The jonpenfold.com Summer Burpee Challenge

Challenge (n) : a call or summons to engage in any contest, as of skill, strength, etc.

Burpee (n) : a full body exercise used in strength training and as an aerobic exercise

Summer (n) : the season between spring and autumn

jonpenfold.com (n) : the most interesting blog on the Internet

The jonpenfold.com Summer Burpee Challenge: How fast can you do 100 burpees?

Last year I did 50,000 pushups. I’m not here to brag about the accomplishment. For one thing, I didn’t really do it for anybody but myself, as I’ve hardly ever mentioned the feat to others until now. For another thing, I’m not really sure if I actually did 50,000, as I found myself quite lazy during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But If I didn’t reach my intended goal, then I came damn close. I got the idea for the 2013 Pushup Challenge as I was watching the news one night and saw a story about Sergeant Enrique Trevino, a United States Marine who in 2012 did a million pushups over the course of the year. If he could do a million, I figured, I could certainly do 50,000.

           And so I did pushups—usually 200 a day, five days a week. I would do sets of 50, some in the morning, some at night, while sneaking others in during work hours (it sure feels good to do pushups while on the clock). And I’m not going to sugarcoat it—it wasn’t easy. But it made me feel healthier, stronger, and more confident than before I began doing the pushups. At certain points during the year, I even thought it would become a lifelong routine. I assumed that I would continue to do 50,000 pushups every year for the rest of my life, or at least until I reached the age of 200. But then Thanksgiving came, with all that great food, and then Christmas, with even more great food, and then New Years, with all that great alcohol, and the pushups stopped. So far, this year, I bet I’ve done less than a thousand. And I know this may sound strange, but I miss doing pushups.

   

So, with summer starting this weekend (Saturday, June 21^st) I have devised a new challenge—The jonpenfold.com Summer Burpee Challenge! It’s quite simple: How fast can you do 100 burpees? Get a stop watch, press start, do 100 burpees, press stop, and record your time. Pretty easy. Well, maybe “easy” isn’t the best word to describe it. Anyway, that’s all there is to it. By the end of the summer, whoever posts the fastest time wins. And don’t get me wrong, I DO NOT intend on this being a contest, it’s just that for some people, a little friendly competition can translate into a great deal of motivation.

           

First thing first—let’s talk burpees. The exercise was named after Royal H. Burpee, an American physiologist who developed the exercise as part of his Ph.D. thesis (seriously, I’m as surprised as you are by this obscure fact). It was popularized during World War II, when the Armed Services adopted it as a way to evaluate fitness levels of incoming recruits. It has caused children to despise their gym teachers ever since. A basic burpee can be performed in four steps (known as the four-count burpee):

          1)      Begin in a standing position

          2)      Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground (count 1)

          3)      Kick your feet back while keeping your arms extended (count 2)

          4)      Immediately return your feet to the squat position (count 3)

          5)      Return to the original standing position (count 4)

Growing up, we called these squat-thrusts, and I know there’s an ongoing debate concerning the difference between the two, but for the sake of this challenge, I think it’s best that we go with the most basic approach. This way, people with low ceilings or weak flooring won’t be excluded. But for those of you who might find a basic burpee too easy, I recommend training with any of its many variations—the pushup burpee, the long-jump burpee, or the high-jump burpee, to name just a few—but remember, for the contest, you need only to time yourself doing the basic burpee.

           

Now that we’ve established what a burpee is, let’s talk strategy. There are so many different ways one can go about this challenge. The simplest way to do it would be to do 100 burpees every day, with the assumption that you’ll get faster throughout the summer—that’s the approach I’m taking. Summer consists of 93 days, so if you stick to this plan, by September 22, you will have done 9,300 burpees, and by that time, you might as well keep going for an even 10,000. Another approach would be to do 1 burpee on the first day, 2 burpees on the second, and so on. Now, on day 92, you will only be up to 92 burpees, so on that last day of summer, you’ll have to jump up by 8 to hit the 100 mark, but by that time it should be piece of cake. Another approach would be to do absolutely nothing all summer but eat cheeseburgers and ice cream and then try to bust out 100 on the last day without throwing up. I do not recommend this strategy, though I hope somebody tries it for the sake of comedy.

            The most rewarding outcome that resulted from the 2013 Pushup Challenge had nothing to do with health, strength, or confidence. In fact, it had nothing to do with my personal well-being at all. What I found most satisfying was that when I mentioned my challenge to others, many of them were eager to give it a shot themselves, and by the end of the year, I knew of at least five others who either accomplished, or came close to, the goal of 50,000 pushups. I’m hoping this summer will have an even greater outcome, with even more people taking up the challenge. And even if it takes you all summer, even if you can only do one burpee each day, and then eight on the last, you will have completed 100 burpees—100 burpees you probably wouldn’t have done otherwise—and I bet you’ll feel better for having done it.

            And for those of you who want this to be a contest: please post your results, updates, strategies, etc. on the comment section below. Summer doesn’t officially start until this Saturday, but I won’t disqualify anyone for getting a head start. There will be a prize for whoever posts the fastest time. And don’t bother cheating, because I can assure you that the prize will have very little to no monetary value. I will be competing, and I know of at least three people out there who should crush my time if they decide to take up the challenge (Full disclosure—I haven’t done a single burpee yet this year). Looking forward to seeing you on the comment board. Ready. Set. Go!