You can keep your fancy gym membership...I'll take my Burpee.

For as long as I can remember...well more like since junior high football...I've been working out in some sort of capacity. Throughout that time-span, I along with so many others, have been searching for the perfect workout. The one that's going to get me ripped like Brad Pitt, but not require me to throw up my guts or take up 3 hours of my day to do so.

So, with the help of this blog as motivation, the loving support of my wife, and at least 15 minutes every day, I am going to set out on a year long quest to prove the "Burpee" is the greatest full-body workout ever created.

What is a Burpee, you ask?

Pick any of your DVD’s involving the military, and you can bet during the training scenes, the soldiers will be doing Burpees at some point. A Burpee, in simple terms, is a squat thrust. It’s when you go from normal standing position, jump with your hands in the air, come down to a squat position with your hands on the floor, and then kick your legs out behind you.

Now that we’ve got that important bit of information out of the way, the details of this experiment are as follows:

- Receive a full physical in December 2011 to document my current health

- Take a physical fitness test in December 2011 and document my results

- Required to take at least 15 minutes every day to do a Burpee routine (Can and will increase time and reps as we go along)

- Free to choose the specific workout so long as the Burpee is the focal point (i.e. Burpee lunges, Burpee jumps, Burpee pushups, etc...)

- Saturday and Sunday will be designated as rest days / "make-up" days

- No other workouts will be performed throughout the year (running, weightlifting, biking, etc...)

- I will be posting my workouts on a weekly basis as well as anything cool I've read about revolving around health and fitness.

- At the end of 2012, I will again receive a phsyical as well as take a physical fitness test. The results will be documented and compared to the results from the tests taken in Dec. 2011.

With absolutely no cost of a gym membership or weights and less than half the time of normal weightlifting workouts, I hope to show that the Burpee in and of itself, is THE ultimate full body workout. Now obviously I'm not going to bulk up and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger after this, but that's not we're looking for here. I'm looking to help improve the quality of life for people by teaching them a time-tested workout that's both cost-free and easy to do while getting the fitness results they're after.

I look forward to the challenge and hope that this experiment motivates at least a few of you readers.

I'll leave you with the immortal words of Jack LaLanne: "If you want to change somebody, don't preach to them. Set an example and shut up."

Love and Respect,

Drew