February Exercise Challenges

Welcome to the #Feburpee exercise challenge, my monthly challenge for February is #FEBURPEE, and yes, you guessed it! It features one of the old-time greats in body weight & functional training, the BURPEE. Commonly unpopular with exercise participants due to its demanding nature and loved by personal trainers due to its excellent full-body activation and effectiveness. If you already know what a burpee is, it likely brings tears to your eyes and for those that don’t, you are in for a treat. This one is a full-body calorie busting exercise you’ll love and hate at the same time.

Luckily for you, February is a short month but it still won’t be easy!

All the monthly challenges we have variations for all fitness and ability levels so do not be put off, our monthly challenges are all about getting you moving on a regular basis. We have the Beginner Burpee for the newbies, the Regular Burpee for a little more intensity and the Full Burpee with a Press Up for the ultimate calorie destruction.

See how you can get started with Burpees with my article on Burpees for Beginners

February Burpee Challenge starts in;

What you’ll need?

You won’t need much at all for this challenge, just yourself and some willpower, you might want a gym mat depending on where you plan on doing the burpees. Indoors, most surfaces will be fine without a mat. Additionally, if you want to time your efforts, grab yourself a Gymboss and you’ll find yourself using it for every HIIT workout.

Scoring the Challenge

The challenge is split into 3 levels for which you can score your progress, you don’t need to keep to one level, You can mix & match and go up or down a level. Each level has a score associated with it, use the free-scoring sheet available for download below to track your progress and tally your total score for the month

You get either 1,2 or 3 points for the target level and either 1, 2 or 3 points for the Burpee variation. That’s a maximum of ‘6’ per day, a minimum of ‘2’ unless you skip a day in which case it would be ‘0’.

e.g, if you choose the LEVEL 2 target guide and the REGULAR BURPEE you will get two points for the targets achieved and two points for the exercise variation for a grand total of four points for the day, simple.

Download Feburpee Scoring Sheet

Feburpe Burpee Challenge Scoring Sheet 79 KB 36 downloads

Scoring sheet for the February BURPEE Challenge   …

Download

Exercise Challenge Design

This challenge is designed as a progressive pyramid training plan. The challenge targets increase steadily before a short drop, raising again above the level previously achieved. This type of training allows for a steady progressive increase in intensity. The chart below shows the target increase throughout the month.

Burpee Challenge Target Guides #Feburpee

Don’t forget to use the Scoring Sheet

The Burpee Exercise and Levels

The burpee is a fundamental compound exercise activating many muscle groups, The exercise combines a Squat, A SQUAT THRUST, a PLANK and an EXPLOSIVE SQUAT (or Squat Jump) into one movement making it extremely dynamic and functional.

If looking at the movement pattern you are unsure of how to safely perform it or have never done much exercise before, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the SQUAT, a push pattern exercise, from here you can progress to the beginner burpee.

Want more ideas? check out my 28 Burpee Variations

Beginner Burpee

To start, adopt a ‘Squat’ stance with feet at about hip-width apart and soft knees, squat down to the floor, placing your hands on the floor in front of you, first take one leg back, then the other so you hold a plank position before bringing one leg back and then the other and push through the floor to return to a standing position.

The most burpees in 24 hours (female) is 12,003 and was achieved by Eva Clarke (Australia) at Dubai Autodrome, in Dubai, UAE, on 10 January 2015.

Guinness Book of Records

Regular Burpee

To start, adopt a ‘Squat’ stance with feet at about hip-width apart and soft knees, squat down to the floor, placing your hands on the floor and hop both feet back to perform a Squat Thrust, that is, a double-hop back to a Plank position. Now hop both feet forwards again bring your knees up towards your chest, now perform an explosive push through the floor to drive yourself into a squat jump making sure your feet leave the floor.

The most burpees in one minute (female) is 40, achieved by Leigh Scott (UK) in Rotherham, UK, on 23 May 2018.

Guinness Book of Records

Full Burpee with Push Up

As with the regular burpee, this time once you get into the plank position you’re going to do a push-up and explosively press out of it to complete the burpee as normal.

The most burpees in one hour (female) is 1,321 and was achieved by Kathryn Beeley (Australia) at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on 27 February 2017.

Guinness Book of Records

Alternative – Chest to Floor Burpee

Chest to Floor Burpee, the above Full Burpee with Push Up can be altered to have the chest touch the floor, it’s a demanding version of the Burpee exercise which is almost identical to the above exercise except you let the chest and body touch the floor before pushing up.

The most chest to ground burpees in one minute (female) is 25, and was achieved by Louise Roberston (Australia) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, on 1 June 2019.

Guinness Book of Records

The most chest to ground burpees in one hour (female) is 709 and was achieved by Louise Robertson (Australia) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 20 October 2018.

Guinness Book of Records

Challenge yourself this February and don’t forget to join in the conversation with hashtag #Feburpee