Photo: US Navy
Now, some of these options may look different from how you have executed Murph in the past. All we ask is that you have an open mind about this and know that our goal is to keep you safe, having fun, and learn something new about your fitness today. We want everyone to go home after the workout and have an enjoyable day with family and friends – not to be so painfully sore that you cannot move off the couch (if it’s because of third helping of Grandma’s apple pie, different story!!!). We will scale today just like we do everyday to ensure you all get what you need!
First off, there will be a 60 minute max cap on this workout as going beyond this far exceeds the intended stimulus of the workout.
(1) Gymnastics capacity
a.) If we are still working towards the capacity to perform:
10 unbroken strict pull ups
20 unbroken kipping pull ups
20 unbroken push ups off our toes
AND/OR
b.) Have never performed Murph before and/or finished in under 50 Minutes without a weight vest.
= Perform the entire workout without a weight vest and scale the reps based off the guidelines under the “modifications” section below – you can mix and match between the movements based off your current capacity with them.
(2) Weight vest
We know some of you may have performed Murph before with a vest and have not met the above requirements, however, for today, please trust us and follow the guidelines – run the mile runs and then cut all the other reps in half. Wearing it for the full volume without meeting the above criteria means your body is not yet ready to safely handle the volume of those specific movements with additional load. Scaling by performing Murph with fewer reps or without a vest in no way means we are lessening our respect for the idea behind this workout – it means we are honoring the meaning by exercising humility and self-restraint; character traits that Mike Murphy had in spades.
*Modifications*
If you have performed Murph before with a vest and it took over 50 minutes…
Run the 1 mile distances, cut all the other reps in half.
Run
– If running a mile will take us over 10 minutes, run 800m
– If we cannot run due to injury, bike 2 miles
Pull ups
– If we have the capacity to perform consistent sets of 7-10 pull ups, perform 70 total
– If we can perform 2-5 pull ups consistently, perform 35 total
– If we are still working towards the capacity to perform our first strict pull up, perform jumping pull ups today
Push ups
– If we have the capacity to perform 10-15 consistent push ups off our toes, perform 70 total
– If we have the capacity to perform 3-7 consistent push ups off our toes, perform 35 total
– If we are working towards push ups off our toes, perform either: wide-stance push ups, kipping push ups, or push ups off an elevated platform, or off our knees and follow the same rep guidelines as above.
Air Squats
– If 300 total air squats goes far beyond our capacity of total volume, cut it down to 200
– If we cannot squat, we will perform some sort of a hip flexion/extension movement depending on our injury
No progressive scaling during the workout will be allowed. We finish on the scaling option we started on and will not move on to an easier movement. An example of this would be if we start on regular pull ups and then move to jumping pull ups because they are easier. Doing that ignores the body’s sign that it needs to rest. This type of self-scaling forces your muscles through the range of motion via an easier scale and can do damage to your body. If you are failing reps during the workout, its ok, it happens, instead of just winging it and changing the movement, just cut down the reps.