It’s April as I write this, and Memorial Day is 7 short weeks away. Memorial Day in the US is a time to reflect on the great sacrifice that our service men and women made for our freedoms. It also marks the beginning of summer, bringing with it BBQs and vacations, time with family and friends.
In the CrossFit community, a ritual performed on Memorial Day is a Hero WOD (Workout of the Day) in honor of Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, a member of a special warfare task unit in the Navy who lost his life fighting in Afghanistan. The “Murph” workout is a workout that has been said to have been one of Murphy’s favorites done with his fellow Navy Seals, so each Memorial Day, CrossFitters all over the world complete the “Murph Challenge” in his honor.
The workout consists of:
1 Mile Run
100 Pull Ups
200 Push Ups
300 Air Squats
1 Mile Run
The workout is typically done with a weighted vest – 20lb for men and 14lb for women. If you are just starting out on your CrossFit journey and want to try Murph, I highly recommend doing it without a vest. You can also do a 1/2 Murph where you would split the run and the reps in half. Additionally, the repetitions of the movements can be done as listed or you can partition them (more on that later).
I have been doing CrossFit for a year now and last Memorial Day I had terrible back pain (not CrossFit related), so I sat out from the Murph challenge. In hindsight, part of me was scared of it too. This year, I didn’t want to be afraid of the challenge. So, I decided to train for it. As a trained fitness coach, I know that if you break a challenge down into smaller components and build your confidence along the way by making consistent progress it can really make a difference in reaching your goals. So,I reached out to a friend who is a good runner (that is the part I feared the most) and he helped me create a “Murph Training Plan” that would progressively take me to Memorial Day feeling like I could really honor Michael Murphy instead of being afraid to fail.
12-Week Murph Training Plan
This training plan starts with a “1/4 Murph” which is a quarter of the distance and reps of the full workout and then each week progressively builds in running distance and reps of pull ups, push-ups and air squats. The distances for running are in meters and the reps for the pull ups, push ups and air squats are in blocks of work known as “Cindy”. Cindy is a benchmark workout in CrossFit where you perform as many rounds as possible of 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups and 15 Air squats. Each week on our Murph training plan you will see a progression of the number of rounds of Cindy.
Week 1: 400m run, 5 rounds of Cindy, 400m run (this is a 1/4 Murph)
Week 2: 500m run, 6 rounds of Cindy, 500m run
Week 3: 600m run, 7 rounds of Cindy, 600m run
Week 4: 700m run, 8 rounds of Cindy, 700m run
Week 5: 800 m run, 10 rounds of Cindy, 800m run (this is a half Murph)
Week 6: 900m run, 11 rounds of Cindy, 900m run
Week 7: 1,000m run, 12 rounds of Cindy, 1,000m run
Week 8: 1,100m run, 13 rounds of Cindy, 1,100m run
Week 9: 1,200m run, 14 rounds of Cindy, 1,200m run
Week 10: 1,300m run, 15 rounds of Cindy, 1,300m run
Week 11: 1,400m run, 16 rounds of Cindy, 1, 400m run
Week 12: 1,500m run, 17 rounds of Cindy, 1, 500m run
Murph Week! You are now better prepared for 1,600m run, 20 rounds of Cindy and 1,600m run! If you are like me and your week 12 training is on a Friday, by all means skip the last week and go right to Murph on Monday (Memorial Day). It will be important to give yourself rest before the challenge.
Go honor Lt. Michael Murphy by embracing the incredible challenge knowing that you GET to do things like this because of people like him who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
My Experience with the training so far
I started the training program in early March and am on week 6 today! It is challenging me in all the best ways. I still get a little bit of anxiety on the days that I train (every Friday afternoon at open gym at the box). It has become somewhat of a community event with other members of our gym joining too! I always finish last, which has been a bit of a drag but reminding myself why I am doing it and how much I am improving each week really helps. I also want to share that I have been scaling the pull ups by using a band (I cannot do unassisted pull ups YET) and when I get to the point where my chest is gassed and I cannot do push-ups on my toes anymore (usually around the 8th round of Cindy), I will either do singles and quickly rest or scale to doing them on my knees. This is the beauty of CrossFit – every movement is infinitely scalable and there is a level for EVERYONE. So, if you can’t do something YET, please know that you can do a great modification and still feel competent and confident.
(Day 1 of Training)
This weekend I am headed to get my CrossFit Level 1 certification!!! I am excited to share more about the process. I also signed up for a new custom macros plan to help me eat for performance and some other physical goals. SO much good stuff is happening. Do you have big goals that you are working toward or thinking about? Would love to hear from you!