Hey, Athletes! Have you heard of cluster sets? If so, do you implement them in your training? Check out the latest episode of the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast to see why cluster sets are important!   Â
Episode 94 of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!
Why To Do Cluster Sets & The MURPH Burner Program
This week the three guys are back on the podcast. They give us their updates and announcements before talking about this week’s study. It’s on cluster sets and the guys into why and how to best fit in clusters sets for training. This week’s topic is on the MURPH Burner track. The guys go over their own MURPH experiences and give some tips on how to tackle it! For this week’s Meet Yourself Saturday Workout we have the Harder to Kill 5-Miler. Make sure to pick up some tips for this one!Â
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 54-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- MURPH Burner ProgramÂ
- Cluster Sets
- Harder to Kill 5-Miler
- House Projects at the Shrum Household
- Bone BrothÂ
- Tips For MYS
- Updates and Announcements
- And A LOT MORE!!
Diving Deeper…Â
If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here are some links for you:Â
Study of the WeekÂ
Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the WeekÂ
Be sure to listen to this week’s episode:
Related Resources at End of Three Fitness:Â
—Â
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:Â
Jerred Moon Â
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage mathlete podcast. My name is Jared moon and with me today is Kyle from from the great state of Tennessee and Joe Courtney, who’s in a place that will remain nameless. and
Joe Courtney Â
gentlemen oversee.
Jerred Moon Â
How’s your how’s your life?
Kyle Shrum Â
Fantastic.
Joe Courtney Â
Think pretty good. All right. Good luck.
Jerred Moon Â
Okay, yeah, I’m going straight to the shout outs. So we have Jonathan Hmm, some Marge submerge some. Sorry, Jonathan, for butchering your last name I should have. Should we just start over? We should start the whole podcast over. Maybe? Jonathan knows. Yeah, we almost never do that. Everything just gets recorded. And he said that he is doing a go rock team assessment may sixth through eight. Which I’m not even 100% sure what that is. But it sounds like it’s probably hard. Because a lot of brutal a lot of the go rock stuff starts and Jonathan Good luck. And also sorry, again, for if I got the last name wrong. There’s no way for me to know if I’m right. But again, apologies. But good luck on your go rock team assessment may six through eight,
Kyle Shrum Â
three days worth ago. That sounds
Jerred Moon Â
sounds hard, right? brutal to me. I know go rock has their selection. Have you guys seen that? They even have a documentary about it on on Hulu. It’s called the standard.
Kyle Shrum Â
I know that.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah. So I’ll just plug and go rock stuff there. It’s It’s literally the dumbest endurance event ever created. And I actually have more respect for the go rock guys having watched the documentary because I’ve known about their selection for a long time. And I was like, Look, I get it that you guys are all Special Operations. But what you’re putting people through is nowhere close to what actual army army selection is. It’s not how buds operates. And then once they kind of admitted that in the documentary, I was like, okay, like, You’re, you’re good. Like, you guys know that you’ve created the most ridiculous thing on the planet. And the biggest thing like they don’t, they’re it’s two days and they don’t let them eat. I think they might give them some like Pedialyte halfway through. But in in buds, they feed him like every three hours. Because they know that it’s not possible for a human being to continue. Like, without calories. Right? So anyway, tangent right off the bat, go check out the documentary, if you’re interested in that stuff. That’s an event I will never be doing. I’m also not really interested in go rock events anyway, because of the whole military dynamic that it has. But I guess we could reserve that for a different podcast updates. Joe, how’s life?
Joe Courtney Â
Hey, good. Finally, trying to get back into the swing of things as we were talking about before the podcast just takes a while to get get back in to things and getting my groove and finally doing a couple workouts again, with
Jerred Moon Â
me. Now, just kidding. Yeah.
Joe Courtney Â
Going back to work tomorrow. I’m trying to get back into like a working routine as normal being in my office, doing things but it just it just takes a minute especially like being unplugged completely for seven plus days, eight or nine days, you know. So yeah, working on that. And last and part of getting back into the swing of things, whether it’s eating clean, and you know, nutrition, fitness and stuff like that, I decided to do a bone broth cleanse. Once I got back, I did a little bit of research on this leading up to it. And because I make my own bone broth, I always have some in the freezer. And one of the first things I did when we got back was make a whole nother batch, whole giant batch. So first, I want to say that I’ve never I’m not one for cleanses. I don’t normally do them. I don’t really, I don’t want to say I don’t believe in them. But I think people use cleanses too much as like, Hey, I’m just gonna clean myself out and hopefully, but cleanse for like a week, 10 days 21 days and lose a whole bunch of weight right now so that I look good for this weekend that I’m just gonna go back to eat like shit. So that’s not what cleanses are, I think meant for and what I didn’t use it for. I just did a 24 hour bone broth cleanse and the entire purpose of it was to clean out reset my gut and get rid of all the bloat from traveling and all that and it worked out great. Literally all I just drank was my own homemade bone broth that I know is legit for 24 hours. I just whenever I was feeling hungry, I just drank like a bowl of bone broth and went great.
Jerred Moon Â
Basically fast, right? Just with a better source of liquid than water.
Joe Courtney Â
Basically, yeah, that’s what I did. And got rid of all the post traveling bloat and clean me out and yeah, good to go. But hop back into it. I had, you know, slowly eat a little bit the next day, but That’s fine. And I think it worked out great. So a few, I guess, do a big travel and maybe have something like that, that you need to clear up. I say be a decent option if you make, especially if you make your own bone broth. But like I said, I make my own, so I know it’s legit. I’m only gonna, I’d only do this like, once every couple of months. I’m not gonna like, oh, man, I really want to look good. This weekend, I’m gonna do another cleanse. So don’t do don’t do that. It’ll be done. Yeah.
