Momentum Tips to Improve Your ‘Fight Gone Bad’ Score
Fight Gone Bad (or FGB, for short) is one of the CrossFit benchmark workouts where athletes need to most certainly respect the movements and understand their individual strengths and weaknesses.
FGB was designed to simulate the time domains of a mixed martial arts bout of five minutes work followed by one minute of rest between each round. The workout is usually performed over 3 rounds (17minutes), but has also been posted on the main CrossFit site as a 5 round workout (29 minutes)
Three-time CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning has scored just over 500 on FGB and men’s scores over 400 are considered very good. Annie Thorisdottir has scored 409 on FGB and women’s scores over 300 are considered excellent.
Putting the professional athletes aside, and even the other members in the box, the only sore that really matters is your individual score. Are you getting fitter, faster, stronger, leaner and a little smarter? What was your last FGB score and can you improve it?
Over the next 5 days Momentum Training will be posting some tricks and tips to improve you wall-balls, sumo deadlift high-pulls, box jumps, push presses and rowing scores.
Today we will be talking about the best strategies to punch and kick you way through your next FGB attempt.
“Check your ego at the door”
The name of the game is to beat your last FGB score and see an improvement. Consistency is key, and learning to pace your efforts and know your limitations is going to deliver the best results. Going balls to the wall in the first round is only going to fatigue your output in rounds two and three.
Play the averages
- What was your last FGB score? For, example let’s say you scored 300 reps.
- This is an average of 100 reps per round (300/3 rounds = 100)
- This translates to 20 reps per exercise (100 / 5 exercises = 20)
All you need to do to beat your previous score is to aim for a consistent 21 reps per exercise, or 105 reps per round. This sounds simple, but you also need to consider your strengths and weaknesses.
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses
I hate the rower! Let’s be honest, rowing 21 calories in 60 seconds for 3 consecutive rounds is going to be a whole can of suck! Let’s just say I can comfortably hit 15 cals on the rower in 40-50 seconds and have time to move to the next station. I will now need to make up 6 more repetitions on another station if I’m going to hit my required target of 105 reps per round. Luckily I like wall balls and box jumps. I will play to my strengths and aim to do 24 reps on these two stations to reach my target score.
In the first round these targets (24 wall balls, 21 sumo deadlift high-pulls, 24 box jumps, 21 push-ups, and 15 cals on the rower) might seem easy, but the idea is to finish each station with time to spare, time to recover, time to prepare for the next exercise. Trust me, as the rounds go on it becomes a lot harder to maintain these scores and the rest time between stations will become less.
Do NOT deviate from the plan
Far too often people start to think, “I’ve done 24 wall balls and I still have 30 secounds to do more in the first round.” STOP. REST. YOU’VE ACHIVED YOUR TARGET! DO NOT FATIGUE YOURSELF. If your aim is to set a new personal best then you must stick to the plan.
Do the maths, know the score, work to your strengths, stick to the plan, and be happy with a small improvement each time you step into the Fight Gone Bad arena.
Master the movements