Hey, Athletes! Thinking of going vegan? Or are you already eating vegan? Don’t miss this week’s episode of the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast to hear more on veganism and strength training!
Episode 98 of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!
Strength Training For Vegans Is Not That Simple
This week Jerred, Joe, and Kyle are back on the podcast! They give us their updates and announcements and then go over this week’s study. This week they go over a study on vegan diets vs. omnivore diets. The results were pretty similar but a lot to unpack here if you are eating vegan! This week’s topic is all about MURPH. The guys talk about their experiences with MURPH and things to look out for during this workout. Naturally, this week’s Meet Yourself Saturday Workout is MURPH. It’s a great way to celebrate Memorial Day and honor those who have laid down their lives for our freedom!
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:
IN THIS 64-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- Vegan vs. Omnivore
- MURPH
- Strength Training
- Soy Protein
- The Guy’s Experience With MURPH
- Tips For MYS
- Updates and Announcements
- And A LOT MORE!!
Diving Deeper
If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here are some links for you:
Study of the Week
Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week
Be sure to listen to this week’s episode:
Related Resources at End of Three Fitness:
- Part 1: MURPH 52 Times in a Year and the Power of Persistence
- Cardiorespiratory Fitness & Long-term Mortality, Vegan Diets (Re: Game Changers Documentary), and MURPH
—
Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!
To becoming better!
Jerred
Transcript:
Jerred Moon
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage mathlete podcast gentlemen here with Kyle Shrum and Joe Courtney, gentlemen.
Kyle Shrum
Oh, should we put a maskull?
Joe Courtney
How’s your man? Hello.
I currently have COVID I’m not really. But I am sick for the first time, a very long time and we’re recording it anyway. Because the show must go on.
Joe Courtney
Then the crappy thing is if you go like to the grocery store anywhere in public sounding the way you are in coughing, you’re just gonna start like fewers scatter from you, even though it’s just a breathing thing.
Well, I’m not gonna go on public.
Kyle Shrum
I’m gonna say I don’t think he really has much to worry about. Yeah, you probably not going in public. The private doesn’t talk to me people when he is in public.
You nailed it. There you go. But we were tested. It’s actually not COVID. It’s a different upper respiratory viral thing. Hand It’s weird. This is like actually the first time I’ve been sick, like, in a very long time. Like normally my kids get sick. And I’m like, like, I might feel something for one day, if they get sick. I’m like, you know, maybe My throat hurts. And then it goes away, you know? So this is the first time in a very long time. So my record has now fallen. It’s on one of you to keep it going for as long as possible.
Kyle Shrum
My chip has been compromised.
Yes. All right.
What do we normally do after that after the beginning? No,
Joe Courtney
I’m kidding. today.
We’ll get into the updates. Again, no garage mathlete. Shout outs right now, but we will get back to those in the next couple of weeks. But any athlete out there crushing things. I’ve seen a lot of things opening back up people. Scheduling events, Spartans ultra marathons, a lot of cool stuff coming. So if you’re doing that, awesome. Looks like the world is opening up back to normal slowly but surely. And that excites me for future events because I want to get it. Get some of the garaged. mathletes back together. Maybe maybe North Carolina maybe in North Carolina or somewhere around North Carolina.
Joe Courtney
Just beat that drum because there’s no other place.
Yeah, there’s it’s impossible there no other events anywhere. All right, Kyle, how’s life?
Kyle Shrum
Good. I’m finally finished painting cabinets. That’s my update. Things are Let’s just end it right there. Things are kind of boring. We should celebrate.
Joe Courtney
How many audio books did you read it while going through your projects?
Kyle Shrum
Honestly? Yeah, I think I think I’ve finished five books. In Yeah, I don’t know how many weeks. All the days just kind of strung together there for a while. didn’t really know what day it was.
Joe Courtney
So good. Books help. Get books out.
Kyle Shrum
Yeah. But yeah, I crushed a lot. It’s a lottery. So. And summer breaks coming up soon. So this poses I think, Hannah and the kids would be on their last week of school last week of school.
So my kids are out on Friday, but they’re not actually going to school either because they’re sick. So maybe they’re done. They might be done. I don’t know. I mean,
Joe Courtney
newsflash.
Summers already started. Dang
Kyle Shrum
it. Anyway, all right, Joe.
