The Official Compendium of Burpees

Please enjoy this re-post from last year!

BY TRACY

Results from our very sci­en­tific and non-biased poll con­firm that Burpees are the least favorite activ­ity among boot campers.

The Burpee is defined by the Oxford Dic­tio­nary as “a phys­i­cal exer­cise con­sist­ing of a squat thrust made from and end­ing in a stand­ing posi­tion”. Accord­ing to the highly-regarded and rep­utable Wikipedia, the Burpee orig­i­nated “in the 1930s for Amer­i­can psy­chol­o­gist Royal H. Burpee, who devel­oped the Burpee test. Con­sist­ing of a series of the exer­cises per­formed in rapid suc­ces­sion, the test was meant to mea­sure agility and coor­di­na­tion. It is not clear whether the exer­cise itself was invented by Burpee, or if his test merely pop­u­lar­ized it.”

I have com­piled an offi­cial list of var­i­ous Burpee forms:

• The Pain-Free Burpee – if the “burper” (ath­lete per­form­ing the burpee) devel­ops knee or back related pain while per­form­ing the burpee, the burper can do the same num­ber of frog jumps and push-ups.
• The Facil­i­tated Burpee – the burper does not per­form a push-up at the bot­tom of the burpee.
• Dou­ble Burpee – Instead of the burper doing one pushup, they do two in a row to can­cel the drive from land­ing after the jump. This also makes the next jump harder.
• The Sully Burpee (aka the one-armed Burpee) – the burper per­forms the entire exer­cise using only one arm.
• The Mary Ellen and Daniel “Cir­cus” Burpee – dur­ing the act of the kick­ing his/her feet back, prior to the push-up, the burper kicks their feet up as high as pos­si­ble (one at a time). This is a very fluid motion and should only be per­formed by tal­ented and expe­ri­enced burpers.

Do you have any new Burpees ideas? Get your Burpee form added to the offi­cial list by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post!

REFERENCE: Wikipedia​.org
IMAGE CREDIT: <a onclick=“javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/www.cafepress.com/+i_love_burpees_light_tshirt,317919475′);” target=“_blank href=“http://www.cafepress.com/+i_love_burpees_light_tshirt,317919475″>Cafe Press

Core Training > Ab Exercise

Please enjoy this re-posted arti­cle from last year. While the com­ments may be out­dated, the info in the arti­cle is timeless!

BY LAUREN

Think core train­ing involves just a bunch of sit-ups, crunches and bicy­cles? Actu­ally, true core train­ing requires much more than just abdom­i­nal con­di­tion­ing. The abdom­i­nal mus­cles play a very lim­ited and spe­cific role in your over­all core.

Your core actu­ally con­sists of many dif­fer­ent mus­cles that run the entire length of the torso. These mus­cles sta­bi­lize the spine from the pelvis to the neck and shoul­der, and pro­vide a solid foun­da­tion for pow­er­ful move­ments of the arms and legs.

Your strength orig­i­nates from the cen­ter of your body out — never from your limbs alone. The goal of core sta­bil­ity is to main­tain a solid foun­da­tion and trans­fer energy from the cen­ter of the body out to the limbs. The more sta­ble the core, the more pow­er­ful the extrem­i­ties can contract.

In addi­tion to improv­ing your over­all strength, core train­ing has some valu­able side ben­e­fits: First, core train­ing cor­rects pos­tural imbal­ances that can lead to injuries. And, core train­ing is inte­gral in devel­op­ing func­tional fit­ness — that is, fit­ness that is essen­tial to reg­u­lar, daily activities.

What are your favorite core exer­cises? Mine is squats. Share your thoughts by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post.

IMAGE CREDIT & ARTICLE ADAPTED FROM: About​.com: Sports Medicine

Metabolic Rate 101

This is a re-post from March 2010.

POSTED BY DANIEL

Do you wish for those days when you were a kid and could eat what­ever you wanted with out any repercussions?

We often for­get that while we were being those kids and eat­ing what­ever we wanted, we were run­ning loose through the neigh­bor­hood — never to sit still. As we age, our eat­ing habits and activ­ity habits change, and there­fore so do our waistlines.

We can also thank our par­ents for the genet­ics that gov­ern our meta­bolic rate, but with the right under­stand­ing we can com­bat or enhance their genetic gift. The rate at which your body burns energy is made up of three unique parts:

1. Basal Meta­bolic Rate: Basal Meta­bolic Rate is the energy your body burns by sim­ply just being. Your body burns 60 to 70 per­cent of the calo­ries you ingest each day to breath, move blood, grow hair, repair dam­aged cells, etc.
2. Ther­mic Effect of Food: The Ther­mic Effect of Food is the actual caloric cost of digest­ing food and pro­cess­ing it to energy; mean­ing, your body burns about 10 per­cent of the calo­ries you con­sume each day to digest, store, and use food.
3. Activ­ity: When you move, you burn calo­ries! When com­bin­ing your daily rou­tines with a proper exer­cise pro­gram, you can assure that your metab­o­lism will burn about 30 per­cent of your daily calories.

