Into absolutely torturing yourself for 30 days straight? Then this is a challenge you might want to try. Exercise enthusiast CJ Pham Stott resolved to complete a Murph, the popular CrossFit exercise, each day for 30 days—and he documented the entire process. Spoiler: It wasn’t pretty.
The grueling exercise, which is typically done every Memorial Day, was named in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005. The workout, which Lieutenant Murphy created and originally named Body Armor, consists of a mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, and another mile run. As if that wasn’t enough to test your limits, a Murph is meant to be completed as quickly as possible.
Over the course of 30 days, Stott did 3,000 pullups, 6,000 pushups, 9,000 squats, and ran 60 miles. And, no, it wasn’t easy.
“To be honest, if I hadn’t publicly committed to documenting every day of the 30 days of Murph on my Instagram, I’m not sure I would have finished,” Stott says in a YouTube video.
On the first day of the challenge, Stott completed the Murph in 65 minutes, a pretty decent time for a Murph novice. As the days go on, his time gets predictably better, but his body suffers. From torn up hands from completing 100 pull ups every single day to knee pain from distance running and repetitive squats, the Murph takes a toll.
But Stott eventually hits his stride, completing the Murph in about 35 minutes several days in a row at his peak. On his final day, after resolving to complete the Murph in 30 minutes or less by the end of the challenge, Stott completes the CrossFit workout in a mere 28 minutes. Now that’s impressive.
In his physique update, you can see Stott’s body change slightly over the course of 30 days. He gained five pounds of muscle, while toning his chest, lats, and legs. But Stott says the mental benefits of taking on the Murph challenge far outweighed the physical.
“I enjoy getting stronger, but all that aside, it’s really not why I decided to do this,” Stott says at the end of the challenge. “I wanted to do all of these Murphs pretty much solely because I wanted to do something that was going to expand my threshold of pain and do something that was going to challenge me to hold myself accountable. I wanted to build and develop on my ability to believe in myself and trust myself to execute on my commitments.”
Watch the full video below:
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