Deep Dive

3 Cues You Need To Set A New Back Squat PR This Week

Murph is one of the most well-known benchmark workouts in CrossFit.

It includes a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another one-mile run.

Many athletes complete it with a 20-pound or 14-pound vest, which raises the difficulty even more.

While it looks like a simple chipper workout on paper, how you approach it has a massive impact on your time.

If you want to improve your time each year, you need a strategy.

Following a smart pacing plan gives you the best chance at setting a new personal record.

How Most Athletes Mess Up Murph

Murph uniquely challenges your endurance.

It demands sustained effort from your chest, shoulders, lats, arms, and legs for a long duration.

As you fatigue, your ability to generate force and move efficiently drops off.

This usually happens in the push-ups first, followed by slower transitions and poor pacing on the squats and pull-ups.

You may start strong, but if you don’t manage your energy output, you’ll lose momentum halfway through.

Without a plan for pacing, your performance depends on how you feel in the moment.

Which rarely leads to your best possible score.

This forces longer rest breaks, sloppy movement, and inconsistent scores each year.

If you’re trying to see progress and avoid hitting a wall, you need to know how to manage your effort across all parts of the workout.

Why This Matters

When you go into Murph without a clear plan, you set yourself up for an uphill battle.

Believe me, as I have made this mistake many times, as this will be my 10th Murph WOD.

Early in the workout, you might feel strong and move through the first few rounds quickly.

But as fatigue builds in your chest, shoulders, arms, and legs, your power output drops.

Movements that felt easy at the start begin to break down, and the time between reps gets longer.

You spend more time catching your breath than actually working.

Without a structured approach, you also lose the ability to track meaningful progress year over year.

Each time you complete Murph with a different strategy or pacing style, you’re testing a different version of yourself.

This makes it hard to know if your training is actually improving your performance.

As muscular fatigue sets in, you’re also more likely to compensate with poor mechanics.

Ever have a sore shoulder or knee after Murph? This could be why.

Fortunately, you can follow the tips below and avoid all of this while being well on your way to smashing this year’s Murph.

5 Tips To PR Your Murph Time

1.Partition the Work

Partitioning the workout makes Murph more manageable for most athletes.

The most common method is to break up the pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats into 20 rounds of Cindy: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats.

This keeps the muscle groups rotating and gives you short breaks between repeated use of the same movement pattern.

The traditional Murph calls for 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 air squats unpartitioned.

If you go unpartitioned and attempt all 100 pull-ups before moving to push-ups and then air squats, you’re asking a lot from each muscle group without any rest.

That approach requires a high level of muscular endurance and a well-developed pacing skillset.

For most CrossFitters, 20 rounds of Cindy offers the best balance between effort, recovery, and output across the workout.

2.Manage Push-Up Fatigue Early

Push-ups are the limiting factor for most athletes during Murph.

Your chest, shoulders, and triceps fatigue faster than your back or legs, and once that muscle endurance drops off, it’s hard to recover.

If you’re doing unbroken sets of 10+ push-ups early on, you may find yourself staring at the floor before you even hit the halfway point.

Start the workout by splitting the 10 push-ups into smaller sets like 5-5 or 5-3-2 right away.

This helps you preserve strength and avoid muscular failure.

It also keeps your transitions between movements tighter, which saves time over the course of 20 rounds.

If you wait until you feel fatigue to start breaking your push-ups, it’s already too late.

You’ll lose your rhythm and slow down the workout in the back half.

By managing push-up fatigue from round one, you stay ahead of the breakdown and maintain consistent movement quality through to the end.

3.Don’t Watch The Clock

One of the simplest ways to stay mentally locked in during Murph is to stop watching the clock.

Constantly checking your pace adds unnecessary stress and breaks your focus.

Instead, focus on your whiteboard.

Before starting, draw 20 small dashes on a whiteboard.

Every time you complete a round of Cindy, erase one dash.

This keeps you focused on the task in front of you without the mental drain of timing each round.

It keeps you moving with purpose and helps you maintain rhythm across the entire workout.

The first time I applied this I was shocked at how much time I wasted looking at the clock.

4.Breathing Tips With The Vest

When you’re wearing a weighted vest, chest compression can restrict your breathing and throw off your rhythm, especially during the runs.

A simple fix is to hook your thumbs under the lateral edge of the vest while you run.

This slightly lifts the vest and relieves pressure from your chest.

Then focus on swinging your elbows rather than your full arms to maintain a more natural stride on the runs.

5.Prep For The Final Mile

The final mile is where Murph is often won or lost.

By the time you get there, your legs are already heavily fatigued from 300 air squats, and it’s easy to start slow while waiting for them to come back online.

That delay in finding your pace can cost you several minutes and a PR.

To maximize your pace on the last run, adjust your 19th round of Cindy.

Instead of doing the usual 15 air squats, perform 30.

Then on your 20th round, you’ll only need to complete the final 5 pull-ups and 10 push-ups.

This gives your legs a break before the run and allows you to start that last mile at your steady pace.