If you knew of an exercise that can turn your body into fat-burning machine, you would be doing it in many, many reps. The much-maligned burpee is a six-count movement that includes a jump, a couple squats, a push-up, a plank and a little bit of torture.

But fitness experts swoon over the sensational benefits of burpees. These are not a modern invention and have actually been around since 1939, when Royal H. Burpee (so burpees are named after the inventor and have nothing to do with burps as one might think) invented the bodyweight movement as a quick, simple way of administering fitness tests and included it in his applied physiology thesis at Columbia University.

The reasons why fitness experts love it so much is that there is no other movement that burns mega fat, makes you stronger, is great for total body conditioning and can be done anywhere.

What on earth is a burpee … and why should you care?

Why everyone finds them scary is that it’s difficult to think of another bodyweight movement as demanding as the burpee. According to an expert, 20 burpees are equal to more than 20 air squats, 20 push-ups and 20 jumping jacks, taking the body through a very full range of motion requiring a lot of oxygen in a short period of time. Just a single burpee requires a ton of movement and places huge demands on cardiovascular fitness.

Burpees make a good conditioning tool because they not only require use of the whole body, but also take the exerciser through multiple planes. Running or walking is either monotonous or slow but burpees make you go up and down increasing the heart rate dramatically (which might also explain why people hate burpees so much).

Okay burpees are hard to do unless you are already an athlete. But intensity is important if you want to be fit. To begin the movement:

1. Bend over or squat down and place your hands on the floor in front of you, just outside of your feet.

2. Jump both feet back so that you’re now in plank position.

3. Drop to a push-up or you can also drop to your knees here, which makes the impending push-up easier.

4. Push up to return to plank position (this can be a strict push-up, a push-up from the knees, or not a push-up at all [i.e. just push yourself up from the ground as you would if you weren’t working out] — your choice).

5. Jump the feet back in toward the hands.

6. Jump into the air, reaching your arms straight overhead. To understand the movement correctly, view a video in Dailymotion.

Now comes the real tough part. Burpee workouts require you do a few. Some challenge you to do a hundred. Mind you, the result of this would be a transformed body and the fitness of Federer. With every rep, you’ll work your arms, chest, quads, glutes, hamstrings and abs. After a few sets of burpees, your legs should feel a little bit like lead. Keep focusing on the fitness rewards.

Let’s get real. If you are a beginner, you could start with say 10 of these. Pace them out and don’t do them fast. Go slow and steady. Pick a pace you can maintain for as many burpees you need to do, and don’t stop. For five to 10 burpees, you can go a little faster. But if you’re doing 50, go slower so that you can maintain a consistent pace. People do challenges of 100 burpees.

They say it is best to be like a robot. Stop obsessing over the number of burpees you have to do. Just keep doing them. Slipping into auto-pilot will keep you from freaking out; so think of completing one movement, then another. Just keep moving and focusing on one movement at a time, and breathe steadily.

Be careful not to arch your back to come out of the burpee, as if doing an upward dog yoga pose. This can lead to an aching lower back. The second fault is losing range of motion.

The chest should touch the floor, not just the belly button or pelvis. The hips need to open up all the way at the top when you jump. Try looking straight ahead as you stand up and jump — this can help you to remember to open your hips.

Burpees make a great warm-up so why not include some in the beginning of your work out. There’s beauty (and sweat) in the idea of a single bodyweight exercise that works tons of muscles while making you cardio-fit — flopping down, pushing up and jumping explosively over and over. In the end, you enjoy this love, hate relationship with this exercise; love it for the fantastic exercise it is and hate it for the way it makes your body work.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 21st, 2014