Burpees, Bullsh*t, and Misunderstood Fitness Standards
Get one thing straight before you comment:
All exercises are made up.
There’s no sacred scroll of correct movements. Someone put a pattern together, said “this works”, and different communities adapted it to fit their goals. Burpees included.
So this is about the chest-to-ground CrossFit burpee, and why it isn’t the crime the internet thinks it is.
The Original Burpee Didn’t Have a Push-Up
If you want to argue about the real burpee, start with the guy it’s named after. Physiologist Royal H. Burpee created it in 1939 as a quick fitness test. His version had 4 counts: squat and put your hands down, jump your feet back to a plank, jump them back in, stand up.
No push-up. No jump. No clap. Those were added later, when the military and then gyms turned his test into a conditioning drill. Burpee himself wasn’t a fan of that. He warned that high reps could be hard on the knees and back.
So if you’re defending the strict push-up burpee as the only legit version, you’re defending a modification of a modification.
The CrossFit Burpee Isn’t Sloppy. It’s Intentional.
The burpee most people learned in gym class looked like this:
- Drop into a tall plank
- Do a full push-up
- Jump your feet back in, often with your knees and ankles in a rough spot if you lacked mobility
- Jump and clap
In CrossFit and similar conditioning training, it looks different on purpose:
- Drop down quickly
- Chest and thighs hit the floor
- Pop back up
- Small jump, clap overhead
That isn’t sloppy. It’s efficient and scalable, and it’s been the standard in CrossFit conditioning for well over a decade.
The goal is repeatable output, not push-up perfection. You’re training your engine, your pacing under fatigue and your ability to hit the ground and get back up, over and over.
Burpee Styles Compared
| Style | What it looks like | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Original (1939) | Squat, feet back to plank, feet in, stand | A quick fitness test |
| Strict burpee | Rigid plank, full push-up, jump | Strength circuits and lower rep work |
| CrossFit burpee | Chest and thighs to the floor, pop up, small jump | High rep conditioning |
| Sprawl | Fast down and up, hips to the floor, no jump | Combat sports |
| Burpee broad jump | Burpee into a forward jump | HYROX |
| Box or over the bar burpee | Burpee, then jump onto a box or over a bar | Competition style conditioning |
Every one of these has a reason to exist.
What Is a Burpee For?
Most critics never ask what the exercise is for. That’s where the bad takes start. In conditioning workouts, burpees:
- Raise your heart rate fast
- Train you to recover between reps
- Reinforce getting to the ground and back up safely
- Need zero equipment
You fall on a hike, get knocked over in a game, slip on ice. Burpees build the capacity to get back up fast, again and again. It’s why they’re worth doing even though everyone hates them.
Strict burpees have value too, especially in strength circuits. They’re just a different movement for a different job.
Why “That’s Not a Real Burpee” Is Wrong
There’s no universal burpee definition, and the history above proves it.
Critics tend to gatekeep based on whatever version they learned first. Your coach in 2007 saying “only chest, toes and hands touch the ground” doesn’t make every other version invalid.
What you see in conditioning workouts isn’t flopping around. It’s a controlled drop built for repeatability and intensity.
The Efficiency Argument
In a workout with dozens or hundreds of reps, a slow, rigid push-up on every burpee is:
- Slower
- Far more tiring for your shoulders and triceps by rep 60
- A different workout from the one that was programmed
If a workout has push-ups and burpees, the coach didn’t want you doing push-ups twice. Forcing strict push-ups into a conditioning burpee changes the training effect and usually makes your movement worse as you tire.
The Guy in Your Comments Section
This is the kind of comment that started this whole thing:
“Hey man, I love your workouts. I just think your burpee form is poor. The body should be rigid, core engaged, like a proper push-up… not flopping on the floor.”
Cool. Respectfully, you’re wrong.
The burpee in that video is a deliberate style. It’s not poor form. It’s the right form for what the session is trying to do, built on thousands of reps and a conditioning first goal.
Want to do yours strict? Go ahead. Just don’t confuse a different standard with a better one. And if you’re the guy who left that comment, try this: 100 burpees your way, timed. Then 100 chest to floor. See which one you’d rather be doing at rep 80.
When the Critics Have a Point
To be fair, the strict crowd isn’t always wrong.
- If the workout calls for strict burpees, or a competition standard does, do strict burpees.
- If you’re belly flopping with no control and your lower back aches afterward, that’s not efficiency. Slow down and lower yourself with your arms.
- If you’re new, learn to get down and up with control before you chase speed.
Chest to floor is a standard, not a license to crash into the ground.
Context Always Wins
This isn’t just about burpees. Movement standards change with context:
- Olympic lifting vs bodybuilding
- Powerlifting vs functional strength
- Rehab vs performance training
Before you critique someone’s form, ask 3 questions. What’s the movement for? What’s the goal of the workout? Who is it for? If you can’t answer those, you’re not in a position to call it wrong.
Final Word
There is no true burpee. Not even the original is the one you think it is.
Doing a strength circuit and want clean reps with strict control? Great, do your push-ups. Hammering through a conditioning workout that calls for speed and repeatability? The chest-to-floor burpee is exactly what you need.
Next time someone tells you a burpee isn’t real, ask what the goal is. If they can’t answer, you already won the argument.
PS: The same people usually have opinions about kipping pull-ups too. ;)
What’s your burpee style? Strict push-up or chest to floor? Ever been form policed on your burpees? Drop your take in the comments.
