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Murph workout timer

Murph is a mile run, then 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups and 300 air squats, then another mile run, for time. It is a Hero WOD, named after Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, and it is the workout most people do once a year on Memorial Day.

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How it works

  1. Start the stopwatch. Run a mile, complete the 100, 200 and 300, then run the second mile.
  2. Stop the clock at the end of the second run.
  3. Almost everyone partitions the middle: twenty rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 air squats is the standard way, which is Cindy twenty times over.
  4. The push-ups are the limiter. Break them from the very first round.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Murph named after?
Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, a US Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan on 28 June 2005, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He did a version of this workout himself and called it Body Armor. CrossFit renamed it in his honour, and it became the Memorial Day tradition it is now.
Should I wear a weight vest?
The traditional version is done in a twenty pound vest, mirroring the body armour Murphy trained in. It is not required, and doing your first Murph without one is the sensible choice. A vest roughly doubles how hard the push-ups feel.
How should I partition it?
Twenty rounds of 5-10-15 is the common answer because it keeps the push-ups in manageable chunks. Doing the sets straight through, unpartitioned, is much harder and is a different workout in practice even though the rep total is identical.
Is this The Murph Challenge?
No. The Murph Challenge is the official annual fundraiser of the LT. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation, run by Forged and held every Memorial Day; you register for it at themurphchallenge.com. This page is not affiliated with it. It is simply a timer for the workout, which plenty of people also do outside the official event.

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