Fighters Only : CrossFit: Fight Gone Bad

Fighters Only

Sep 05, 2019

‘Fight Gone Bad’ is a famous WOD that’s become a benchmark for fitness and power. Here’s the secret to cracking it. Know-how comes from Michael Cazayoux, certified strength and conditioning specialist, certified CrossFit Coach and a member of 2x CrossFit Games Championship team Hack’s Pack Ute.

CrossFit has always been famous for its use of named workouts. There are ‘The Girls’ like ‘Fran’ and ‘Grace’, arbitrarily named. And there are also ‘Hero Workouts’ named after firefighters, police officers, and servicemen and women who died doing their duties.

Of the ever-growing number of Hero Workouts, the most notorious is ‘Fight Gone Bad’, which was named by mixed martial artist legend BJ Penn when he was asked what it felt like after finishing it.

Upon close inspection it almost seems too simple to be effective. However, this is one of the most challenging workouts you’ll ever sweat through.

If you’ve done this workout before then you might know what a good score looks like. You get one point per rep and one point for each calorie burned on the rower. My best performance ever was 450 points, so hopefully that lends me some credibility when I’m talking about this tough workout.

Now let’s look at how you can get the highest score possible.

Fight gone bad workout

Three rounds of the following:

1) Maximum number of box jumps in a minute on a 20-inch box for men/16-inch for women.

2) Maximum number of push-presses in a minute using a 75lb weight for men/55lb for women.

3) Maximum calories burned in a minute on a rower.

4) Maximum number of sumo deadlift high-pulls in a minute using a 75lb weight for men/55lb for women.

5) Maximum number of wall-balls in a minute using a 20lb ball and target 10ft off the floor.

6) One-minute break allowed before repeating.

Mastering the speed

Your pace on this workout is everything. Lots of exercisers are capable of getting 150 reps on the first of three rounds. That would put them on track to achieve a score of 450. However, very few can maintain that pace. It will usually look like 150-90-85 reps respectively, for a score of 325.

It’s a better tactic for you to find a pace you can maintain for the entire workout (17 minutes in this case, including two one-minute rests between rounds) and start with that pace. So if you want to shoot for a score of 375, then just shoot for 125 each round. The first round won’t be as challenging, but the following two will test you to your limits.

1) Box jump

These give you the most bang for your buck in terms of racking up lots of reps. Whether you can only do step-ups or you can rebound off the ground each rep, just keep moving. Aim to go a little faster on these, and the push-press, than the following three moves. You can also rest on top of the box. Jump up, take a deep breath, then jump down and rebound off the bottom. This is just a little psychological trick to make the next rep seem easier.

2) Push-press

This is the next biggest rep builder for most people, because the bar is traveling the shortest distance. Rather than just moving through these as fast as possible, focus on your form and try to go slowly and smoothly for the entire minute. Keep your chest up, heels down and pause briefly at the top of each rep to take a quick breather.

3) Row

The row can make or break you on this workout. The difference in exertion between even 18 and 20 calories is big. The difference between 20 and 25 can destroy you. Rather, row at a 90% effort on the rower, because a lot more effort gets you very few more reps. You can easily make up the lost reps on the sumo deadlift high-pull to follow.

4) Sumo deadlift high-pull

Plan for small bursts of reps. Rather than doing a single rep, dropping the bar, then spending three seconds fumbling around to reset your grip, do sets of 5-10 at a time. Use your legs rather than muscling it up with your arms and you’ll last a lot longer.

5) Wall-ball

For most people this is another energy sucker. The only thing to hold onto is that the minute rest follows the wall-ball. Make sure you are exploding up with your hips as much as possible, sparing your shoulders, and don’t go to complete failure until the last round.