Person
Royal H. Burpee
The man who invented the burpee — a PhD physiologist who just wanted a four-rep fitness test and is now blamed for CrossFit.
Royal H. Burpee was born in 1897, earned a PhD in physiology, and had a father who ran a YMCA in New York City. He developed the burpee as part of his dissertation — one of seven exercises designed to assess physical fitness — and originally called it a squat thrust. The protocol was exactly four reps: squat down, kick legs out to a plank, bring legs back, stand up. No jump, no push-up, no theatrics.
His granddaughter has reportedly said he would roll over in his grave seeing how the exercise is used today.
The US military adopted the move as a fitness assessment, added the jump, and eventually the thing metastasized into what CrossFit coaches now use to break the will of recreational athletes. Jason and Kathy dedicated a full episode to separating Royal’s original invention from what it became — and came away with a “newfound respect” for both the man and his sensible, jump-free test. Jason still has not done a burpee since the episode aired.
First seen in Do Burpees Actually Work? The Evidence Behind the Hated Exercise.