When it comes to fitness challenges, 100 burpees a day is pretty brutal. I did 15 burpees a day for a week once and learned that they don’t get any easier, but they do work your body pretty damn hard. Like those of us here on the Tom’s Guide fitness desk, YouTuber Laurie Shaw is no stranger to a workout challenge, but he recently added 100 burpees a day to his routine when traveling, and his results are pretty astounding.
The Australian YouTuber explained that while traveling, he was looking for a way to stay in shape without being able to access a gym regularly, and the burpee ticked his boxes. This bodyweight move targets every major muscle group in your body, including your chest, arms, shoulders, core, legs, and back. The exercise could help build power, muscle, and strength and burn calories as part of a regular exercise regime, but what happens to your body if you do 100 burpees a day for 30 days? Read on to find out.
As a reminder, what works for Shaw might not be right for you and your body. 100 reps of anything is a lot, and if you’re new to exercise, or you’re returning to exercise following an injury or a pregnancy, we definitely wouldn’t recommend jumping in with 100 reps a day. Instead, maybe start with five reps and add one a day. Always check with a personal trainer beforehand to ensure you’re moving with the correct form.
How to do a burpee
Let’s start by looking at how to do a burpee with the correct form:
- Start standing with your feet hip-width or shoulder-width apart
- Place your hands on the ground, then jump both feet back into a high plank position
- Lower your chest to the floor into a bodyweight push-up
- Explosively push the ground away and straighten your arms, lifting your hips and chest as one unit. Try to avoid arching your lower back
- Jump your feet forward just behind your arms, then explode back to standing, raising your arms above your head and jumping into the air.
Read more about the benefits of burpees, and the variations to try here on Tom’s Guide.
This guy did 100 burpees a day for 30 days — here’s what happened to his body
So, what happened when Shaw (along with his friend) did 100 burpees a day for 30 days? Firstly, the YouTuber documented his daily burpees, and you can watch him find the challenge as mentally challenging as he did physically.
He noted that he didn’t notice improvement every single day — some days were slower than others, “day to day, the actual difference in progress wasn't so noticeable, and in that way, it became more of a mental game”, he said.
Shaw also noted that the physical reps themselves didn’t get any easier. As he got faster and stronger, he simply pushed himself harder, so 100 burpees never felt like a walk in the park. Shaw’s third takeaway was that consistency is key — making something part of your daily routine and not skipping a day makes it easier to stick to.
But what about the results? Shaw measured his improvement by how long the burpees took him each day, how they changed his physical appearance, and what happened to his weight. Firstly, he got fitter — on day one, 100 burpees took Shaw 10 minutes and 40 seconds, but by day 30, he completed 100 reps in seven minutes.
Secondly, you could definitely notice more muscle definition after 30 days of 100 burpees, and he’d lost 2.6 pounds in weight.
If you are looking to build visible muscle using just your body weight, increasing the number of reps you perform and decreasing your rest time can help you get results. That said, rest days are also important, as this is when your muscles repair and recover, so be sure to work those into your normal workout routine too.
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