Tough but Simple & Effective Workout

Those of you that know how I train, both myself and my clients, understand that I try to keep things simple, efficient and effective.

This is not to be confused with EASY and SHORT.  The workouts definitely aren't a walk in the park, and though I try to keep them brief and to the point, that doesn't mean that you can always be in-and-out the door in five minutes.

The truth is, I am just as time-starved and rushed as most of you, so though I love fitness and martial arts training, I need a few quick solution workouts from time to time too.

So today's post is all about one of the difficult yet effective conditioning workouts I use.  It incorporates most of the major movements (push, pull, compound leg and core stabilization, with the exception of rotation...which could easily be added through a twisting motion or woodchop exercise), and it certainly gets your heart pumping as it stimulates some high EPOC ("Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption, aka "afterburn").  In at little as 5-10 minutes, you can complete the equivalent work/caloric expenditure effect of many people's typical hour-long workout sessions.


What Is It
Burpee to Pull Up Combo


What You'll Need
-To complete the whole workout as it's designed you'd need a pull up bar that you can reach by jumping.  Other than that everything else is about your own bodyweight.


How to Do It
-If you've never heard of a burpee before, it's basically where you go from standing to push up position on the ground, complete a single push up, then back up to standing before completing a bodyweight squat jump (just a straight jump up).  I have a video of how to perform a burpee here: Burpee Video
-The jump of the burpee is immediately followed by a pull up as you jump up to the bar and pull yourself up and look over the bar, before dropping back down to repeat the entire process again (for time or number of reps).  You can see a video of the squat jump to pull up here:  Squat Jump to Pull Up Video


How Much to Do (or for how long)
-If you are just a beginner or recently returning from a long hiatus from strenuous training, it would probably be best to take plenty of time for each rep and be more focused on the length of time you keep at it.  That would mean setting a timer for 5 minutes and completing as many reps as you can during the time.  Your goal would be to get more reps completed in the five minute time frame each time you do this workout.

-If you are already relatively fit and have been training pretty hard for a while, then go for 3 sets of 10-20 reps with one minute rest between each set.  Your goal would be to increase gradually up to 20 reps in each set and to decrease the amount of time it takes you to complete this three-set workout.


This is a serious total body exercise that can serve as your all-encompassing workout for the day when you're limited on time but want to keep at it and get maximal results in that brief session.

Be on the lookout for more workouts like this in the weeks to come, and watch for a big announcement in mid-November!

Take care and whatever you do, keep training!!!

Sincerely in Fitness,

Chad R. JohnsonPersonal Trainer (ACE-CPT)
Strength Coach (NSCA-CSCS)
Youth Fitness Specialist (IYCA-YFS)
Martial Arts Instructor (Taekwondo 3rd Degree)