Hey Athletes! Looking to tackle MURPH this upcoming weekend? Then make sure to tune into this week’s episode of Ask Me Anything for the best tips around!
Episode 69 of Ask Me Anything is up!
Ask Me Anything: How To Crush MURPH and PR
This week Jerred and Joe are giving you tips and tricks on how to tackle MURPH! The guys go over the workout and then give advice on how you can crush MURPH and even PR the workout!
If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the Garage Gym Athlete podcast either on Stitcher, iTunes, or Google Play by using the link below:
Related Resources at End of Three Fitness:
- MURPH 52 Times in a Year: The Numbers
- Ask Me Anything: Best Way to Use Garage Gym Athlete Programming
Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add them to the comments below!
To becoming better!
Jerred
Transcript:
Jerred Moon
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage mathlete podcast Jerred. Moon here with Joe Courtney. What’s up, Joe?
Joe Courtney
Not too much, man. What’s what’s going on today? What do we got going on today?
Jerred Moon
I think we’re talking about basically how to PR Murph. Right.
Joe Courtney
Yeah. How to knock Murph out of the park?
Jerred Moon
Yeah. How do you? How do you do? Well, this workout? How do you think you do? Well, this workout? How do you do well at this workout?
Joe Courtney
Question within the question. Well, I do. There’s like,
Jerred Moon
there’s How do you think and then there’s how do you actually do it? And so there’s two questions.
Joe Courtney
So okay, so preparing ahead of time for one, so we’re just gonna Okay, so there’s no extra question to the lead? No,
Jerred Moon
no, how do you PR, we’re just gonna get into how up armor.
Joe Courtney
All right. So definitely, if this means that you’ve already done the thunder workout a few times, several times, you’ve done it in the past year, or in the year. So that’s why you’re PRN it because you already have one set. So you know what the workout is. And you know, you’re mentally prepared for it, or you’re preparing for it. So physically preparing for it, is what you need to do now. So if you already have your game plan, as we’ve said before, breaking you know, going from once the Murph is running a mile 100 pull ups, 200, push ups, 300, sit ups, and then running a mile squats. You said setups. way different ways. getting messed up now. And you can partition those as much as you want. And the unpartitioned version of Murph isn’t necessarily official, it’s just if people want to make it harder and go longer, but if you want to crush it, then yes, partition. Typically, the best way to do it is 510 15, meaning five pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. And that’s how you can go as fast as possible. So you have your plan in mind. And I think preparing in weeks, the weeks in advance, at least leading up to it is going to be a huge benefit to what you’re to get in there. And if you’re not doing a lot of push up and squat volume now, then this is the time to add it in as much as you can. And one thing that especially that we’ve done in the program in the past, and then now on the Murph burner track, is to do the Murph practice 20 minute workouts or fasted Cindy, when these make a huge difference, which is 20 minutes of 510 15, that same breakdown, but wearing a vest. So what you would do, and really your goal would be to hit 20 rounds into 20 minutes. But you know, you go in as as much as you can with that. And just speaking from doing the murder now from week one to week two, I added like 35 reps, to my, to my scores over around, I fit in in the 20 minutes, just going from one week to the next and then this week, I will probably add more. And that’s usually how it works, because adding that volume will help get you through the muscle fatigue so much more. And even like from that change from week one to week two, my muscle fatigue was so much better. It was more about the the the cardio aspect, the breathing aspect, and grew up with the pull ups. But so that makes a huge difference. So adding the volume in now is going to make a such a big difference. And you can do it any which way you want, whether it’s in your workouts or push up grids and squat grids. Because once you hit that fatigue level in the workout, it’s going to be hard to go further or to go faster, to keep your pace and then you’re gonna get more winded because you’re so fatigued. So add the volume. Now in the next couple of weeks, every little bit helps. What’s your, what’s your next one?
