Illustration by Gabriela Serrano

Today is World Burpee Day, and even though we’re pretty sure this is just a marketing stunt, we’re curious: what’s your relationship with the dreaded burpee? How many can you do? How many do you want to do, if that number is not zero?


Personally, I can do ten. I did them just now, the kind with a push-up at the bottom and a jump at the top. On the tenth rep, my legs said no more, so I took a break. I may never return. Burpees are hard.

To be clear, there are many ways to do burpees, and many arguments to be had over which is the “right” way. Here is one of the more common versions:


Get down into a plank position. Do a push-up (optional?) Stand up. Jump!

Repeat this until you feel like you want to die. When my kids are being rambunctious, I will sometimes tell them to do burpees to burn off energy. There, the instruction is “put your belly on the floor, then jump in the air.” After a few of those, they’re too out of breath to whine.