April 1st, 2020
1:25AM

I migrated from Netflix to Youtube after watching a thriller, searching for an explanation video. Somehow I ended up on the weird part of Youtube…

Curious what I stumbled on?
Here’s the link.

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Yeah, it wasn’t that weird actually. I just found it strange that it ended up on my side bar. This was the first time ever even hearing about the Murph Challenge.

TLDR; the video is about a guy who decides to do it for the mental challenge. It wasn’t about building muscle or getting leaner. He just wanted to see if he could do it. All at the same time, he was keeping up with his college lifestyle. His attitude towards this made it look easier than it actually was and I think that was what really got me motivated that night.

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So what is the Murph Challenge?

The Murph Challenge was created to commemorate the life of Michael P. Murphy. He was a US Navy SEAL officer who lost his life serving in Afghanistan. He was exposed to gunfire, while attempting to get a clear signal to contact his headquarters. It was a timely situation. When he was shot multiple times and dropped the phone, he fought to pick it back up. He finished the call, and signed off saying, "Thank You". He continued to fight till his last breath before dying from his wounds. This workout is to honor him. It was one of his favorites to do.

The challenge is a month long and consists of:
(the exercises can be done in any order)

1 mile run to start
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 air squats
1 mile run to end

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Did I do it? No…

My body wasn’t ready for that sort of immediately strain. However, I decided to push for another challenge, especially because it was the start of the month. I decided to take on the One Punch Man Challenge. It’s from an anime in which this mediocre man can defeat anybody with just a single punch. Honestly it’s a hilarious show, and I’d highly recommend it. How he achieved his power is through his gruesome workout… (also how he became bald)

Of course I pushed for a month long and it consisted of:

100 push-ups
100 sit-ups
100 air squats
10km (6.2 mi) run

I decided to change my run to 5 miles because I was just healing from a really bad sprain on my ankle. After Day 1, I decreased it to 4 miles because the run was really straining it. I also took a virtual dance class once a week and substituted that for my daily workout.

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Before I get into my thoughts about the month long workout, I want to share my experience in regards to exercising. I’m sure some of you readers are hardcore lifters, while others not so much. I’m kind of in between.

I started my lifting journey when I was a senior in high school. I went to either the Astor Levy or Chelsea Recreation Center in Manhattan with some of my besties. We called ourselves “Gainsquad.” It was just a for fun sort of insider that we would always say! It was our support through brotherhood and friendly competition that made us go a couple times every week.

During college, most of us went to different colleges. I myself was at one that needed a 3.5 hour drive north of NYC to the middle of nowhere - Binghamton University. With almost nothing to do there, I decided to lift 4 days a week and swim 3 days a week. I’d say this time period was when I was my most cut. I also didn’t eat too much junk when I was in school there, so I’d say that played a huge part too.

From Binghamton, I transferred to Baruch College. Back to the Big Apple I went. I was occupied with internships and part-time jobs, so I wasn’t able to swim. However, I still tried fitting in 3-4 days per week in my local school gym. I also was on a dance team, so I was getting my sweet bit of cardio from there. I would get home late at night due to the combination of late classes, dance practices, and the 2.5 hour roundtrip commute. This meant that I ate late. I was raised to never waste food (especially not my mom’s delicious dishes), so I made sure to always sweep up all of it. I wouldn’t say I was obese, but I had that mix of muscle plus dad-bod going for me.

Post college? Forget it, it was just the dad-bod. I had my full time job, freelance photography gigs, and was still on a dance team. I would hang out with friends, and give time for myself in between. I had no time for the gym, or maybe it was just because I didn’t prioritize it. No matter. I didn’t have any regrets, I was happy with life and who I was.

Fast forward 2.5 years later and it’s January 2020. It was then that I decided to workout everyday at home, plus start intermittent fasting. I didn’t want to do anything crazy. I did 60 push-ups (3x20), 60 sit-ups per day (3x20), and a 2 mile run every other day. Some days I’d skip, but I’d say the exercises weren’t necessarily hard and it came out to be pretty consistent. When it came to fasting, I only ate/drank between 1:00pm and 9:00pm. I’d go out to drink for some nights, but these were rare.

