What are the two Sacred Movements of the Busy Dad Program?

The two Sacred Movements are the 6-count military burpee and the Navy Seal burpee. Both are variations of the American military burpee. BDP practitioners train these two movements and very little else.

What is a 6-count military burpee?

The 6-count military burpee is a six-part compound movement that recruits every major muscle group. The core is engaged throughout. The legs and posterior chain work hardest at counts 1–2 and 5–6, and the upper body — chest, shoulders, triceps — takes over at counts 3–4. The 6-count excels at building leg strength and cardiovascular fitness.

What is a Navy Seal burpee?

The Navy Seal burpee is a 10-count compound movement. Counts 1–2 and 9–10 are leg work; counts 3–8 are an upper-body sequence where the core, chest, shoulders, triceps, scapula, traps, and lats work together. No bodyweight movement builds upper-body strength and mass like the Navy Seal.

How is the American military burpee different from a CrossFit burpee?

The American military burpee has very little in common with the more familiar burpee popularised by CrossFit. Until recently it was a niche movement largely confined to the US military and prison culture. The Sacred Movements of BDP — the 6-count and the Navy Seal — are the two most effective variations of the American military burpee.

How should I split my training time between the two movements?

On a standard week of BDP, the 80-minute weekly training budget is split evenly: 40 minutes of 6-count training and 40 minutes of Navy Seal training, ideally across four 20-minute sessions.

The Program

The Two Sacred Burpee Movements

Two movements. Eighty minutes a week.

The Sacred Movements sit outside mainstream fitness culture. They evolved in high-demand military training environments where conditioning had to be simple, repeatable, and effective without equipment or complexity. Over time, they became a quiet staple in places where performance was the only metric that mattered.

These are not the burpees you'll recognise from modern gym classes or CrossFit workouts. These are burpees like you've never seen them: elegant, stripped of excess, and designed to build real capacity in minimal time. No noise. No flair. Just movements that deliver.

Busy Dad · Max Edwards

Sacred Movement · Primary · 1 of 2

The 6-Count Burpee

The 6-count is a six-part compound movement that trains the body as an integrated system. From first count to last, the core stays engaged. The legs and posterior chain drive the opening and close. Between them, the upper body takes its turn.

Simple in structure. Demanding in practice.

The 6-count builds full-body strength and conditioning, but its real distinction is lower-body endurance and cardiovascular capacity. Performed consistently, it develops work capacity quickly and efficiently.

This is one of the most effective tools we know for building real-world fitness.

6-counts build engines.

Tutorial

YouTube 6-Count Tutorial Video →

Sacred Movement · Primary · 2 of 2

The Navy SEAL Burpee

The Navy SEAL is the more advanced of the two Sacred Movements.

Built across ten counts, it places greater technical and muscular demands on the body. Like the 6-count, it begins and ends with the legs. Between those points, the upper body does the work. Chest, shoulders, triceps, back, and core are forced to coordinate under sustained tension.

The result is unusual for bodyweight training: serious upper-body strength and muscle development, paired with substantial conditioning demand.

Where the 6-count excels at building the engine, the Navy Seal builds the frame.

For upper-body development, few bodyweight movements come close.

Navy Seals build armour.

Tutorial

YouTube Navy Seal Tutorial Video →

“Recall our strict 80-minute training budget. On a standard week of BDP, you will allot 40 minutes to your 6-count training and 40 minutes to your Navy Seal training.”

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