Jerred Moon Â
And so I want to jump in real quick. Kyle just nudged me and I want to make sure I’m clear on something with go rock stuff. I want to be very clear, I think go record school, I own go rock stuff. I personally have no interest in their events, because of my military background. I don’t think I could go get yelled at. And this is not true of every person who served in the military. It’s this is Jared moons experience in the military, I could not go get yelled at by some former Special Operations guy, and just even take it seriously. And that’s just me, I would probably end up so frustrated and mad that I would end up quitting the event. So that’s probably what they’d want. Right. And again, this is me, I think, for the team events that they put on are great. I have people who with no military backgrounds who love them. I do. I stand by my thing, that selection is the dumbest endurance event I’ve ever seen put together. But that’s what they say in the documentary too. They’re like, we know, this is the dumbest thing that you could possibly do as a human being. And that’s what I mean by dumb. I mean, like, running an ultra marathon or biking 10,000 miles or whatever. Those are like set parameter things. Here, they just basically go until they make sure they don’t have one person left. And they make you do ridiculous things for 48 hours. And it’s probably the hardest thing that you could possibly do as well. So I’m not as I do with CrossFit throwing shade. Like I’ve actually big problems with CrossFit. Go Rock School, not for me, but go Rock School. Overall, the company is cool. So let’s be very clear about what I meant. With my opinions on go rock. We Kyle, how’s your life?
Kyle Shrum Â
Life is grand. Lots of house projects going on right now.
Joe Courtney Â
That’s hungry.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah. Sound grant? Oh,
Kyle Shrum Â
yeah, well, you know, just the prospect of new things in the future in the near future. Anyway, I’m covering them up with my body right now. But you can’t see it. But like, everything in our house that was hung on a wall is like in this corner behind me in my gym. So it’s not all cluttered up for you guys. But it’s cluttered up for me kind of driving me crazy. But we had to take everything off the walls, because I’ve got to paint basically all the walls in our house. And so lots of painting going on all that kind of stuff, some other stuff, but just trying to get the house ready to put on the market go get a new place and get a little bit of extra space and all that kind of stuff. Also, potentially not. So within the next year, probably jumping into a little bit of real estate investing maybe. So that’s, that’s what I’m really excited about. But this is kind of like all this kind of stuff is like the steps leading to that. So that’s what I’m really excited about. But I’m looking ahead to that and kind of ignoring the fact that I have to paint part of my house every night. So because I can’t paint when the kids are here. That’s just Nope, not gonna happen. Not gonna work. So I have just been, yeah, I have to spend like two or three hours at night after they go to bed. Painting things. So
Jerred Moon Â
hopefully you’re at least crushing an audio book during that timeframe.
Kyle Shrum Â
Absolutely. I crushed an entire book last night. It was a really short one. But it was an entire book so I can’t but yeah. Crushing Oh kinds of all kinds of audio content during that time.
Joe Courtney Â
So I think one of our athletes right and I know one of our athletes I think her name is Sarah I can’t remember but she just moved to Tennessee. And she combined both garage gym and basement gym, her base. Her garage is in the basement. So I think she has set the bar for you to find a house with a basement garage gym.
Jerred Moon Â
Those are cool. Hey, you guys saw my so by the time you guys got there I had a garage gym, but yeah, that walkout basement. I had an Asheville was super legit. Yeah,
Joe Courtney Â
yeah. Awesome. That’d be awesome. Yeah, that
Kyle Shrum Â
would be cool. I mean, I guess technically if I took the door off leading out to my garage from my basement which is right there. I would probably technically have a garage gym basement but yeah, don’t right now. So don’t right now on the door. Is there certain I don’t have to steal that from her. No, I’m not taking it away.
Jerred Moon Â
So are Is that everything?
Oh, yeah. Okay,
Jerred Moon Â
that’s good. Can I just have a quick update, I keep updating everybody on the on the build out office build out well, they had to run a plumbing line from my house to that structure to get water there and had to run through my garage. my garage is a detached uninsulated garage. So it is very bad practice to have a plumbing line run through such a space because of things, like Snowmageddon that happen. And while the chances are very rare, your pipes could very easily freeze in a space like that without setup. So anyway, I’m essentially doing a garage gym remodel, almost by I’m forced to, so it’s getting insulated Spray Foam Insulation throughout the entire garage, which means I have to take every single thing out everything out of the garage. And then after they have to spray it. And then after they spray it, I’ll move everything back in. But I’m also going to not going to put drywall up, I’m going to put like some other stuff up on the walls. So the space will look pretty cool. And I’ll probably shoot some videos on on the process of doing that. I’m also removing a bunch of stuff out there on if you guys remember, there was like an old like, fan from a house that was like they had installed in there and all this cabinetry and all this other stuff. So we already got rid of all that. That was basically my weekend was demoing all that crap and getting it out of there and, and cleaning up a bunch of stuff. So anyway, kind of in the middle is garage and remodels really churching it up. It’s really like getting getting as mentalization. And that’s about it. But uh, I’m also looking forward to that, because 120 degrees in a detached garage isn’t fun. So now maybe it only be 90 degrees. But the insulation. So
Joe Courtney Â
yeah, that is pretty awesome. I mean, if we’re going to work out, then we’re in the office, I don’t want to work out in that dump those temperatures. Yeah, mostly the cold do I don’t work out in the cold.
