Fitness: The Murph Challenge

#6
I've done it every year since 2017. No vest, vest, split with a partner, and vested again. Last year was the best, not because I pr'd, but because I got to do it in an empty gym with a close friend that was about to make her 3rd deployment. The simple fact that she asked me to join her made all the pain worth it.
 
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#7
Not sure if a bad shoulder and plastic hip will let me get through it but Ill give'er a try. At 71 and with a plethora of past injuries, swimming is much better for me.
 
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#8
Its on my list.
little rehab to finish
Then work on it.

Saw a video where a kid did 30 Murphs in 30 days.
Its a tad insane, but thinking I might need a crazy goal to chase.
im a tad crazy like that. 😎
 
#10
I wonder if any crossfitter has ever actually completed a Murph. I've seen them do pull-ups and I'm pretty sure the count would go "zero, zero, zero, zero..."
Seems almost blasphemous that they have adopted it as their own.
Was only a few weeks post heart surgery last year, but going to make a go of it this year.
 
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#11
sjoliat said:
I wonder if any crossfitter has ever actually completed a Murph. I've seen them do pull-ups and I'm pretty sure the count would go "zero, zero, zero, zero..."
Seems almost blasphemous that they have adopted it as their own.
Was only a few weeks post heart surgery last year, but going to make a go of it this year.
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A former SEAL and multiple CrossFit games athlete, Josh Bridges, won the Murph event at the CrossFit games, 2 years ago I think. I thought it was pretty cool and a subtle middle finger 🖕🏻 to the other CrossFit athletes, that a SEAL won the event in honor of the SEAL, Michael Murphy.
 
#12
ColinW said:
A former SEAL and multiple CrossFit games athlete, Josh Bridges, won the Murph event at the CrossFit games, 2 years ago I think. I thought it was pretty cool and a subtle middle finger 🖕🏻 to the other CrossFit athletes, that a SEAL won the event in honor of the SEAL, Michael Murphy.
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Why the middle finger? Everyone is honoring Murph with the workout. Same team.
 
#13
We do it every year at my box and yes I’ll be kipping on my pull ups. Strict and kipping are different movements with the only difference for me being strict take longer. Both are accepted according to the challenge rules.
 
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#14
Ricker said:
We do it every year at my box and yes I’ll be kipping on my pull ups. Strict and kipping are different movements with the only difference for me being strict take longer. Both are accepted according to the challenge rules.
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They work out different muscles though. I did the GI Jane workout with strict pull ups. Never again. That was way harder than kipping.

Kipping pull ups turn the skin on your hands into gator skin. You have those nasty, hard yellow callouses on your hands or no? The wife wasn't a fan.
 
#16
vinniedelpino said:
They work out different muscles though. I did the GI Jane workout with strict pull ups. Never again. That was way harder than kipping.

Kipping pull ups turn the skin on your hands into gator skin. You have those nasty, hard yellow callouses on your hands or no? The wife wasn't a fan.
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I have 3 callous pads on each hand but they are pretty low key. I wear grips when on the bar and shave the callouses down on rest days. Real heavy deadlifts are just as difficult on my hands but I don’t wear grips when lifting.

60-70 strict pull ups is probably the most I’ve done in one workout. We normally don’t do high volume strict but I’m sure I could get to 100. The difficult part for me is I always need to scale the push-ups. I’m not anywhere close to 200 good push-ups.
 
#18
vinniedelpino said:
Why the middle finger? Everyone is honoring Murph with the workout. Same team.
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Perhaps it's not. But, that fact that Josh Bridges is among the older of the games athletes and multiple repeat attendee in a competitive field, I believe it makes him more susceptible to finishing below the #1 position in most "standard" CrossFit events over the younger guys. I haven't seen him place #1 in a max snatch or clean and jerk or strength event ever. I just really appreciate that a former SEAL and multiple senior CF games competitor comes in and absolutely crushes all the younger athletes in a WOD in honor of one of his SEAL brothers. I say middle finger in that, he's older, more experienced, maybe not as strong as the other young guns, but can absolutely show up and put out for his SEAL brother.
 
