The burpee is a full-body, zero-equipment movement — drop to the floor, chest to the ground, back up, and jump — that works your legs, core, chest, and shoulders in a single rep. This Physical Friday is all about that one movement. If you only ever learned one exercise to carry through boats, lodges, hotel rooms, and everywhere else life takes you off your program, the burpee would be it, and in this episode I cover how to do it, scale it, and program it.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
A burpee is a full-body movement done with zero equipment: from standing, you drop your hands to the floor, kick your feet back to a plank, lower your chest to the ground, push back up, jump your feet back under you, and finish by jumping with your hands overhead. One rep works your legs, hips, core, chest, and shoulders, and it spikes your heart rate fast.
They need no gear and almost no space, which makes them perfect for boats, lodges, hotel rooms, and anywhere travel takes you off your normal program. They also build the kind of full-body conditioning — getting off the deck, moving your own bodyweight, recovering between efforts — that translates directly to long days on the water or in the field.
Start small and consistent rather than heroic. A few sets of five to ten clean reps with rest between them is plenty at first. The movement gets dramatically easier with practice, so focus on smooth mechanics first, then build volume over weeks. Scaling is always allowed: step your feet back instead of jumping, or skip the pushup portion until you are stronger.
Break it into pieces. Step back into the plank instead of jumping, take the pushup to your knees or skip the chest-to-ground portion, and replace the jump with a stand and reach. Every version still gets you down to the floor and back up, which is the heart of the movement, and you can add the harder pieces back as you improve.
Burpees fit almost any format: do them for time, do a set number every minute on the minute, ladder them up or down, or pair them with running like many of the zero-equipment workouts I share on Physical Friday. One movement covers the whole body, so a simple structure like 10 rounds of 10, or max reps in 10 minutes, is a complete workout.
Here is the movement broken into its five positions, the way I describe it in this episode.
I walk through each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
No other single exercise gives you as much for as little. No gear, almost no space, and one rep touches nearly every muscle you own while sending your heart rate through the roof. For the anglers, guides, and hunters who listen to Physical Friday, that combination is the answer to every excuse travel can invent. I make the full case in the episode, so press play in the player above.
It is honest. There is no machine to lean on and no momentum to hide behind — just your bodyweight going down to the floor and back up, over and over. That honesty is exactly why it builds the conditioning that shows up on long days on the water. I talk about how to make peace with the discomfort in the episode above.
Simple structures work best: a set number of rounds for time, a few reps every minute on the minute, or pairing them with short runs the way many of my favorite zero-equipment workouts do. Start with volume you can repeat tomorrow, not a one-day blowout. I share the formats I actually use in the player above.
burpees · bodyweight training · zero-equipment workouts · travel workouts · conditioning · scaling movements · Physical Friday
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the workouts, fitness challenges, and mindset lessons that keep me ready for long days on the water, so guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen can stay strong and stay in the game for life.
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