Challenge yourself with this brutal workout and learn the story behind it.

Every year on Memorial Day, CrossFitters, fitness enthusiasts, military veterans, and patriotic Americans gather to perform a workout that tests their strength and endurance.

It’s become well known as a physically and mentally grueling way to demonstrate your fitness while paying tribute to an American hero.

Hero WODs (workout of the day), as they’re known in CrossFit, are some of the most intense workouts you’ll find anywhere.

It’s not how grueling they are that makes them so well known. It’s that each one is named after a fallen member of service (military, police, fire, etc.).

Murph is the most well-known of these hero workouts.

The intention is to think of the person it’s named for when performing the workout, especially when it gets really tough.

This workout is not about setting records or worrying about your performance. It’s about putting out and paying respect to the man it’s named for.

This WOD is named for Mike Murphy and here’s his story.

The Murph Story

United States Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, of Patchogue, New York, was killed in action in Afghanistan during Operation Red Wings on June 28, 2005.

Murphy was the commander of a four-man reconnaissance team of Navy SEALs on a mission to kill or capture a top Taliban leader.

Dropped off by helicopter in a remote, mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan, Murphy’s team was surrounded and attacked by Taliban fighters.

Murphy and two members of his team, plus sixteen U.S. military personnel aboard a Chinook helicopter that was shot down during the fight were killed.

Mike Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions that day, placing himself in the open and exposed to enemy fire in order to make a satellite phone call to get the quick reaction force (QRF) to help save his teammates.

Murph, as he was known to his friends, loved to do this workout, which he called body armor.

With a 20 pound weighted vest or plate carrier, run a mile, do a 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then run another mile.

3 Tips for Murph Beginners

To conquer this workout, you have to have a strategy for tackling the high number of repetitions you have to complete.

Here are three valuable tips that I've learned from doing Murph over the years.

1. Break down the workout.

You can do this in a number of ways but I recommend beginners do 20 rounds of the following in between the mile runs:

5 Pull-Ups
10 Push-Ups
15 Squats

The point is to not complete hundreds of pull-ups, push-ups, and squats consecutively.

Instead, the bodyweight exercises are broken down into fewer reps. Rotating through the exercises more frequently keeps those muscle groups fresh.

Perform more rounds of lower repetitions of each exercise to avoid fatiguing muscle groups.

2. Train in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day.

Don't try this workout without training for it. Start a few weeks or months before Memorial Day. Do the workout once a week. You'll need plenty of recovery time.

Start without the added weight. Do a quarter or half of the workout at first. Let your body slowly adjust to the high volume. This is the mini-Murph approach.

Next, do a full Murph without the added weight. Then, add the weighted vest and do a quarter or half of the workout.

Track your progress by timing yourself and gradually make it harder as you get closer to Memorial Day.

3. Hydrate before and during the workout.

Start hydrating in the days before you do the workout. Drinking roughly a gallon of water a day for a week prior to the workout is a good baseline.

Murph requires a tremendous amount of energy to complete the high number of repetitions and not being hydrated could mean not completing the workout.

Have a water source with you while working out and take sips between rounds. Remember to not gulp water during the workout or you’ll cramp up on the final run.

Murph was the fifth event at the 2016 CrossFit Games.

Between the mile runs, the athletes performed five rounds of 20 pull-ups, 40 push-ups, and 60 squats.

Josh Bridges and Kari Pearce won the event with times of 34:38 and 36:42, respectively.

Murph at Home and While Traveling

Murph is a bodyweight WOD and requires no barbells, dumbbells, or any other equipment besides a pull-up bar and weighted vest, both of which make it possible to do at home or while traveling.

You can do Murph in a hotel gym. Run your mile at the beginning and end of the WOD on the treadmill.

If the hotel gym doesn't have a pull-up bar, you may have to improvise. Find a place to do your pull-ups. Tree limbs and swing sets are great. Find something that works. Get creative if you have to.

If there's no way for you do to pull-ups, try this variation of the workout: 1-mile treadmill run, 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, 300 squats, and 1-mile treadmill run.

If you don’t have a weighted vest, do the workout without one.

Lt. Mike Murphy (far right) with members of his team in Afghanistan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Murph a good workout?

Not only is Murph a good workout, but it’s also one of the most physically and mentally demanding workouts many will ever attempt.

The high volume of pull-ups, push-ups, and squats, added with the mile runs make this workout very good for anyone looking to test themselves.

What is a good time to complete Murph in?

Completing Murph in under an hour is good, completing it in 45 minutes or under is above average, and completing it in 30-40 minutes is elite.

Beginners should aim to complete the workout in an hour or under. If you’re not wearing a weighted vest, aim to complete the workout in under 45 minutes.

How many calories does Murph burn?

How many calories you’ll burn during Murph depends heavily on the person and how hard you’re working but the average person will burn between 500 and 800 calories during the workout.

Murph is a metabolic conditioning workout intended to be performed at a high intensity.

The combination of the added weight from the vest and the high volume of bodyweight exercises means your body will continue burning calories after you have completed the workout.

Strict or kipping pull-ups during Murph?

This is a matter of personal ability and preference. Most CrossFitters do kipping pull-ups. I prefer to do strict pull-ups even though this means the workout may take a bit longer to complete.

Strict pull-ups are harder but more beneficial than kipping pull-ups. A strict pull-up requires back and arm strength while a kipping pull-up uses momentum to assist the movement.