The One Exercise You'll Never Catch Carrie Underwood Doing

Carrie Underwood has made it clear over the years that she's a beast in the gym. While you'll see her doing all kinds of exercises on her Fit52 app, there's one move you probably won't ever catch her doing: burpees.

Underwood dropped that piece of knowledge in a new interview with CMT's Hot 20 Countdown. "I hate burpees," she said. "I hate burpees so much."

Funnily enough, Underwood said her trainer, Eve Overland "loves" burpees. "She will do the most insane variation of burpees, and I'm just like, 'No,'" shared Underwood, who added a wholehearted "blech" at the end to illustrate just how much she loathes the exercise. (

Truth is, burpees can offer a lot of benefits. The endurance-based move primarily targets the chest, quads, and glutes, but it also works your core and shoulders, essentially challenging your entire body. It's also great for improving your range of motion and cardiovascular output.

But Underwood isn't alone in her distaste for the workout. Celebrity trainer Ben Bruno, for example, previously told Shape that, for the average person, burpees can often be too challenging in terms of strength and mobility, which can potentially (and unnecessarily) increase the risk of injury.

"I think a lot of people equate being tired with having had a good workout. Burpees epitomize that," explained Bruno. "It creates an illusion that you're doing something." But, from his perspective, "if the goal of doing burpees is to get your heart rate up, there are literally a million safer and more effective ways to attain that goal." Instead, he recommended using "pretty much any cardio machine" to get similar results, including a rower, VersaClimber, or stair-climber, along with doing sprints. "If you don't have access to equipment, bodyweight circuits are also an awesome alternative to get your heart rate up," he added. (Here's how to build the perfect circuit training workout.)

As for Underwood, she may not be a fan of burpees, but she told CMT's Hot 20 Countdown that she loves "complex" exercises that work her entire body, such as thrusters, which combine the front squat and overhead press into one motion.

No matter what her workout looks like, though, Underwood said exercise is more of a "mental thing" for her than physical. "If I don't work out for a few days, I'm getting sad, I'm getting moody," she told CMT's Hot 20 Countdown. "My husband will be like, 'You need to go work out,'" she joked.

For a taste of the workouts Underwood really loves, here are five total-body exercises she swears by, according to her trainer.