Tabata Burpee Finisher
I recently completed the Funk Roberts 4 minute tabata burpee workout (I’ve actually done this twice, once after a fitness class where I wanted a bit more burn after.) He gave me the idea during one of his podcasts. The task itself is fairly straight forward – get yourself a tabata timer (there are hundreds of them available for free for your smart phone) and set it for 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds. The burpee movement is as follows:
- From a standing position kick your feet out so you’re in the starting position of a push up
- Bring your feet back up to your arms
- Jump up from your squatted position and throw your arms up in the air
- Repeat
4 minutes doesn’t sound like a long time until you start doing the exercise. It’s especially tough when you’re doing this right after other physical activity. The purpose of the finisher is to not only prep your body but to also prep your mind. You keep going even though you’re exhausted. It teaches mental toughness.
I was talking with my own personal trainer Brian of Practically Fit PDX and he suggested using this type of finisher when actually training for something as opposed to using it all the time for improving cardio. For example, if you are looking to improve your cardio for a competition, start adding in these finishers about a month before your competition. I’m considering using these the next time I start training for a fun run.
The burpee itself is the perfect exercise for both improving strength and cardio. You can use this whenever you want a good bodyweight workout and don’t necessarily have to use it as a finisher. There are a variety of different ways to do the burpee to increase / decrease difficulty. The burpee performed in this video is your standard burpee.
