At The Intersection of Tactical Athlete and OG Fitness
Burpees: Useful for tactical athletes, life-saving for OG's
Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine about fitness as we age. Robbin is a long time Crossfit instructor and personal trainer. She is one of the best instructors that I have met[1].
Her opinion of the “big three” exercises for OG’s had a key difference from the “big three” that I published a few months ago. Her big three are squats, deadlifts, and burpees. We will get to the burpees in a minute. I know what you are thinking but being a Crossfit instructor is not the reason she included burpees.
On squats, the reasoning is nearly universal among fitness types. Squats get you out of the chair and off the toilet. Squats are fundamental to human movement. Squats do other good things as well but I covered those in the earlier article.
Deadlifts maintain the strength you need to carry things around. Everyone needs to move something from here to there and deadlifts give you the strength to do that. Deadlifts strengthen your core, your grip, your lower body – deadlifts are great!
It was a surprise to me that burpees made her list but the rationale is sound. Everyone who moves falls eventually and everyone needs to get up from the fall. Burpees get you off the floor when you fall. This is convenient when you are young and it is life-saving when are old.
Burpees are plyometric. Plyometric exercises contract and stretch muscles rapidly which develops power. Doing a burpee requires several rapid movements and those rapid movements develop strength and power.
The difference in strength and power is speed. Strength is force and power is force plus speed. Power is the difference between simply being able to lift a tennis racket over your head (that is strength — albeit not very much) and being able to swing it with enough power to serve the ball over the net. Power makes the difference in picking up a golf club and swinging it fast enough to hit a golf ball a long way.
A minimal level of strength is necessary for life. More is better but a minimal level is necessary. Adding some power is a quantum leap in quality of life.
Burpees help you build power; the power to get up quickly if you fall, the power to hit a tennis ball, the power to crush a golf ball, and more.
For tactical athletes, burpees are essential. Every time you go prone to shoot, you are effectively doing a burpee. Getting into and out of prone requires movements that are basically identical to burpees. If you are a tactical athlete, doing burpees with weight (e.g. a plate carrier) is beneficial.
Add burpees to your regular routine and you will see improvement. If you are going to do burpees, do them correctly. As always, Crossfit is a great resource here. This link ( https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/the-burpee-2 ) has a video that demonstrates the correct technique.
Burpees … they are not just for Crossfitters.
Burpee Joke
This is from the internet – I have no idea who originated this but I have seen it cited many times.
“Olympic lifters hate burpees but they recognize the plyometric benefits so they add them to their workout schedule once a week or so.
Power lifters hate burpees but they are all about power so they add them to their workout schedule at least once a month.
Crossfitters hate burpees, so they do them every day.”
It’s funny because it’s true.
[1] Shoutout to Robbin Bruce for the discussion on fitness as we age. If you have an opportunity to train with Robbin: take it. You will be glad you did. Robbin is a well-known Crossfit instructor in the upstate of South Carolina.
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