I Hope This Workout Makes You Cry: Murph
Every year on Memorial Day, crossfitters around the country do a crazy intense workout called the “Murph” in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy who was killed in Afghanistan. During his military career, Murphy received 11 different military decorations, including: the Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, Joint Service Commendation Medal, and Navy Commendation Medal to name a few. This workout is designed to make you feel a small portion of the pain he endured fighting and dying for his country, so every moment during this where you want to give up and quit, think of Murph and push yourself to move forward. Finish it for all the service men and women who fight for you daily on battle fields all across the world and those who can no longer fight the battle for us.
In case you were wondering here this is the “Murph”:
- 1 mile Run
- 100 Pull-ups
- 200 Push-ups
- 300 Squats
- 1 mile Run
You break up the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed in the middle and start and finish with a mile run. Some super fit crossfit bad@sses do it with a twenty pound vest or body armor.
Well, I decided to try it this year. I did it….own way – with assisted pull-ups, more than half the pushups on my knees and certainly no 20 lb vest – and I felt like I was going to DIE! I won’t bore you with any more of the detail here, but If you want to know more about my Murph experience click here – especially if you want to commiserate with me about child birth and bladder control 😉
Recovering from Murph on my living room floor.
At this point you I’ve either lost you or you are freaking out because you think I’m going to tell you to do this as your workout this week. Don’t worry, this is not the case. If you want to give it a try though, more power to you!
You know what though? Murph had a mom and her name was Maureen. I thought it would be nice this week for us to do a workout (more manageable for us busy moms) in her honor. What do you say?
Ok, so here it is the “Maureen”:
- 5.5 minute run/walk
- 40 Squats
- 29 Pushups
- 3 min Plank
- 5.5 minute run/walk
Coach Alison Notes:
* Break up the pushups, squats and plank into manageable sets (4 sets of 7 pushups (+1), 10 squats and 45 second planks might be a good place to start), then cap the ends with the run/walk.
*If you get a lot of your workouts done during naptime, like I do, and can’t leave the house replace the run/walk with jogging in place for 5.5 minutes.
Ok so why these seemingly random numbers?
- 40 for the number of weeks we carry our babies (if you feel so included make the number your total weeks of gestation with your oldest)
- 29 for each year of Lt. Michael Murphy’s life
- 3 for the years between Lt. Murphy’s first deployment and his death, years his mother Maureen anxiously waited for her baby boy to come home
- 5.5+5.5 =11 for the years since Lt. Murphy’s death in 2005 that his mother Maureen has carried her son in her heart.
At the end of your workout, take a quiet minute or two to think about and thank Lt. Murphy, Maureen and all the other military families that made the ultimate sacrifice. Maybe you are one of those families. If so, thank you. I hope you find, like I did, that when your body is tired after a hard workout you are more vulnerable to that raw emotion and maybe shed a little tear. Ok, maybe it’s weird that I just said I hope you cry…but sometime you should.
Much love,
Alison Marie
