Children and teens from Carbon County are answering the call of Lehighton's CrossFit TC Unplugged to get fit, get active, and take part in CrossFit's biggest yearly challenge: the third annual Royal Burpee Challenge.

A "burpee," named after Royal H. Burpee of Easton, combines a squat, push-up and jump into one smooth movement. Squat, kick out into push-up form, and then jump as high as possible. This was Burpee's best known fitness move and used to measure physical fitness and agility for the U.S. military in the 1930s.While a burpee is relatively simple and easy to do, doing multiple burpees in a row is difficult. The third annual Royal Burpee Challenge began on Feb. 8, 117 days before Burpee's birthday, when participants completed one burpee. On day two, they completed two burpees. By day 117, participants will do 117 burpees in one day.Athletes can break the day's workout into several sessions, for example doing 10 burpees before breakfast on day 30, then another 10 at lunch and 10 before bed, but any missed burpees must be done as soon as possible while still keeping up the number of daily burpees completed. Those who finish the challenge will do nearly 7,000 burpees over four months.Children and teens participating in the challenge, which is unique to Lehighton's CrossFit chapter, will take part in a "milestone" version.Instead of being required to do daily burpees, youth will do burpees on days 25, 50, 75, 100 and 117. They recently competed their first milestone, doing 25 burpees in one day."We're doing this in Lehighton so the kids can participate," said Chrissy Mayernik, the owner and head coach at CrossFit TC Unplugged. "It gets really hard after day 80. That's when most people drop out. We wanted to make this challenge possible for the kids to finish, but it's still really hard."This is the third year that Mayernik has led Lehighton's CrossFit through the Royal Burpee Challenge, and her third time participating."A burpee is very challenging. Even if you can do 10 of them in a row, your muscles hurt and you're out of breath. If you have to crank 80 of them out at one time, because you didn't spread them out throughout the day, it's a huge workout."Mayernik and other gym members make the workouts more fun by posting pictures and stories online, and are encouraging children and teens to do the same. Kyle Mayernik, 12, and Joseph McGinley, 13, both of Lehighton, competed their first 20 of 25 "milestone" burpees indoors, then headed outdoors to complete the last five in the snow. They reported that after completing 25 burpees they were tired and cold.Molly Newtown, 7, and her sister Emily, 10, are among the youngest taking part in the challenge. They joined CrossFit Kids because their father is in the adult class."Staying active is important, and good for kids' health," said their father, Brian Newtown. "So far, they're doing good. We'll see how they do on day 50."Safety has been key to the youth's challenge."We've been working the past few weeks on the proper form to do burpees. We've been working hard to make sure that they do this correctly," she said. "I want this to be memorable for them. The day that they have to do 100 burpees, they're going to remember that day. I want them to have good memories of a difficult fitness challenge."She compared workouts and the burpee challenge to video games and kids calling or texting each other to compare high scores or new levels reached."It's one thing to get a great score on an X-Box. This is another activity they can commiserate about, but it's about fitness. I want them to call each other and say, 'Did you get your burpees in? How many did you do in a minute?'" she said. "All of the state and national data say we've got to get our kids moving. We have a pretty big problem with kids needing to get fit."CrossFit TC Unplugged is formerly Lehighton TUFFCAMP. Mayernik added the term "unplugged" to the group's name to emphasize the fact that workouts do not include traditional gym equipment such as treadmills or bicycles.But she noted that "unplugged" takes on a new meaning when it applies to kids who might spend a lot of time in front of televisions and video games."I'm trying to emphasis that with the children," she said. "Let's get unplugged and get physically active."For more information about CrossFit Kids or CrossFit Teens, go to

www.crossfitTCunplugged.com.