North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
When I look at a barbell burpee, I don't understand what it's training you for:
I mean, yeah, it's a good workout and taxing exercise, but is it training for anything?
- It's not explosive enough to really help power production (as opposed to a power clean)
- It's too many reps, done at too fast tempo, to allow good technique
- It's not heavy enough to act as a strength building exercise
To me, that falls into the Crossfit style 'metcon' of exercise.
Yes and no. It is a tool to improve non specific strength endurance. Yes if you string it out AMRAP it would be more of a CF metcon, or as I mentioned if you tweak the active/rest periods it becomes more of a strength conditioning movement. As such it doesn't interfere with other barbell specific competitive lifts. Same with the Thrusters. This would not be the bulk of one's training with possible exception of a weight loss goal.
Once you start talking about competitive lifting is tough to come up with alternative uses for the barbell to build conditioning strength that might not interfere with the primary goal. But end of day its just another form of resistance and you can change the load and pacing to do whatever you need it to do, if you're looking to build less specific strength endurance.
I would agree it is a bad idea for barbell athletes to use it in this manner. For anyone else it would work fine.