Jerred Moon Â
I neither one has bothered me that much. But when it gets awful, Emily will just stop using the space, she’s gonna do something else like, and now she’ll continue to use it year round. So it’s also a benefit for the family, which is good. Oh, that’s it. Let’s get into this study. Talking about cluster sets today, the name of the study is chronic effects of altering resistance training set configurations using cluster sets, a systematic review and meta analysis 2021. First, I think that we should start with what a cluster set is. So cluster set is really just breaking a normal set into micro sets. And we could talk about the benefits of that. But that’s that’s all you’re really doing. So if you had a set of 10 repetitions that high percentage, say 70%. That’s typically what you want to do with clusters, that’s to it’s not made for just resting, you have a miniature rest in there. So let’s say it’s nine reps make it easier. You do three sets of three, but there’d only be about eight to 15 seconds of rest in between those three sets of three. So you do three reps, rest racket, rest eight seconds, do three, rest eight seconds, do three and then that would be your one set of nine, as opposed to just doing one set of nine outright. And like why you didn’t do that at all? Is it worth it doesn’t make any sense at all? I guess it’s kind of the question we hope to answer by the end of this podcast, or by the end of this study talking about it because this is not just some random. One study. This is 29 studies with a total of 803 subjects that met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. And we can get into the breakdown of all that. But the main purpose of this study was to summarize and analyze the research comparing the effects of traditional sets, like I was talking about three times nine versus three times three sets of three with these tiny risks in various clusters that configurations on hypertrophy, and gains in strength, power output movement, velocity in strength endurance, and I’m so glad that they looked at all these things, and not just one individual thing, because if they just looked at hypertrophy, we might end up with a different answer. If they just strength we might end up with a different answer. If we just looked at velocity, we might end up with a different answer. But they looked at all the totality of the evidence to decide whether or not a closer set was beneficial. And ultimately, it was closer that’s where more beneficial, but it had to do with being more beneficial in power output and velocity was the main takeaway, and we could talk about that a lot more but I’d love to hear what you guys thought about this systematic review on cluster sets.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, I think it was a really cool to see that they were there mainly look to see if that cluster sets would be any different than just doing your traditional sets because you know, you have your volume you have your sets. So why would this be any different? Well, the difference is not so much strength and endurance it is the velocity which is super great because we like to drain velocity and power because we want to start lifting Faster, which journal article about years ago that that is the missing element and a lot of people’s strength programs anyway,
Jerred Moon Â
it’s called missing element in your strength program, if you want to Google it, that’s the article.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, there you go. So if you’re already, if there’s not really any takeaway, but you’re still benefiting from power and velocity, then why not do it and we use it a fair amount, I usually use it a good amount in strength, because when programming strength, I want to get enough volume and strength at the athletes, but it’s also I also want to get in power as well. So mixing the two is a fantastic tool to do. And we also use different types of cluster sets as well. So there’s some that will do for up to 12 reps, and there’s for a lower load and, or a lighter load lower rest times. And then there’s ones that will do heavier load less reps, but more rest time. So you can still kind of govern it that way to fit whatever training you’re doing, whether you’re lifting heavy, or lifting lighter, for you know, volume, reps, rest all that stuff. So I think it is a great tool to vary your strength than just, you know, the typical, go to your five by five and go to your five by three, because you can you can keep the volume up or even increase your volume, and improving your power and velocity as well. But we’ll turn it over to Kyle see what he has, because there’s not a whole lot else to save asides. cluster sets are good. But yeah,
Kyle Shrum Â
it’s a good way to get the same amount of work with less fatigue, to manage fatigue better. And I think that’s what helps you with your velocity over over the course of the workout is not being as fatigued and being able to keep the same velocity for all the reps and make the reps more effective. And you can also, when you’re less fatigued, you have less concern of for breaking down technique breaking down. So obviously, anytime that we talk about resistance training, we talk about technique, and you need to keep technique, perfect, as close to perfect as you can. And when technique starts to drop off, that’s when you need to redirect the weight, maybe potentially rest a little longer, maybe potentially lower the load. But with cluster sets, instead of having, for instance, having a set of non one set or nine, really one set of none is get you’re gonna get fatigued at that point. You know, I mean, the old, the old joke is, you know, anything over five reps is cardio, right? But it’s like when you’re doing resistance training, any, any set of none, like you’re gonna get tired if you have to do nine at a time. And so if you break that up into three mini sets, so it’s three mini sets of three, and you’ve got, you know, 1015 seconds of rest in between those mini sets, you can keep like you can bang out three, rest for a few seconds, bang out three more. And you can keep the velocity on all those reps and get get better work more efficient and more effective workout of it. So that’s kind of the mindset behind cluster sets. And I remember the first time that Jared through cluster sets into our programming here at garage mathlete and I looked at that. And I was like, what, what is this guy doing? Like, what, what is the purpose behind this, and then I did it, I did the workout that day. And I was like, Man, this is awesome. This is so crazy. But anyway, super effective. It’s also a really good way to shake things up in your programming, instead of kind of what Joe said, okay, just go do your five by five, you know what I mean? That gets really boring, you know what I mean? And so you can, there’s a lot of different ways to do cluster sets. And all the the studies that they examined for this meta analysis, they, they kind of ran the gamut on the different kinds of cluster sets that they used in their study. And so there’s just a lot of different ways to do it. And shake things up in your program to keep things interesting, where it’s not just doing traditional sets, and just doing the same old thing over and over the linear progression, like you can actually see, you can program a linear progression, but you can actually make it work differently and feel differently feel better over time, because you’re getting the same amount of work in but you change it out with cluster sets and actually give people a different stimulus and make people kind of stick with it a little bit longer do so anyway, those are the things I took out of it. I like to see that, you know, it kind of proven that cluster sets are effective and that they do work and because they do so I’m glad to see a study that says that and then just use them to shake up your programming a little bit and and be more effective with it.