Why Everyone Hates Burpees (And Why They’re Still One of the Best Exercises You Can Do)

Mention burpees in a group fitness class and you’ll usually get the same reaction: eye rolls, groans, and at least one person asking if there’s literally anything else they can do.

Burpees might be the most hated exercise in fitness.

They’re uncomfortable. They elevate your heart rate quickly. They challenge your strength, conditioning, coordination, and mental toughness all at once. In other words, they’re hard.

That’s also exactly why they’re effective.

The Problem Isn’t Burpees

Most people don’t actually hate burpees.

They hate what burpees expose.

A set of heavy squats might challenge your legs. A push-up might challenge your upper body. A run might challenge your cardiovascular system.

Burpees challenge all of it simultaneously.

They expose weaknesses in conditioning, mobility, strength, coordination, and recovery. There isn’t much room to hide.

When an exercise forces your body to work as a complete system, it tends to earn a bad reputation.

Why Elite Athletes Still Use Them

Despite the criticism, burpees continue to show up in military training, athletic conditioning programs, combat sports, and high-performance fitness environments.

Why?

Because they’re incredibly efficient.

In a single movement, you’re squatting, bracing your core, supporting your body weight, transitioning through a plank position, and generating power through a jump.

Few exercises deliver as much training stimulus with no equipment and very little space required.

Even The Rock Uses Burpees

If burpees were truly a useless exercise, people like Dwayne Johnson wouldn’t include them in training.

The Rock has frequently incorporated burpees and burpee variations into his conditioning workouts. Not because they’re flashy. Not because they’re fun.

Because they work.

Elite performers don’t keep exercises around because they’re popular. They keep them around because they produce results.

The Real Benefit of Burpees

The biggest benefit of burpees isn’t strength.

It’s not fat loss.

It’s not even conditioning.

It’s work capacity.

Work capacity is your ability to perform hard physical effort repeatedly without falling apart.

Whether you’re carrying groceries, chasing your kids, playing sports, hiking, running, or pushing through a demanding workout, work capacity matters.

Burpees build it fast.

But What About Your Knees?

One criticism of burpees is that they’re too high impact.

Sometimes that’s true.

The mistake isn’t the exercise. The mistake is forcing someone to perform a version they’re not ready for.

A burpee can be modified by:

• Stepping back instead of jumping
• Removing the push-up
• Eliminating the jump
• Elevating the hands on a bench or box
• Slowing the pace to focus on quality movement

Good coaches scale movements to the athlete. They don’t throw out effective exercises because they can be challenging.

Why We Use Them At FitClub

At FitClub Wellesley, we don’t use burpees because they’re trendy.

We use them because they efficiently develop conditioning, coordination, resilience, and full-body fitness.

Are they everyone’s favorite exercise?

Absolutely not.

But some of the most effective things in fitness aren’t the things people enjoy the most.

They’re the things that challenge them enough to create adaptation.

Burpees have survived decades of fitness trends because they continue to deliver results.

The haters may never disappear.

Neither will the burpee.