#19
52 minutes, no vest partitioned to 20 rounds / Cindy. My target was 50 minutes and happy with the time. Anyone else give it a shot? We had 35-40 people and a potluck afterwards.
 
#20
i havent done it since i stopped Crossfit 3 years ago to pursue my boxing career. i was never fast at any of the workout, im just too damn tall. but every year, sometimes mulitple times a year i would do Murph. most of the time ith a weight vest and the other times with a plate carrier. hate the carrier's ive used because of the motion limits in the shoulders and the bouncing on the run.




its funny that 15-20 years after some of us were doing this crossfit stuff in our garages using workouts posted on the internet and now ONE Hollywood celeb is talking about ONE of the workouts.

edit: sometimes i was under an hour and sometimes i wasnt. no shame in any of it. i always finished and i always wore some sort of a weigh vest with atleast 25 lbs.
 
#21
1 hour 14 minutes for me yesterday morning :cautious: I did the whole thing wearing a 23 lb LBT plate carrier and covered 2.4 miles total on hilly trails for the two running legs (at my place, those extra 700 yards cost a lot of time.) Not exactly going to brag about these results, but it's a baseline for improvement.
 
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#22
45 min for me, no vest.

I decided to go without weight this time because I haven’t been training heavy as consistently as I have in the past. Prob a good decision because I was smoked at the end.

Respect to the guys who are doing it with the weight, that’s my goal for next time.
 
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#23
I did it in an hour and twenty five with a 32 lb vest last year. Never again, thank you. FWIW, its about as far from how I normally work out as you can get, and I did not train for it. This year I worked out like a normal human being.
 
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#24
E. Bryant said:
1 hour 14 minutes for me yesterday morning :cautious: I did the whole thing wearing a 23 lb LBT plate carrier and covered 2.4 miles total on hilly trails for the two running legs (at my place, those extra 700 yards cost a lot of time.) Not exactly going to brag about these results, but it's a baseline for improvement.
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That is solid work. Every extra pound is a nightmare, and I believe you aren't very heavy anyway, so you are carrying around a lot of extra weight. I only have one set of workout plates, so I used those and suffered even longer.
 
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#26
So is this to be done in any amount of time it takes you or is it supposed to be in order back to back with no breaks? Like literally run a mile, then do 200 pushups then the squats and so forth back to back or can you run the mile, then do 20 push-ups wait 3 minutes and do 20 more until you’ve completed the 200 or what? 200 push-ups lol. Most people can’t even do 10 let alone 200.
 
#27
SilentStalkr said:
So is this to be done in any amount of time it takes you or is it supposed to be in order back to back with no breaks? Like literally run a mile, then do 200 pushups then the squats and so forth back to back or can you run the mile, then do 20 push-ups wait 3 minutes and do 20 more until you’ve completed the 200 or what? 200 push-ups lol. Most people can’t even do 10 let alone 200.
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It's acceptable to complete the reps in between miles, however you like. I did a 5/10/15 scheme for 20 sets. Then the 2nd mile. But yes as quickly as possible!
 
#28
People do it in different ways but it all has to be done in one workout.

You can do it all at once or break it up in sets. I did the 20 sets of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats. That’s probably the most popular way to partition it.

What has to remain the same is 1 mile, then the sets, then another mile. You can’t partition the run in with everything else.
 
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#29
SilentStalkr said:
So is this to be done in any amount of time it takes you or is it supposed to be in order back to back with no breaks? Like literally run a mile, then do 200 pushups then the squats and so forth back to back or can you run the mile, then do 20 push-ups wait 3 minutes and do 20 more until you’ve completed the 200 or what? 200 push-ups lol. Most people can’t even do 10 let alone 200.
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I fucked myself by doing them sequentially. You notice my time is the worst on here. Don't be me.
 
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#32
Did a modified Murph yesterday since I didn't train very much for it this time around. Did the first mile with a weight vest and ditched it after that. Got it done in a little less than an hour and my boys and their friend did the half Murph modified to help them out.
20210531_103427.jpg


To my amazement, my good friend's daughter wants in on the fun next year.
 