Joe Courtney
So I’ll have a little bit more excitement, a spot talking specifically with the merch burner because we will be talking about merch later on today. But also the merch burner has been going on. And I’ve been doing going through it. So I just wanted to share some of my progression. Are some of the athletes doing it. So each week we do a five blocks of or 15 minutes of zone to running. And then the day after that is Murph practice, which is invested Cindy so and it is still crazy hot here, but I think I’m I’m acclimating a little bit to the heat even though it’s still not fun at all. I think my body’s just starting to acclimate a little bit, so I’m not suffering as much. I did the 50 minute, the third week of the 50 minute run today as well. So between Ligue one, my pacing was at 1008, we two I dropped down to 953 per mile pace that is, and then today was exactly the same 953. But the difference between week two and week three is that at week two, I had I reached a point of zone to where my heart rate peaked out at three and a half miles I had to start walking in order for it to drop down then it was just a Rangel kind of thing or jog walk kind of thing. Today, I was able to do all 15 minutes without any sort of walking period. So I paced out so far. So it was the same exact pacing but I pasted so that I was continuously running the entire Time, even through the heat, which is going to chronicle, and then more practical due tomorrow for my third one, but from week one to two, I added 35 reps. And what was the biggest shocker is that even though it was only 35 reps, which I felt like I could have gotten more, it was only like the cardio part that was slowing me down. But muscle fatigue, because of all the volume that we’re doing, I was so much better we to compare, like, air squats were pretty much easy push ups, I didn’t really hit the fatigue part on the last time, or the first week, I was starting to go from five and five to like, four, three, and three. This time five and five, were fine. I didn’t have to rest as long. It was just the cardio part, the the conditioning, the breathing part that was kind of slowing down. But also fatigue was so much better. Big difference between week one and two, and makes me kind of scared for tomorrow because that means I’m probably going to be doing more tomorrow. And that’s just not gonna be fun, but it’s fine. Because I’m still wanted to see progress from that. And then I finally are
Kyle Shrum
getting more fit.
Joe Courtney
Yes, my. And all that.
Yes, but it’s not all that to say he’s selling the merch burner track is what he’s doing. So go to garage, gym athlete, comm slash merch, and you can get that program that’s making him such a badass. Even if it’s at the end of May, you can still get the program, download the PDFs and be like, Oh yeah, I want to go through this at a later time. And guess what, we’re still going to donate your money to the special operations where foundation and you’ll get a program in the process. So it’s, it’s really a win win. If you’re not doing it, you got a problem. So like, go do it.
Joe Courtney
And then lastly, I finally I’ve been talking about this for a couple months now but I finally actually made the bone broth video on how to make bone broth. It is loaded, ready to go. And actually as of publishing this podcast, it will already be out on YouTube. So go to YouTube if you want to know how to make bone broth, because it’s me, Joanie, how to make it. And next the scramble. That man that changes every single day. So well. Let’s just get a
some version of it recorded.
Joe Courtney
I’ll try. I’ll see which version I actually want to do with it.
Kyle Shrum
We’re gonna have a Joe in the kitchen playlist on YouTube. We totally show
Joe Courtney
Cooking with Courtney. Well,
I like the alliteration. That’s it.
Kyle Shrum
He’s He’s obviously thought about this morning.
All right. So my I have not had a garage gym. This is my attempt at a garage gym all week. I had to empty out my entire garage gym. I’ve been talking about it. They finally spray foam insulated my garage gym yesterday, as of recording this yesterday, which is awesome. We’ll see how it plays out. When we get to like it’s not hot in Texas, which is for mid to late May is odd. Like this is I’ve even worn a hoodie in the last seven days. Which is strange. So we got some weird things going on. In Texas. We had that freeze earlier in the year. We have floods right now. And it’s not getting hot. I’m sure we’ll get hot eventually. It always does. It’s never failed me. You know, Texas always gets hot. But anyway that that whole process was a lot of work. It was like moving again. And I didn’t think about that when I agreed to the Spray Foam Insulation going in. So yeah, I had to pull every single like rack my I have the foldable rack from robe so like that it’d be completely taken off the wall. Everything moved out the only thing that stayed in there was the sauna pretty much and some of the other like the reverse hyper I wasn’t moving on like nah, dude, I’m not moving that out. So we just put some some plastic over it. But they they got it all insulated, which is awesome. And now I’m going to be putting the garage gym back together. But I like Joe’s cooking with Courtney. Do moving with moon and I’ll show you how I how I put garage gyms together. I don’t know if that’d be helpful information but it is a video that will come out in the next one to two months. All depends on when we do it the cycle. But yeah, that’s it. That’s all I got to be wise other than I’m sick, who cares? Let’s move on. Get into the study. So the study is high protein plant based diet versus a protein match omnivorous diet to support resistance training adaptations, a comparison between habitual vegans and omnivores. And this was done in 2021. I was excited about this study because I’ve mentioned on the podcast quite a bit. I don’t do well with dairy The predominant supplementation choice of athletes in all fitness. individuals in the world is typically whey protein. And for good reason. Like I don’t hate on way I wish I could take Wei Wei has basically everything you need. It’s a great protein source and has the right amount of leucine and all the meat, amino acids, everything like that. So anyway, I have to take vegan proteins. I’m not vegan, but I’m a lot more vegan than I used to be because of not being able to consume dairy. So I’m basically a vegan. I the only thing I mean, I eat meat, which sounds hilarious. Like, yeah, I’m a vegan who eats meat. That’s all I’m trying to say. I’m just saying like, when you don’t eat dairy that removes so many things. And then if you ever go gluten free to if you guys have ever tried that, you It cuts out a lot of your diet. So anyway, I was excited to get into this because I’ve always had this question in my brain ever since I switched a couple years ago, because hasn’t been that long. It’s only been maybe max two years that I’ve been exclusively, like dairy free. And I’m like, I got these vegan proteins, but are they really as good. And we’ve had these conversations about, you know, leucine content, I were really off the deep end on that trying to find out what actually makes a good protein supplement and all these other things. And this wasn’t specifically about supplementation, it was more about
just getting enough protein, I think is the big part, they did supplement and we’ll talk about the pros and cons of their supplementation. But they was it was 19 individuals, right 19 young men who were either habitual vegans or omnivores, they had some really pretty funny like strict criteria for which group you could be in, I’m sure you guys might hit on that. So they really just took these 19 individuals in each group ran them through a 12 week program, and then, you know, measured to see their leg lean muscle mass, whole mass and muscle fiber cross sectional area, as well as leg press when our max were assessed before and after the intervention. So I think overall, a pretty good study. And the normalized amount of protein was 1.6 grams per kilogram a day is what they were wanting people to hit. I’m 185 pound male. So for me that 1.6 would put me at like 130 435 grams of protein per day, we normally recommend like point eight to one gram per pound of body weight. So pretty similar. Like if I’m at the low end, that’s about 145, or just over 145 grams of protein is my low end amount of protein. So also very on par with the amount of protein we recommend every single day. So what do you guys think?