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, and I think what you said about fatigue is 100% correct. And I really miss a lot of this goes back to I wish all studies included like a strength and conditioning coach because sometimes they just look at total volume when it comes to like And strength training, that’s what they’re looking at their total volume, like, how could, why would it matter if the volumes the same or and you add volume each week like that’s how you should get stronger that’s you know just sets times reps times weight. But there’s like an execution part that’s lost within science and that is how was the weight lifted, and how the weight was lifted when we get down to velocity and power is very important. And as Joe said, it can be further broken down, like if you were to actually go through our coach accelerator program, shameless plug, you could learn a lot of this stuff, but we have, we have cluster sets broken down by how much you should rest, if your goal is hypertrophy, how much you should rest and what the sets should be. And then same for if you’re looking for more power based stuff. And same if you’re looking for more strength based stuff. And so cluster sets can can be very beneficial. And it goes back to that, that how the weight is lifted. Because if you move weight quicker, you’re going to be more powerful. If you’re more, if you’re more powerful, you will be stronger. It’s just how things work. And I really do think that anyone should go check out my article on that stuff. Because I wouldn’t I did a deep dive on it’s a three part series, it’s the missing element in your strength program, the other ones like how to lift with more speed, more horsepower. And in the last one, the reason Joe is even working here right now, why CrossFit will make you weaker. And so it’s a three part series, all three articles are linked. So if you guys want to check it out, you definitely can. But the premise that we teach in the course, in the coach accelerator program is what we call test, top and simulation training. And I think that’s the biggest takeaway I want to give for athletes is, the more you can see this top end of your performance potential. And what I mean by see is like experience it with your body. So if that’s a an interval, on the rower or running to where you’re getting into that maximum heart rate, maybe for 10 seconds, and this is the same with cluster sets, if you can get into and see this 90% 95% 98% of your one rep max, the more often your body can see and experience those things. That’s where you’re actually making the progress, the smaller amounts of volume and lifting accessory work, those things are very beneficial, but they’re not necessarily what’s actually moving the performance needle forward. And so you have to find a way to simulate these top end environments. And I think interval training by itself is a phenomenal way to do this. If we’re talking about aerobic conditioning or energy system training, then we talked about strength training, like, well, how else can I do it, you know, there’s 10 sets of 110 sets a two, you could do that. Or you could do cluster sets, which is a much more efficient way to get that done and to see these top ends. And I think that’s a lot of how it should be used, if you’re looking to gain strength is like, let’s do, because if I were to program 90%, for you, Kyle today, like I’d probably do, you know, let’s say three sets of three at 90. And now that would kind of be it, you know, but if I was like, hey, I want I’d rather see three sets of six at 90. But the six are broken into three sets of two cluster sets with 15 sets, you’re going to see now you see 90 a lot more than you did previously. Right. And and it’s still going to actually be doable, as opposed to just saying do 90s until you fail, you know, you’re actually going to be able to perform the training. So the takeaway I have for the athlete is that top in simulation training principle, the test principle is, if you want to move the performance needle, you need to see that top end, whether whether that’s, you know, it’s it’s intensity, but you don’t need to see it like for a 15 minute metcon. It’s just something that you need to visit and experience to move the performance needle forward. But that’s not everyone’s goal. And so it’s not something you have to do to make progress. But if you’re like, this is where I get frustrated with athletes who have been training for a long time, and then they get frustrated with their lack of progress or prs. After let’s say, four or five years, you’ve moved out of the honeymoon phase. And so if you, if you’re no longer pushing yourself, that’s fine. If you want to be in maintenance mode, that’s fine. Like, I’m not trying to PR anything right now my back is injured, like I’m not trying to do, I’m just like, hey, let’s try and maintain as much as I can. So that’s where my mindset is when I’m training every single day. But that mindset is different. When I’m like, hey, I want to get to a 500 pound back squat. I can’t just mindlessly go through the programming and be like, yeah, you know, maybe my maybe my back squat will end up at 500 if I just do some sets and reps every day. It’s not how it works. I’m gonna have to experience some pain, I’m gonna have to see some things that are very uncomfortable. And, you know, go through those things to make that performance progress. And that’s where people get lost because in the beginning, it’s not that painful to see progress. It’s just doing the work. But then if you want to continue to see results You need to quit complaining and put in more work and experience more pain. And that’s where you will see more performance gains. So that’s the takeaway for me.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, that’s actually one thing I wanted to kind of highlight or almost caveat with cluster sets. If you’re a beginner are still like working on your form technique and building up your weights, I think you need to be doing cluster sets, we should be doing class sets, because they can be a little bit more intense. And we might have you doing a nine reps at 70%, breaking down to 333. But you’re racking the weight and you only have 20 seconds, your heart rate still up, you still need to pick that bar up and lift it with good form while your heart rates up. So you need to be comfortable and used to lifting weight at a decent intensity over and over again, and to have that experience. So if you’re newer, it might not be that great because you your form could suffer, you could be you know, to out of breath, too. It might be too intense for you. But if you’re you know, intermediate to experience, I think cluster sets are fantastic to put in.
Jerred Moon Â
It’s just like a meet yourself Saturday, you got to go there. And I do agree with you, Joe, it’s like it’s not a magic. It’s not a magic thing. Like if you just you heard about cluster sets for the first time today. And you say, oh, I’ve been Yeah, I’ve been strength training for three months, let me go hit the magic button here over with cluster sets, it probably won’t be very beneficial for you. And if you get into the actual study, they break down like how many were untrained subjects and how many were trained and all these other things. And if we broke it down even further, which they did not. I don’t think all right, and see at least I would love to know the performance gains in each one of those metrics power outputs, train temperature, V moon velocity, strength endurance per group. Because my guess would be closer sets are not beneficial next, at all, for an untrained subject are not more beneficial than traditional strength training. So what I mean not not benefit, because if you do it, you’re it’s it’s just lifting at that point like it’s you’re going to get stronger, but it’s not going to be like that could be the game changer for Joe to get stronger is the implementation of cluster sets.
