Fallen But Not Forgotten: How CrossFit’s Hero Workouts Honor Fallen Service Members

This sentence sits at the top of the CrossFit Hero and Tribute workout page. The page has been updated and re-skinned a few times but its purpose has remained the same It is home to photos, brief bios, and some of the most challenging workouts ever created — workouts that have become sacrosanct not only to CrossFit but also to the broader community that celebrates them.

If we wind the clock back 20 years, many CrossFit athletes serving overseas in the armed forces never belonged to an affiliate. At best, they had a small group on base they could train with, no 5-p.m. friends to spot them and grab a burger and beer with after class. The CrossFit community lived online at CrossFit.com, in the comments or on the message board. Some of those men and women risked their lives for our continued safety, and while they seemed to live in a different world than those on the civilian side, the common thread between us all was CrossFit.

Hero workouts became CrossFit’s way of paying tribute to the fallen members of our community who made the ultimate sacrifice, and through the consecration of the values they lived by, paired with a workout bearing their name, we remember them and begin the healing process for those they left behind.

CrossFit Hero workouts are built on three pillars that symbolize the visceral and physical experiences athletes who undertake them endure to create a legacy for the fallen:

1. Honoring
2. Grieving
3. Enduring

HONORING

Lt. Michael Murphy

Not only were these service members CrossFit athletes, but they also displayed the highest merit and values in the hardest circumstances, holding a true standard of heroism.

The first Hero honored in this manner was Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Taylor, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. The Hero workout J.T. was first published to CrossFit.com on July 6, 2005.

There are 208 Hero workouts to date, but without a doubt, the most well known is Murph, named after Lieutenant Michael Murphy (Murphy fell during the same conflict as J.T. and Navy Lieutenant Michael McGreevy, for whom the second Hero workout was created). Murph was the third Hero to appear on CrossFit.com, first published on Aug. 18, 2005. Many of the Hero workouts are derived from movements or modalities that the fallen implemented or were known for. In remembrance of Murphy, CrossFit affiliates and the larger fitness community suffer and persevere together every Memorial Day to the tune of a 1-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another 1-mile run. This was because Murphy regularly used this workout to prepare himself for the truly unknown and unknowable: battle.

The values Murphy lived by and the example he set made him a true hero. Murphy fell in battle while calling for reinforcements from an unsecured hostile area, sacrificing his life so that others might survive.

You could argue that Memorial Day Murph galvanizes the CrossFit affiliate community more than the Open. No leaderboard, no judge but your own integrity; just fellow athletes and friends watching, working, and honoring. Even those technically outside the CrossFit community — including John Krasinski, Chris Pratt, and The Rock — join in honoring Murph. They share in the legacy of honoring a fellow CrossFit athlete.

How Did Memorial Day Murph Come To Be?

In 2023, it may be easier to find a Starbucks refusing to serve caffeine than a U.S. CrossFit affiliate not hosting some sort of Memorial Day Murph event. Popular opinion would assume CrossFit.com programs Murph every Memorial Day. But in true CrossFit fashion, we do not yield to popular opinion, and Murph has never specifically been programmed on the last Monday of May. And yet, athletes who have never touched a weight vest throw one on a couple times a week for the exposure. CrossFit Hyperactive owner Jesse Suarez-Lopez has implemented “weight-vest Wednesdays … to help prepare people for Murph.” So how did the so elegantly alliterative Memorial Day Murph come to be? In truth, It’s truly a galvanizing event that was born out of the CrossFit affiliate community and CrossFit athletes take it seriously.

Former Navy SEAL and CrossFit Director of Education Dave Castro knows the value of community-driven initiatives: “What’s cool about all the affiliates that do Murph on Memorial Day is the fact that they’re coming together and they’re bringing their communities together to celebrate CrossFit and to celebrate Murph and to celebrate something bigger than them,” Castro said.

The best guess we can offer for the first time Murph was done on Memorial Day is this comment from BobM on the 060529 CrossFit.com Workout of the Day — Memorial Day, 2006, one year after the creation of the Murph Hero WOD.

This is a cool piece of history but not what really matters. What matters is that a group of individuals recognized that honoring and creating a legacy for Murph and other heroes built around the shared suffering of a Hero WOD was something that should be done. And much like CrossFit, it started as the right thing to do for the right reasons, and 17 years after the first publication of the Hero workout Murph, we have something built by the community that will endure for generations to come.