Joe Courtney
Kyle? Like, I’m gonna let you go first this week.
Kyle Shrum
Oh, okay. Cool.
I will say that people stole your points a lot. So let’s see what points you got.
Kyle Shrum
Okay. Okay. Nobody till now. This is why I don’t go first. So I can blame other people for stealing.
Joe Courtney
Oh, man, I had that idea, then.
Kyle Shrum
That’s it. So one thing to say is to be included in the study, they could not have participated in resistance training for at least a year prior. So we’re looking at where it’s another study with some inexperienced lifters. Unlike the keto study that we covered a week or two ago, where it was professional bodybuilders. This one is more inexperienced lifters. They kept their regular diet, which I thought was good, they weren’t forcing somebody who’s normally on on an on reverse diet to switch to a vegan diet, or vice versa. These guys were pretty much eating. They’re eating pretty much how they normally eat. And then just supplementing with whatever protein it was they needed to supplement with to stay in their in their specific diet camp. So you had you had the vegan protein for the beans and the the whey protein for the carnivores or omnivores. And one thing I’ll say about the conclusion was that pretty much both diets saw the same results, the results were not statistically statistically significant. So there wasn’t a significant difference between the two. Both both diets helped the lifters move in the right direction, and they made similar gains in strength. And so because they did a 12 week resistance training program, and so both of them both diets help people gain strength, and then gaining strength in pretty similar numbers. One thing that I’ll say about, about which I think is good because you know, we have people in our community who eat in different ways, and we should because as we talk about every time we talk about it Nutrition, it should be individualized. So I will say for the vegan diet, the vegans required more supplements, they required 58 grams of their supplement to get the same amount of protein, versus 40 grams of supplement for the omnivorous group. So that’s something to keep in mind when you’re going that direction is you’re gonna have to take more, which we’ve talked about before, as well, you’ll have to take more of your supplement from a vegan source or a plant based source than you will from whey source or animal sources. And also something to keep in mind is plant sources, plant based sources come with more carbs. So that’s going to be part of it as well is keeping that in mind. With your macros and with the way that your diet works out, those are things to keep in mind. But I thought it was cool to see especially it wasn’t like, it wasn’t an isolated, really short study, or it was a 12 week training program. And I like to see that and we talked about that, as well. We’d like to see a full cycle, what we call a full cycle of training, to see how things you know, work out flesh out over a long period of time. So I like to see that basically, according to this study, whether you eat vegan or whether you eat animal based, or whatever it is that you can make strength gains, as long as you dial things in the way they need to be dialed in. So that’s what I that’s what I liked about study. I’m not, you know, going to be like a vegan hater or anything like that, it’s not the way that I choose to eat. I don’t have, you know, issues like what Jared has, where I’m having to make, you know, switches like that I have to in the future. And if I do, it’s good to know that I can still make make similar gains if I have to make those kinds of switches. So Joe.