Joe Courtney Â
Because they’re not lifting at that. They’re not worried about their volume or power up, but they’re just like trying to lift the weight and actually get through the sets versus what the clusters better aim for.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah. Awesome. You guys have anything else on cluster sets? Nope.
Joe Courtney Â
I like them. They will be in strength programming pretty frequently.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, we use cluster sets a lot. We use tempo lifting a lot. We don’t just stick to the boring stuff all the time. Really rarely do we do that. So if you’re listening to this, my middle of the podcast, plug for garage, gym, athlete co sign up for garage gym, athlete at garage gym, athlete calm and experience real programming and not the fake random stuff that makes you sweat and makes you feel like you’re doing something. Perfect. Right here. Dang. Slow early, but no good. All right. So let’s get on to the topic. We’re talking about the Murph burner track. We’ll be talking about this over and over because we’re doing a huge fundraiser for the month of May from Special Operations warrior foundation. I’m calling to kind of field questions from Joe and Kyle. And I also gave him very little notice about this. So I might also just throw in my own things I want you to know. But the Murph burner track, I won’t explain anything. I assume questions I get and then I’ll explain what I feel wasn’t explained. You guys fire away. We’re gonna be talking about the Murph burner track today.
Joe Courtney Â
How many times are we actually doing the full Murph workout in the four weeks?
Jerred Moon Â
Oh, you’re getting into the exact programming?
Joe Courtney Â
Oh, okay. Sorry.
I don’t know. There. I’m
Kyle Shrum Â
in writing.
Joe Courtney Â
Well, I can answer many as he asked that somebody actually asked that you will not be doing
Jerred Moon Â
Murph, like multiple times per week leading up to doing Murph that to me, to me, that would be bad programming to be honest.
Joe Courtney Â
See?
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, that’s a that’s a good.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah.
Jerred Moon Â
The Murph burner track is just 30 days of Murph. You’ll be he’ll be a master by the time you get to the Memorial Day workout.
Joe Courtney Â
But that’s the Chris Morgan track.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s how we should name it.
Kyle Shrum Â
What’s the overall what’s the overall goal? What’s the overall purpose of the Murph burner track?
Jerred Moon Â
So the overall goal purpose of the merch burner track? Are we talking about from a programming standpoint? Sure. Okay.
Kyle Shrum Â
I just mean, why I just mean, why are we doing it?
Jerred Moon Â
The big reason we’re doing it is one. Murph is a big part of this community, with how things have just progressed over the years, with me doing Murph every week for a year twice, and then other people taking that even further and now how many people in the community we have taking on that same challenge amongst others. So I just feel like we are As far as community goes, the most experienced Murph crew on the planet, you know, collectively as a community. So I think that this is where more information should be sourced. But the big reason is, it’s a fundraiser for the Special Operations wear foundation. Because we, I mean, we don’t need to do Murph burner track, right? Like we could just we have tracks that’s fine. Like, we don’t need to do any other tracks. But this, we are donating all of the money to the Special Operations warrior foundation. And that’s the big reason why now from a an individual standpoint, why would you want to do it other than donating to a good cause and getting programming in the process. So the Merc burnin track just to talk logistically, it’s $7. You buy it, you get a program. In team builder, you can use the app, you don’t have to be with one of our current athletes. If anyone’s listening to this, you can be one of our athletes or not. But it’s a 30 day program to get you get you better mirtha. Murph, it’s $7. And then that money is donated to the Special Operations warrior foundation. And I’ll be very transparent about those numbers on the podcast, whether we have three athletes who sign up for it, or 3000. I will I’ll be very transparent on the podcast about how much money we were able to donate and how many people signed up. Like said, Good, good, bad or ugly. Now individually, what would you gain from doing the programming for 30 days? Really, it’s just going to teach you to be more efficient, primarily in muscular endurance. So the goal of the 30 day program is to turn muscle contractions into an aerobic function. That is the technical goal of the program. And so the and that’s the reason why, by the end of doing Murph for a year, I can do Murph and not be sore and I can do Murph and not have any problems with it, it’s really becomes let’s crack my crack my knuckles and just executed and anyone doing the Murph project or Murph, an excessive amount will tell you the same thing. It’s not really something you get sore sore on and that’s because your body becomes so accustomed to this high volume muscle contractions that it is able to turn that energy into just an aerobic function and not this not a purely muscular endurance to where you’re getting super fatigued. And the program is designed to make that happen.
Joe Courtney Â
Will I be able to do Murph and not get nauseous?
Jerred Moon Â
You’re the only person I’m who for some reason no other workout you get nauseous on but when you when you go hard on Murphy, you get sick. Now, other than you adjusting your I don’t know, it could make you more ready for it from an intensity standpoint. But I think it’s a nutrition thing with you. Isn’t that what we kind of landed on?
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, a couple weeks ago when I did birth once I did a car brands halfway through. And that really, really helps. And then I actually like, took an extra shot of like oj and it was just it helped me a lot.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah. And just to just to plug a company real quick that has no affiliation, not a sponsor, whatever I’ve been using is liquid IV. Have you guys seen that stuff. It’s a it’s an electrolyte drink, like a noon or something. But there’s 11 grams of sugar in it. And so it’s not something I would normally just be drinking, you know, throughout the day. But I found it to be great. If I am going to be doing a more intense workout either immediately post or during it seems to be a great one because it has enough sugar to actually be beneficial, like noon has no sugar, or like one gram of sugar, which is it’s not going to help you during exercise. But it’s good to have for the electrolytes. But the 11 grams of sugar seems to be the right amount to like, get a little kick of energy in the workout.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, I definitely think all that. Yeah, try it out.
