The Four Horsemen Burpee

[JoeJustice]

Back in this thread (http://www.transformetrics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348&highlight=intense) we had a discussion of the word "intense"...

Well friends, my Four Horsemen Burpee is my definition of INTENSE! My heart rate hit 200bmp at the end of this sequence! This is the only exercise I've been able to hit 200bpm. Even hill sprinting has only given me 188bpm.

So guys... get yourself psyched up! (http://www.transformetrics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=666) Turn up some heavy metal and give this one a try:

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-Joe

[John Peterson]

Hey Guys,

If any of you has aspirations of either becoming the next movie Tarzan or just sculpting a physique and achieving the kind of strength and conditioning that looks like Tarzan, then I recommend that you work up to five sets of what you just saw Joe perform in this video clip. Seriously, if you trained like that you would not even need interval running for cardio unless it was something that you enjoy. This multi-plane combination of exercises would create maximize functional strength, flexibility, cardio/muscular endurance, balance, coordination, speed, and aesthetics all at once. Bottom line: this is how you gain the maximum in minimum time. If you don't believe me, try it. GREAT JOB JOE!


---John Peterson

[Greg Newton]

I'm impressed. Aside from physical appearance, what about the other six aspects of fitness? You are looking awful lithe in that sequence. What have been some of the other benefits?

[monty]

Joe
You are the man, great job, looks tough!!
Monty

[gruntbrain]

Nice work but I 'm suprised all out sprinting doesn't yield a heartrate greater than your burpees provided

[Hopeful]

Hey Joe:

I remember when the big thing was just doing 10 pull ups. You have really mastered this exercise thing. GREAT JOB.

Mike

[Nathan]

Hey Joe,

Great job man! That is one intense looking exercise my friend. I WILL be giving this one a try tomorrow. But I think I will leave the yelling out. :laugh: :wink: Again my friend awesome job and All the best.

---Nathan

[Andy62]

Joe, Very impressive.

[JoeJustice]

NATE! YOU HAVE TO YELL! LET ME HEAR YOUR WAR CRY! ARRRRGGGHH!!! :soldier:

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the input. And Greg, lithe has never been a word used to describe me before, thanks! :rotfl:

I think John is right; 5 sets of this in good form would probably take right about a minute and a half which would be a perfect cardio interval exercise. This is the core to my January training, I'm working up to 5 sets, I think it'll produce a lot of great results.

Greg, I just started this about a week ago. I was toying around with my "super burpee" and was trying to figure out ways to make it more functional. So I thought, "Why do the same push-up and pull-up every time?" My sled has the push-ups bars, so I set up the two on the outside and that gave me wide, regular and narrow push-ups. Then I had the wide, standard and chin pull-ups. So then I added the hindus and commando and I got the combination that I think works the ENTIRE upperbody (plus a cool name). Why do I say that? Because the next day every muscle north of the belly button was SORE! You also get some major core work with the squat thrusts.

I think you could easily do this with just a pull-up bar, but I would suggest putting tape or something on the floor as targets for you hands to land on, so you get the wide, regular and narrow push-ups in consistently. Also the twist was originally just because my pull-up sled in more stable when I'm inside the structure, but I noticed that that twists does help work the obliques a little.

I think this has benefits beyond cardio because I was sore all over the next day. But I'd say this is probably a "conditioning" exercise, not a muscle building exercise. When I get more of these under my belt and have more time with them, I'll tell you what else I think of them. Right now I just know they're INTENSE! :)

Now, let's set Tom do these on the T's!!!

-Joe

P.S. The heart rate thing is true, and I can't explain it. But the one time I was running hill sprints and got to 190bpm, I threw up. So when I saw my meter hit 200bmps for the first time last week I freaked out! And no upchucking as a bonus! Why? I have no idea. Maybe jut because the stress is more spread out? But that's just a guess. I'd say 200bmp is my max heart rate.

[Big Bear]

Great job Joe!

I love complex,single move workouts like this,they can really wake you up in the morning!The other day I was training a football player and I told him we would just focus on one exercise.He looked at me skeptically-then he ran into the Burpee.Changed his idea of a workout! We will do this one next!