Joe Courtney
So I, on the surface, this was I was definitely excited to cover this book, especially because we just did the keto one. So kind of get in the opposite end of the spectrum. And yes, it did turn out that looking at the metrics that they did that everything was basically equal, not one that didn’t get significantly stronger or more more gains in general, although, you know, the issues with inexperience because the non resistance, trained athletes and doing a one rep max on leg press, not really a fan of but you know, tries It’s fine, I think it’s still conveyed the point that you wanted to know, and that is, can a vegan diet sustain the same amount of hypertrophy and muscle gains as omnivores diet? And yes, on the surface, I will say yes, but I think it comes with a big Asterix. And that is I think on vegan diets, you need to have a lot more, pay a lot more attention to what you’re eating, there’s a lot more processed and produced food in order to be a vegan. And what I mean by that is the like what Jared said with the natural protein and amino acids, it’s a lot easier and naturally to get amino acids from meat and omnivores diet versus vegan you have to go looking for to make sure all of those things are included to make sure the sources are well. They use soy protein in this which I don’t like we avoid soy and everything that we eat. Soy is not very good. And it’s usually not treated and produced very well. And it can have hormonal and side effects like that. That’s one of Ashley’s points that she made. I’m just kind of stealing some furs. So there’s a lot of Asterix with vegan diet. And so yes, all things equalized are fine. But you have to have a lot more commitment and pay a lot more attention with vegan diets today and with omnivorous diets. And that’s why like I think personally for me, a setting moral and ethical problems aside if you’re just looking nutritionally for most people, I think omnivores type diets or even lacto ovo vegetarians are far superior than you would get for vegans. And the point of anybody saying that, like vegans are superior and you can do and digest, you technically can get the same benefits from it, but you’re going to use a lot more work. And honestly, it’s a lot harder. It’s even hard to get people to eat clean, regular diets of just vegetables and meat versus you need to eat all this other vegan things clean and make sure you’re getting your amino acid, your vitamin D, your calcium and all these things. So it’s much more complex than just this dy equals this because you know, not all diets are there’s no superior diet honestly. And I think we can stick a fork in that making a mechanical joke here. And another thing with the going back to the macros verse vegan source because a lot of people are keto versus vegan, because those are compared a lot with people and those words are thrown out. And something that I just want to say is that those are two different are done. that are based on two different fundamentals or premises. And that’s what I mean by that is kidoz. keto is all about controlling and restricting one of your macros, and it’s all macro based. Vegan is all about the source of where it’s coming from and controlling what your nutrition is coming from. So going from macro minded one to a sore spine and one are completely different to compare, and to be treated differently in general. So that’s one thing that I wanted to get across as well. And also why throwing out these diet names, isn’t just isn’t the way to go. And people are just doing that kind of diet high train. But study wise. Yeah, it was it was interesting. And I think what I remember we did a study a long time ago about protein content. And I, if I don’t know which which one it was, or what the numbers were, but I thought we read that you have to actually consume more plant protein than animal protein, like grams per body weight, because your body only absorbs like 80% of what you’re ingesting with plant protein, or is it something along that line. So I don’t know if anybody remembers, or
it depends on what you’re actually eating like supplementation, that’s not necessarily true. Like, in Kyle’s example, they had to have more soy protein than they did whey protein, that’s just a gram per gram of the supplement they chose. If you chose a different supplement, it could be 100% equal and the amount of protein but when you’re actually talking about getting your, your protein from a plant, yeah, there’s like, it’s a lot harder to eat that much. And then your body can’t even handle it all. So you have to eat, I think it is 15% more by most vegan estimates to get the same amount of protein.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, that’s something to keep in mind. But yeah, obviously, you can still do a vegan diet or plant a diet and get the same amount of benefits and gains from your workouts, you just have to look more deeper into things. And we also have plant protein as well, we do we’re fine with way still. But we do plan protein, but in most of those are our pea protein. And even though he’s seen some pumpkin seed ones, that are really good. So doing research, and that is something that’s going to be important if you want to do a vegan lifestyle. They just you just got to know that you get some research, but you can still equate the same benefits. Jared, what you got?
Yeah, I mean, I think you guys hit on a lot of it. I think, ultimately, I think this is good. You know, you mentioned that study about 15% more, the one we covered where you you need 15% more protein on a vegan diet. But I don’t know if a study like this overturns the study like that, you know, because what they did here was equate for just protein per kilogram, or, you know, per pound, however you want to look at it. And they they got results, you know, they they had very similar results. So I think that’s really promising for vegans, and I do think if you are vegan, you’re most likely vegan for for ethical reasons. I don’t know, if you think if if it’s not for ethical reasons, and you’re just going in as like, I think this is more optimal way to be a human being, like for performance. It’s probably not like, you could just eat a crap ton of fruits and vegetables with a little bit of meat and be fine. Like I would rather eat a piece of meat, then take a bunch of supplements, you know. And so Emily and I went, yeah, Emily and I went vegan. And we’ve talked about this, but it’s been a while for a few weeks, last year, the year before, just to test it out just to see how closely we could stick to macros and everything. And it was incredibly challenging. And I had all the problems that you were talking about Joe, like, I was hitting my macros that wasn’t necessarily the case, it wasn’t like, Oh crap, I can’t get enough protein without having too much carbs. Like it is more challenging. But I was able to hit my macros perfectly. But the problem I didn’t like was I had to supplement more than I normally would to get the amount of protein that I wanted. And I was eating really weird things like, you know, fake burgers and like all these other kinds of things to get the right macro breakdown. And so, for me, at least when I went vegan for that short time period, just as the experiment just for the experiment, my diet went from like not as processed to like ultra processed, like, I just had a lot of processed type foods in my diet, all of a sudden, that was a big reason I didn’t like it. If you can get away with not doing that, then that I think it’s fine. But as far as the study is concerned, I like how it’s broken down. I don’t have a problem with the participants in how much they did or didn’t train. I get why they do those things. It’s just easier to like notice bigger changes when someone doesn’t train. They seem to do that quite often in these studies. They want people who haven’t worked out So they can really see the full benefit. But since both groups were of the same, you know, I don’t think that there’s any problem with that. I think there’s anything else. Yeah, the biggest thing I did have problem with was the soy based protein that you mentioned. Because it’s always it’s seen as a health food. But if you really do some research on soy, you’ll see a lot of things I don’t like the science isn’t necessarily like strong, either way about soy being good or bad, I think that you could make, you could make an argument either way, you could look at some studies and be like, Hey, this is great for you. It’s, you know, anti cancer, like, it’s good, all these other things. But then you could also pull off a few studies and see that sois is probably bad. I don’t like it, because of the possible risks, that’s where it comes down to me, is because like the hormonal thing you mentioned, like, it’s a leap there, it’s like, this has this compound, which can do this to your estrogen levels in a male or female, or can cause thyroid problems because of this reason. It’s, it’s never like a direct link. It’s like, so it has this. So it’s this this. And so there are some studies that say that it is bad. And the but the risks for me, are like, are too great. Like, if it could be good, that’s great. But the risk if the if the it being bad is right, is not something I want to mess with, I don’t want to mess with my hormones, I don’t want to get increased estrogen levels, I don’t want thyroid problems. And these are things that could happen with soy. So that’s why I stay away from it completely. Because the risk is is not something I want to play around with.
