Man-Maker

For people who think the renegade row isn't enough, there is also this variation:

The Man-Maker - scroll down until you see the pictures.

It combines a burpee, renegade row (itself a combination pushup, row, and plank), and a clean and push press. Pretty much hits your whole body in one go. No, it's not something you can go heavy on, but if you want a short, hard workout, try doing a bunch of these. The article mentions racing to 30 reps. You can also do them for time, just seeing how many good reps you can get in.

Quick Conditioning Finishers

I've been using a few quick-and-easy conditioning "finishers" with my clients. We do them right at the end of a workout, to get in a good hard finish, burn some energy, and hopefully improve their recovery times for next time.

All of these are done either for a given time (usually 60 seconds, with 60 seconds rest) or for timed reps (say, 10-15 reps, aiming to complete the reps in as short a time as possible).

Goblet Squat/Reverse Lunge/Reverse Lunge. Keep the dumbbell in the goblet position for all three. How many triplets can you do in 60 seconds, or how fast can you do 15/15/15? Once that gets easy, up the weight of the dumbbell.

Get-Ups. These can be Turkish Get-Ups, with weight, or just getting down on the floor, touching both shoulders to the mat, and standing back up without any regard for "technique." People already know how to get off the floor, so just let them do that. Do it fast 50 times, alternating sides, and then do it again for another 1-2 more rounds. If 50 is too much, go for time.

Running in Place/Burpees. For half the round, run in place as fast as you can. Then do burpees for the rest of the round (not the pushup kind). If you're into MMA, just sprawl and get back up instead of true burpees.

Mountain Climbers/Tuck Jumps. Same as before, but half/half of mountain climbers and jumps.

That's just a few simple conditioning "finishers" you can do. I'm sure you can come up with more. I just like to keep it simple, so the challenge is finishing hard, not using proper technique while tired.

The Prison Workout

This is an article written for Rutgers University Eskrima (Filipino martial arts).

It concerns the "Prison Workout." It's a simple workout, the burpee ladder.

It's an interesting read and it's got a good description of how to do a burpee. It also shows how you can get fit when you not only have no equipment, but are actively restricted from other forms of conditioning - sprinting, weight training, etc.

Work Out Anywhere

Equipment limitations can sometimes put a crimp in your workout schedule. Here is a simple fix: The Burpee Ladder. All you need is a way to keep track of seconds - a stopwatch, a watch, a cell phone, or something similar will do.

What's a burpee? A squat-thrust with a pushup and a jump. Here is a good video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGljX4bbps



The workout is simple:
Do 1 burpee.
Rest 60 seconds.
Do 2 burpees.
Rest 60 seconds.
Do 3 burpees.
Etc. until you can't get any more burpees. 10 rounds (55 burpees) is pretty good, 15 rounds (120 burpees) is better. 20 is pretty amazing - that's 210 burpees!

The advanced version is "on the minute." Instead of resting for 60 seconds, every minute on the minute do your burpees. Stop when you can't finish your reps before the next minute starts...in which case, just finish the round and stop. In this version:

Start the clock, do 1 burpee,
At 1 minute, do 2 burpees.
At 2 minutes, do 3 burpees.
etc.
As the rounds go on, your work gets longer and your rests get shorter.

That's your workout. No gear needed.