Learn how to love Burpees, the ultimate conditioning exercise
A fit tennis player wants to have a strong, flexible, explosive and well coordinated body with good stamina. If there’s one exercise that would achieve all this, it is a “Burpee”. It works most of the major muscle groups in the body and the cardiovascular system as well. It is used in military, martial arts and almost all sports as an excellent conditioning exercise. And especially in the hot conditions of Los Angeles, you want to become extremely fit.
You are probably familiar with it because you have done it in the elementary school and maybe strongly dislike it to this day. Burpees are hard. They make your legs burn and your chest and shoulders ache, and they make you sweat and breath hard. But they are so good for you!
Burpee – simple and efficient
- From standing position sink down into a squat and put your hands on the ground in front of you.
- With the body weight on your arms, jump back with your feet and keep your body perfectly straight. Engage your core and don’t let your hips sink.
- Perform a push up.
- Jump your feet forward into the squat position and keep your booty low, almost on your heels.
- Leap up as high as possible, and land into the squat position again. Be smooth and light on your feet like a panther.
You should maintain pretty fast pace, about 12-15 burpees in 30 seconds. Strive for maximum height in each jump and lowest possible position in the push-up.
A few minutes of performing Burpees will quickly convince you about the effectiveness of the exercise and that your own bodyweight provides plenty of resistance. Actually, deceivingly all the exercises with your own bodyweight belong to the hardest ones.
Doing a few sets of burpees can be a good warm-up before your tennis practice when you need to wake up your body and get your heart rate and temperature up. Another few variations of burpees:
- Long jumps: instead of jumping high up, you will jump moving forward.
- Push up on one hand.
- Double push up or double jump.
- Get creative with more variations - the possibilities are almost limitless.
Learn how to love burpees, and perform them often. They will condition your entire body: develop your strength, explosive power and anaerobic endurance – and that will certainly help your tennis game.
For more info: ex Ms Natural Olympia Suzanna McGee is an experienced athletic trainer, competitive tennis player and a freelance writer. She lives in Venice Beach, CA and online at www.sixftlion.com
If you liked reading this article, feel free to subscribe with the button above, so you wouldn't miss any future great articles on fitness and injury prevention. Until then, read also tips how to
- Rejuvenate your body in the morning or any time with Sun Salutations.
- Stretch your hips with the Pigeon, Frog, Crocodile Twist, external hip stretch and groin stretch.
- Do the myo-fascial release for your feet, booty, and lower legs.
- Strengthen your legs and booty with lunges, jump squats, windmills, air bench, jumping lunges or one leg squat.
- Strengthen your core with the side plank with leg lift, windmill, plank with arm and leg lifts, plank with hip twists and push up with knee to elbow touch.
- Prevent overuse injuries of your shoulders, wrists and elbows with elbow curls, arm circles, dogs and cats, external rotator strengthening and rotator cuff stretch.
- And if the injury happened and you had a knee surgery, here are exercises for your come back, or how to recover after a sprained ankle.
- Use the beautifully colored kinesio tapes to prevent or heal your injuries.
- Work on your agility, coordination and balance with some fun footwork drills, running the stairs, agility square jumps or one leg squat.
- And because the weather and conditions in Los Angeles are very hot, don’t forget to drink a lot of water, because it will increase your performance and well-being.
- Learn how to sleep well to feel good and increase your performance.
Comments