Jerred Moon
Yeah, so if you so this is assuming I won’t get into the prep work as much as Joe did, because that’s all that’s all the same stuff, I would say. So you do need to prep ahead of time, if you want to get faster in the miles, start some zone to training, and then do that for about two years. And then you’ll be your your mile times be a lot faster. And so that’s how you get faster, mild times. And then occasional speed work as well. So anyway, getting into the actual workout stuff. There are some little things that you can do here and there. One if you’re a big heart rate monitor guy or gal, ditch the heart rate monitor during your Murph PR attempt. And I’m a big heart rate monitor fan. But I don’t want to see it. If I’m going for PR and Murph. I’m not interested. And my watch telling me I’m in zone five because personally I’m going to get in my head. I’m going to be like, dude, you need to back off, you need to slow down. And that’s not the mentality I want. When I’m going for a PR that’s the mentality I want when I’m training. I train 364 days out of the year, one day if I want one day per year if I want to hit Murph as hard as I can Then I’m going to go for it. And so just our take on intensity. It’s not something that you should do all the time. It’s not something that you should do every single day. But when you are going for an official PR, go for it. Okay, that in no way should you hurt yourself or whatever, but go for it. So me personally, knowing as much as I do about heart rate zones and everything else, I don’t want to see my heart rate at all. If I’m going for a Murph PR attempt, I want to just, I want to, I want a standard like stopwatch on my wrist, like Timex Ironman traditional, and just like, okay, all I’m doing are laptimes, I want to see how fast my mile was, I want to see how fast every single round of calisthenics is. And that’s the only thing input I want my brain speed up, or slow down, speed up or slow down. Those are the only things I want to be thinking about as I go into it. And so that’s, that’s a big one, if you do enjoy the heart rate, monitor stuff, just go as hard as you can. On the pushups, I used to brief this to let’s just say, personnel in the Air Force before PT test, because I was I would do everything I can to help people, you know, squeeze out a couple extra reps, you know, to get a better score on their PT test. And on the pushups, specifically, don’t lower yourself to the ground. Okay, they don’t like you need to kind of fall. So it might, you might need to practice this a little bit. Because I’m not saying just like, fall and hit your chest on the ground every single time. But you should not be lowering yourself slowly to the bottom. Most people who’ve served in the military at all already do this. And they might not even know it like do you probably do it. I don’t know, if I’ve ever actually watched you do a push up, but you probably do it. Just because we know if we’re going slow on the way down, that’s just extra fatigue. That’s extra stuff that we don’t need. And when you’re taking a military pt, pt test, the only thing that matters is that up, that they’re not doing anything on the down, they don’t care about the down. And so practice that a few times. I’m not saying like it’s I’m not saying just fall down, I’m saying don’t control it so, so much that you are fatiguing your muscles unnecessarily. That doesn’t work as much on the pull ups because if you are doing a kipping pull up and you have no control on the way down, you can end up hurting your shoulder or worse, you just kind of getting locked or jerked into a position and then the squats. I mean, you can kind of do the same thing with the squats like don’t slowly lower yourself in a squat, try and like get down in that bottom position and shoot shoot out. But the big tips I give you know I’ve given before also on the calisthenics is pull ups are gonna be hard push ups are what they are, you’re gonna fatigue wherever that may be. squats is where you will lose all the time, I already told you how to get faster the mile go runs down to for two years and then also add additional speed work and then you’ll get a lot faster mile times it’s not something you’re going to do on the day of Murph. So if you want to get faster Murph, do not be a little baby on the squats, okay, you need to do the squats as fast as possible, and they need to be unbroken every single time. And I highly doubt that you’re actually running into this reason that you actually need to stop. I had this pointed out to me when I was in the military, very early on, when we would just do brutal workouts if someone else was was leading, we’d either be doing squats or lunges. And I don’t think this guy was like the most qualified fitness instructor in the world or anything. But he would always say he’s like, there’s no, like real reason you can’t do another lunge, or you can’t do another squat is like unless you just fall over from ridiculous muscle fatigue like and you can’t actually get up anymore. The only reason you’re not doing another rep is because you have selected to do so it takes a very long time for a human to be able to not squat anymore. Now I don’t know where your fitness level is whoever’s listening to this. So with an asterisk, you know, this was being said with very fit individuals. When I started my military career, so take that with a grain of salt, but I do think that when I watch people do squats, there’s like this, they open the hips and then they add three or four seconds and then they do another one three or four seconds walk around after 10 squats and Okay, what are we doing here as fast as you possibly can unbroken every single time. That’s how you need to do the squats. That’s where you make up all your time. And to be honest, if you just implement that one little tip, you’re probably going to PR your Murph time. Granted, you know if everything else is is the same on your mile times. So that’s calisthenics, if you want to PR and then again, I always say it on that last mile you need to go as hard as you possibly can. And I’ve, I mean, I’ve had some like, rough last miles, you know, you push yourself to whatever you feel comfortable but I’ve pushed myself to levels where I’m not sure I’m going to stay conscious Unless last mile, so maybe just like right below that, not that hard. And see where you go. Because I’ve been to those points to where I think there’s like no way you can go harder and then you, you actually push to that level. And then you find out that everything’s okay. And it’s like breaking a barrier. You’re like, Oh, I can live here. I can live in this space. And most people just don’t want to get there because it’s uncomfortable. But I think that’s about it. Don’t go too fast on the first mile. Joe, I think you recommended and it wasn’t in this episode, but you recommended, like 80% of your five to
Joe Courtney
90% myopia.
