I have my reasons: (1) I find them to be much easier than pull-ups, which I hate; (2) I'm (BRAG ALERT) actually pretty decent at chin-ups; and (3) when we practice chin-ups in the strength/skills portion of our CrossFit class, it's highly unlikely that we'll have to do any pull-ups during the metcon.
But after doing a bunch of weighted chin-ups, we still had a WOD to finish:
AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 12 minutes:
- 5 Ground-to-Overhead Lifts (I opted for squat cleans followed by push-presses)
- 10 Burpees
- 15 Plyo Box Jumps
I always assumed "Burpees" were so named because it made people want to expel stuff from deep inside them (and "Barfees" doesn't have quite the same ring to it), but it turns out that they were actually named after...somebody.
According to some, the exercise was likely named after Lieutenant Thomas Burpee, a Revolutionary War-era officer in the New Hampshire Militia who had "the innate Burpee fondness for martial exercises." It's speculated that he introduced Burpees as a fitness and conditioning (and disciplinary) tool for the troops he commanded.
The Oxford English Dictionary, however, traces the origin of the word to Royal H. Burpee, an American psychologist who developed the "Burpee Test" in the 1930s and 40s to measure physical agility and coordination.
Regardless, I hate 'em.
