Photos of this workout have been posted!

This Saturday
May 8th, 2010 at 10am
we invite you to join us for the first group workout under TheBalanced name.

Everyone and anyone is invited! Be prepared to sweat and don’t worry about keeping up with Nathan, he just finished P90x (so he’s kind of a haus all hyped up on crazy fitness.)

The Workout: Burpees

The Goal: 25-up
(see Nathan’s explanation below)

The Location: Shawnee Mission Park. We’ll be meeting in the field just south of Shelter 12, by the water. Dress for warmth, as the water brings a breeze, but be prepared to strip down a little as you’ll start sweating soon enough.
(sidenote: I will be making an @gowalla Event for this, so bring your phone if you play!)

The Tools: Water, towel and a heart rate monitor if you have one. We don’t want anyone passing out on us.

What to expect: Not being able to walk properly afterward. Arms and legs feeling like mush. Enough endorphins flowing through your body to cheer up an army of badgers… Mean ones.

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What is a Burpee: A burpee is a combination move that basically involves a squat, a crunch and a pushup all in one move.

Variations: There are three variations. This video will show you two of the variations, what we will dub Easy and Medium (note: the video opens in a new tab/window).

• Easy: From standing position, squat down, thrust your feet back to plank position, crunch them back in to a squat, stand up to starting position.
• Medium: From standing position, squat down, thrust your feet back to plank position, do a pushup, crunch your feet back in to a squat, then jump up to standing position.
• Hard: From standing position, squat down, thrust your feet back to plank position, do a pushup, crunch your feet back in to a squat, then jump up. During the jump, bring your knees to your chest and then land back down in standing position.

What is a Burpee 25-up? A 25-up is a method of training proposing that a workout get harder as it progresses. Meaning, we’ll start by doing 1 burpee, rest, then 2 burpees, rest, 3 then rest, etc., all the way up to 25. Now, the simple math says, “Wow. That’s a lot.” The drawn out math says, “0_o…that’s 325 burpees!” To be honest, I have no idea if I can do a 25-up. Last Fall I did a 20-up, which is 210 burpees, I believe.

What if i can’t do that many burpees? A 25-up is the goal. Whether we reach it or not is beside the point. This is an opportunity to get outdoors, breath some fresh air, get the blood pumping and push ourselves in a way the body isn’t used to. If you can a 10-up, that’s incredible. If you can a 15-up, even better. Even if you do a 5-up, don’t worry about a thing. That’s 15 more burpees than you did before. That’s a win in our book here at TheBalanced.