The burpee is a high intensity, high impact exercise that is made up of 3 separate moves – a squat thrust, a push up and a jump. It’s an advanced exercise and, due to the high impact and constant switching from being on the floor to a standing position, it requires a good level of skill and attention to technique to do safely. As this is a burpee challenge for beginners, we’ll be doing a version without the push up. Even so, it’s not suitable for complete beginners. You can see some workout plans here that are more suitable for complete beginners.

Intensity level: beginner/intermediate

Benefits: strengthens all muscles and is also a high intensity aerobic exercise

Safety: please read the general safety information here

Warm up: you should warm up your muscles and joints by doing the warm up exercises shown in the exercise instructions section below.

What you need: as the exercise is high impact, you should have training shoes to cushion some of the impact.

Burpee challenge for beginners chart

So that you can build up the stamina and coordination required for the burpee, the challenge is split into 4 phases:

Days 1-6 – mountain climbers and calf raises

To get you started, the first 4 days focus on:

• The mountain climber, which is similar to squat thrusts but a bit easier
• Calf raises, which are a low impact alternative to jumps

For days 5 & 6 the challenge progresses to mountain climbers and jumps.

Days 8-12 – building up strength & stamina with mountain climbers and jumps

Days 14-18 – developing coordination

So far you’ve done all your reps of the mountain climbers, then all your reps of the jumps. Now the challenge switches to doing sets of 2 mountain climbers, followed by a jump. So on day 14 you do this 8 times and work up to doing it 12 times by day 18.

Days 20-30 – burpees!

Finally, we move onto burpees. The mountain climbers are swapped for the squat thrust, resulting in a full burpee.

Instructions for all the exercises, including warm up, are below the chart.

Exercise instructions

Warm up

Do 6 arm circles, 12 lunges and 12 knee lifts before you do the challenge each day.

Challenge exercises

Training effects of the burpee

The burpee is a dynamic compound exercise which engages multiple muscle groups simultaneously while elevating your heart rate and boosting your cardio endurance. This full-body exercise effectively targets both your upper and lower body muscles while also challenging your cardiovascular system.

Muscles used in the burpee are:

• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Glutes
• Calves
• Core muscles
• Shoulders
• Triceps
• Biceps

As well as strengthening all these muscles, burpees also train your cardiovascular system. The continuous movement and high intensity of the exercise elevate your heart rate, increasing blood circulation and improving your overall cardiovascular fitness.

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