The full-body exercise combining a squat, a plank, and a jump is called a burpee.
The exercise is named for American physiologist Royal Huddleston Burpee Sr., who developed the original movement in 1939 as part of a quick fitness test. His version was a four-count sequence: squat down, extend the feet into a plank, return to the squat, and stand. The original test did not necessarily include the dramatic jump commonly added in modern workouts.
Today’s standard burpee often includes a jump at the end, and many versions add a push-up while the body is in the plank position. Because gyms and military programs use different standards, “burpee” can describe several related movements rather than one perfectly uniform routine.
The exercise became especially well known through military fitness testing. During World War II, the U.S. Army used burpees to assess recruits’ conditioning. A burpee combines repeated changes in body position with rapid leg and hip extension, making it demanding for strength, coordination, and cardiovascular endurance. It is sometimes confused with a squat thrust, but a squat thrust is the plank-transition portion without all the additional elements of a typical burpee.