How to Prepare for the ‘Murph’ Fitness Challenge

Get ready for the Murph, we have a month!

By We Are The Mighty

The Memorial Day Murph, a workout created in honor of Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL awarded the Medal of Honor for Operation Redwings in Afghanistan 2005 requires an intermediate to advanced level of fitness to complete.

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The challenge is popular with many tactical athletes, CrossFit, and other exercise groups and can be found at The Murph Challenge.

Here is a way to help prepare for the high repetitions of pullups (100), pushups (200), and squats (300). Over the next several weeks, progress throughout the pyramid below a few days a week and see if you score better each week, by moving up the pyramid. See below:

Warmup

You should warm up well with this workout, in fact, the warmup/run pyramid works well to not only prepare you for higher rep sets but will help you slowly accumulate repetitions for the grand 100,200,300 grand totals.

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Derek Seifert, 633rd Air Base Wing photojournalist, performs a pull-up during a Memorial Day Murph and Pararescue Workout event

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Areca T. Bell)

Pushups / Squat Pyramid: Run 100m, 1 pushup/squats, Run 100m – 2 pushup/squats run 100m – 3/3…up to 10/10. This warmup will yield 55 squats and 55 pushups to add to the Murph Workout (100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats) below:

This Half Pyramid has you starting at 1 and building up to level 10 in ten sets.

PT HALF Pyramid 1-10 (*1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10)

pullups x 1 (55 reps)
Pushups x 2 (110 reps) (*2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20)
Squats x 3 (165 reps) (*3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27,30)
Run 400m

For clarity, the sets of the PT Pyramid breaks down like this:

Set 1: Pullup 1, Pushups 2, Squats 3, run 400m
Set 2: Pull-ups 2, Pushups 4, Squats 6, run 400m
Set 3: Pull-ups 3, Pushups 6, Squats 9, run 400m…Keep going up the pyramid until you fail, then resort in reverse order after failing at two exercises.

Reverse PT Pyramid with Pull-ups and Squats with cardio of choice each set to recover from each set

9-1. (*9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1)

Pull-ups x 1 – total for day equals 100 pull-ups
Squats x 3 – total for day equals 300 squats

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jared Martin, 633rd Security Forces Squadron police services NCO in charge, performs a push-up during a Memorial Day Murph and Pararescue Workout event.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Areca T. Bell)

For more information on the PT Pyramid, see the full article, The PT Pyramid is what I call a Foundation Workout. It helps the user build a solid foundation of calisthenics and increases volume so you will improve your previous limits. Once you get to level 10 and back down to 1 again you will have done 100 pullups, 200 pushups, and 300 squats. You do this each set by doubling each pull-up set for pushups, and tripling each pull-up set for squats.

You have 35 pushups to complete the FULL Murph 100,200,300 rep challenge and at the same time, work on your goal pace running intervals for future timed run events.

U.S. service members and their families participate in a 1-mile run during the Memorial Day Murph and Pararecue Workout event.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Areca T. Bell)

YES, this is 10 sets of 1/4 mile runs at goal mile pace for timed runs. Arrange as needed (use a treadmill or track if pull-up bar nearby)

Finish the workout with a Mini Mobility Cooldown that has some form of non-impact/walking, stretching, and foam rolling of muscles that will be sore – thighs, hamstrings, chest, upper back/lats, and arms.

Repeat 2 times