100 burpees every day for 30 days. That sounds like fun – said no one ever. BOXROX even wrote a piece a long time ago with the 6 reasons why CrossFit athletes hate burpees. And I cannot blame them. But at the same time, I love them – by the way, I’m not a CrossFit athlete.
Every year I decide to take on a few challenges myself to see what I can and cannot do. Previously, for example, I did the Volumetrics Diet and the Warrior Diet for a month each. I have also trained for my first half-marathon and finished it (and I do not enjoy long runs, I’m more of a soccer kind of guy who sprints every now and then, but not run for more than more than 2 hours non-stop).
And my last fitness challenge from 2023 was to get in shape before Christmas. I was moving a lot and needed to come up with something I could do on my own, without equipment or much space. And that is how I came across the idea of doing 100 burpees every day for 30 days.
Before the Challenge
Maybe you have seen other people doing this challenge online before. I know I have, after all I work for a fitness magazine. However, there was always something that got into my head regarding how these people managed to get 100 burpees in one day.
Take for example the video below from Laurie Shaw and his friend. The very first time they attempt to do the 100 burpees, one manages to get it in 12 minutes and the other one in 10 minutes and 40 seconds.
By the end of 30 days doing the challenge, they shortened their time. From 12 minutes to 7’47’’ and from 10’40’’ to exactly 7 minutes. This seemed a little bit too good to be true.
Then I realised how much in shape Laurie and his friend were. And I was not in that shape at all. So maybe, just maybe, this is the kind of article that people want/need to see. Someone who is not in amazing shape tackling a gruesome fitness challenge.
And that is what you will see in the paragraphs below.
Why Did I Choose Burpees?
First and foremost, because of its ability to burn calories and aid in fat loss. As I mentioned just above, I was not in my greatest shape when I decided to tackle this fitness challenge and that gave me something to look forward to.
Just take a look at the photos of me before I did my first set of burpees.
As you can see, my belly screams “not healthy,” while I also do not have any muscle definition in my front upper body. My legs have always been kind of skinny and my arms are toned, but not strong. So my biggest motivation was to get in shape and lose a few kilos in the process.
however, I did not have a scale with me when I started the experiment, so I cannot tell you how much weight I lost during the challenge.
But you will see later the before and after photos, which I know is jaw-dropping.
And there are more reasons why I chose burpees for my fitness challenge. As I said it earlier, I needed an exercise that I could do anywhere without the need of equipment or much space, as I was moving a lot from house to house at the time.
Burpees are also a great full-body exercise that will test your lung capacity and endurance – something I know I’m bad at, so another thing to improve while “having fun” during the challenge.
Overall, the simplicity of the burpee, and its effectiveness on the body to build muscle and lose fat, made it a clear choice for it to be in my training routine for the following month.
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100 Burpees Every Day for 30 Days Challenge
And so I decided on November 6th to begin my burpee fitness challenge. Before we dive into it, there are many burpees variations, one more gruesome than the other.
But there is also not a clear way of doing the traditional burpee. I decided on the “CrossFit-style” burpee, known as the chest-to-ground burpee. In this one, you don’t do a push-up, but rather throw your body on the ground and jump back up – and yes, I chose this one so that I didn’t have to do 100 push-ups during this fitness challenge as well, which I know I cannot do.
From the video above, the only thing I didn’t do was clapping above my head. I did jump, but without clapping, which, honestly, I don’t think it makes that much of a difference.
Day 1… sort of
And so November 6th arrived for me to try the 100 burpees for the first time. But I needed some guidance on what was a good time for 100 burpees – I had no idea.
And so I stumbled across a website called 12 Minute Athlete that explained how long it should take for someone to complete 100 burpees depending on their fitness level. This is what it said:
- 12+ minutes: You’re an athlete in training!
- 10-12 minutes: You’re an athlete!
- 8-10 minutes: You’re a super athlete!
- 6-8 minutes: You’re a total badass!
- 4-6 minutes: You’re the ultimate badass!
With that in mind, did I go for 12 minutes? No, I decided to give myself some room for error and figured that my maximum time should be 15 minutes. And so I tried my first 100 burpees on November 6th 2023.
and I failed… miserably
My first day doing the 100 burpees every day for 30 days challenge finished with me doing only 70 burpees.
It took me 7 minutes to get 50 burpees. So, using math and knowing I was getting extremely tired, it would take me longer than 15 minutes to complete 100 burpees that day. After a few minutes off, I managed to get another 20 burpees, totalling 70, but I stopped the clock when it hit 15 minutes and decided to just try to see how far I could push myself.
Turns out, if you are not in shape and haven’t done much exercising in the past few months, jumping straight to 100 burpees in one day is simply impossible. So I had to postpone my day 1 of the fitness challenge.
Day 1… for real now
November 7th. I knew I couldn’t make the 100 burpees in one go to see how much I would improve from day 1 to day 30. So I came up with a plan to at least do 100 burpees in the space of the day.
- 30 burpees in the morning
- 60 in the afternoon
- 10 before bed
Yes, I was sore. I was lying in bed and my abs were on fire like I’ve never felt them before. And I thought this was a cardio exercise, not an abs exercise. But I got my first day done.
Following Days
On the second day I woke up and could barely move, such intense the workout the day before was. My abs were screaming for help. But I wanted to get through 100 burpees. And how many did I get? 10.
