Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Medium

Sixty burpees for time represents moderate volume of a fundamental bodyweight movement with continuous effort. The average athlete will complete this in 4-6 minutes of unbroken work, creating significant cardiovascular and muscular fatigue. However, there's no technical skill requirement, heavy loading, or extreme volume that would elevate it beyond Medium. Most CrossFitters can complete this as prescribed without scaling, though it will be uncomfortable. The single-movement structure is straightforward suffering without additional complexity.

Benchmark Times for Burpee McBurperson

• Elite: <3:15
• Advanced: 3:45-4:15
• Intermediate: 4:45-5:30
• Beginner: >10:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): Sixty repetitions of a full-body movement taxes chest, shoulder, and leg muscular endurance substantially as fatigue accumulates throughout.
• Speed (8/10): Sprint-pace effort requires rapid cycling, quick transitions, and minimal rest to achieve best time; efficiency and pace critical.
• Endurance (7/10): High heart rate demand sustained for 3-6 minutes creates significant cardiovascular stress, though duration is too short for pure aerobic testing.
• Power (4/10): Each burpee includes an explosive jump component, though power output degrades significantly as fatigue sets in during the workout.
• Flexibility (2/10): Basic mobility needed for ground-to-standing transitions and overhead reach at jump; no extreme range of motion demands.
• Strength (1/10): Purely bodyweight movement with no external loading; minimal maximal strength requirement beyond basic body control.

Movements

• Burpee

Scaling Options

Reduce volume to 40-50 burpees if new to CrossFit. Substitute step-back burpees (no jump at top) or elevated-hand burpees on box/bench for shoulder or wrist issues. For deconditioned athletes, scale to 30 burpees or partition into 3 rounds of 20 with 1-minute rest. Can also substitute 60 goblet squats + 60 push-ups to train similar volume with reduced intensity.

Scaling Explanation

Scale if you cannot perform 10 consecutive quality burpees with chest-to-deck and full hip extension. Priority is maintaining movement integrity and sustainable pace over completing Rx volume. Target 6-10 minutes regardless of scaling - if projected time exceeds 12 minutes, reduce reps. Scale to preserve the glycolytic stimulus rather than turning this into a long, grinding grind fest. Better to do 40 quality burpees in 6 minutes than 60 ugly ones in 15.

Intended Stimulus

Moderate-duration glycolytic sprint lasting 4-8 minutes for most athletes. Tests ability to sustain high work capacity under cumulative fatigue with a simple, repeatable movement. Primary challenge is mental toughness and pacing discipline as metabolic distress accumulates. This develops anaerobic endurance and teaches athletes to maintain output when uncomfortable.

Coach Insight

Start conservatively - the first 20 feel easy but fatigue accumulates quickly. Break early into manageable sets (15-15-15-15 or 10-10-10-10-10-10) rather than grinding to failure. Focus on rhythm: chest touches ground, aggressive hip extension at top, controlled breathing pattern. Avoid rushing through sloppy reps - quality deteriorates fast. Most athletes blow up between reps 30-40 if they start too hot. Keep transitions tight but don't skip breathing breaks. A steady 6-8 burpees per minute pace beats erratic sprinting and resting.

Benchmark Notes

Primary limiters are cardiovascular endurance and hip flexor/core stamina under sustained bodyweight effort. L1 (11:00) reflects beginners needing frequent breaks and slower cadence (~5-6 burpees/min). L5 (6:00) represents a median CrossFitter maintaining steady 10/min pace with brief breaks. L10 (3:00) is elite Games-level athletes sustaining 20/min with minimal fatigue and efficient transitions. Burpees don't scale well with small breaks—the lactate accumulation and breathing pattern breakdown hit hard after rep 30-40, so pacing discipline separates levels more than raw speed.

Modality Profile

Burpee is a bodyweight movement combining a push-up, squat, and jump, making it purely Gymnastics modality.