"Murph"

[Troy Archie]

Were we allowed to mix up the pull-ups, push-up and squats or were we supposed to finish each exercise before moving onto the next? Seems like a newbie question, I know but with, “Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed”, it gets me wondering...

[Eric Cimrhanzel]

par·ti·tion Audio pronunciation of "partition" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pär-tshn)
n.

1.
1. The act or process of dividing something into parts.
2. The state of being so divided.
2.
1. Something that divides or separates, as a wall dividing one room or cubicle from another.
2. A wall, septum, or other separating membrane in an organism.
3. A part or section into which something has been divided.
4. Division of a country into separate, autonomous nations.
5. Mathematics.
1. An expression of a positive integer as a sum of positive integers.
2. The decomposition of a set into a family of disjoint sets.
6. Computer Science. A section of storage space on a hard disk.
7. Law. Division of property, especially real estate.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist. :happy:

I kid, of course, but seriously I'd say mix it up. I know I'm going to try this "Cindy-style" (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats for 20 rounds), then later on do it "Double Cindy-style" (double reps for 10 rounds), then once more with straight sets "Angie style" (all exercises at once, no split). Then go back to the beginning. All of this over a period of several months, of course.

This workout rocks for being able to mix it up.

[Pat Janes]

Yeah, Eric. I'm going to go with Angie style, I think. Just because she doesn't come up all that often and cranking out 100 straight pullups as quickly as you can, followed by 200 pushups, then 300 squats is a tough mental workout.

But Troy, my impression is that the idea is to get it done any way you can.

[John Walsh]

Unless otherwise suggested I just do it in the order given. No matter how you slice it it will catch up to you and you will work hard.

[William Hunter]

Agreed. That's just a hell of a lot of work. Anyone who completes that WOD, in any form, should go grab a beer guilt free. The sick puppies who do all pu's, then pushups, then squats should have two beers.

[Seth Orell, Jr.]

Taking up where Eric left off (so close!), partitioning preserves order. If coach wanted us to shuffle the exercises (e.g. Chelsea) then he would have used the term "interleaving" which does not preserve order.

Both terms allow you to divide the work into chunks, the difference is the order in which you complete them. Murph is certainly a tough workout, but a much shorter one if you interleave - check times for those who did vs. didn't for evidence of this.

[Ronnie Ashlock]

I got through the pull-ups and 50 push-ups before I *had* to break it up. Squats were a relief to my arms which were jellifying as I was doing this WOD.

Next time Murph comes up, I'll give non-interleaving a go, but no promises! :-)

[Bryan Edge]

I did "murph" just as listed and it took a long time -- about an hour twenty for me.

I think splitting up the squats/pushups/pullups (ugh -- especially the pullups) would probably make a much better time.

It's a rough workout regardless. :-)

-bryan

[Matt Gagliardi]

FWIW...
I've never seen/heard the term "interleave" around the site. When I've seen "partition" that's always been the cue to break/arrange things as necessary for the fastest time. If nothing had been said/written (i.e. the term partition had not been used in the WOD description) I'd have read it as "do all 100, then 200, then 300". No one was going to do 100 pullups without a break...so the idea that "partition" was indicating it was OK to break up single sets of pullups/pushups/squats is a little silly. Apply logic to what you see.

A couple of things to keep in mind regarding CF:
1. The concept of "power" gets a lot of play here. Power = work / time. While I broke things up into 10-20-30 chunks...I still did the same amount of work that people (with a similar weight) who did 100-200-300 did. HOWEVER...my power output was considerably higher, because my time was much lower. That should factor into your decisions about how you're going to do a WOD.
2. There is a long-standing "rule" that a WOD should not go over 40 minutes. Check the times for those people who went 100-200-300.

Regardless of how you did it, it got done. I post this only for informational purposes, not recriminations.

[Scott McAndrews]

Matt,
I think I understand what you're saying, but I want to be sure and I also have a question regarding the WOD length "rule".

First, it sounds like you're saying that partitoning either way (i.e., broken sets of pullups all the way to 100, then broken sets of pushups all the way to 200, etc. or 10 pull ups, 20 pushups, 30 squats all the way to the Rx'ed reps) is ok. But, are you suggesting that because one could keep moving more steadily through the workout using the 10, 20, 30 partitioning method that this method is a more powerful means of accomplishing the workout? That's what it sounds like to me and that is an interesting idea. I also wonder if this would keep one's heart/respiratory rate higher more consistantly and therefore provide a more effective cardiorespiratory challenge?

Next, despite having read many posts on the message board, I have not run across the idea that WOD's should go no longer than 40 minutes. Do you remember any threads that discuss this and the reasoning behind it? I'd be interested in checking them out. Or if you can explain the reasoning that would be interesting too. Also, would you agree that if one finds that they need to go over the 40 minutes, then they should modify that WOD or similar ones so that they can achieve the 40 minute standard?

Thanks, Scott