Mark Zuckerberg just completed this 'impossible' fitness challenge

It sounds hardcore

Mark Zuckerberg does the Murph Challenge each year. Image: Getty

Would you believe us if we told you Mark Zuckerberg is an absolute machine in the gym? Not only is the Meta founder and billionaire a brain, but he's also an Adonis doing the near impossible. 

Mark Zuckerberg is redefining what it is to be a nerd. Gone are the stereotypes of the smartest kids at school being void of coordination, stamina and an aversion to the sporting field. The 39-year-old has just completed a gruelling fitness challenge that would make an Olympian sweat.

The father-of-three ran 1.6km, and completed 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups and 300 squats, all before running another 1.6km. Just to add a little spice – or lactic acid – to the mix, he did all of the above wearing a 9kg-weighted vest.

It’s called the Murph Challenge, after US Navy Seal, Michael P. Murphy, who died in Afghanistan in 2005 – and just talking about each step has us needing to take a recovery nap.

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“I try to do the Murph challenge with the girls every Memorial Day as a tradition to honour those who defended us,” Zuckerberg told his Instagram followers.

“One of Lt Murphy's favourite workouts was running a mile, then doing 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then running another mile - all while wearing a 20lb weighted pack. This year I got it done in 39:58. The girls did a quarter-Murph (unweighted) in 15 mins!”

Not only is Zuckerberg breading the brains of the future, but he’s also raising some seriously tough daughters.

While he has always been a runner and avid fencer, in a 2022 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, the billionaire said he turned to hardcore fitness – more specifically Brazilian jiu-jitsu – during the pandemic. 

“The crazy thing is it really is the best sport,” he said. “There’s something that’s just so primal about it.”

He’s not wrong. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a gruelling combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting, and submission holds. It’s essentially a fight to the death, without the death part.

According to experts, high-profile nerds are challenging their inner beasts like never before, and it has a lot to do with the way they’re programmed. Successful smarties like Zuckerberg look at the way they move, think and operate from an engineering perspective.

Livvy Probert, a personal trainer who works with “highly demanding business leaders” tells The Guardian, “Now they’ve succeeded at business, they’re looking at their next challenge.”

Part of the “challenge” is knowing every detail about their workout. Think, the nitty gritty of their biometrics.

“They love it because the more they can track, the more they can improve. And they want to know not only how they can improve themselves – generally they want to be better than other people as well,” Probert explained.

“One of the things that I particularly get asked is: ‘Where does that put me on the ratio of other people? I want to make sure that I’m at the top.’”

A classic case of revenge of the nerds? The jocks better watch their backs.

Originally published as Mark Zuckerberg just completed this 'impossible' fitness challenge