Yes, on the second day I managed only 10 burpees. I knew I couldn’t go through without risking injury or simply doing the burpees wrong, so I didn’t do them at all.
However, day 2 became November 9th and I managed to get 20 burpees in the morning as soon as I woke up, 50 before lunch and 30 before bed, giving me a bit more time to relax during the day.
The next 3 days I couldn’t do burpees at all. I had a split shin, couldn’t walk without feeling pain in my legs, and I travelled around as well. My energy levels were also very low, so I figured some time off could be helpful – recovery is incredibly necessary.
How It Went Down After a Break
Day 2 was November 9th and my 3rd day was November 13th. Yes. I know. This article should not have been named 100 burpees every day for 30 days. After all, I haven’t been able to do them every day and this will definitely take longer than 30 days in the end.
Nevertheless, I pushed through, which is something to learn from as well. Just because you didn’t do your daily fitness challenge one day, you should not look at it as a fail. Gather your thoughts and tackle them the following day. This is the mentality that will get you through those difficult moments.
On day 3 I finished 50 burpees in 5 minutes and 30 seconds, so a minute and a half faster than the first time I tried. In the evening, I did the remaining 50 burpees in 7 minutes, which made me realise I was already getting better at this.
I slowly began trying to do more burpees in one single set. I usually would do them in EMOM style (every minute on the minute), meaning I would do 10 burpees with a running clock and rest as much as I had until the full minute finished.
Day 5 was the first time I actually did 100 burpees with a running clock – all during the morning. It took me a little bit less than 15 minutes to finish them, the magical number I had set in my head the first time I attempted to do burpees. Note: there was a cat in the house that got in my way around minute 11, so I’m sure I rested longer than I should or needed so my timing could have been better.
From that moment on, I decided to continue splitting my burpees throughout the day – morning, afternoon, and evening. My main goal was to actually do 100 burpees in the day and not tire myself out so much that I wouldn’t be able to do them the next time.
Final Days
As a reference, the days I actually managed to do 100 burpees in one go were:
- Days 9, 11, 14, 19, 23, 25, 27.
In the last few days, I decided not to go for 100 burpees in one set to be rested enough and time my final day. And so it had arrived, the gruesome day 30 of my burpee challenge. You should know it took me close to two months to be able to finish this challenge – this was mainly due to my lack of physical endurance and because of social life and traveling around too much.
On the final day, with no distractions, I put on the timer and began my final 100 burpees. This time, I went all out. It was the final push and I maintained some form of strategy (still resting every minute or so), but went faster during the burpee movement and my rests were shorter.
Did I die? Almost, yes. When you are competing with yourself, you want to prove that you got better and that you will be able to see results. And boy, did I see results.
Time it took me to do burpees:
- Day 5 (first time) – 15 minutes
- Day 30 – 9 minutes 58 seconds
My personal goal was to do it in under 10 minutes. For someone who is not in shape, this is a huge morale boost. Remember that graph about how long it takes you to do 100 burpees I used earlier in the article? Well, now, according to that table, I am a “super athlete” because I did it in the 8-10 minute bracket.
What about before and after photos? How much did it change? This is where it shocked me. As I said before, I didn’t have a scale with me in the beginning so I have no way to tell you exactly what my weight was.
What I can tell you is that I was normally around 93 to 95 kilos (205 to 209 pounds). When I finished the last burpee, I did have a scale with me lying around. And the number shown was 90 kilos (198 pounds).
I didn’t change anything in my diet on purpose to see the results of only doing burpees every day.
Don’t believe me? Check out the photos of before and after. It is astonishing. The place and lighting of the photos are not the same – I know – but like I said earlier, I was moving around a lot and I went from staying in Portugal to Germany during this fitness challenge.
Conclusion
So, what are my thoughts after doing the 100 burpees every day for 30 days fitness challenge? First, is that you should try it yourself.
If you don’t like burpees, then you should try anything else as a fitness challenge. Squats, push-ups, running, walking, swimming, rope skipping, really ANYTHING!
Of course, one thing you should always keep in mind is how your body is reacting to what you are doing. Listen to your body’s signals. I know I did. When it was too difficult to even move one day, I decided not to do burpees. If I did burpees that day, the chances of risking an injury would be much bigger – and if you get injured during your fitness challenge, it can be incredibly demotivating and might even make you quit on the challenge altogether.
you should learn the difference between pushing through the pain and risking getting injured when working out.
A fitness challenge always had the same impact on me during and after I completed it. A sense of pride and joy that is overwhelming. I felt the same thing after my half-marathon and now with 100 burpees.
It is also nice to have someone who knows about your challenge and who supports you. That would be my wife who, while doing home office, would see me going to the floor and jumping up and down in the living room for 30 days.
In the end, the most important part of doing a fitness challenge – be it burpees or anything else – for a longer period of time is consistency. When you learn to be consistent with your workout, and you get to see the results later – it forces you to understand that this is, perhaps, the most important thing about getting fitter: you need to do it every day. It doesn’t have to be much, but a little every day is what transforms people’s health and bodies.
So, please, go find yourself a fitness challenge you can try, stick with it, don’t be afraid of missing a few days (I know I missed them more than I wanted to), and rejoice in the results after it. And once you’re done, maybe look for another challenge? I know what I have in mind now – to learn to do handstand and pistol squats.
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