Mark Zuckerberg marks Memorial Day with Murph Challenge honoring fallen Navy SEAL
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg marked Memorial Day by doing “the Murph Challenge” — a grueling workout that included 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and a mile-long run, all of which was done wearing a 20-pound weighted vest.
The tech boss, who has taken up the martial art of Brazilian jiujitsu, authored a Facebook post that included a selfie photo in which he is seen wearing a weighted vest.
The other photo in the post showed his two older daughters — August, 7, and Max, 5 — doing push ups.
Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recently welcomed their third child, Aurelia.
“I try to do the Murph challenge with the girls every Memorial Day as a tradition to honor those who defended us,” the Facebook founder wrote.
The “Murph Challenge” is named after Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was killed in action during the war in Afghanistan in 2005.
“One of Lt Murphy’s favorite workouts was running a mile, then doing 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and then running another mile — all while wearing a 20lb weighted pack.”
“This year I got it done in 39:58,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“The girls did a quarter-Murph (unweighted) in 15 mins!”
The Post has sought comment from Meta.
When a commenter on Facebook wrote that 100 pull ups “is a brutal outlier,” the Meta boss replied: “Yeah, although that last mile run when your legs are torched from the squats and your heart rate is pegged is pretty brutal too…”
When another commenter on Facebook noted that Zuckerberg’s time would “rank among the top 200, of over 20,000 participants,” the tech mogul clarified: “There are a few different ways people do this.”
“The most hardcore is called Rx and those people do the 100 pull ups, then 200 push ups, and then the 300 squats sequentially,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“Rx” connotes a workout that is done “as prescribed,” which means the participant must wear a 20-pound vest.
“I did a partitioned Murph with a bunch of sets with smaller reps of each alternating. Still challenging, but my Rx time would be a lot slower.”
That prompted one commenter to reply: “So you didn’t really do it is what you are saying.”
Others, however, were more encouraging.
“Baby steps,” wrote one Facebook user. “Don’t listen to the haters, commit! Best of luck.”
Murphy, a Long Island native, was posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor.
While deployed, Murphy created his own CrossFit-style workout known as “Body Armor.”
The workout involved running, pushing, pulling, and lifting exercises while wearing a weighted vest.
Weeks after Murphy fell in battle, the founder of CrossFit, Greg Glassman, posted video of the workout to CrossFit’s website.
Since then, the workout is done on Memorial Day at military bases and Navy ships deployed overseas.
Earlier this month, Zuckerberg took home gold and silver medals in a Brazilian jiujitsu competition.
Meta Platforms last week started carrying out the last batch of a three-part round of layoffs — part of a plan announced in March to eliminate 10,000 roles.
Meta earlier this year became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs, after showing more than 11,000 employees the door in the fall.
The cuts brought the company’s headcount down to where it stood as of about mid-2021, following a hiring spree that doubled its workforce since 2020.