Joe Courtney
yet. The biggest issue I think a lot with soy is how it’s prepared. And traditionally used to be prepared yet to ferment it. And that’s the best way to to do it because it changes the proteins in soy. But we just do short all the shortcuts now and trying to preserve so people just shell out soy and think also is the same but it’s not has to be processed a certain way, just like so many other things.
Yeah. And I think it’s, I wish they would have selected something different too. Because there we’ve talked about some of the supplements, there’s so many great supplements coming on the market with pea protein, watermelon seed, pumpkin seed in all these variations that are able to hit the right amino acid profile with these combinations. And, uh, you know, I don’t, and that’s a good thing, because several years ago, the only thing you could do if you were vegan and an athlete was to supplement with soy protein or eat it or whatever, like that was how you got your protein, you know, soy burgers and all that.
Joe Courtney
I have an off the wall question as far as protein source. Go for it and vegans eat crickets because there’s cricket protein?
I don’t think so.
Joe Courtney
Are crickets animals?
I mean, vegans don’t consume honey. Right? Like it’s cuts from a B.
Joe Courtney
Hmm. I guess if you’re really diehard then yeah.
I think that’s
Kyle Shrum
I think that’s the I think that’s the only way to go.
I think vegan heart is the only thing there is. Yeah, I think vegan like asterisk is equals diehard. You know, because you can’t you literally can’t say I’m a vegan who eats eggs. You know what I mean? You can’t You can’t do that. You’re just You’re something else at that point.
Joe Courtney
You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.
So the once you once you stop that vegan label on you’re officially hardcore like carnivore? Like there there are no and big Well, I’m carnivore, but I eat like a sweet potatoes. You’re not carnivore. I don’t have never seen a lion. Go grab some sweet potatoes from the field and start munching on them.
Kyle Shrum
No one would go great with this because Oh.
Joe Courtney
I did not I saw lions. They were not eating vegetables.
Yeah, no. And yet, they still live seven to eight years. So I don’t I don’t know the lifespan. Anyway, overall, I think it was good takeaway for the garage mathlete. If you need to supplement with vegan source protein like I am, you’re probably fine. And also, for all the vegan athletes out there, you can absolutely do this. You just got to find your own way to do it. And all for the broad majority of our listeners who are omnivorous, just keep doing what you’re doing. But do focus on that protein amount, that’s probably the most important thing. I harp on it a lot with athletes, like make sure you’re getting enough protein. If I don’t pay attention to my protein, or I’m not thinking about it, I get I don’t get a lot of protein in my day. Like I could very easily end with 80 grams of protein for the day, if I had no supplement and like wasn’t trying to eat protein. And so and that’s just me, and I know everyone can can be different, obviously. But uh, it’s hard for me to get protein if I’m not consciously thinking about it. So I’m always thinking about how to get protein We normally do that protein and water challenge. And those are the things I try to focus on every day protein and water. Because when I’m doing those two things, I feel the best. Alright, anything else?
Joe Courtney
Don’t think so.
All right, let’s move on to study to Murph. And the workout is Murph. So I guess we’re just gonna be talking about Murph for a little while. We could talk about whatever first thing want. Go ahead.
Joe Courtney
So what is if you guys have an early on, let’s go back, let’s go back in time, and early on Murph memory, whether it was your first one or one of the first ones, early ones on you do introductory to the workout? And I’ll just go first what you guys think, wait, let’s talk.
Let’s say what Murph is. First, we always do this just in case. Dang it, just in case. So Murph. It’s a hero workout. It was created by CrossFit in memory of Michael Murphy, who was killed in action Afghanistan in 2005. The workout is run one mile 100 pull ups 200 push ups three and a scrub squats, run one mile, where 20 pound vest, if you have it. I think it’s 14 pound vest for females, and partition the reps as needed. If you are the people who invented the workout CrossFit, they say that you can partition the the reps and so you can partition the reps as needed. Just so we’re all clear on that. And, and that’s it. Now, now we can go, let’s go.