Kyle Shrum Â
I would ask why we chose that specific charity, because that’s also the charity that we support with our match as well. Right? Yeah, that’ll seeds ever emerge goes to that same one.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, that’s a good question. I don’t think I’ve ever fully explained that. So the last, let’s say 18 months of my active duty military career, I worked with a special tactics, which is the special operations side of the Air Force. And I got to work very closely with this organization, specifically the Special Operations wear foundation. And there were unfortunately some men who were killed in action during my time there and I got to see the Special Operations wear foundation in action. And it was the some of the guys that I worked with were retired people, retired active duty special operators who worked for the government now in a civilian capacity. And then they also had more of like a volunteer role with the Special Operations wear foundation. And so just working with them directly and seeing families of men I knew directly benefit is the reason they’re really the only organization I’m interested in sourcing, industry fitness, revenue towards or personal donation. Because I don’t know, I feel like donating money these days is a little bit hard. You know, like,
Joe Courtney Â
so many sketchy ones out there.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, like you don’t really know. Okay, what do you do? Like we’ve they found that out with the Wounded Warrior Project, right? That seemed like a great thing to do. And then they found out like the people what is the board of directors or whoever they all had like these ridiculous salaries, they’re all making like millions of dollars per year with this nonprofit and it’s like, how much you know, I don’t know how much you should be paid, I’m not going to say you should or shouldn’t be paid a certain amount, but they had what seems to be excessive salaries for what they were doing, compared to the market average for similar jobs. And they kind of got a slap on the hand for that, you know, and you don’t find these things out till years later. And I’m not saying that that’s not happening in a special operations wear foundation. But they do seem to be a little smaller, they have a very direct purpose. And like I said, I’ve seen them in action so I’m a little bit more comfortable donating to them. Cool.
Kyle Shrum Â
I think that was so when does it start?
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, so we when does the merch burner track start? It starts may 1 will be the first workout and it goes through the entire month of May. So you’ll be doing if you sign up for the Murph burner track either current athlete or other and you know someone new you will sign up the workouts on start to may first and you’ll go through them with obviously concluding may 31 Memorial Day and hitting the memorial hit the Memorial Day Murph so finishing out by actually doing the workout
Joe Courtney Â
will follow the similar structure to the rest of our tracks. So four days a week five blocks
Jerred Moon Â
it will be five days a week and five blocks so we will not have there will not be a meet yourself Saturday. Like it won’t just be the same meet yourself Saturday that all the other tracks are seeing. But there will be a harder workout on Saturday is more geared towards getting you prepared for Murph.
Joe Courtney Â
And this is the partition Murph that Murph himself did not the CrossFit Games unpartitioned one that people think is official. The only version you should it
Jerred Moon Â
across the games even partition, they just partitioned it bigger. Right? They did five sets.
Joe Courtney Â
I know they’ve done it more than one time. So no, no. Yeah. Cuz they’ve done absolutely no partition before as well. And yeah, I don’t know.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, I you know, I hate that debate on like, how you should do the workout. And this is why again, is won’t allow that to be as, as I had last heard, not allowed to like record it as a world record. Because there are too many variations like you can do. Yeah, five sets, or five sets of the 20 reps, 20 4060 or whatever. And then you could do the 20 sets of 510 15. Or you could just do it all the way through. But the only people that really piss me off are the ones who pretend like doing a partition is like, our unpartitioned is the way it’s like your shed if you don’t do it 100 200 300. And when you’ve done it every way to include backwards in three times in a row, you’re just like, I don’t know if you know what you’re talking about. Like I think you just are saying stuff because you think you’re hardcore. So
Joe Courtney Â
that’s the rockin issue, people.
Jerred Moon Â
Yeah, yep, rockin this up 100%. And it’s just slower. Just, I know, I say this every time. That’s the slowest way to do Murph. So part of what makes Murph hard is the speed. So that’s it. Also, I know, I’m not a huge fan of kipping pull ups. And I really don’t like them that much. And that’s a time where I think kipping pull ups is a great way to test your mental fortitude because you’ll be able to do the workout so much faster. If you keep the pull ups, the heart rate is going to be elevated. I’ve literally shared screenshots of Murph spending, you know, finishing Murph in the 20 minute range with spending 99% of it in zone five. Like, that’s how much Murph can suck if you want it to. But you have to keep to do that. I can do that by doing strict pull ups. Yep. Any other questions? Now? Yeah. All right. I think that about does it. The only other thing I did want to hit on you guys did not ask was about our current athletes, you know, will this be a huge problem if you are coming off of you’re basically taking a break for an entire wave, right. So you, if you’re on the strength track, or you’re on hard to kill track, you’re going to be switching gears to the Murph track. The Murph burner track. Again, it’s called the Murph burner track because it’s getting burned after Memorial Day like there will not be continued programming for Murph in perpetuity unless we have a demand from great Than 200 athletes who say there must be a Murph track. That would be that’s the number of athletes that would need to tell us that there needs to be a permanent Murph track. 200 just so anyone is wondering, like, if four of you are like a, it needs to be a thing, not gonna be a thing. 200 of you say it is we will, it’ll be a permanent track, but I
Joe Courtney Â
don’t really have no gear,
Jerred Moon Â
right. So I because we, I set a really high threshold, because I don’t want to do it just to do it. So anyway, how’s this gonna affect your normal training? And to be honest, well, I am not trying to balance other things like BCT. Like Kyle knows this and everyone else on BCT. I’m very not concerned with how many pushups you can do, or dips, or pull ups, the I’m not like we do a little bit of upper body stuff. But the goal of boring concurrent training is to get people better at running a fast mile and squatting heavy weight. And so that’s what we’re after. And so you kind of go into that track knowing Yeah, this is not as well rounded. And while I think Murph, the workout is incredibly well rounded, by itself, it’s like, it’s got pull ups, squats, push ups with a vest, it’s got running, like I just think so to program for it is going to make you pretty well rounded. But you might lose some barbell strength, right? Like, I’m not trying to balance that in my programming. I’m not like, if you’re coming on, if you’re looking for some sort of barbell squat PR in the next, whatever amount of time. Probably not the best spot for you. Okay, so that’s the only thing I’ll be very honest about is there won’t be a huge strength emphasis because there’s not a huge strength emphasis in Murph, but there will be anaerobic and muscular endurance emphasis. So those things will make you better. But what I did find and doing Murph a lot, you tend to maintain your strength pretty well. Even if you do take a break, so
Joe Courtney Â
it’s just four weeks,
Jerred Moon Â
so yeah, it’s only four weeks, but I don’t want to discourage you from donating. Okay? So if you’re like, Hey, I don’t wanna do the programming, but, you know, throw my hat in the ring, we will have two options once the page goes live. So you can go to garage mathlete COMM And check this out, we’ll have a banner at the top, talking about the Murph burner track, you just click on it and go there to see more details. There’ll be one button that’s like donate only. And one button that is merch burner track, purchase it either way, you’ll be able to donate some money to the cause. And then if you want to sign up for the merch burner tracking not do it, you can still download the PDF to have which we will give you access to so you’ll have a full PDF of the workout. So it is something you can keep and it only cost you $7. And we’re not keeping any of that money. The money’s going to special operations were foundation. So I do highly encourage you to donate even if the programming doesn’t align with your goals.
