The Murph workout is a run of one mile, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and a final one mile run, done in a 20 pound vest if performed as prescribed, in honor of Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy. It is the most iconic Memorial Day workout there is, and it can be scaled for absolutely anyone. In this Physical Friday I cover partitioned versus non-partitioned Murph, scaled versions for limited equipment, the triple Murph my group is doing, and the story of why we do this at all.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Murph is: run one mile, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, then run one final mile. Done as prescribed, you wear a 20 pound vest for all of it. The workout honors Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005 and was awarded the Medal of Honor for exposing himself to enemy fire to radio for help for his team. It has become the iconic Memorial Day workout.
Partitioned means you break the middle work into chunks, most popularly the Cindy split of five pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 squats repeated 20 times. Non-partitioned means you complete all 100 pull ups before touching the push ups, all 200 push ups before the squats, and so on, which in my opinion is harder. You can also choose vest or no vest. Those two choices let you tune the difficulty before you change a single rep.
Beyond the Whiteboard, the site where I log all my workouts, publishes a Murph for everyone chart I like. The fitness version halves everything: run 800 meters, 50 pull ups, 100 push ups, 150 air squats, run 800 meters. No pull up bar? Run a mile, 100 dumbbell bent-over rows, 200 push ups, 300 air squats, run a mile. No equipment at all? Run a mile, 200 push ups, 300 squats, 400 sit ups, run a mile. You can even swap a mile for 500 jumping jacks.
Three full Murphs back to back, and yes, people do it, my group chose it for this Memorial Day. The way we run it: vest on and partitioned for the first Murph, vest off and non-partitioned for the second, and survival mode, no vest, any partitioning you can manage, for the third. It took me about 126 minutes last time. If you attempt it, be honestly prepared, with nutrition, water, and electrolytes ready.
Lieutenant Michael Murphy was a Navy SEAL leading a four-man reconnaissance team, with Danny Dietz, Matthew Axelson, and Marcus Luttrell, at 10,000 feet in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005, when more than 50 enemy fighters attacked. Wounded, Murphy moved into open ground, knowingly exposing himself to gunfire, to radio for help, and was shot in the back while completing the call. He, Dietz, Axelson, and 16 rescuers aboard a downed Chinook died. Only Luttrell survived. Murphy received the Medal of Honor.
Because remembering is supposed to cost something. A Murph is hard, a triple Murph is harder, and neither is anything compared to what those men went through on that mountain. Doing a brutally difficult workout on Memorial Day, with the story in your head, turns a day off into an act of respect for those who served and sacrificed. It is supposed to be hard, it is supposed to rock you, that is the point.
Around here, Memorial Day means Murph, and every year people either jump in unprepared or skip it because the full version intimidates them. Neither has to happen. With quarantine still limiting equipment for a lot of people, I wanted to lay out every honest way to scale this workout down, and a few ways to scale it up. Watch or listen above for all of it.
Here is the full prescribed workout I walk through in this Physical Friday, with every scaling option covered in the episode.
I unpack each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Vest or no vest, partitioned or non-partitioned, full or half volume, those three dials cover almost everyone. The Beyond the Whiteboard variations handle the rest, including dumbbell rows when you have no pull up bar and a sit up version when you have nothing at all. I walk through how to pick honestly, based on your training, in the episode.
Somewhere along the way, Memorial Day Murph started losing its meaning for people, so in this episode I read the account of Operation Red Wings straight from the Navy's website, the four SEALs, the fight, the downed Chinook, Marcus Luttrell's survival, and the villagers who refused to give him up. It is worth hearing in full before you do this workout. Press play above.
Murph is a hard workout. A triple Murph is a hard workout. Neither is anything compared to what Lieutenant Murphy, Danny Dietz, Matthew Axelson, and the men on that Chinook went through.
Do Murph in any shape or form you can this Memorial Day, scaled or full, and remember why you are doing it. If you attempt the triple, email me at podcast@saltwaterexperience.com, I would love to hear about it. Press play in the player above for the full episode.
Murph workout · Lieutenant Michael Murphy · Danny Dietz · Matthew Axelson · Marcus Luttrell · Operation Red Wings · Navy SEALs · Memorial Day · Cindy workout · partitioned vs non-partitioned · triple Murph · Beyond the Whiteboard · weight vest training · workout scaling · Physical Friday · Tom Rowland Podcast
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 recovery practices that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong and healthy for life, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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