Burpees have a special place in CrossFit and functional fitness. They are simple, equipment-free, brutally effective—and notorious for making even well-trained athletes feel like their lungs are on fire.
If you regularly feel gassed halfway through a set of burpees, that is not a sign of weakness or poor character. It is a predictable physiological response to a movement that taxes almost every major system in the body at once.
This article breaks down exactly why burpees feel so hard and, more importantly, what you can do about it. Each hack is grounded in exercise physiology and supported by scientific research. No gimmicks. No motivational fluff. Just practical, evidence-based strategies you can actually use in training and competition.
By the end, you will understand how to move more efficiently, breathe better, pace smarter, and build the specific fitness qualities that stop burpees from wrecking you.
Why Burpees Gas You Out So Fast
Before fixing the problem, it helps to understand it.
Burpees combine a squat, plank, push-up, and jump into one continuous movement. That means:
• Large muscle mass is working simultaneously
• The heart rate rises extremely fast
• Oxygen demand skyrockets
• Both aerobic and anaerobic systems are heavily taxed
Studies consistently show that exercises involving large muscle groups and full-body movement produce higher oxygen consumption and heart rate responses than isolated movements at the same perceived intensity (Astrand et al., 2003).
Burpees also include rapid transitions from standing to the floor and back again. These position changes increase venous pooling and challenge blood pressure regulation, which further elevates cardiovascular strain (Convertino, 1997).
In short, burpees are not “just conditioning.” They are a perfect storm of metabolic demand, neuromuscular fatigue, and cardiorespiratory stress.
Now let’s look at how to stop them from destroying you.
Hack 1: Fix Your Breathing or You Will Always Redline
Why Breathing Is the First Limiter
Most athletes assume their legs or lungs are the problem during burpees. In reality, poor breathing mechanics often trigger early fatigue.
When breathing becomes shallow and rapid, the body relies more heavily on accessory respiratory muscles in the neck and shoulders. These muscles fatigue quickly and steal blood flow from working limbs, increasing perceived exertion (Harms et al., 1997).
Shallow breathing also reduces alveolar ventilation efficiency, meaning less oxygen is exchanged per breath. That accelerates reliance on anaerobic metabolism and leads to faster lactate accumulation (Wasserman et al., 2012).
The Science of Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing allows greater tidal volume with lower respiratory muscle cost. Research shows that trained breathing patterns reduce oxygen cost of breathing during high-intensity exercise, preserving oxygen delivery to working muscles (Harms & Rosenkranz, 2008).
In functional movements like burpees, this matters more than maximal lung capacity.
How to Apply This to Burpees
Instead of breathing randomly, anchor your breathing to the movement:
• Inhale during the descent to the floor
• Exhale forcefully as you stand and jump
This creates a consistent rhythm and promotes full exhalation, which improves subsequent inhalation depth.
A study on rhythmic breathing during dynamic exercise found improved ventilatory efficiency and reduced perceived exertion compared to uncontrolled breathing (Bernasconi & Kohl, 1993).
Training This Skill
Breathing is trainable.
Low-intensity nasal breathing during aerobic work improves carbon dioxide tolerance and ventilatory efficiency over time (Dallam et al., 2018). While you should not nasal-breathe during maximal burpees, this adaptation improves breathing control under stress.
Hack 2: Slow Down to Go Faster Overall
Why Sprinting Burpees Backfires
The most common mistake in workouts involving burpees is starting too fast.
Burpees spike heart rate rapidly. When intensity exceeds the lactate threshold, fatigue compounds exponentially rather than linearly (Faude et al., 2009). Once above this threshold, recovery during short rest periods becomes incomplete.
That is why athletes who sprint the first 10 burpees often need extended rest by rep 20.
Understanding Energy Systems
Burpees primarily stress the glycolytic system when performed at high speed. This system produces ATP quickly but inefficiently, leading to rapid accumulation of hydrogen ions associated with muscular acidosis (Robergs et al., 2004).
By slightly reducing pace, you shift a greater proportion of energy demand to the aerobic system, which is far more sustainable.
Evidence for Pacing Strategies
Research on self-paced high-intensity exercise shows that even small reductions in initial intensity significantly improve total work output and performance consistency (Abbiss & Laursen, 2008).
In repeated-bout tasks, athletes who adopt conservative pacing outperform those who go all-out early, despite similar peak capacities (Foster et al., 2004).
Practical Pacing Rule
Use the “talk test” early. If you cannot say a short sentence after the first set of burpees, you are going too fast.
In competition-style workouts, aim for a pace you could theoretically hold for at least 30–40 percent longer than the actual workout duration. This keeps you below catastrophic fatigue thresholds.
Hack 3: Improve Strength to Reduce Energy Cost
Strength Makes Conditioning Easier
This seems counterintuitive, but stronger athletes often have better conditioning performance, even in bodyweight movements.
The reason is movement economy.
When relative strength is higher, each rep requires a smaller percentage of maximal force. That reduces motor unit recruitment and metabolic cost per repetition (Behm & Sale, 1993).
