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A FORMER World’s Strongest Man competitor has become the second person to have nearly died by taking on a notorious CrossFit challenge after his muscles “blew up.”
Michael Congdon took on the infamous Murph Challenge, which includes huge amounts of runs, pull-ups, push-ups and squats, mistakenly thinking it would be less extreme than powerlifting.
The 32-year-old, who finished fourth in 2018’s World’s Strongest Man competition, admitted he didn’t sleep or drink enough before the event, so he was “borderline puking and delirious” during it.
Hulking 252-pound Congdon refused to give up and completed the challenge on May 27 last year in immense pain with his arm muscles feeling “inflated by a pump,” he said.
Two days later, he said his painful muscles looked like a balloon animal.
“I was in straight agony with tears streaming down my face,” he said.
“My fiance was putting ice packs under my back while I was laying on the floor of the bathroom because it was too much pain.”
He was rushed to hospital – where he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis.
The condition is often caused by high-intensity exercise and causes muscles to break down and release harmful substances that can cause organ failure and death.
Video footage from the event in Saint Paul, Minnesota showed 5’9″ Michael just moments after completing the Murph challenge, dripping with sweat and so exhausted he struggled to speak.
The Murph challenge consists of a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another one-mile run, all done while wearing a weighted vest.
Fitness enthusiast Jessica Johnson was also diagnosed with rhabdo while training for the exact same challenge in August 2024 after her muscles exploded from doing 50 pull-ups.
The 25-year-old was left looking like the hulk with sore and swollen arms and was forced to spend four days in hospital where doctors feared having to cut her arms open to release the pressure.
“I was very shocked. It felt embarrassing. I was admitted into the hospital for four days,” Johnson said.
“I thought, ‘I’m here because I did too hard of a workout and I’m literally one of the fittest people I know.’ I was definitely shocked and didn’t know that this could happen.”
Michael has since revealed he feared for his life during the scary ordeal and now wants to warn others that “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
My lats were so inflated and my elbows, biceps and forearms were so inflamed at this point I couldn’t straighten my arms. I was running like a complete ogre. I looked like an idiot but I was committed to finishing this thing
Michael Congdon
After spending 10 years pushing to be one of the strongest guys in America, his near-death experience pushed him to focus on fishing instead.
The Wisconsin native said, “I was really scared for my life.
“That moment alone terrified me so much that I rescinded any need to find any of my physical limits ever again.
“I was one of the strongest guys in the US then I went to CrossFit because I wanted to do something less extreme.”
He continued, “The nature of Strongman is extreme effort for a short amount of time and that’s what my body was built for.”
TERRIFYING WORKOUT
Congdon said he was unprepared for the Murph challenge because he had done only about four CrossFit workouts before taking on the event.
“I was dehydrated too because I think I only had a Gatorade before I got there without any food. It was raining outside and I barely slept,” he said.
“I ripped through 50 pull-ups in the first few sets and then it immediately felt like my lats, my forearms and my biceps were being inflated with an air hose.
“I thought, ‘Wow this is a really great pump.’
“When I had 50 more to do it just kept feeling like they were being inflated more and more and It started to hurt really bad.
“By the end of it I couldn’t bend my arms, they were stuck at 90 degrees.”
World’s Strongest Man winners
THE first World’s Strongest Man competition was held in 1977.
It took place at the Universal Studios, California, with Bruce Wilhelm taking the title.
Since then it’s become a much-loved annual event, held every year except 1987.
In that year Pure Strength was held instead, which was not part of the WSM franchise.
The event, held in Scotland, saw Jón Páll Sigmarsson triumph over Geoff Capes and Bill Kazmaier.
Here;s a rundown of the WSM winners:
He said he tried to keep going through the push-ups but reached an intense level of pain, causing tears to roll down his face.
“Then I had 300 squats to do so I got through that and was borderline puking and delirious, he said.
“I thought, ‘Wow this is kind of fun, I’ve never pushed myself this hard.’
“My lats were so inflated and my elbows, biceps and forearms were so inflamed at this point I couldn’t straighten my arms.
“I was running like a complete ogre. I looked like an idiot but I was committed to finishing this thing.”
Congdon said the experience left him feeling “unsafe in his own body.”
STEPPING AWAY
Michael admitted the experience pushed him to step away from extreme physical challenges, and now he prioritizes fishing and potentially starting a family.
He said, “Pushing myself to the max and almost dying was the final straw. I only do enough to feel good now.
“I don’t train nearly as much, if at all. That was a truly life-changing, mind-changing moment.
“I was one of the strongest guys in America for my size in Strongman and it was the premise of pushing yourself to the absolute limit that I always loved.
“I thought ‘I’ve never died from going as hard as I possibly can so I can’t die.’
“I spent most of my adult life chasing this dream,” he said, adding he wanted to be the strongest man ever without drugs.
“I think I got really damn close.”
He added, “There’s a complete difference between pushing yourself and running yourself into the ground and for a long time I had this weird idea that ‘the more it hurt the better progress I would gain’.
“For certain events in Strongman you need extreme pain tolerance so some of that is true.
“But the cost of gaining that toughness is not what I desire anymore. Whether you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
“Life is precious and short and I understand, more than anyone, the desire to push yourself in the most extreme ways physically – but we don’t need to take things to the extremes.”
Congdon has lost about 34 pounds now as he tries to change his priorities.
“I’ve always loved ice fishing and I fish so that’s what and what I’m doing now outside of work,” he said.
The Murph challenge is a CrossFit Hero workout commemorating the legacy of US Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy, who died while fighting in Afghanistan in June 2005. It’s observed by thousands of CrossFit gyms each year.
CrossFit has been approached for a comment.