Kyle Shrum Â
So you would be able to do the program, pay your seven bucks to do the program and also go and just hit the donate button and donate more if you want it to. Correct. So you can do both.
Jerred Moon Â
Yep. And that’s that was because we specifically had a question from some athletes of like, dude, you’re only charging seven bucks. Like I want to donate way more than that. And that’s awesome. If you’re in that camp, and you have the funds for it, greatly appreciate it. So you do have a way to get them off burner track and then go back and do any more if you want. Awesome. All right, let’s talk harder to kill five miler.
Joe Courtney Â
Yes, let’s do it. This is a very challenging workout to do and brief. So it’s fine, it will be a total of five miles, but while doing them in quarter mile or 400 meter intervals. And this was originally designed to be rowing. But you can do that running as well. And there is a pacing chart, which I’m not going to go over every single one. But so the so each mile is done at different intensities. So the first, third and fifth mile are done at the faster intensities. And then mile three, mile two and four are the rest interval intensities. And I am err quoting rest because it is a five second pace difference. Enjoy your rest. So you’re going to do it’ll be the 400 meters. Each of those intervals are whatever the pace you set for yourself. So on the Odyssey the competitors on the rowing is 124 per quarter mile and on the compact on the running it is 118 per quarter mile. But if you do reach a quarter mile that is whatever the patient’s death for yourself. If you fail to meet that, then you were once considered killed. And then you have to start over if it’s you do it within the first one. And there’s a two minute rest between intervals did I Anything.
Jerred Moon Â
Now it’s a hard one to brief but it’s fairly simple. So you really just, it’s five miles worth of intervals. You go fast one a little bit slower the next one fast one a little bit slower the next one and you get to rest or two minute rest in between is each interval.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, each quarterback. Yeah,
Jerred Moon Â
yeah. So that’s, that’s the, the, the gist of it, they’re just a lot of parameters to try and not get killed to make to gamify the workout a little bit more. We’ve talked about this before those run times should be adjusted. Alright, not gonna lie. The I know the rowing is fine. Lots of people have completed it shared it. I’ve done it, like a lot of people have shared the rowing version being completed. And what is going to confuse the pants off of everybody. Because it always does on the rower. This is not a 500 meter pace is a 400 meter pace. If you need to figure out your own calculation for that, that’s fine. But you could just pre program this entire workout if you have a concept to rower and make it really easy on yourself. But if you think that I’m saying hold a 124 500 meter pace for five miles, yeah, you would, uh, you’d be in the Olympics? I think so not what we’re wanting to do. I think it comes out to being around a 145 500 meter pace to finish a 400 meter in 124. Or maybe it’s a 140 it’s somewhere in that range. Just so you know, I don’t know the exact but that’s that’s close to what it is and then the running should be adjusted. But yeah, don’t forget about that getting killed portion. You it’s like Stairway to Heaven, if you pick the wrong is it pacing or wait, you start over right then? And that’s the same way with this. Like, if you want to go out as a competitor, which I think they’re like, five in the garage, a mathlete community, true competitors. I don’t know why you’d select competitor based when you’re not a competitor. So immediately start with established a recruit wherever you should actually start. And then, you know, add those five seconds if you die in that first, first mile. And if that’s the only time I’ll tell you to like, quote unquote cheat to workout. If you feel like if you ran three in your stablish if you’re doing the running, because a lot of people have rower and you were able to hold 133 pace because that’s established for three of the intervals and your fourth one you’re like, I might be able to do it, but it’s gonna be really freakin hard. Just run on 140 get killed and then add, add the five seconds and and start over. Because what’s gonna happen is you’re gonna roll in, you’re gonna you’re gonna roll into the second mile and you’re gonna die on the first interval. And that’s hardly a workout, right? So I’m trying to get you a good workout in. That’s all my tips and everything.
Joe Courtney Â
Pretty sure so I did I the first time I did this workout was circa pre team builder pre garage mathlete and I went for the competitor, it didn’t last long. So you know, I ran. I’ve never actually wrote this one. I’ve only only ran this one.
Jerred Moon Â
And I won’t say easier, but it’s more doable. rowing.