Jerred Moon
And I agree with that, because the I know what can give me a no chance of hitting a PR or a slower Murph time. And that is going too fast on the first mile. I remember one time I did like a, I don’t remember what it was, I think I posted my Instagram several years ago, but it was like, it’s like a 520 or something stupid. Like I did a 520 on my first mile. And I just I was like, I’m gonna PR and I did a 520 and one of the slowest Murph times I’ve ever, ever recorded, because I literally like close to PR in my mile time. And then I had 100 pull ups to do 200 200 push ups 300 squats and another mile, and my body just wasn’t having I was like shutting down. I was like, not not gonna happen. So go a lot. Pace the first mile. Okay, like, you know, I think 90% like you said Joe’s? That’s probably good. But don’t don’t try and PR it because it will ruin the rest of the workout. Lisa, I was the case for me. I’m not I think that’s about it. Like make sure everything’s like close. Like, I have a pull up bar. That’s right,
Joe Courtney
like right at my grip, like at my reaching height, if you will, that way i after your previous house where you had to get on the stool and then jump up.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, yeah, that was that slows you down. that slows you down quite a bit. So if you have like a high pull up bar, you want to pull a bar that’s like just within reach. And when we’re talking about the the minor tactical things here to make sure that you get that PR and so the minimal reach on the bar, and then just drop right from that bar and the pushups in place immediately to the squats all in the same place. Like there should be no walking around to different locations, it should be all one spot. And you get those calisthenics is done as fast as possible and then do whatever we can on the miles but I think all those seven all said and done. That’s about as tactical as I can get with the doing now the the mental side of it, you just have to go there, you know, I kind of talked about this, you have to go there, like there is no stroll in the park PR like this happened to me when I was trying to PR mild times over the last couple months is like you feel like you put in all this training. And so you should just go out to the track and PR that mile. And then you’re six seconds slower than you thought you’re going to be and you’re like, Oh yeah, you didn’t try. You didn’t try as hard as you possibly could. And then I tried again and then IPR in my mind. That’s you can’t do that. Even if you’ve been trained. There are a lot of athletes listening to this doing the Murph burner track. It’s great you’ve been training for it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to do amazing. I think for some if you had like a crazy time, like a bad time, you will. But if you’re if you’re trying to shave off seconds or just a minute here, you’re gonna have to put everything you got. And so go there mentally and make it hurt.
Joe Courtney
So just last couple things. For me another game plan that I do when I’m trying to PR or go as fast as I can, is at since I did the 510 15 split, that’s 20 rounds of those for kick calisthenics, at the 510 and 15. Mark is when I reapplied shock. And because basically I know I can do five rounds with the chalk that I have. So it’s right there and I just reapply it real quick because, you know, if you start to slip or tear, then you’re just not going to be good. But I also know that I don’t need to reapply chalk every two to three rounds because that’s just an excuse to be taking a breath and taking a rest. So I know I have it every every five rounds because then I can also break it up to Okay, read apply now five more rounds and then I get to reapply again. You get a couple of breaths then but it’s only those three breaks. And then if you really want to and try this out, like with all the research and studies did on the podcast at the 10 round Mark halfway through, they would do a car brands. Try that out. I did that recently when I did I did a Murph a couple months ago and it actually made a huge difference because I usually do it faster anyway. But that car brands really really made a difference.
