In case you’re unfamiliar, “Murph” is classic CrossFit workout known as a Hero WOD. Hero WOD’s are made by CrossFit to honor the men and women that have fallen in the line of duty. This one is specifically to honor Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005.
1 mile Run 100 Pull-Ups 200 Push-Ups 300 Air Squats 1 mile Run *With a 20 lb Vest or Body Armor
This workout itself was Michael’s favorite workout to do, which at the time referred to it as “Body Armor”, hence the 20 lb vest or body armor as part of the workout prescription. So, every year, CrossFitters synonymously around the world pay special tribute to Lieutenant Murphy by joining together and suffering through this workout.Why do we do Murph?
Hero WOD’s are not uncommon in the CrossFit community. Besides the story of an amazing human being who gave his courage and ultimate sacrifice for his team and country (which we’re about to get to), it also gives us a chance to pay tribute to all the other Hero WOD’s such as J.T., Michael, Randy, and Nate. CrossFit still makes new Hero workouts to this day.
First, there’s two methods of finishing Murph. While you have to start and finish with a 1 mile run, the 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 air squats can either be done in order, or partitioned. The most common strategy is to partition the reps into 20 rounds of “Cindy” or 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats. If you’re really trying to maximize your time and don’t think you can do 20 rounds of 10 push-ups unbroken, you can split the push-ups around the air squats. So you would do 20 rounds of: 5 pull-ups, 5 push-ups, 15 air squats, 5 push-ups. Performing “Murph” in the un-partitioned manner is the more difficult of the strategies, as the push-ups will be the part that will have lots of rest in between sets. The partitioned way lets you chip away at the other movements while your push-ups take a break.
The other variation about Murph is that it’s performed either with a weight vest, or without. The prescription hints to use one if you have one, but, if you don’t have one, then you don’t have a choice. There’s a ton of variation in completion time between the two options. Below is roughly the average time of completion without a weight vest. The average time being around 48 minutes for Men and 51 minutes for Women.
Murph Hero WOD in Galveston
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