Joe Courtney
Okay, here we go. So first or early on, Murph experience or memory. So one of the ones that I have that’s actually a fun story was I was when I was studying abroad in Australia. It was coming up and I wanted to do it. I’d be looking forward to it for a long time. But you know, here in the States, all the CrossFit gyms would do would do Murph, but in Australia they weren’t planning on doing it wasn’t. And the thing was, it’s not a holiday or anything. So I had to convince the the gym owner and the head coach, for a couple of weeks, I had to petition to get a programs. And he was like, well, maybe I’ll just let you do it on your own. And then after after a while, I started talking to other people, and he changed the programming to do Murph on that day. So some people weren’t fans of it, but I didn’t really care. So that was my I think that was my second time to immerse because I did in the states the year before. And it went really well. And this is also how the my post Smurf burrito tradition got started because there was a mall nearby. And afterwards, I knew there was a place there that had a giant like three pounder. So burrito, so we all went and got some afterwards now that’s my thing.
Kyle Shrum
postmark burritos.
Joe Courtney
Yes.
Pre Murph chicken and waffles.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, that’s all right.
Well, I’ll tell you the first time I did Murph Murph story. So I have a very long history of Murph. I know I did it every week for a year a couple times. But that’s not even close to where Murph starts. For me. Murph started back in college, I did not even know it was called Murph at the time. I still don’t know how I was told, like the person who told me about it. I don’t know where they got it from. So anyway, they this guy was a Marine, active duty marine. He was visiting some people were where I was at anyway, I won’t get into the whole backstory that he was visiting. He told me about this workout. And he just explained it as what the workout was not that it was and to be honest, I don’t know like Murph had been k k for not very long. So I don’t know if like, I don’t know if that had just been announced. And he told me about it or he knew about it through the grapevine through Navy marine like Association. I like I said, I have no idea how he got it. But he challenged me to do it. But he just explained it as with a vest on run a mile, do the calisthenics run a mile. And so I did that. at Texas Tech University. They have like this perfect one mile loop with a pull up bar, you know, at the start, and so it was just like, Yeah, let’s do it. And I remember it just I didn’t tie myself either. I wasn’t really big into like timing workouts back then. I just was like, I just did it and it kicked my ass. Like I it absolutely kicked my ass. So that was the first time I did it. I didn’t know I was doing Murph, but I did Murph a pretty long time ago. And then more like into my military days. When I was a physical training leader. I forced everyone to do Murph like all the damn time, and they hated me for it. So we just did a lot of Murph when I was in the military. Because we had a very similar situation with a quarter mile track with a pull up bar. A lot of pull up bars at the end of it so we could facilitate quite a few people doing Murph And then if the group’s got too big, that’s where we would do. We did the year three 5k. That’s why that was invented. Because if I was, if I was, had to lead, like 100 people and work out a bit, okay, we’re doing them. It was called the confused 5k at that time. So we’re doing the confuse 5k today, or if it was, like 30 people we’d be doing Murph. So a lot of that a lot of the workout in my, my history over the years.
Kyle Shrum
Well, I don’t remember the first time I did Murph, but I’ll just make an assumption that yeah, that it didn’t go very well for me. I know, at the time, I’m pretty sure I probably spent most of the time trying to finish my first mile. That’s probably how it went. Just because at the time that I knew about murfin would have been trying it the first time. I was not as good at running as I am now, which I’m still not a pro at running. But running a mile is no longer an issue for me like it used to be. And so I don’t even know how I would have accomplished pull ups. Probably just would not have actually finished the workout. The first time I did it. So this is all theoretical, theoretical, because I don’t remember. I don’t remember the first time I did it. But I remember. I remember what my what my fitness was like, at the time that I would have been trying Murph the first time and
from Did you try it and you just don’t remember or you’re talking about had you tried, Murph? When you first start working out? This is what it would be like?
Kyle Shrum
Yeah, that, I guess, okay. I don’t remember. I don’t remember the first time you have done it. Notice. I have done the work. Okay. I guess. Yeah. I don’t remember who got to reverse How much time do you have to? I don’t, I guess I just pushed it out of my brain. I suck at this. Not gonna, not gonna keep. I’m gonna keep this one around. I don’t remember.
Joe Courtney
I can’t wait till I’m somewhere that I can like, actually go full out and like, not have an asterisk on my Murph time, a little bit, because like here, it’s gonna be like 97 degrees. It’s I mean, it’s already mid 90s, to close to 100. In San Diego, where we live, we lived at the bottom of the hill. So starting that mile, after all the running, like, absolutely horrible. I couldn’t even run up my giant Hill, because that’s the only way to go. So
there are no asterisks. That’s just the workout. It just is what it is. You know, you did. You didn’t work with me at my first Texas House.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, there’s a crew.
Yeah, there’s some elevation. not significant. But there’s some ups and downs enough to make you slower and a mile than you would be if you were on a track. Yeah. But no, no asterisks on the times. You know, that’s just,
Kyle Shrum
oh, this was my time, but it was 100 degrees outside. So yeah,
well, that does make you slower.
