The other day I was talking to Erin, one of my beautiful Boston lifting ladies, and she mentioned THE 100 DAY BURPEE CHALLENGE.

Generally I don’t participate in challenges like that because they require you to do the same move day after day after day and I feel like they can interrupt your other training. And they really don’t get you any specific results except that you are moving every single day.

However, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a fun challenge with friends especially since I will be seeing them shortly and we can do a few days of the challenge together.

While challenges like these won’t help you reach weight loss or strength goals, they can occasionally be fun. And shoot, if they get you moving well then by all means, do them! (Just don’t make them the basis of your training program…PLEASE!)

Anyway, when starting this challenge, I began to think about the other burpee variations out there that I use. While I could probably name about 100 variations (including the box jump burpee and the pull up burpee), I’ve chosen five to highlight below that I like to use.

5 Burpee Variations

1. The Modified Burpee – This is a beginning variation of the burpee. To do a modified burpee, stand up nice and tall to start. Then bend over and place your hands on the ground right in front of your feet, which are a few inches apart. Jump your legs back so that you are in a high plank (top of the push up) position. Jump your feet back into your hands, stand up and jump up in the air. The beginner burpee does not include a push up at the bottom. To regress this move further, you can step back into the high plank and then step back forward. You can also remove the jump up at the top and instead just stand up nice and tall and reach your hands overhead.

2. The Full Burpee – This is a full burpee with a push up. To do a full burpee, stand up nice and tall. Then bend over and place your hands on the ground about hip-width apart a slight bit in front and to the side of your feet. Jump your legs back and then perform a push up, dropping your chest to the ground. Push back up to the high plank and then jump your feet back in and come back to standing. Jump as high as you can at the top. If you are going to add in the push up, PERFORM A PERFECT PUSH UP! No worms or butts up in the air during the push up.

3. The Burpee Sit Thru – I like doing this variation without the push up since it allows you to move faster and do more sit thrus. Stand up nice and tall. Bend over and put your hands on the ground and just jump your feet back a little so that you are in a nice crawling position (hands about under shoulders and knees about under your hips). Then perform one sit thru to each side. To perform the sit thru, lift one hand and kick the opposite leg through so that you are basically sitting on the ground. Swing back to the crawl position and repeat on the other side. Then stand up and jump up at the top and repeat.

4. The Slider Burpee – This is your basic burpee just done on sliders. To do the slider burpee, place a slider under each foot. Bend down and put your hands on the ground. Slide your feet back to the high plank position. Perform a push up and then slide them back in and stand up. Do not jump at the top. Just stand up and raise your hands overhead. Repeat. To make the move easier, remove the push up. To make the move harder and a bit slower, perform a push up followed by bringing the knee in to the outside of the same elbow and then another push up followed by the opposite knee. Then slide the feet in and come back to standing.

5. The Beast Mode Burpee – I generally do lower reps with these than I do with the other burpee variations because you are using weights. To do the Beast Mode Burpee, hold a dumbbell in each hand up at your shoulders. Stand with your feet between hip-width and shoulder-width apart. Squat down and then press the weights overhead. After the squat to press, bend over and place the weights in your hands on the ground and jump your feet back into the high plank position. You can then either do a push up and then two plank rows or you can do a push up, row, push up row. Then jump your feet back in and come back to standing. Do not jump up at the end. Just stand up and go back into the squat to press. Please make sure you aren’t lifting the weights back up with your low back as you stand up.

At the top is a video with each of the variations. Thank you Ryan for the music.

Do you use burpees in any of your workouts? If so, what’s your favorite variation?

Have you ever taken on The 100 Day Burpee Challenge?