Jerred Moon
Yeah and and one thing so not a sponsor here at all but I recommended on the podcast and then Chris Morgan started doing it. The supplements slash electrolyte drink liquid IV so the reason that one specifically because what I what I typically drink just show that there’s no actual sponsorship or whatever is noon. I like noon because it’s an electrolyte drink and I use that a lot in the summer. But it only has one gram of sugar, which is great. That’s what I typically want, especially if I’m just drinking it during the day. But liquid IV has like 11 grams of sugar. And it’s still like soup. It’s like non GMO. It’s like, organic cane sugar. Like it’s, it’s a really like clean supplement overall, but 11 grams of sugar is quite a bit if you’re just sitting on your ass, you know, in front of a computer or whatever. And but it’s not a lot if you’re about to do Murph. And so either have that like right before, I’m not talking like right before you start, like 30 minutes before 15 minutes before or something like that, or make that your drink during. Because if you’re running into any sort of like energy level thing, it probably is just food related your because for me, I’m in zone four, zone five that entire workout. That means I’m burning primarily in predominantly sugar, just sugar that’s in my body is burning glucose. It’s not really it’s moved away from fat oxidation at that point. I’m burning sugar, and I need sugar. And so if you are metabolized sugar in your, your body can use it pretty fast. So liquid IV is one that I do like, and you get that 11 grams sugar shot, and that should help you out. And like I said, Chris said that it was helping out a ton and his Murph project of doing 52 in the month of May. And it’s helped me out a lot with different workouts I’ve been doing as well. So that’s a not sponsored recommendation there for supplements.
Joe Courtney
Y’all check that out. cuz I’ve noticed I need that about halfway as well. cuz I’ve gotten nauseous a few times because I just I’ve been fascinated that I’m going to high intensity and I just got nothing left.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, you’re not your body’s got nothing there like this is um, we get a keto conversation, everything else but your, your body needs glucose. If you’re going to be at that high intensity level. There’s no way around it.
Joe Courtney
Yeah. And I think that was it. I know that the insane amount of air squat volume that we’ve been doing on the Murph burner, workout is made air squats a breeze when doing Murph practice, like that’s probably the easiest part now, which in the past, it’s like yeah, you kind of after a while your legs get a little heavy, you get a little fatigue and your heart rates going up and it still Jacks the heart rate up because their air squats but like it’s it’s still like smooth like butter the entire time.
Jerred Moon
So yeah, it’s something that you can get very accustomed to I, my brother has been training with me recently. And I had him do the five minute tests. I also program this on BCT. So it’s five minutes of a bunch of different types of calisthenics, just as many reps as you can possibly get in five minutes. And we got to the air squat. So we’re all we’re doing this together, right? Because it’s five minutes on a couple minutes rest and then we get to the air squats. And we’re like three minutes in and he’s just starts laughing. And he’s like, you have not stopped and I didn’t stop I did a squat continuous and fast for five full minutes. And he was like taking breaks because he’s not in the greatest shape at the moment. And he’s like taking breaks every 15 squats and 20 squats and, and all that stuff. And he’s like, How on earth do you just do squats that fast for five minutes without stopping? I’m like, just a lot of practice. You know, there’s nothing like special about me. I’ve just done a lot of squats. I’ve done a lot of Murph. Like you can just do a lot of squats. Your body can can handle it, but you do have to get accustomed to it. So
Joe Courtney
yeah, so that’s that’s huge, but those are my main those are all our main tips to crush Murph, at least for me.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, that’s all I got. Try hard. That’s the last one and just go faster. Alright, that’s it for this one. If you want to ask us a question. Go garage mathlete comm slash ama and submit your question. If you’re on YouTube, subscribe to the channel. Give us a thumbs up and a comment. Let us know how we’re doing. And then if you’re on your favorite podcast, player five star review positive comment really helps us show out and we would appreciate it. That’s it for this one.