According to Castro, Murph’s legacy represents “a really strong community-building moment.”

“That the affiliates and the community came together on their own — independently together as all these micro gyms across the world to do this the same weekend is an expression of the power of this community globally to an awe-inspiring degree,” Castro said. “I mean, it’s pretty impressive. This was not an organized thing. This was not our organized effort to make Murph a thing on Memorial Day weekend. This was something that the community said, ‘Hey, we are going to do (this) on our own as independent gyms,’ and it’s now this massive collective.”

GRIEVING

Grieving is part of reaching acceptance after a loss. CrossFit Hero workouts give those close to the fallen the opportunity to memorialize their legacies in a way that can be repeated time and time again as the grief process continues. Through Hero workouts, loved ones are not relegated to photo albums collecting dust in attics; they’re brought to life again and again through the breath and sweat of those who strive in their honor. And for those in grief, such striving can be cathartic — a physical outlet to channel the all-encompassing emotions that a grieving person experiences.

First Annual Peyton Fundraiser and Workout at CrossFit Aptos, 2021

CrossFit Managing Editor Nicole Peyton lost her husband Chad to suicide in May of 2021. She says helping create and then complete the Hero workout dedicated to Chad early in the grieving process helped her make sense of her emotions after such a monumental loss.

“The workout Peyton was created just weeks after Chad died. Honoring him in this way was the only thing that made sense in a time of such shock and turmoil. He loved the CrossFit community and I knew he’d be proud of that tribute,” Nicole said. “Like most of CrossFit’s Hero workouts, Peyton is composed of Chad’s favorite elements, so it’s literally like pieces of him live on in it. Early on in the grief process, the workout gave me a reason to put forth the effort to move forward. It gave me the outlet I needed to direct my sadness, anger, and disbelief. Now, with each passing year, completing the workout allows me a chance to move through another phase of grief. There is no end to grief — it just evolves. So having something like a Hero workout to return to with each evolution really shines the light on how far you’ve come.”

ENDURING

A Hero workout is not just a test of fitness; it is a trial of mental fortitude. When a typical CrossFit athlete is briefed on a Workout of the Day, they look at the Rx’d option and decide whether it’s suitable to their ability. However, with a Hero workout, there’s more on the line than just a couple letters next to your score on the whiteboard. Committing to the prescribed workout is a promise to the fallen to try to experience a tiny speck of the pain and effort they endured to protect your freedoms. And you dig deep to try to deliver on that promise.

In the comments under J.T.’s post, there are numerous comments from soldiers who served with him or people who knew him and praised his character and ultimate sacrifice. But there are also those who never met J.T. and still are willing to give more of themselves in a hero’s honor, just like Ron N. from 2005:

Jennifer Loredo’s husband was honored in a Hero workout on Dec. 31, 2012. The workout Loredo has been embraced by CrossFit affiliates and athletes in an effort to keep his spirit alive. Jennifer reflected on what the honor meant to her in 2017:

“I will ensure that I do what I can to keep Eddie’s memory alive, but with a Hero workout there are people all over the world on any given day doing this workout in honor of Eddie. … Not only just the Hero workout, but the support of the CrossFit community — People talk about the community all the time, but the way that they wrapped their arms around my family is amazing.”

The support of those who never knew Jennifer or Eddie creates a legacy that endures and will continue to reflect the values he lived every time a CrossFit athlete laces up their shoes for 6 rounds of 24 air squats, 24 push-ups, 24 walking lunges, and a 400-m run. Jennifer believes “it’s not about completing the workout; it’s about honoring the person,” but as members of the CrossFit community, we try our absolute hardest to finish. It’s in our blood.

THE TRADITION CONTINUES — ONE REP AT A TIME

Hero workouts have been a long-standing tradition in the CrossFit community, but they by no means only belong to CrossFit. That would completely undermine the CrossFit ethos. Rather, it’s an honor to see the broader fitness world do these workouts to show respect for the fallen who have made the greatest sacrifice.

Formulating the words to adequately describe all that a Hero workout symbolizes feels insurmountable. But the workout itself may contain a framework for approaching the seemingly insurmountable. As our article from 2010 explained:

“The Hero workout is more than a test of physical ability. It bridges the gap between the body and the mind, emotion and experience, and gives us the chance to do more than just remember our soldiers. It gives us the chance to sweat, bleed, suffer and grieve for our fallen heroes one rep at a time.”