Joe Courtney Â
Yeah, I’m, I might have even got mixed up because I feel like I was I aim to do the competitor rowing times, but as a run, and at 124 running is still pretty hard. And yet, it still didn’t go well. I remember my hamstrings were lit after this one. So warm up. Like the cop out, you know, tip for this one. But yeah, do that. I felt like I had something else. But
Kyle Shrum Â
yeah, just just be mindful. Like what Jared said about your pace. The rest pace is not very much slower at all, honestly, somebody who can actually manage that the proper like distinction, you know, across the miles, can actually manage that, that pace. Props to you. Because to me, like, I’m not advanced enough of a runner to be able to say, Okay, I’m back five seconds off, and I’m going to do that for each 400 meter. Then four mile three, I’m like, Oh, I gotta I gotta I gotta add, you’re saying
Jerred Moon Â
you know, you don’t know how to throttle your intensity five, plus or minus five seconds, Scott? Yeah,
Kyle Shrum Â
five seconds is not. Yeah, I can’t throttle it like that. No. So people who can do that props to you. You guys are awesome. But just be mindful of that, that the rest pace is not much of a race pace at all. And most of us
Jerred Moon Â
Oh, I’m just gonna get to chill on this one. You’ll die your first four. Yeah,
Kyle Shrum Â
especially after, you know you do your for your first four or four hundreds. And then it’s like, Alright, yeah, I’m, I’m pretty. I’m pretty warm now. You know? And it’s like, oh, but I get an extra five seconds. No, I can’t. I can’t tell the difference in that. So those of you that can props to you, the rest of us. Just, you’re just going to have to go fast the whole time and see how many you can do. I would say music. I don’t really know what music to tell you something fast. It’s got a solid, solid beat some of that’s intense. You know, because you get if you use music in that way. So maybe some of that you can base your running off of like if you can base the, the way your feet hit the hit the track. Comment with the beat of the song, if you can do that Spotify
Jerred Moon Â
have something like that, like if you have your phone on you like it knows what tempo you’re running and it tries to switch the song to a song that matches your tempo.
Joe Courtney Â
There’s a way to do it. I just don’t know how and I know like the shoe as well. But yeah, I
Jerred Moon Â
don’t I think of it annoying me. I’ve never tried it. That’s but I’ve heard of it.
Kyle Shrum Â
If I was if I was running and then Spotify decided, hey, I need to change the song for you. You know, and that would get in my head a little too much. I
Joe Courtney Â
think I think I think me too. Like I’ll control my own music. It’s fine. I have I have a next button on my earbuds.
Jerred Moon Â
I also don’t know what kind of like if you’re sprinting 400 you might be at like 160 170 whatever steps per minute your stride. That’s a fast song. Like I’m not saying I wish Ashley here or even her her husband like they’re both in the music and would probably know the answers to those questions. But I don’t know what that actually is. But it’s probably an annoying song. If I had to guess
Kyle Shrum Â
I was in banjo music. It’s amazing. You can run fast.
Joe Courtney Â
Your official recommendation they do play that really suck. Yeah,
Jerred Moon Â
there you go. I will say at the height of BCT I was
Joe Courtney Â
Benjamin
Jerred Moon Â
I was running fast I can’t remember what it was like I don’t know if you recall, Kyle like how many 400 meter intervals we did but I think I took one to failure and I don’t know if I ended up at like 12 or so intervals that I was able to hate hold the hard to kill five miler pace but I was also doing one to one work to rest ratio which is about 40 seconds less rest so I should have done that it’s not like you know yes I’ve been running less than whatever but I think my goal might be able to complete the hard to kill five miler running at the competitor pace just to prove it can be done. Well, I know it can be done be done by me. Like if you get a track athlete who runs 400 this is like a joke work out there. Like I could hold 16 for for 20. Like what do you want me to do? But for the less advanced human. I would like to see if I can complete it. The competitor base
would not
Joe Courtney Â
acknowledge established it’s not
Kyle Shrum Â
a it’s not a goldmine. Yeah.
Jerred Moon Â
All right. Well, that’s it. You guys have anything else?
Joe Courtney Â
I don’t think so. No, unless you want to take your shots at my workouts from past week.
Jerred Moon Â
I don’t know, man. Yeah, Let me slide man. Good. He climbed a mountain so I’m not gonna throw any shade there.
Kyle Shrum Â
You don’t get to use that excuse next week, though. Oh,
Joe Courtney Â
wow. It will be
Jerred Moon Â
known to the world. If anyway, that’s the end. Thanks for sticking around, guys. You know, whoever still listening. We really appreciate it. I always joke like nobody’s listening. Towards the end, there’s probably plenty who are still listening to the end. We do appreciate all of our athletes. You know, getting involved in the Murph project. I totally forgot to talk about garage gym tours. I knew I should have written that down. If you are one of our athletes and you want some free stuff, like if you’re watching on YouTube, Kyle has an awesome garage, gym athlete banner. He’s got an E oh three mug like he’s really repping it Joe’s got a cool athlete shirt on like, you guys want any of this stuff for free. Go to garage, gym athlete comm slash tour, you have all the instructions there to sign up, I need to make sure I remember to say at the beginning of the podcast next time, you want some free stuff, submit a garage, come talk to us. We’ll publish it on our YouTube channel and you get some free stuff in the process. It’s that easy. But other than that, for everyone who is listening, we do appreciate you we appreciate the community. I’m excited to see what we can do with this merch burner track as a collective community and donating our dollars to a good cause I think it’d be really cool. Like I said, I’d be super transparent with the results and where we get on that we have a lot of support from a bunch of different areas. So we’ll dive more into that and upcoming podcast because we’ll be talking about this all May. If you’re not one of our athletes, you’re not involved in all the cool stuff. We’re doing huge mistake, big problem that you can fix by going to garage mathlete comm signing up for a 14 day free trial. join in on all the awesome stuff that we’re doing and also get amazing programming in the process. That’s it for this week.