Strength and Burpee Efficiency
The push-up and squat components of a burpee rely heavily on upper-body pushing strength and lower-body extensors. Weakness in either area increases time under tension and local muscular fatigue.
Research shows that greater maximal strength improves endurance performance by delaying fatigue onset and reducing oxygen consumption at submaximal workloads (Aagaard & Andersen, 2010).
What the Science Says About Mixed Training
Concurrent training studies show that combining strength and endurance training improves work capacity more than endurance training alone (Wilson et al., 2012).
In CrossFit-style movements, this synergy is especially important because loads are submaximal but repeated at high volume.
Practical Strength Priorities
To make burpees easier:
• Increase push-up and pressing strength
• Improve squat strength and hip extension power
• Build trunk stability to reduce energy leaks
Stronger athletes move more smoothly, waste less energy, and maintain better posture under fatigue.
Hack 4: Clean Up Your Technique to Save Oxygen
Technique Directly Affects Metabolic Cost
Every unnecessary movement costs energy.
Biomechanical inefficiency increases oxygen consumption and accelerates fatigue, even at fixed workloads (Saunders et al., 2004).
Burpees performed with poor technique often include:
• Excessive spinal flexion
• Sloppy foot placement
• Extra steps or shuffles
• Inconsistent movement patterns
Each inefficiency adds up.
Efficient Burpee Mechanics
Key technical cues backed by biomechanical principles:
• Drop straight down, not forward
• Place hands under shoulders to reduce shoulder torque
• Step or hop feet back consistently
• Keep a neutral spine to improve force transfer
Maintaining trunk stiffness improves force transmission between upper and lower body, reducing unnecessary muscular work (Hodges & Richardson, 1997).
The Role of Elastic Energy
Efficient movement also exploits elastic energy storage in tendons and connective tissue.
Research on stretch-shortening cycles shows reduced metabolic cost when elastic recoil is effectively used, especially in jumping movements (Komi, 2000).
A smooth burpee preserves elastic energy during the transition from squat to jump, whereas a jerky movement dissipates it.
Practice Under Low Fatigue
Technique degrades under fatigue. That is unavoidable.
However, practicing technically perfect burpees when fresh improves motor patterns that persist longer under fatigue, as supported by motor learning research (Schmidt & Lee, 2011).
Hack 5: Build the Aerobic Base Everyone Skips
Burpees Are an Aerobic Problem Disguised as Suffering
Despite how they feel, burpees rely heavily on aerobic metabolism, especially in workouts longer than 2–3 minutes.
Oxygen uptake continues to rise throughout repeated burpees, often approaching VO₂max values even at moderate rep speeds (McRae et al., 2012).
Athletes with higher aerobic capacity clear lactate faster, recover more quickly between reps, and maintain output longer (Brooks, 1986).
Why High-Intensity Alone Is Not Enough
Only doing high-intensity interval training improves peak capacity but does not maximize aerobic efficiency or mitochondrial density (Seiler & Tonnessen, 2009).
Low-intensity aerobic training increases capillarization, mitochondrial enzymes, and fat oxidation capacity, all of which improve performance in mixed-modal workouts.
Evidence from Endurance Physiology
Studies consistently show that athletes with larger aerobic bases tolerate repeated high-intensity efforts better than those relying solely on anaerobic conditioning (Laursen & Jenkins, 2002).
This applies directly to burpees in workouts like AMRAPs, chippers, and long metcons.
How to Build the Base Without Losing Power
Aerobic work should be:
• Low to moderate intensity
• Sustainable for 30–60 minutes
• Performed regularly
Zone 2 training improves stroke volume and mitochondrial efficiency without interfering with strength adaptations when programmed correctly (Hickson, 1980).
This does not make you slower. It makes you harder to fatigue.
Putting It All Together
Stopping burpees from gassing you out is not about suffering more. It is about moving better, breathing better, and training smarter.
Each hack works on a different limiter:
• Breathing improves oxygen delivery
• Pacing controls metabolic stress
• Strength lowers relative effort
• Technique reduces wasted energy
• Aerobic fitness supports everything
Neglect one, and the others cannot fully compensate.
Burpees will never feel easy. But with the right approach, they stop feeling catastrophic—and that is the real win.
References
• Aagaard, P. & Andersen, J.L., 2010. Effects of strength training on endurance capacity in top-level endurance athletes. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20(S2), pp.39–47.
• Abbiss, C.R. & Laursen, P.B., 2008. Describing and understanding pacing strategies during athletic competition. Sports Medicine, 38(3), pp.239–252.
• Astrand, P.O., Rodahl, K., Dahl, H.A. & Stromme, S.B., 2003. Textbook of Work Physiology. Champaign: Human Kinetics.
• Behm, D.G. & Sale, D.G., 1993. Intended rather than actual movement velocity determines velocity-specific training response. Journal of Applied Physiology, 74(1), pp.359–368.
• Bernasconi, P. & Kohl, J., 1993. Analysis of coordination between breathing and exercise rhythms in man. Journal of Physiology, 471, pp.693–706.
• Brooks, G.A., 1986. The lactate shuttle during exercise and recovery. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 18(3), pp.360–368.
