Burpees and Planks

[afraidoffat]

Burpees
Hey guys! There are so many variations of burpees I was wondering what you guys think is the best one. I also heard they don't add much muscle but give endurance and the cardio is as good as running is this true?

Planks
Since hypertrophy is achieved by more weight less reps how would this relate to planks in order to get better abs?

 

[DeX]

Burpees
They are more of an explosive type movement, so they do get your heart rate up quickly, but to do burpees in place of cardio is not recommended

Planks
Work more of your 'core' which help with protruding abdominals, stabilization of the spine, etc... Get the fat off the abs first... then do more weighted crunches, reverse crunches, russian twists, etc...

 

[ballast]

My favorite variation of the burpee is to implement a heavy medicine ball (I always used a 25ib ball for weighted burpees).Start with the medicine ball at your feet.Drop down for the squat thrust/push-up phase of the burpee and as you come out of the squat, grab the ball before exploding up into the jumping phase (making sure to bring the ball overhead as you explode up).As you come down, drop the ball in front of you and begin your next rep.

As for burpees not adding much muscle, my upper thighs always seemed to add a bit of size when I focus on burpees for a significant amount of time.

Also, from experience, I think they make a great cardio substitute, especially when performed in intervals-a la 30 seconds on/30 seconds off.I did burpee intervals on 3 non-consecutive days per week as a substitute for my roadwork when I trained for amature boxing and my endurance and stamina really improved.I think they are on par with sprints as far as conditioning goes.

Re planks, for added resistance, throw 30-50 pounds of sand in a backpack and strap that on prior to holding the plank position.