I Did 1500 Burpees in 30 Days — Here Is What Happened

I gained something even better than tight abs.

Fitness challenges are a hoot. You can start a new challenge anytime to become healthier. A fitness challenge will pump you with motivation to reach your fitness goals.

I love doing a fitness challenge to improve my weak point. And push-up is my kryptonite. I hate push-ups, I have noodle arms and dainty wrists that cannot handle my body weight.

So, I took a challenge to do 50 push-ups daily but burpees sounded much cooler so I upgraded the challenge. I began this challenge on 15th December 2021 to break my long hiatus from exercise.

Why You Should Do Burpees

Burpees are a versatile exercise. They are cardio, strength building, and bodyweight exercise all in one. The reason why burpees are the most hated exercise of all time is because of their difficulty level.

A jump, squat, or push-up is a challenge enough, now put them together and you got yourself a real problem. Burpees are a nuisance until you get good at them.

Here are a few benefits of doing this laborious devil’s sprouts exercise.

• Calorie Torching:- Burpees is a HIIT exercise. According to a 2015 study, this vigorous exercise can help you burn fat along the torso and stomach.
• Stronger Core:- All the movement in this exercise contributes towards a stronger core and trunk. But the transition from a plank to a deep squat works the lower abs perfectly.
• Cardio Burn:- Burpees are a great warm-up exercise. The combination of the three best cardio moves makes it a great cardio exercise. You can do this cardio while strengthening your muscles.
• Full Body Workout:- This three-movement exercise works the arms, core, bicep, chest, core, glute, thigh, and lower back. So you can work your whole body with this single exercise.

Learning The Importance Of A Routine

Routines are painstakingly difficult to follow. No matter how easy you make them they are still difficult. They can get boring and stale pretty quickly. But a routine is a necessary evil that you need to follow to develop any new habit.

Routine gives you momentum that helps you stick to the habit. If you don’t schedule a time to perform the new activity then you will not be able to stick to it long enough to convert it into a habit.

Burpees are difficult, more so if you have noodle arms and a weak core, that was definitely the case for me. In the beginning, I used to do two sets of 25 burpees separately while working out.

The real problem came on rest days. The workout-free evening left me with little to no motivation to do the burpees. I procrastinated doing the burpees till midnight. One time I did the burpees after 1 AM.

So, I finally blocked half an hour in the evening to do the burpees. At first, it was difficult but after a week it became easy to follow the routine. I was able to do burpees daily before 6 PM, no matter the rest days.

Time blocking helped me to stop procrastinating by following a routine.

Experience The Power Of Consistency

Burpees contain three prominent bodyweight exercises namely a jump, squat, and push-up. These three movements are plenty challenging on their own, but doing them together in a flow is extremely difficult.

Burpees are the most hated bodyweight exercise because of their difficulty level, they contain four steps that include three moderately difficult movements.

In the first week, it took me twenty minutes to do 50 burpees, which is a lot higher than I expected. I have been working out regularly for more than 5 years now, so I thought I would be able to do them in 10–12 minutes top. But I was of course wrong. It was a real eye-opener, I had no idea I was so unfit.

Push-ups were a real pain. I had terrible upper body strength so I have been avoiding push-ups for a long time. The hardest exercise is the one you need the most.

But with practice, I got better. My push-up form and timing, both improved gradually. On Day 20 I was able to do the whole challenge — 50 burpees in 10 minutes.

After that, I made it my goal to beat this timing and do 50 burpees in under 10 minutes. My personal best is 6 minutes. I am so damn proud of this achievement.

David Goggins advocates that to achieve a high fitness level you should be able to do 100 burpees in under 10 minutes. This is my new goal now.

Motivation Is An Illusion

I have been working out for a long time now. I know the value of exercise. I feel the benefits of a good workout. My muscles feel weak when I take a long break from exercise.

Yet I rarely have the motivation to workout. Most days I want to plop down on the couch and watch Netflix rather than working out. Years of practice have made me dependent on exercise, I need to move my body to feel better both mentally and physically.

I did not have any motivation to do this challenge till day 20. I loathed doing burpees because they were difficult and time-consuming. And I sucked spectacularly. I wanted to skip my workout, just so I wouldn’t have to do the damned burpees.

But then I got better, my form improved and I was able to do a set of 25 burpees in one go. My time was reduced, I was able to do them in less than five minutes. It was wonderful.

Once I got better at it then the motivation hit. When I decided to beat my time, I got excited. I did the burpees first thing in the morning to measure my time.

I had no motivation until I got better. Once I know I was capable of performing this challenge there was no stopping me.

Conclusion

I enjoyed this challenge more than I hated it. It made me realize how much work I need to do to become stronger. Burpee is a great warm-up and strength-building exercise that helped me build a strong core.

The biggest takeaway from this challenge is to always say yes to difficult things. Try to upgrade your performance by doing a challenge that you know will be difficult for you.

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