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The Inherent Problem with Memorial Day Workouts, Murph
Good Morning Titans,
Every year on Memorial Day CrossFitters and other gym goers all over the world do a workout called “Murph” to honor of Lieutenant Micheal Murphy, a Navy Seal officer who gave his life during Operation Red Wings in 2005. This workout or “WOD” is one hell of a ride. It starts with a 1-mile run followed by 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and finishing with another 1 mile run all while wearing a weight vest and the entire point of the workout seems to simply be to suffer.
Some of you may already know this but I’ve been in the military for about 12 years and have been coaching people in proper movement and strength training for about 5. As someone who walks in both worlds this tradition that many fitness enthusiasts seem to have perplexes me because this workout likely doesn’t fit into any guided program that I’ve ever seen and won’t actually make any one better at their individual goals or more competent at movement in general. This is especially true when people to attempt this workout usually do so in a group setting while being timed, leading to extreme breakdown in form when the athlete starts to get tired.
When you look past the surface all these Hero WODs really do is inflate the ego of the person who does the workout while setting back their training for the rest of the week. If you want to challenge yourself then by all means do but don’t pretend that a workout is somehow helping or showing respect. Instead of doing this, next year maybe offer your time to a veteran’s organization that is doing something to help Gold Star Families (families that have lost someone to war). Or maybe go to a veteran’s cemetery to pay your respects.
So yeah, this was definitely one of my shorter articles. I usually like to keep these around 600 words or so but I don’t really see any other direction we can go with this train of though. This will no doubt be one of my least popular articles but it’s something that has bugged me for quite a while. Come back next time and I promise you’ll read something a little more light-hearted. Please follow us on out Instagram here and our Facebook here. If you have any questions for me at all please feel free to email me at cameron@atlasstrengthshop.com.
Release the Titan in You,
Cameron Ray
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