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#35
Choid said:
That is solid work. Every extra pound is a nightmare, and I believe you aren't very heavy anyway, so you are carrying around a lot of extra weight. I only have one set of workout plates, so I used those and suffered even longer.
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I'm normally a sleek 180 lbs - all in my legs. The plate carrier is a good reminder not to pack on any additional non-functional weight to my torso.

I put about an hour on the mountain bike this afternoon and then did a short ruck with my son's scout troop. My legs are fine (300 air squats isn't a lot of work, even with a vest).
However, there is something wrong deep inside my armpits and I fear they may never be the same again.

FWIW, I was surprised at the difficulty of the push-ups as the sets accumulated. I knew the pull-ups were going to suck, but those last few push-ups in the middle sets had me questioning whether I was going to finish.
 
#41
E. Bryant said:
I've got an LBT plate carrier with Hesco 4401 plates in the front and rear, and 4100 plates in the sides. Even without the mag carrier and other gear, it's well over the 20 lb minimum.
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Well I need to start coming to train with you! Scamdemic closing the gyms really screwed me up and naturally I fell off the wagon. Getting back on is going to suck...but is necessary
 
#42
SilentStalkr said:
Well I need to start coming to train with you! Scamdemic closing the gyms really screwed me up and naturally I fell off the wagon. Getting back on is going to suck...but is necessary
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Losing six months of gym time during the pandemic certainly set back my fitness, but I can honestly say that I ended up being stronger by the end of this winter training season than I was before the shutdowns. It just took a bunch of 5AM mornings throughout the winter, along with listening to the occasional reality check from my body.

Yeah, that first trip back sucks. So do the next several after that. But the gains come relatively quickly.
 
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#43
49:22 with a vest. Rowed 2k meters in lieu of running as it was a torrential downpour when I started.

partitioned the middle part into 10 rounds of 10 pullups-10 pushups-15 air squats-10 pushups-15 air squats.

I'll tackle it again in a few months. My gym has a big to-do for this workout and raises a bunch of money to sponsor memberships for veterans. It's a great cause; however, and this is just for me, I find the workout much more meaningful to do it solo and spend the time reflecting on what Mr. Murphy and his team did. It's a humbling experience for sure.

Kudos to all that did it this year.
 
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#44
You guys getting after it again tomorrow? I've done a few in the last month or so preparing for the annual Murphy Challenge tomorrow on Memorial Day. Hopefully can get through it without issue but as everyone knows it's not an easy workout. Especially doing 100 full lockout strict pull-ups! Who else is planning to go through the pain again tomorrow?
 
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#45
Git some Jake!!
Not me this year.

Busy makin soup.
(Learned at age 13 from martial arts instructor Jim, if Im gonna make an excuse, one is as good as another, thats my go to).


Been wimping out on training hard enough is the truth.
 
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#47
Lug Nut said:
100 pull ups…

Can I do one per day till I’m done?
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We break it out into 20 sets. 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. Gets you to your 100/200/300 totals. First couple Murphys I tried didn't go so well doing the 10/20/30 for 10 sets. I would burn out after 5 sets of 10 pull-ups when followed by the 20 pushups, and then it was piece mail from there. I have been training this way off and on, but the only way I'm getting the strict pull-ups all the way through in complete sets is the 5x20set method.

Goal is to be in the mid to high 30 minute time this year. We'll see.
 
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#49
SHEEPDOG1 said:
Murph has become my go to workout on MWF. It hits everything. I have to scale the pull ups and I cut the run down to a half mile before and a half mile after. But shit I'm 60 years old.
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That's impressive. Good work. I hope I still am able to at 60. Lots of folks that do it with us use bands for pull-ups. Great training tool as for most people the 100 pull-ups is not realistic. At least how we do them.

We try to get as many people involved as possible so we have some folks that do a half Murphy and some even less. It's not a contest so just do whatever you can and enjoy the good company.
 
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