4 Challenging Bodyweight Workouts You Can Do On Holiday

The holidays are a great time to infuse a bit of variety into your workout routine. Whether you’re on holiday and therefore, away from your normal training venue or simply in need of a change to your year round routine, we’ve got 4 challenging timed workouts to put you through your paces that are based on what are known as Hero WODs. They will provide you with an awesome mental and physical challenge as well as keeping you fit while on holiday.

What are Hero WODs?

Hero WODS are Crossfit type workouts that are named in honor of fallen members of the military or first responders who died in the line of duty. They represent the favorite workout that the heroes loved to perform themselves. Our selection of HERO wods without equipment only requires  a pull up bar, which you can usually find down at your local park.

These workouts are done for time.

Recovery

The Hero workouts that we have provided here will challenge you in their own unique ways. The first challenge is mental as you come to grips with the high rep numbers. Work out your strategy to break them down into achievable chunks while getting done in the shortest possible time.

Once you are done, your muscles will be aching. Start bringing them relief with the aid of a foam roller. A good foam roller will allow you to get into your deep muscle tissue to provide a soothing deep tissue massage. We recommend a vibrating massager which works on your muscles on two levels. You can use this foam roller for faster recovery and tension release.

Murph

The Murph Hero WOD is probably the most famous of them all. It is named in honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who fell in Afghanistan in 2005. Here is the workout:

• One mile run
• 100 pull ups
• 200 push ups
• 300 bodyweight squats
• One mile run

You must start and finish with the run but you can divide up the pull ups, push ups and squats however you like.

Guide times for the Murph workout are:

Beginners: 63-71 minutes

Intermediate: 47-58 minutes

Advanced: 36-41 minutes

To make this workout harder, you can wear a 20 pound vest.

Severin

This hero WOD is named in honor of US Army Sergeant 1st Class Severin W. Summers III who died in Afghanistan in 2009 after being struck by an IED. Here’s the workout:

• 50 strict pull ups
• 50 Hand Release Push Ups
• 5000 meter (3.1 mile) run

Break up the sets of pull ups and push ups as needed to complete them with strict form in the shortest possible time.

Brenton

Timothy Quinn Brenton was a Seattle police Department Field Training Officer who was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in 2009. Here is the workout that honors him:

• 100-foot Bear Crawl
• 100-foot Standing Broad Jump

This workout is to be completed 5 times for time. After every 5 broad jumps, do 3 burpees. Increase the intensity of this workout by wearing a 20 pound weighted vest.

Clovis

This workout is in honor of the US Army 2nd Lieutenant Clovis T. Ray, who died in Afghanistan in 2012 when his unit became the victim of an IED attack. Here is his Hero WOD:

• 10 mile run
• 150 burpee pull ups

The burpee pull up is a joining together of the burpee and pull up exercise where you do a burpee and then immediately do a pull up. With this WOD, you are able to split up the run and intersperse it with your burpee pull ups. This provides your upper body with a much needed rest and recovery period while you are running.