CrossFit Hero WODs

Javier Colomer 4 min. of reading CrossFit Leave a comment

Now that Dave Castro has announced on his Instagram account that there will be a weighted vest in the Regionals, the first thing that came to mind is the Murph WOD. He’s done this wod for two years straight at the CrossFit Games with the weighted vest, and now he’s already warned that we’ll have to face the vest again in the next competition, although he hasn’t revealed what kind of workout it will be for yet.

This kind of move is very typical of the CrossFit Games director. From now on, all kinds of bets can be placed to see who guesses what Dave has in mind for these Regionals. Specifically referring to Murph and many other wods honoring fallen soldiers while carrying out their missions, we’re going to share in this post the most well-known “hero wods.”

What are Hero WODS?

Hero wods are workouts dedicated to fallen American military personnel. They’re usually intense workouts aimed at completing them with maximum effort possible. Not so much for yourself but in honor of the heroes who gave their name to the wod and died serving their country. To set the scene a bit more, CrossFit was born in the US, and they’re very patriotic, believing in the power of their military forces to defend their country’s freedom.

CrossFit Heroes

These types of wods are therefore another tribute that honors these people and is carried out with deep feeling. For example, in the CrossFit Games 2016, Bridges already felt before doing Murph that he had to be the winner of that event since he had been military and wanted to pay tribute to his comrade. We don’t know how deeply committed they feel, but Bridges unquestionably dominated this event.

Which are the Hero WODs?

If you’re a crossfitter, you’ll gradually see more references to these people and their wods. Getting to know their stories a bit more to understand who is being remembered is part of CrossFit culture. Let’s review some of the most famous ones:

JT

Jeff Taylor – 30 years old. Fallen in Afghanistan in June 2005.

For Time: 21-15-9 reps of

HSPU (Handstand Push-Ups)
Ring Dips
Push-Ups

Murph

Michael Murphy – 29 years old. Fallen in Afghanistan in June 2005. Originally, the workout was called ‘Body Armor’ and was one of his favorites. That’s why in his honor, they renamed it Murph. To add difficulty, this wod is done with a weighted vest (usually 10 kg for men – 6 kg for women). It somehow reminds you of the bulletproof vests they used. And precisely because it has been done several times at the Games, it’s one of the most famous.

For Time:

Run 1 Mile (1610 mts)
100 Pull-Ups
200 Push-Ups
300 Squats
Run 1 Mile (1610 mts)

Nate

Nate Hardy, fallen on Sunday, 4 February in a combat in Iraq.

AMRAP 20 min (As many rounds as possible in 20 min):

2 Muscle-Ups
4 HSPU
8 Kettlebell Swings (32 kg)

Ryan

Ryan McGhee, 21 years old. Fallen in combat in May 2009 in Iraq.

For Time: 5 rounds

7 Muscle-Ups
21 Burpees

DT

David Thompson, 39 years old, fallen in January 2010 in a combat in Afghanistan.

For Time: 5 rounds

12 Deadlifts (70 kg)
9 Hang Power Cleans (70 kg)
6 Push Jerks (70 kg)

The Seven

A bomb took the lives of 7 CIA agents at a base in Afghanistan in December 2009. In their memory, 7 stars were added to the CIA memorial wall, where each star represents one of the comrades who died serving their country.

For Time: 7 rounds