A Memorial Day workout, a little controversy, and a reminder that honoring sacrifice doesn’t require perfection.
Every Memorial Day, the Murph Workout in Omaha conversation starts up again online. Some people love it. Some people roll their eyes at it. And after going down a Reddit rabbit hole last week reading arguments about weighted vests, Instagram flexing, and whether partitioning your pushups “counts,” I came away thinking that a lot of people are missing the point entirely.
The Murph was never about looking tough on social media. It was supposed to be hard. It was supposed to make you uncomfortable. It was supposed to make you stop for a minute and think about sacrifice.
This year is actually going to be my first time attempting it. I lift. I ran cross country back in high school. But Murph? Never done it. It definitely looks like a challenging workout, so I’m excited about it.
Table of Contents
What Is the Murph Workout in Omaha?
The traditional version goes like this:
- 1 mile run
- 100 pull-ups
- 200 push-ups
- 300 air squats
- 1 mile run
All of it done wearing a 20-pound weighted vest.
It’s named after Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 during Operation Red Wings. The workout was reportedly one of his favorites before it later became known as the “Murph,” and for a lot of people, it’s become a way to honor fallen military members on Memorial Day.
But somewhere along the line, the internet did what the internet does. Now there are arguments about the “right” way to do it, whether scaling counts, weighted vest superiority, who got “no reps,” who trained hard enough, who posted too many sweaty selfies afterward.
Which is kind of funny when you remember what the whole thing was originally about.
Not Everybody Should Do the Murph the Same Way
Here’s the thing — not everybody is physically capable of doing a full RX Murph, and that’s fine. The point of showing up for a Murph Workout in Omaha event isn’t to wreck yourself or end up injured trying to prove something to strangers online. The point is to challenge yourself at your level, today, where you actually are.
Some folks will run the full miles in a vest, knock out strict pull-ups, and finish with a respectable time. Other people will walk instead of run, use resistance bands, sub rows for pull-ups, do pushups against a wall, cut the reps in half, or skip the vest entirely. Everybody who shows up is still showing up. That counts for more than people give it credit for.
One Reddit commenter put it better than I could:
“Hero workouts are meant to remind us of the sacrifice so many men and women have made. We do them to celebrate the fallen, however we do it.”
That hits a lot harder than arguing about whether somebody partitioned their pushups correctly.
Why I Decided to Try It Anyway
I’ll be the first to admit the Murph Workout in Omaha culture can feel intense from the outside. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized Memorial Day is supposed to feel a little uncomfortable. It isn’t just a long weekend with cookouts and pool openings. It’s about remembering people who gave up birthdays, holidays, time with their families, their safety, and in a lot of cases, their lives.
Compared to that, a hard workout is small. Maybe there’s some value in intentionally doing something difficult for a couple of hours while thinking about people who lived through hard things every day of their service.
Our Memorial Day Murph Event in Omaha
This year I partnered with American Academies of Martial Arts to host a smaller, more approachable Murph Workout in Omaha event. The goal isn’t intimidation – it’s community.
From 9 AM noon on Memorial Day, anyone can come try whatever version of Murph makes sense for them. Run or walk. Pull-ups or rows. Toe pushups or wall pushups. Vest or no vest. Nobody’s keeping score. We just want people moving, challenging themselves a little, and spending some time remembering why Memorial Day exists in the first place.
We’re also making it fun. Prizes we’ll be giving away include:
- Two tickets to see Papa Roach at Stir Concert Cove
- A $100 gift certificate to Mad Cow Paintball
- A month of Kung Fu classes
- A few other surprises throughout the morning
Suffering builds character, but prizes definitely help morale.
For anyone nervous about showing up because you think everyone will be ultra-intense fitness people…please remember that I once did pushups dressed as Maui from Moana on a children’s activity mat at AAMA.
You’ll fit in just fine.
You Don’t Have to Do the Workout to Participate
One thing I want to be really clear about, you do not have to finish the workout to be eligible for the prizes. Honestly, you don’t have to do the workout at all.
Every year I also do the 50 Mile March, which raises money and awareness for veteran mental health. A lot of veterans come home physically intact but keep fighting hard battles long after they leave combat. PTSD, depression, isolation — it wrecks families and lives every day, and it doesn’t get talked about nearly enough.
Anyone who donates to the 50 Mile March fundraiser during the event will also be eligible for the prize giveaways. So whether you come to run the full Murph, walk a scaled version, donate, or just stop by to cheer people on — you’re welcome.
Thinking About Trying the Murph?
If you’ve been curious about the Murph Workout in Omaha tradition but felt intimidated by the online culture around it, take this as your sign. You don’t have to earn your way in. You don’t need elite fitness, you don’t need military experience, and you don’t need a tactical vest covered in patches.
You just need a willingness to push yourself a little while honoring people who sacrificed a lot.
That sounds like a pretty good use of Memorial Day to me.
You can find more details and keep up with changes in the Facebook event.
