stand. This reduces the range of motion and can be an excellent starting point.

2. Step-Back Burpee

Place your hands on the floor, step one foot back at a time into a plank, then step forward and stand. Skip both the push-up and jump initially.

3. Half Burpee

Move from the squat/crouched position to a plank and back without performing the push-up. You can finish by standing or add the jump when you're ready.

4. Burpee Without the Push-Up

Jump both feet back into a plank and forward again, then stand or jump. This maintains the faster conditioning element without requiring repeated push-ups.

5. Standard Burpee

Once the earlier variations feel controlled, add the push-up and jump.

Burpee Form Tips

• Control the plank: Avoid letting your hips sag excessively when your feet move backward.
• Scale the push-up instead of forcing ugly reps: If repeated floor push-ups are beyond your current capacity, remove the push-up or use an elevated variation rather than repeatedly collapsing to the floor.
• Land under control: The goal isn't to slam into the floor as quickly as possible.
• Use a sustainable pace: Sprinting the first five reps and barely surviving the rest is rarely the best strategy for a longer workout.
• Breathe: Avoid unnecessarily holding your breath during repeated conditioning work.
• Stop when technique breaks down: More repetitions aren't automatically better.

How to Make Burpees Harder

Once standard burpees become manageable, you can progress the exercise by increasing movement complexity, jump demand, external load, or total work.

Only add complexity you can control. Advanced burpees performed while severely fatigued can turn into sloppy jumps and landings very quickly.

Burpee Pull-Ups

Perform a burpee beneath a pull-up bar and transition from the jump into a pull-up. This adds a vertical pulling movement to an exercise that otherwise contains little back or biceps work.

Burpee Box Jumps

Instead of finishing with a vertical jump, jump onto a stable plyometric box. This increases the jump demand, but fatigue management becomes especially important. Use a box height you can land on comfortably and step down when appropriate.

Learn more about box jumps and other plyo box exercises.

Burpee Lateral Jumps

Finish the burpee by jumping laterally over a low object or line. This introduces side-to-side movement and requires greater landing control. Start with a low obstacle before progressing the height.

Burpees With Weights

External resistance can make a burpee significantly more demanding, but adding weight isn't automatically better. Weighted burpees should be treated as an advanced variation because fatigue can affect both lifting mechanics and landing quality.

Dumbbells and weighted vests are common options. Use conservative loads and prioritize control.

Steel Mace Burpees

A steel mace places most of its mass at one end of a long handle, creating an offset load that challenges the grip and trunk differently from a balanced dumbbell.

That offset loading can be incorporated into advanced burpee combinations, but beginners should learn basic burpees and basic mace movements separately before combining them.

7 Steel Mace Burpee Variations

These combinations are best suited to experienced trainees who already have solid technique with both the burpee and the mace exercise being combined with it. Use a lighter mace than you would for standalone strength work.

How to Structure a Burpee Workout

There is no special number of burpees you need to complete. Program them according to your fitness level and goal.

Option 1: Straight Sets

3-5 sets of 5-15 burpees
Rest 60-120 seconds between sets.

Option 2: Descending Ladder

Perform 10 reps, rest, then 9, 8, 7, and continue down to 1. Beginners can start with a 5-to-1 ladder. Rest enough to maintain reasonable form rather than automatically keeping rest "minimal."

Option 3: Interval Workout

Work for 20-30 seconds and rest for 30-60 seconds. Repeat for 5-10 rounds. Adjust the work-to-rest ratio based on your conditioning.

Option 4: EMOM

At the start of each minute, perform 5-10 burpees. Rest for the remainder of the minute. Repeat for 5-10 minutes.

Option 5: 100-Burpee Challenge

Completing 100 burpees for time can be a fun benchmark for experienced trainees, but it isn't necessary for improving fitness. Scale the total reps, use a simpler variation, and stop if your technique deteriorates.

Option 6: Workout Finisher

Perform 2-4 short rounds after your primary workout. If strength or muscle growth is the main goal of the session, keep hard burpee conditioning toward the end rather than inserting exhausting sets before your priority lifts. Research on resistance-training exercise order generally supports performing priority exercises earlier, when fatigue is lower.

10 Ancient & Animal Inspired Squat Variations You Need To Try 

How Often Should You Do Burpees?

You technically can perform some form of burpee frequently, but there is rarely a reason to perform hard burpee workouts every day.

For most people, 1-3 dedicated high-intensity burpee or HIIT sessions per week is a more practical starting point. Your ideal frequency depends on the number of reps, variation, intensity, your other training, and how well you recover.

A few easy burpees in a warm-up are very different from 100 burpees for time.

Common Burpee Mistakes

• Prioritizing speed over control: Faster isn't better if every rep deteriorates.
• Doing too much too soon: Build volume gradually, especially if you're new to high-impact conditioning.
• Forcing push-ups after your upper body is exhausted: Switch to a no-push-up or elevated version.
• Using advanced jumps while fatigued: Box and lateral jump variations demand good landing mechanics.
• Turning every workout into a punishment: Burpees are a tool, not a test of how miserable you can make yourself.
• Expecting burpees alone to build maximal strength or muscle: They complement resistance training rather than replace it.

FAQ About Burpees

Can I do burpees every day?

You can perform burpees frequently if the volume and intensity are low enough, but hard burpee workouts every day aren't necessary. Recovery needs depend on your fitness level, variation, total volume, and other training.

How should beginners or people with a higher body weight start burpees?

Start with an elevated surface or a step-back burpee. Remove the push-up and jump if necessary. As strength, mobility, and conditioning improve, gradually lower the hand position and add components. There is no requirement to begin with the full floor-to-jump version.

Are burpee-only workouts effective?

Burpee-only sessions can improve conditioning and muscular endurance, but burpees do not provide everything needed for a complete fitness program. A balanced routine should also include progressive strength training, pulling exercises, aerobic activity, and movements that address your individual goals.

What muscles do burpees work?

Standard burpees primarily involve the quads, glutes, calves, trunk, chest, shoulders, and triceps. A standard burpee has relatively little pulling demand, which is one reason burpee pull-ups or separate rows and pull-ups can complement them.

Do burpees burn belly fat?

Burpees expend energy and can contribute to a fat-loss program, but they cannot selectively burn abdominal fat. Fat loss occurs across the body and depends largely on sustained energy balance over time.

How many burpees should a beginner do?

There is no required number. Try 3-5 reps at a time using a variation you can control. Gradually add repetitions or sets as your conditioning improves.

Are burpees good for HIIT?

Yes. Because burpees can rapidly elevate heart rate and are easy to start and stop, they work well for interval training. They are only one HIIT option, however; cycling, running, rowing, and other exercises can provide similar conditioning benefits.

Do burpees build muscle?

Beginners may gain some muscle from burpees, and advanced weighted variations can provide more resistance. But traditional progressive resistance training is much easier to load and program for hypertrophy.

Final Thoughts

Burpees deserve their reputation as a challenging conditioning exercise, but they don't need exaggerated claims to be useful.

They're portable, scalable, time-efficient, and easy to combine with interval training. Start with a variation that matches your current ability, keep your reps controlled, and progress by adding volume, speed, complexity, or resistance gradually.

If your main goal is strength or muscle growth, use burpees as conditioning rather than allowing them to fatigue you before your priority resistance exercises. If conditioning is the goal, short burpee intervals can be a simple and effective way to make your workout considerably harder.

Where to Buy a Steel Mace

Buy a Steel Mace by SET FOR SET

Top 9 Benefits of Steel Mace Training

Advanced Steel Mace Workout - HIIT, Circuit, Strength