Kyle Shrum
But yeah, but I’m just saying. No, asterisk.
Yeah. Guys. Like I don’t trust a true former. To the point where I kind of won’t do it. I’m like, the mile time makes me too angry. to like, continue the workout. I’ve only done this once now. And that’s very upsetting. I was like, How on earth I just run eight minute mile. And Murph. Like that’s not normal. And it’s, you’re on a true farm. Things are harder, slower. So is that everything we’re gonna break down?
Joe Courtney
Yeah, what else we want to talk about for Merce?
I want to talk about the times I’ve almost died.
Joe Courtney
That’s, that’s fine.
There’s two. So speaking of heat, no, this isn’t. That’d be the second time I was the first time. I was physical training leader. And we were doing an optional Murph workout. Which means I was not officially leading it. I just invited people to do Murph since I would be doing it. And I think we had about 15 people show up. And that was the first time I decided to do a double Murph. And it was both times almost I have been in in heat. So it was Florida. And it was super hot, but also like 100% humidity without rain. And so I did a double Murph vested. And I remember his name is Callaway as his last name. That’s how everyone works in military. He was like, Sir, are you alright? And I was like, I think so. Because I was like, I was like, halfway through my second Murph, and he was watching me in the calisthenics and I guess when I was hopping off the pull up bar, I was like, stumbling a little bit. And he’s like, I don’t know. He’s like, maybe you should like Stop or whatever. And I was like, well, you, you, you finished all of your likes self aid buddy care training, right? And he’s like, he’s like, Yeah, and I was like you’re good then just don’t feed me any liquids, you know, and in call somebody to help me if I like pass out. And I do remember finishing and I was super like lightheaded and did not feel right for a while. And so that one was bad. But the worst one was, I’ve mentioned this before the first year I did Murph there. It was never like, there was never like, oh, let’s do a training. Murph. We’re like, let’s back off the first time I did it. It was you try as hard as you can. Every Saturday. That’s what you do. When you when you do Murph. There’s there’s good and bad that comes comes with that. And the bad was when it got officially really hot in Texas. And I was doing Murph literally, worst time of the day. It’s like two 3pm. That’s like the hottest it gets. And also it can get very humid in Dallas. And I remember, on my second mile run home, I mean, I was already miserable. I remember getting cold, and getting chills. Like I was getting cold and getting chills. And it’s like 100 something degrees. And it’s just awful. And I basically collapsed. And in the backyard. After I finished that mile, I had to like crawl into our living living room. And Emily was like, What’s wrong, I was like, I think I got too hot. And I definitely I was like heat exhaustion, maybe close to heat stroke, and had to cool off for a very long time and again, wasn’t right for a while. And so then I decided not to try as hard but still hard. Because now I know where that point is, to where you get heat exhaustion and feel like you’re gonna die. So if you ever feel cold when it’s hot outside, that’s a big alarm bell to like, maybe maybe slow down.
Kyle Shrum
So the double Murph, is that just doing it twice in a row? Or is that doubling every like you do two miles at first, and then you double all the reps in between? And then two miles at the end?
Yeah, so I’ve done both, but I did it the workout twice. So you finish that last mile. And then you start on a second mile, you start over again.
Joe Courtney
You haven’t had that many Murph experiences to have anything crazy like that?
I mean, I don’t Yeah, I didn’t expect any further death stories. But they’re, they can happen.
Kyle Shrum
So going back to something that Jared said about partitioning the reps, like there’s something about that’s one thing about Murph that I do like is like, there’s so many different ways to scale, it can partition the reps that you can do. I mean, obviously, they’re the the purists out there who say you have to do it this way, or made up, you didn’t do it. And it’s like, no, that’s not how it is. So that’s one thing that I think is good for everybody is everyone can do some version of mirth. So whether it’s, you know, the full RX of, you know, everything on a row, and you’re not partitioning the reps, and you have the 20 pound best and all that kind of stuff, whether it’s that, or whether you’ve partitioned things out and scaled as needed. Everybody can do and we even made up our own version of it with his own tumor. And so you do the whole thing, not getting out of zone to your heart rate zone too. So there’s all different kinds of ways to do it. And I think that’s one thing that’s made it so universal as well and why it’s so popular is there’s so many different ways to do it that pretty much everybody can find a way to partition it and scale it where they can complete it.
Joe Courtney
One thing I said on a recent ama that we were recording that I think everybody strife, especially if you’re going you know want to get as fast can or just because we’ve talked about in studies and stuff that is dry carbons, when when you go up and do it I did it a couple of weeks ago, a couple months ago one because I I wanted to do a Murph and I made a big difference. Now I also was fasted at the time. So that’s probably also why because I was just completely deleted. And in the past I know I’ve gotten a little bit nauseous but it was huge. And it really helped me bounce back. So I think it’s something cool to try and even now i know i think i’m every time I do Murph, now I’m gonna have to have something because it’s intense, especially if you’re partitioning it right. And you’ve had some sort of, you know, calisthenic training.