By the way,the name cracked me up-it is perfect for the exercise!

peace,
jason

[gruntbrain]

Moving all 4 limbs in a single exercise complex is one of the foundations of HeavyHands & probably is the best way to perform heartrate training. Of course, as Joe demonstrates this can be done without hand weights

[Nathan]

Hey Joe,

Well like I said I would. I tried the Four Horseman Super Burpee today and on my first attempt I was able to do eight. Well I decided to try them again a few minutes ago and had tail kicked! I was able to do ten but I was so close to throwing up it was unreal :sick: (also just so you know my stomach is still hurting!). So anyway my friend this is one tremendous exercise and thank you for sharing it with us. All the best. :)

---Nathan

[MikeNY]

Joe fantastic fitness! I'd thought the Four Horsemen Super Burpee came from eating Mexican food with too much pepper! Wow I thought this thread was going to be about cooking and fine dinners lol. All kidding aside Joe you did what you set out to do!

[tom]

Great job, Joe. You are proving to be made out of tough stuff.

There is no mystery to the heart-rate question. As I've written before, heart-rate is not heart-rate . . . necessarily. An extreme example is if you go to a scary movie, your heart-rate may go through the roof, but there is no exercise benefit from it.

There are other ways to raise your heart-rate. Hold your breath. That will do it. You will never get to the point of feeling nauseous. You can raise your heart-rate by doing DVRs but it will not be the same as the heart-rate intensity runners talk about.

I could hear from watching the video that you were holding/compressing your breath. That's why you were grunting. That's one of the reasons your heart-rate went so high. I think it was unavoidable. The pull-up part was max strength type of training. It was not at heavy-hands level which, in spite of the name, requires that the hands not be overly heavy.

You probably did not do much breath holding when you did your hill sprints. They were short and intense but not a max strength exercise. You felt nauseous at a heart-rate of 195 not because it was 195 but because of the oxygen debt/lactic build up thing. You could have gotten the same, or even higher, heart-rate without nausea quickly by holding your breath while sprinting. Please don't try it.

Nate got himself nauseous because that little whippet was not as near his max strength as we Clydesdales would be. Also, note that it happened when he tried it again - more oxygen debt/lactic build up.

As Grunt likes to remind us, heart-rate monitors are useful objective markers, but sometimes it's like comparing oranges to oranges, eating and throwing oranges.

Mystery solved. Keep it up, Joe. You have impressed the heck out of me and anyone not impressed will be by the end of this year, or sooner. It's gonna be sweet.

Tom

[gruntbrain]

My usual approach to heartrate training involves much longer, less intense training. Comparing my usual routine to Joe's is an apples to apllesauce comparison - likewise for comparing my idea of heartrate monitoring to breath holding or watching a scary movie

A scaled down version of Joe's burpees could commence a 20 minute nonstop session where the active rest could be marching in place( or squats); alternate burpees & marching sets as a form of interval heartrate training

[JoeJustice]

My usual approach to heartrate training involves much longer, less intense training. Comparing my usual routine to Joe's is an apples to apllesauce comparison - likewise for comparing my idea of heartrate monitoring to breath holding or watching a scary movie


So you're saying my workout is mushier and with added sugar!? :curse:

Hey Tom, thanks for the incredibly informative post! It is greatly appreciated.

I spoke to Nate on the phone the yesterday and suggested that if he was able to get in 10 sets of The Four Horsemen, then instead of doing more sets he should add reps to the movements. Rather than doing one of each push-ups and pull-up he should do two consecutive push-ups and pull-ups through the entire cycle. By doing 5 sets of this sequence you get in 20 push-ups and 20 pull-ups in a short period of time. If you can do 2 consecutive of each you could get in 40 and 40. And if you still have some gas in the tank after that, then just keep adding reps until you max out at 5 sets. I think that could help turn this sequence into more of a bodybuilder than a conditioner.

-Joe

[vegetus25]

Say it ain't so, Joe (said w/ a tear coming to his eye as he observes the black, shiny heavy thingy leaning against the wall)

Veg

p.s. Great work!

[JoeJustice]

Say it ain't so, Joe (said w/ a tear coming to his eye as he observes the black, shiny heavy thingy leaning against the wall)


Black, shiny, heavy thingy... So now we're playing Eye Spy? Hmmm, you're going to have to give me a few more clues.

-Joe

[vegetus25]

it's a mineral, it is round, it is between your dresser and window in the video.

[JoeJustice]

it's a mineral, it is round, it is between your dresser and window in the video.

Ah ah! That's what threw me... That object between the dresser and window is neither shiny, heavy nor mineral. It is however black and round. That object is a polyester bag used to hold a semi-ridged framed, collapsible background used in video production. It expands out to an eight foot tall backdrop, but is folded into a circle and stored in the bag.

I assume you saw the yellow lettering and thought it was a weight plate? Nope. The only weights in my house are the 5 pounders my wife uses for her aerobics. The only weight I heft is my 195 pound body :)

-Joe

[vegetus25]

Joe, thanks for saying it ain't so :)