(Read to the end, so you can actually see the changes per month towards the bottom of this post!!!)

Anyways from there, I decided to step it up a bit.

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ONE PUNCH MAN CHALLENGE TIME

Day 1: I couldn’t believe I was starting it. This was either going to be one of the best late night ideas I ever had, or one I was going to regret the most. To encourage myself further, I made a post on Facebook to try and find others to join me. Nobody wanted to… That’s fine! I decided to keep a journal in the comments section, leaving workout photos everyday. This would keep me ACCOUNTABLE. I had to speak my goals into existence, and I truly think this helped.

Day 2: It was time to start day 2. The day after the 1st day. Still at the start of this challenge… I was super sore, too. Nonetheless I got through that day. From then on, I knew the worst part was the run. I had my run decreased to 4 miles from 5, but the sharp pain from my ankle was crawling back. I was starting to get doubtful of this idea of mine.

Day 3: I fell asleep after dinner, and snoozed till 12:00am. When I woke up, I really didn’t want to follow through with the workout. I really really really wanted to just continue sleeping. Day 3 was probably the hardest day for me. I really just wanted to give up and return to my easy going life. I remembered my journal of photos on Facebook. I remembered making this my goal for this month. I knew I would regret it if I gave up. It would get easier, but I wouldn’t know that until I was there. So I eventually dragged myself out of bed, still half asleep, and just went for it. When it was over, I hit the showers, and immediately rewarded myself with the sleep I deserved.

Day 4-13: I started having e-dates with this one girl every night. #quarantined We talked for hours sometimes, and watched Netflix together too. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. BUT THE WORKOUTS. I never wanted to end our conversations early, but sometimes I did cause I had to make sure I got my day’s workout in. However when I didn’t, I would suffer and start them do them at 1:00AM or 2:00AM in the morning. BUT the workouts were indeed getting easier, they were becoming routine for me.

After Day 7, I made my 4th set of squats (x25) weighted by holding out a dumbbell.

Day 14-27: And they did get easier! I felt like my body wasn’t as sore from the days before, and my ankle was getting better. The stretching before and after helped a ton. I still wanted to push though, so I added on more exercises after 2 weeks.

After Day 14, I added bicep curls (4x8) and tricep pulldowns with a band (4x8).
After Day 21, I added the ab wheel (4x8) and calf raises (2x50, once in the morning and once at night).

Day 30: I am DONE! I was so pumped to get through my exercises and my run. Never have I ever been so excited to finish that last 1/4 mile of my run. Drenched in sweat, I took my progress pictures.

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RESULTS:
Comparing the photos I took towards the beginning of the month, I didn’t notice too much of a physical difference. My figure for the most part pretty much looked the same. However upon closer inspection, I did see that I slimmed down a tad from my stomach and love handles. I didn’t do any back workouts, which explained absolutely 0 progress there. But my triceps were a lot more defined. These were from the tricep pushups and tricep pulldowns. Mentally, I felt amazing. Since the start of these workouts, I’ve had a clearer mindset and not many lethargic moments.

All in all, I’m really proud of myself that I got through this. The fact that I was mentally capable of pushing myself day after day says a lot. Even though I made slight adjustments, I’d say it’s not easy to commit. Sure I didn’t do the full 6.2 mile (10 km) run, but with every week I added on exercises. I wanted my other muscle groups to jump in on the fun too.

Would I do this again? Absolutely! I’ll most likely be pushing myself to do a tougher challenge next time around or maybe even just do it with the 10km run every day. I think for the month of May, I’m going to start doing my 4 day split routine again. This would be focusing on a different muscle group, maxing out it’s energy per day and allowing it to fully recover before repeating the following week. It’s been 5 months so far on this journey and I’ve made so much progress. I got to make my roots proud, aka Gainsquad. I’m 25 years old. Physically speaking, this time period right now is the peak of my life. I’m determined to keep this going and make the most out of it.

If you’re reading this and it’s quarantine season, I’d recommend you to use some of that free time and work on becoming a better version of who you are. That includes mentally too! If you need the extra time to rest or practice self-care, do it. But keep goals for yourself. Keep pushing. I believe that anybody is capable of doing anything they want as long as they commit and dedicate themselves to the cause. I believe in y’all !!!