[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.]

Today roughly marks my hitting my 80,000th burpee since starting the sidcha in December 2011. After the first month, I wrote “How to begin a workout routine to last: start with joy.” I remember during that first month wondering as I did those early burpees when my body would give out and I’d have to stop, figuring it would be when I was 80 or so. Still, it feels like an accomplishment to approach six digits worth of them.

I’ve come to see doing burpees like brushing my teeth. As far as I can remember, I don’t remember ever missing brushing my teeth before going to sleep—maybe on some drunk occasions in college I may have fallen asleep first but would have brushed them immediately on waking up. That would have been around 1993 at the latest.

I don’t feel any pride for brushing my teeth every day. It’s just a part of basic grooming.

Burpees are harder, but I’m coming to see them as a basic part of life. I wish I had started them, or a similar sidcha earlier, like as a child, like when I started brushing teeth. Well, I can’t change the past and I’m doing them now.

Anyway, the benefits I mentioned in January 2012 still hold:

• Reducing fat from my stomach
• Bigger shoulder and chest muscles
• Jumping out of bed to start the day productively
• Improving form, balance, strength all over body
• Feeling great about my body
• Zero cost
• Less than one minute per day exercising yet effective. About three minutes including setting up and cooling down
• Something fun to share with friends
• Discipline, drive, focus
• Expectation of more success

Actually, they understate the benefits of burpees, while I can’t think of any costs. Certainly not injuries, since I’ve done burpees through injuries from elsewhere in life and they’ve probably reduced injuries elsewhere.

I recommend starting your sidcha today. If you’re not sure what to start with, I recommend burpees!

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