Burpee with Push-up
- Target muscle
- —
- Equipment
- Body weight
- Body part
- Cardio
- Type
- Aerobic
The burpee with push-up is a full-body bodyweight conditioning exercise that drives your heart rate up while engaging the legs, chest, shoulders, and core in one continuous movement. It combines a squat, a push-up, and an explosive jump, making it a staple of high-intensity interval and metabolic conditioning workouts. Because it needs no equipment, it's an efficient way to build cardiovascular endurance and total-body work capacity anywhere.
How to do the Burpee with Push-up
- 1Stand tall with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides.
- 2Bend your knees and place your hands on the floor just outside your feet, keeping your back flat.
- 3Jump or step both feet back to land in a high plank with your body in a straight line from head to heels.
- 4Lower your chest toward the floor by bending your elbows, keeping them tucked at roughly a 45° angle, then press back up to the plank.
- 5Jump or step both feet back up toward your hands, returning to the bottom of the squat.
- 6Drive through your feet and jump straight up, reaching your arms overhead and landing softly with bent knees.
- 7Reset to the starting position and repeat for your target reps or time.
Form tips
- Brace your core throughout so your hips don't sag or pike during the push-up and plank phases.
- Land softly from the jump with bent knees to absorb impact and protect your ankles and knees.
- Control your breathing — exhale on the push-up press and the jump, inhale on the way down — to sustain a steady pace.
- Scale by stepping the feet back and skipping the jump, or drop to your knees for the push-up, until you can keep clean form under fatigue.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips pike up or sag during the push-up, which removes core tension and shifts load away from the chest and shoulders.
- Skipping the full chest-to-floor range on the push-up, which shortchanges the upper-body work the movement is meant to deliver.
- Landing stiff-legged from the jump, which sends impact straight into the knees and ankles instead of absorbing it.
- Rushing reps with rounded form as you fatigue, which raises injury risk and reduces the conditioning benefit of clean, full repetitions.
Frequently asked questions
What muscles does the burpee with push-up work?
It's a full-body conditioning movement: the squat and jump work your legs, the push-up works your chest, shoulders, and triceps, and your core stays braced throughout. Its main benefit is cardiovascular and full-body endurance rather than building one specific muscle.
Is the burpee with push-up good for beginners?
Yes, with scaling. Beginners can step the feet back instead of jumping, perform the push-up from the knees, and skip the overhead jump until they build the strength and conditioning to chain the full movement together.
How many burpees with push-ups should I do?
For conditioning, work in intervals — for example 3 to 5 rounds of 30 to 45 seconds of work, or sets of 8 to 15 reps with short rest. Prioritize clean form over a high count and adjust the volume to your fitness level.
What's a good alternative to the burpee with push-up?
A standard burpee without the push-up is an easier scaling option, while mountain climbers and squat thrusts offer similar bodyweight cardio with less impact. All are full-body conditioning movements that need no equipment.
