Yeah, Yeah, Burpees Are the Worst, and This Celeb Trainer Agrees—Here’s What to Do Instead

Ben Bruno, who regularly works with Chelsea Handler and Kate Upton, recently shared an Instagram post entitled "Why I Don't Like Burpees." It's not because they're challenging, he says. Bruno doesn't let his clients do burpees because, simply put, "the risk isn't worth the reward." (See? My sore muscles were trying to tell me something all along.) While they're frequently recommend as an exercise for beginners, he says jumping straight into burpees—either as part of a group at a bootcamp class or at home—isn't a good idea.

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"Most people lack the requisite strength and mobility to do them properly at all, let alone for high reps, which is how they're programmed since he goal is metabolic conditioning," Bruno says. "Fatigue exacerbates form faults. Those high reps and poor form are a recipe for injury. Strong athletes and advanced trainees with good mobility can probably get away with doing them, but have you ever seen a professional strength coach prescribe burpees? Me neither."

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Bruno says burpees "put undue stress" on certain parts of your body, particularly your wrists, shoulders, knees, and lower back. Instead, he suggest a handful of burpee alternatives, forms of exercise he uses to get the same results safely.

Here's how you can get burpee-level results without the burpees

1. Break burpees down into separate parts

Instead of doing burpees as a full motion, Bruno recommends breaking the exercise down into its constituent parts. "So do push-ups and squats separately in a circuit. Or even squat jumps," he says. Just make sure you do less than 10 jumps per set because "high rep plyos are bad news."

2. Use a cardio machine

Bruno says you can use basically any cardio machine at the gym to achieve similar results—"the bike, ski erg, elliptical, Versa Climber, rower, sleds, StairMaster," he explains.

3. Do some sprints

Not into cardio machines? Then try some sprints. It might be a basic form of exercise—one that Kristen Bell loves, BTW!—but it gets the job done. In the words of Bruno, just do "literally anything else besides burpees" and you'll be just fine.

Here's how to save time at the gym with cardio weightlifting. Or find out how low-intensity cardio is the trainer-approved way to push through a fitness plateau.