The Ultimate Burpee Variation List

Love them or hate them, burpees are one of the best total body exercises. They are a very demanding exercise, incorporating the entire body while also challenging your cardiovascular fitness. Whether you want to challenge the standard burpee or scale it back, I’ve complied a great list of variations to try for your next workout.  

The Standard Burpee: 

Start in a standing position with feet just outside shoulder width apart. Sit into a squat and lower your hands to the floor in front of you so that they’re just inside your feet. Place your weight into your hands and kick both feet back so you’re in a plank position. Perform a pushup while keeping your body straight and core braced. Jump both feet back up towards your hands so you’re in a squat position again. Stand all the way up to the starting position and jump into the air. That is one full burpee!  

Variations to Try: 

Half-Burpee: Perform the burpee in the same way but take out the pushup.   

Walking Burpee: Just like it sounds you’ll be walking the burpee instead of hopping. Step back to your plank position (with or without the pushup) and walk back up to standing.  

Incline Burpee: Place your hands on a step and perform your burpee. Take out the jumps and perform an incline walking burpee for a low impact option! 

Slam ball Burpee: With a slam ball of your choice, you’ll start this exercise by slamming the ball down to the floor. Jump back and pushup as you normally would, but make sure to grab the slam ball on your way back to standing.  

Bosu Burpees: This is a great option with an extra balance challenge! With the round side of the Bosu down on the floor, perform your standard burpee. Hands should land on the flat side when you jump back into your plank. You can also add onto this exercise by grabbing the Bosu on the way back up to standing and pressing it overhead.  

Tuck Jump Burpee: Instead of a standard jump at the end of your burpee, challenge yourself with a tuck jump instead!  

Broad Jump Burpee: Perform your standard burpee, but instead of jumping straight up into the air, jump forward, covering as much ground as you can. Make sure you land in a squat position to protect your knees. Turn and repeat.  

One-limb Burpees: If you’re looking for the ultimate stability challenge, try performing your standing burpee using only one arm, or one leg. Make sure you try it on both sides! 

With a box jump: Perform your standard burpee, but instead of jumping into the air at the end, jump up onto a box or step. Jump back down and continue.  

Man Maker: Like the title suggests, this is a tough total body variation on the standard burpee. With this version, you’ll be adding dumbbells into the mix. Start with one dumbbell in each hand. Lower dumbbells to the floor and jump back into your plank position, with hands still on the dumbbells. Do one pushup. Return to plank position, and row each dumbbell in towards the body, one at a time. Jump back up to standing and finish with a squat thruster.  

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, I hope this gives you some ideas!