Fight Gone Bad was a popular CrossFit workout originally created by Greg Glassman at the request of MMA fighter BJ Penn. He wanted a workout that simulated a cage fight. Although this workout will make you suck some wind, I’m not a huge fan of it for a few reasons listed below. I also have a more nuanced opinion on training for MMA and combat sports that I can’t get into for this article.
Original fight Gone Bad workout
The original workout is 3 rounds with a minute per exercise and a minute of rest between each round.
Wall Balls (20/14 lbs) x 1:00
Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (75/55 lbs) x 1:00
Box Jumps (20 in) x 1:00
Push Press (75/55 lbs) x 1:00
Row (for calories) x 1:00
Rest x 1:00
Fight Gone Bad Meathead Variation
My major criticism with the original workout is that it’s too easy too pace and has too many technical movements. 1:00 intervals are too long to produce high outputs, even 30 seconds is pushing it but if the point is to simulate a fight, this gets pretty close from a fitness standpoint.
Don’t pace it. I want you to go hard, burn the ships, embrace the feeling of your heart pounding out from your chest, and your lungs burning.
30 sec pushups
30 sec sandbag carry
30 sec sled push/drag
30 sec rest
4 rounds
Swap the pushups to the knees once you start burning out.
This is a circuit I did in preparation for my fight which was 3 x 2 :00 rounds, so it made sense to keep the intervals near 2:00 of work. I used this similar style of circuit to build up to closer to the 2 minute mark.
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