My First Murph
I was eight months into my CrossFit career and on vacation with friends in Florida during May 2019. Wanting to treat my body to a break from the 4x per week sessions I’d kept up throughout the spring, I limited my activity to running, paddle boarding, and some very light yoga on the beach (aka stretching for old folks). I was enjoying having gotten over the hump of my learning period, hitting PRs and ringing the bell on the regular. But my only goal that week was for max reps, twenty-ounce curls. Frozen daiquiri edition.
Still, I was curious what my friends back home in Washington were doing each day. And so, as I always do upon waking, I checked the Beyond the White Board app the morning of Memorial Day … and nearly fell out of bed.
They expect us to do WHAT?
Measuring Benchmarks
For me, the single-most appealing aspect of CrossFit is that it’s measurable. It’s quite literally a sport of competitive fitness. Much like the Ironman triathlon distance sprang from a desire to settle the debate of fitness between swimmers, cyclists, and runners, using the distances from three well-known events in Hawaii (the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, Around-Oahu Bike Race, and Honolulu Marathon), CrossFit sprang from a desire to determine the most fit athlete. Period. Unlike triathlon, it’s not only a test of endurance, but strength and gymnastics as well.
For the geeks among us, think of it as an actual way to see if Superman can beat up Captain America.
To accomplish this, CrossFit utilizes a number of benchmark workouts, allowing athletes around the world to measure themselves against one another, like for like. Many have been given female names: Fran, Barbara, Cindy, etc.
The toughest ones, however, are known as Hero WODs (workouts of the day). These are named for specific members of the military, police, and firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty. And the most famous of them, done every Memorial Day, is Murph.
What is the Murph WOD?
Murph is named after Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a SEAL killed in action alongside fifteen other soldiers in Afghanistan in June 2005. Their mission was portrayed in the film Lone Survivor, starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, and Emile Hirsch, who played Michael Murphy.
Prior to his death, one of Murphy’s favorite workouts was dubbed “Body Armor.” This workout, which he completed wearing a 20-pound vest, became known as Murph and is done annually around the world in his honor. It consists of the following:
1-Mile Run
100 Pull-Ups
200 Push-Ups
300 Squats
1-Mile Run
Athletes are encouraged to wear a 20lb vest if possible, as a nod to the original name.
On Memorial Day 2019, I stared slack-jawed at my phone, wondering how that quantity of reps was even possible. I’d never done more than 50 pull-ups in a workout. Never more than a hundred cumulative push-ups, spread across a twenty-minute AMRAP. Three-hundred squats? My thighs pleaded with me to put the phone down. Better yet, for me to toss it out the window.
I showed the workout to a friend and was relieved to see him as speechless as I was. We estimated a finishing time of 50-minutes for someone far fitter than yours truly. Still, I was curious. I knew a nearby park had a pull-up bar. But before I could convince myself to give it a try, I realized it was Florida. The pull-up bar would be scorching hot before long, I had no chalk or gloves, and blah, blah, blah vacation excuses.
My Pandemic Murph*
Fast-forward a year, to the slog that is 2020. When the virus hit in March, I was in the best shape I’d been in a decade. Stronger, fitter, and able to bounce back day after day with less fatigue and soreness than in prior months. I did my best to maintain momentum throughout the shutdown, continuing to work out several days a week, albeit without barbells or access to a pull-up bar. But with limited space and equipment, the scaled down workouts became boring, less productive.
The week of Memorial Day I met up with a few other CrossFitters at a local park and did a modified version of Murph, substituting 100 bent-over dumbbell rows for the pull-ups. Hence, the asterisk. Being that I only had a single 50lb dumbbell meant I had to do a hundred reps with each arm separately.
It was late afternoon and we were on a synthetic turf field. Having never been on such a field before this year, I had no idea how much heat radiates off that material. I’ve got a new appreciation for how grueling it must be for NFL players, in full pads, to be playing on a hot day. I was roasting from the feet up.
Filled with nervous excitement, I knocked out the first mile faster than intended, using my GPS watch to ensure a true mile. I headed into the meat of the workout at 6:35, thirty seconds faster than intended. Oops.
Murph is the only workout (that I know of, at least) that allows you to partition the reps any way you like. That means, instead of doing 100 dumbbell bent over rows all at once, I chose to divvy up the rows, push-ups and squats across 20 sets of 5, 10, and 15, respectively.
Doing the bent over dumbbell rows one arm at a time slowed me down, but quickly proved to be a blessing in disguise. I was already fatigued by the time I was on my 7th round of 10x push-ups. The heat was wearing me out and my arms were fried. I doubted I’d even be able to finish. By the 11th round of 5-10-15, I could no longer complete the 10 push-ups unbroken. I began telling myself to aim for thirteen sets, that I didn’t have to do the whole thing. This was supposed to be fun. I knew I wouldn’t quit, but it felt good to tell myself I could.
By the 14th round, I was down to sets of 5, 3, and 2. It wasn’t fun. But I kept going, thanks in no small part to my mind shifting to the inspiration behind the WOD. Those soldiers didn’t have the option of quitting. So what if I fell on my face after every other push-up? I’d get to shower off when it was done. So, I continued.
The squats weren’t much better. My abs and thighs were tired from the push-ups and what began as the fastest part of the WOD, soon became nearly as difficult as the push-ups. I had to split them into two sets, then three sets, then, on the last two rounds, I was barely able to get through more than 3 at once. I never thought it’d end. And I certainly didn’t care to run another mile, but I eventually swiped my whiteboard for the 20th time, tapped the lap timer on my GPS watch, and went out for the final mile.
I finished the second mile in 8:50, for a total time of 47:32 … and I couldn’t walk for days.
I took the next two weeks off, entirely. I was sick of working out at home.
Independence Day Redux
My local affiliate, SnoRidge CrossFit, reopened to five-person classes in the middle of June and announced they’d be programming Murph on July 4th. For those like me, who’d never done the true version, this was excellent. Despite my May attempt being every bit as difficult as I expected, there was no denying that the 100 bent over dumbbell rows were far easier than 100 pull-ups would have been.
That said, having not touched a pull-up bar since early March, and with only two weeks of limited classes to prepare, it was highly unlikely I’d be able to complete the full hundred. Plans to go hiking with friends the following morning also reduced my interest in doing 300 squats.
Fortunately, one of the options was “Half Murph w/Full Run.” Better still, a friend at the gym suggested I sandwich my push-ups around the squats. So, for each of 10 rounds, I did 5 pull-ups, 5 push-ups, 15 squats, 5 push-ups.
This was a lifesaver. Or at least an arm-saver.
I ran the first mile in 6:44 and got to work. The weather was nicer and we were back inside, enjoying the shade with the bay door open beside me for fresh air. Music and the camaraderie of having multiple coaches and other athletes added to the moment. I managed to do all ten sets unbroken, including each set of 5 pull-ups (kipping). And splitting the push-ups into sets of five was a stroke of genius. I knocked the final mile out at an almost-comfortable 7:45, for a total time of 29:45.
I don’t have a 20lb vest, but hopefully in 2021 I’ll tackle it for real, the way Michael Murphy intended it. If you’re new to CrossFit, know this workout is coming on Memorial Day and prepare. There are a lot of ways to scale it, including quarter and half options with less running. But take your time, partition smartly – I’m considering 50 rounds of 2, 4, 6 if I have a vest for next time – and above all else, DON’T QUIT.
Oh, and if you were wondering how fast the fittest on earth can complete it, the top 20 men on the BTWB app have completed the full Murph in under 28 minutes, the top women in under 33 minutes.
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