This has been a fun and busy summer for us. We met up with our friends in Vail, CO., drove twenty six hours to get to Florida and Alex and I checked into a beach resort for a couple of days. We have had a blast this summer traveling and taking in all of the warm weather. Along with our fun, Alex and I had a workout goal that we wanted to meet before the summer was over. We wanted to improve our cardiovascular and muscular strength, so we set out to do some burpees and called it our
end of summer workout goal: 30 days, 10 minutes, burpees AMRAP (as many reps as possible)
It may not sound like much, but it was more about being consistent and trying to push ourselves to improve a little more each day, even if it’s by just one burpee. This was a bit of a relaxed goal because only we really know how much we can push ourselves and it allows for us to listen to our body and make the necessary adjustments (like a longer break or a harder push)
I started off with 100 half burpees to work on building my upper body strength and little by little added full burpees (with the pushup). I was winded and it took me some time to get back on my feet. However, I believe in celebrating every little win, and being able to feel and witness my body getting stronger was definitely a win for me. There’s nothing like leaping as high as you can and then going straight into a pushup to get you all kinds of tired and worn out.
Here’s how to do the perfect burpee (follow the pictures below)
1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, squat down
2. Place hands on the floor and jump your feet back into a plank
3. Drop your body to the floor (with control) for a pushup
4. Push your body back up to a plank position
5. Jump your feet back to a squat
6. Jump up, reaching your hands as high as you can. Make sure you land back softly to protect your knees.
Burpees are the ultimate exercise. They workout your arms, legs, abs and that mama pooch that is so hard to tighten back up after having kids. This is not a long workout. We made it a 10 minute goal, because life with three small kids is busy and most of the time all I have are 10 minutes.
I think planks are one of the best full body workouts. They are killer on my arms, legs and leave me feeling so strong.
It’s not everyday that I get a chance to do burpees beside a cornfield, with hot air balloons in the background. This is Nebraska for you!
