It sounds like a burpee, but it’s actually quite different. With a burpee, you’re never flat on the floor. Burpees, you drop down to a squat, kick your legs out to a push up position, do your pushup with only 4 points of connection to the floor—the hands and feet, and then kick your legs in and jump up. That’s a great exercise, approved by people in prison for fitness training for combat readiness in prison riots, and it is heavily aerobic. My exercise is modified. Basically, mine is lie down quickly, get up quickly.
But be completely laid out before you start to get up. It’s harder than it sounds when you do a bunch of them together.
It kind of simulates getting back up quickly after being knocked down in a fight, or for the elderly, getting up out of bed without slipping a disc. I figure if I keep doing those, I wont grunt when getting out of my car or get trapped on the floor of the bathroom after being unable to elevate myself from the commode. It could be modified to get down and lie on your belly as quickly as possible, then get on your feet as quickly as possible. I haven’t actually tried that yet, just the get on your back version. You rarely see elderly people who can jump up from their chairs or sofas to run out the door. Usually it’s a prolonged struggle, with an uncertain ending. It is terrifying to see my mom try to get up out of a chair. Her physical therapist actually told her for exercise to just sit down and get up, for reps. Id o not think she is practicing.
Aerobic exercise, like cycling or running, I’m not sure will save the day. Getting up is a complex thing with a lot of muscles involved. That’s why I think it might be good to train for it. Burpees will help, definitely, but my exercise will also assist, and is definitely easier than burpees. Id say start with mine, move up to burpees, do both. I get exhausted at 10 burpees. It should be very easy, even for an older person, to get up out of bed, a chair, or even off the floor, IMO. That is my plan, anyway.
