Hello CrossFit Billings! We are now 4 weeks out from Memorial Day and completing Murph.
For an in-depth look at what the workout ‘Murph’ entails, check out our previous post.
As our training volume and intensity increase approaching Memorial Day, we wanted to highlight the importance of recovery and injury prevention during this time.
If you are hoping to complete your best Murph yet, chances are you’ve been pushing hard at the gym and may have begun to notice a few aches and pains that can pop up with an increase in volume.
To maintain your training, we will explore ways to keep your body feeling healthy and ready in just a month.
Why Recovery Matters in Murph
Murph is a high-volume bodyweight workout. That means your joints, tendons, and muscles are under constant strain. If you don’t give your body what it needs to recover between sessions, you are more at risk of overuse injuries and overall burnout.
It’s not always about doing more – sometimes you need to take a step back to leap forward again.
Keeping your Shoulders healthy
The shoulder joint takes a beating in Murph. Because of the high volume of push-ups and pull-ups, it becomes necessary to mix in some activation and accessory drills.
Before your workout:
- Use the Crossover symmetry bands to activate the shoulders.
- Practice Scap pull-ups on the bar
After your workout:
- Complete Accessory strength work like banded face pulls, IYTs, and dumbbell external rotations
- Stretch your lats, pecs, and traps
Keeping the Legs and Knees healthy
Squats and running will tighten your quads and hip flexors. Accessories are also essential here.
Accessories:
- Spend time strengthening your hamstrings and glutes to prevent knee pain
- Utilize sled pulls, RDLs, and glute bridges
- Warm up your calves and Achilles before running
- Utilize dynamic stretching drills before performing long running workouts
After your workout:
- Be sure to foam roll calves, quads, glutes, and back
- Stretch our quads (couch stretch), hamstrings, IT band, and calves
Weekly Habits to improve your murph recovery
Everyone is different, but if you need a list of recovery tools to shoot for every week, the following would be a good place to start.
1. Daily Mobility (10-15 minutes)
Target the hips, shoulders, and spine. Focus more on mobility than static stretching. The world’s greatest stretch would be an example.
2. Active Recovery
Walk, bike, or row casually for 20-30 minutes. There is no intensity—just blood flow and movement. You can do these once or twice a week.
3. Sleep
Aim for 7-9 hours. This is the most essential piece of recovery. Without sufficient sleep, the other recovery protocols offer little benefit.
4. Nutrition
Make sure you’re eating enough—especially protein. Your body can’t repair what it doesn’t have the building blocks for. If you’re dragging through workouts, you may also be under-eating carbs.
Listen to Your Body
Pushing hard is part of training, but ignoring pain is not. If something feels “off,” address it now. Take an extra recovery day. Swap a heavy session for accessory work. At the end of the day, think of your goals.
Think of what benefits you more—pushing too hard now only to be injured come Murph, or being intentional about training hard and recovering, allowing you to go into the workout feeling healthy and excited to perform well.
Training for Murph is a slow build-up, not just mindlessly going through the motions. And this means you need to give respect to the recovery process, take care of your joints, and you’ll not only perform better, you’ll enjoy it more.
