Photo by: Clara McMichael

By: Clara McMichael

You’ve seen the videos – Connor Murphy shows off his muscles on Chipotle’s roof or Walmart’s ceiling, or models at Abercrombie and is hauled off by mall cops while a crowd of women stand in a semi-circle, taking videos and photographs.

Here’s his newest: Murphy stands in the middle of his bedroom underneath a light covered with a plastic bag for a better visual. He sets up his webcam, and proceeds to rub extra virgin olive oil on his chest before his latest video – a compilation of women’s reactions as he shows off his physique on ChatRoulette and Omegle.

“That’s what guys like,” Murphy said. “They don’t want to get fit so they can lift around heavy weights – they want to get fit so they can get girls.”

His latest, which will be released sometime this week, differs from a common theme: most of his videos involve risky public actions that could have legal consequences.  After his video taken at Abercrombie, Murphy was banned from the mall for five years due to public indecency.  However, the Katy Police Department determined Murphy did nothing wrong in the eyes of the law.

“You can’t help but be a little nervous,” Murphy said.  “But most reactions are pretty positive. They like to see something out of the ordinary.”  

He makes these videos to inspire others to get fit – particularly men around his age.

“When they see the lifestyle that getting fit can bring – when they see me out there doing what I do, and they see people admiring my physique, they see me being the center of attention – it inspires them to get fit,” Murphy said.

Murphy’s videos, combined with a social media campaign to get followers on Facebook and Instagram, has catapulted him into campus-wide fame at SU.

Murphy acknowledged that people have been talking about him.

“I’ve basically been hearing it from secondary sources, but no one’s actually come up to me or anything like that,” Murphy said.

As a double-major in computational math and economics, Murphy doesn’t know what he wants to do after college, and he wants to balance his fitness modeling with a normal career.