6 months, three workout modes, and a back injury: how BurpeePacers happened
Tomorrow I will finish 6 months of following a burpee workout routine — sticking with it, modifying it when it didn't work, and continuing even after I hurt my back.
I started with following a YouTube video and a lot of motivation. That first version had me working out 4 days a week, but I was in constant pain, and the rest periods between sets and exercises were nearly impossible to keep up with. It didn't take long before that plan started working against me instead of for me.
Building something that actually fit
Instead of quitting, I started changing the plan. That's where Navy Seals, 5-Count, and Hybrid mode came from — three different ways to do the same core movement, so the workout could bend around me instead of the other way around.
I've always liked bodyweight training because it keeps things consistent — no equipment to track down, no gym schedule to work around, just showing up and doing the movement. That consistency became the whole point. There's no rush to finish, no need to hit every rep at speed. Follow the plan, go slow, keep proper form, and try your best. That's it.
"Burpees are hard"
I've talked to people who've told me burpees are hard, and they're right — they are. But hard doesn't mean impossible. Following a plan and going step by step made it doable, even through weeks where my back genuinely hurt.
When my back was hurt, I didn't jump back into plank the way the movement is normally done. I stepped one leg back at a time instead. It was slower and it looked nothing like a textbook burpee, but it kept me moving without aggravating the injury — and it meant I never had to break the schedule.
Moving through the levels
I started slow. The first two levels were easy, but every level after that got harder to keep up with. Instead of just pushing through anyway, I'd sometimes take 2 to 4 breaks — the counter shows when to work and when to rest, so I used that. I'd lean on those breaks more on the harder levels, then slowly move up once a level actually felt manageable.
Right now I'm at Elite, and Navy Seals is hard for me at this level. But I felt like I could handle 5-count burpees, so I wanted to try something a bit more challenging and switched to Elite II 5-count. I got through 150 pushups there — but I switched back to Elite afterward, because I knew I wasn't ready for Elite II across the board yet.
I wasn't new to working out
This wasn't someone starting from zero. I'd run a full marathon before, plus plenty of half marathons on top of that.
None of that ever lowered my blood pressure the way this has. None of it gave me this much energy. Burpees, done consistently and with a plan that actually fit me, did something years of distance running didn't.
Lately I hadn't been running much at all. But after doing burpees consistently, I've started feeling like running again — which says something, coming full circle back to where this all started.
What changed in 6 months
I've lost 20 pounds. My blood pressure is lower. I have more energy day to day, and honestly, I feel younger from the inside than I did 6 months ago.
None of that came from a perfect plan followed perfectly. It came from a plan I was willing to keep adjusting until it actually fit my life — and from showing up on the days it would've been easier not to.
No coach, no one pushing me
There was no coach and no one motivating me from the outside. I built the app myself, followed through on it, and I'm going to keep going.