A Hero workout is a CrossFit workout named in memory of a service member or community member who died serving this country, and they are intentionally hard. Every year on my birthday I pick a physical challenge, and this year, turning 53, the challenge is a Hero workout five days in a row. All summer on Physical Friday we have run five-day experiments — water, sleep, stretching — under Bruce Lee's rule: absorb what is useful, discard the rest. This one is different. This one is a tribute, and a test.
Watch now: press play on the video above, or listen in the player at the top of the page.
A Hero workout is a benchmark workout posted by CrossFit since 2005 to honor the memory of service members and exemplary members of the CrossFit community who are no longer with us. Each one carries a person's name, and each page at crossfit.com tells you who the workout is named for and why. They are not designed to be easy. They are designed to be hard, because the people they honor made the ultimate sacrifice.
Murph is the most famous Hero workout: run one mile, do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats, then run another mile. It is named for Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who died in Operation Red Wings. Many people do Murph every year as a tribute, and in past years I have celebrated my birthday by doing a triple Murph — that workout three times through in one day.
This year, turning 53, I am doing one Hero workout a day for five days in a row, Monday through Friday. Any workout on the official Hero and Tribute list at crossfit.com is fair game. I am not advocating that anyone else do this — it is not really a good idea even for me — but if you want to join in, pick your five and go. A happy-birthday text works just as well.
Yes, if you need to. Hero workouts are heavy and hard by design, and some are literally outside my capabilities and maybe yours. I try to do them the way they are written because they are supposed to be challenging, but when a workout calls for loads or movements I cannot do safely, I scale and do the best version I can. Doing a scaled Hero workout honestly beats skipping it entirely.
All summer on Physical Friday we have picked one thing — drinking a gallon of water a day, getting eight hours of sleep, the Joe Hippensteel stretching routine — and done it consistently for five days while keeping a journal. If it makes you feel better, keep it or a portion of it. If it does not, let it go. The point is to experiment on yourself instead of arguing about what works.
Go to crossfit.com and look up the Hero and Tribute workouts. There are hundreds of them, posted since 2005, and each one includes the story of the person it honors. Scroll through, read the stories, and pick one that means something to you. If it is on that list, it counts for this challenge.
Here is exactly how I am running this birthday challenge, and how you can run it too if you choose to take it on.
I walk through the list, show Murph on screen, and explain how I approach scaling in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Every year I select a physical challenge as a rite of passage for spending another year on this planet. In years past that meant triple Murph — and every time I swear I will never do it again, then sometime I do it again. When my daughter was a little girl and I told her this was how I celebrate, she gave me a puzzled look and said, but Dad, no one is going to come to your party. She was mostly right. I tell that story in the episode, so press play in the player above.
These are not programmed for fitness gains first. They exist to memorialize service members who died for this country, and the difficulty is the point. CrossFit has posted them since 2005, and every single one carries a name and a story. When I do one, I read about the person first, and I try to do the workout the way it is written. I explain how that changes the way a hard workout feels in the episode — press play in the player above.
We have spent the whole summer experimenting: a gallon of water a day, eight hours of sleep five nights running, the Joe Hippensteel stretching routine that people still text me about. The format is simple — try something for five days, keep a journal, then keep what helps and drop what does not. Maybe you need six hours of sleep, maybe nine. You only find out by testing. I recap the best experiments of the summer in the episode, so press play in the player above.
This challenge is not for everybody, and I genuinely do not suggest it. If you want to do five Hero workouts in five days with me, go for it at your own risk and your own volition. If you would rather just send a happy-birthday text, I am perfectly fine with that too.
Either way, the bigger lesson stands: pick something hard, give it five honest days, and pay attention to what it does for you. That is what this whole summer has been about. If I make it through the week, I will be 53 with five Hero workouts under my belt.
CrossFit Hero workouts · Murph · Lieutenant Michael Murphy · Operation Red Wings · crossfit.com · Bruce Lee · Joe Hippensteel · five-day summer challenges · gallon-of-water challenge · sleep challenge · Mindset text thread
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong, healthy, and in the game for life — short, practical episodes you can put to work the same day.
Subscribe to get the latest episodes, show notes, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.