I always get excited around this time of year makes me want to do Murph a year, every week for a year again. But I tried to like, curtail that excitement and be like, Hey, no, it’s alright. Like, you don’t need to do Murph every week for a year again. But I just love the workout. If we ask the question. If you could only do one workout for the rest of your life, what would be my selection would be nice. If I could only do one workout for the rest of my life, it would be this one. It is my favorite workout. I think it’s really well rounded and has the ability to like most things, but you can go down like the zone two version you can have, you can just challenge yourself in so many different ways like the partitioning strict or Yeah, good doing all the pull ups before you go to the next. Like, there’s just so many ways to make this workout challenging. It’s a lot of fun. So we want to get into any tips. couple quick tips for the workout.
Kyle Shrum
Let’s say learn how to breathe. This is we’ve talked about it especially with with Joe talking about his vest and things like that, especially if you’re going to be wearing a vest here and Murph, which again, you don’t have to, just to be clear, but the prescribed version of it is with a vest. And so especially if you’re going to be wearing a vest during during the workout, definitely learn how to breathe with that best arm because the best is going to constrict you a little bit. And there are other ways to do it as well. Maybe you were the best when the why you run and you take it off for the calisthenics, put it back on when you run again, things like that. But there are ways to learn how to breathe properly. And so you’re going to have the best make sure that you’re still breathing, because not breathing is a good way to not be alive anymore. So that’s why I would say learn how
Joe Courtney
that’s actually something that I’ve been playing with recently is breathing and, and all the times with doing reps of any sort of either calisthenics or strength or anything like that I’ve always learned to breathe. Like with each rep. Like on push ups, I inhale on the way down, I exhale on the way up. And it’s just I do that the entire time. But when you’re horizontal, I mean your heart rates not gonna spike as much when it does emerge. It’s on the air squats. So for the longest time, I’m doing air squats, I would keep with that breathing, but I think it was really jacked, like my heart rate on the lady. Yeah, basically, as you go so fast. Yeah. And recently because of the burner, because like air squats were getting to be like, I wasn’t really fatiguing in the legs, because of the air squat volume that we’ve been doing. I was keeping up going fast. I was like, man, I I’m just gonna start hyperventilate, I need to figure this out. So I have been having to really make a conscious effort to not time my breathing with my reps to just focus on my breathing on my own. And almost do like one breath per two or three reps. And that’s really helped with a heart rate. So that’s something else to keep. Keep in mind, especially if you’re going fast in the air squats, which you should be doing. And something to play around with. Because exactly make a big, big difference.
So we have a lot of tips and tricks and all that stuff posted on the YouTube channel, blog posts everything else. I’ve said a lot about Murph over the years. So I will kind of end this one out with challenge, which is also kind of tips. The first one is do the squats fast do the squats unbroken? That’s what I challenge people to do every time because if most of the time you’re going slow on squats, just because you’re being a baby. It has nothing to do with like fatigue or anything. You’re just actually not paying attention. So there I won’t even offend you. Maybe you’re not being a baby, maybe you’re not paying attention. You’re just not actually focusing on going a little bit faster with those squats. So that’s my tip slash challenge for that one. The second challenge, and I think we’re gonna be talking primarily to the Murph crew here. Anyone who’s been doing Murph 50 times a year, really anyone who’s doing Murph in general, but specifically the Murph crew. I know you guys have done a lot of Murph over the last year. But this one needs to be fast. Okay, that I get the whole training Murph thing, this is not training anymore. If there was a one, one time per year deal where we try hard on Murph. It’s the Memorial Day, Murph. And so don’t train for a year and then end out on a zone to Murph. Alright, like, what a What a silly way to end this year challenge. Go hard PR. If you don’t set a PR on your last one, it better be because you already had a really damn good PR to start. So my official challenge specifically to the Murph crew, go fast. Make it hurt. Instead of PR everyone else who doesn’t do Murph every single week. Push yourself there’s a reason that we do this hero workout. It’s not because it’s it’s a it’s a really well rounded workout like I was talking about or you know, it’s fun. It’s a memory of someone who lost her life on the battlefield. Okay, that’s why I think the workout should hurt a little bit. Just to give you an ounce of what that day may have been like for Murph, and I’m talking about an ounce of several tons worth of weight. I think that you can handle it. So that’s my challenge to everyone. Do Murph on Memorial Day, and good luck. still be safe in that adventure? You can always be safe and still hitting a PR. That’s it. That’s all we got for this week on the garage mathlete podcast if you are not one of our athletes, go to garage, gym athlete comm sign up for a 14 day free trial. You can also sign up for the murf burner track Murph program is so long as it’s still the month of May. If you’re listening to this and it’s June it will be gone it will be vanished we will have burned it. Hence the name it will be gone. You will no longer be able to get it so if you’re like been thinking about it, this is not something that will be available later to you. It is a once per year thing maybe next year maybe not. So this might be the last time you ever see it. So go to garage gym athlete calm and get that Murph track if you’re interested for everyone in the community. Thank you so much for being part of community being awesome. Any any members of our community think about doing Murph every week for a year. You’ve been thinking about it, do it. It’s a very awesome challenge. It will teach you a lot about yourself and teach you a lot about how you operate in fitness. So so go for it. But that’s it all I got for this week.