HELENA — To celebrate Memorial Day, CrossFit Helena participated in the "Murph," an annual workout done at gyms across the country on Memorial Day in honor of Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who died while serving in Afghanistan.
“We do it every year on Memorial Day, not only to honor the all the fallen soldier soldiers, but particularly Murph. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2005, calling for air support during Operation Red Wing, and he took about 14 bullets and still finish the call and called for help. And this is one of the things that he used to do when he was training. He called it body armor. It was a one mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 air squats, and then another mile run. He did it in his body armor at the time, so after he was killed, they named it after him, started calling it, "Murph," Mark Olson, CrossFit Helena owner and head coach said.
Many participants opted to wear a weighted vest in his honor. Men wore 20 lb vests, and women wore 14 lb vests. In general, this particular workout is harder than what his CrossFit members are used to.
“It is a lot longer workout, you know, usually between 25 and 35, maybe 40 minutes, where most of the other workouts are between 10 and 20 minutes long. It's just kind of more of a grind, just to try to honor him,” Olson said.
To make the Murph more attainable for all participants, he offered a half-Murph, as well as a partner-Murph.