So how do we improve our aging metab­o­lism? Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko of Men’s Health suggests:

• Increase our mus­cle mass: Par­tic­i­pat­ing in a fit­ness pro­gram where we increase our mus­cle mass pro­vides more cel­lu­lar tis­sue for our bod­ies to main­tain, there­fore increas­ing our Basal Meta­bolic Rate.
• Eat through­out the day: Eat­ing more than three meals a day will force our bod­ies to uti­lize the Ther­mic Effect — burn­ing more calo­ries through­out the day and often times caus­ing us to eat less.
• Eat pro­tein with every meal: Eat­ing pro­tein with every meal is impor­tant. Not only is it the fun­da­men­tal build­ing block for cre­at­ing mus­cle tis­sue, it takes more energy for your body to break-down and store pro­tein, there­fore increas­ing the Ther­mic Effect of each meal.
• Keep mov­ing: Increas­ing our activ­ity lev­els by incor­po­rat­ing intense car­dio­vas­cu­lar work­outs three to four times a week will, over time, increase the rate our metab­o­lisms burn calories.

Got any tips for increas­ing your metab­o­lism? Share your thoughts by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post.

Protein: Your Muscle’s Building Blocks

This is a re-post from June 2010. Please enjoy the 22 com­ments from last June… and add your own com­ment today!

BY TRACY

You always hear us say that you need to eat pro­tein with every meal, but have you ever asked your­self why? If you are look­ing for a quick snack it seems that there are always car­bo­hy­drates lay­ing around or hang­ing in the snack machine, but how often can you find a piece of grilled chicken to nib­ble on?

The main rea­son you need pro­tein is because your mus­cles are made up of pro­tein, and to build, main­tain or repair them, you need to eat pro­tein. It is a good source of energy and is con­sid­ered one of the build­ing blocks of your body.

Another rea­son we ask you to eat pro­tein with every meal is because peo­ple who eat foods with high pro­tein feel full longer and expe­ri­ence fewer crav­ings. A daily intake of 1.5 grams of pro­tein per kilo­gram of body weight is con­sid­ered suf­fi­cient, and if you eat meat you are most likely get­ting more than enough pro­tein. If you fol­low a veg­e­tar­ian or vegan diet, you should pay close atten­tion to ensure you are con­sum­ing enough plant pro­tein (and the right kinds!) since most plant foods are lower in pro­tein than ani­mal prod­ucts are.

If you are look­ing for pro­tein in sources other than ani­mal prod­ucts (mean­ing meat) you can get a lit­tle extra pro­tein by eat­ing the following:

• Nuts
• Peanut But­ter
• Greek Yogurt
• Cot­tage Cheese
• Soy
• Legumes such as green lentils, chick­peas and gar­banzo beans
• Eggs

Remem­ber, you don’t need to eat an 8-oz steak every day, just remem­ber to eat a lit­tle bit of pro­tein with every meal or snack.

IMAGE CREDIT: Edupics​.com

Urban Hikes:
Midtown Romp

BY LAUREN

When the weather starts to warm, I get a han­ker­ing for one of my favorite activ­i­ties: hiking.

It’s always nice to find time to enjoy one of the many lovely trails we have avail­able around Atlanta. The quiet, hilly trails through wooded areas pro­vide time to reflect on life and an excel­lent car­dio challenge.

But you don’t always have to get out­side the city to find a great hike. Some of my favorite hikes are the urban hikes that high­light Atlanta’s his­tory and diverse population.

One urban hike that you intown­ers can try out this week­end is the Mid­town Romp. The Mid­town Romp tours the mid­town area of Atlanta, includ­ing the High Museum, Mar­garet Mitchell House, Geor­gia Tech, Pied­mont Park, and the Atlanta Botan­i­cal Gardens.

This hike is a 7 mile loop that begins on Atlanta’s first road, Peachtree Street. It is con­sid­ered an easy hike with very few hills. Aver­age hik­ing time is 7 hours, accord­ing to the hik­ing guide, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles — but it can be com­pleted much faster if you keep a good pace.

You will enjoy the scenery of urban land­scapes, nice, long-distance views of the city from Pied­mont Park and Atlanta Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, and of course, the springy green­scape of Pied­mont Park.

Some of the high­lights of the Mid­town Romp include:

• High Museum
• Wynn Park
• Atlanta Botan­i­cal Gardens
• Mar­garet Mitchell House and Museum
• Fox The­atre
• The Var­sity
• Bobby Dodd Stadium

Take an urban hike this week­end! Get the com­plete Trail Guide for the Mid­town Romp »

Do you know of some fun urban hikes? Share your hik­ing tips by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post.

Author’s note and Trail Guide credit: As a mem­ber of Trails​.com, I have access to Trail Guides for thou­sands of hikes in Geor­gia and beyond. The Trail Guide for the Mid­town Romp is cour­tesy of Trails​.com. If you are inter­ested in explor­ing more hik­ing trails, I highly rec­om­mend Trails​.com for accu­rate and valu­able information.