Transparency Item: The Perspectives section of the Graphic is comprised of articles based on opinion. This is the opinion and perspective of the writer.
I did 100 burpees a day for two months. Here’s why I did it and what I learned.
Let me start by saying this. I hate burpees.
If God had invented an exercise to punish the body, it would be a burpee. The burpee is the perfect combination of a pushup, an ab crunch and a squat done in one motion to ensure maximal suffering and challenge.
Royal H. Burpee invented the burpee as a measurement of fitness, and the simple exercise involves four steps:
1. Squat down, and put both hands on the floor in front of you.
2. Pop your feet backward into a plank position.
3. Bring your feet forward.
4. Stand back up.
The military soon adopted this sadistic mash-of-movements as a test of physical fitness. Different branches of the military, like the Navy Seals, even have their own style of doing the Burpee.
After working out for many years and trying various workouts — cardio, weightlifting, calisthenics and sports — I still find myself the most miserable when doing burpees. It’s no wonder burpees are most popular in military training, prisons and sadistic high school physical education classes, all three excel in causing suffering.
Other forms of exercise can feel fun and especially rewarding as you can watch your muscles or skills grow slowly and steadily. Burpees remove the illusion that exercise always has to be enjoyed.
Burpees make it clear why you are working out — to feel better after the workout.
So, why did I do them?
I chose to do 100 burpees every day precisely because I hated it. Nobody wants to do a burpee, yet there is almost no excuse — aside from severe medical problems — not to do one burpee. I wanted to see how much I could endure.
To do 100 burpees, you need yourself and the floor. There is no running away from a burpee, and you can do it wherever, whenever.
Burpees can also be done at almost any level of physical fitness. You divide up the 100 burpees any way you want: 20 sets of five, five sets of 20 — it’s all up to what you can manage. The difficulty level of burpees can be adjusted too.
I do my burpees with an added pushup, but I cheapen out on the squat and don’t jump off the ground when I go up because I have bad knees.
However, when it comes to weightlifting or calisthenics, you always have the excuse that the equipment or facilities are insufficient. But, that’s not true for burpees.
I’ve done burpees in all places, from beautiful garden fields in Ireland and hotel bathrooms in China to the raw dirt and ground in Zimbabwe. In my mind, the only thing these places have in commonis the terrible suffering that has taken place in them— burpees.
Doing 100 burpees always feels the same, terrible suffering during the burpees followed by complete release and rapture after the burpees are done. By the end of my first set of 20 reps, I feel as if my heart is leaping out of my chest. Every pushup makes my triceps ache, and my legs feel like jelly.
But, when I’m done with 100 burpees, I feel invincible.
The weight of the world comes off my shoulders. Whenever I’m finished with my 100 burpees, I feel like I could die right then and there, and it would all be OK.
Loneliness, social anxiety and existential dread suddenly seem so small in the face of 100 burpees.
Burpees are humbling. Burpees shatter the social media veil that we have put around fitness. Social media gives a false impression that we all look like magnificent Adonises forging their bodies in a church of iron.
Burpees also shatter the notion that individuals exercise for the enjoyment of it. I don’t think anyone works out just for the pleasure of it. I think people enjoy suffering in the pursuit of something better, and that’s so much more complicated than just a pleasurable activity.
It shatters the illusion that you have to enjoy what you are doing. You just have to do it.
Overall, doing 100 burpees a day for two months has truly humbled me. To this day, every time I burn out from studying or purposelessness, doing 100 burpees always centers me back to the reality I want to live in.
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Contact Arik Chu via email: arik.chu@pepperdine.edu
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