Fight Gone Not-so-bad-really-all-things-considered

The first workout of the month at Crossfit Central is a “benchmark” workout. Roughly translated, this means that they will really kick your ass, but it’s for your own good. In an act reminiscent or grade school, they will hand you a report card of sorts to write down your score for the workout. Don’t worry, you don’t have to get your parents to sign it. It’s a way to let a few standardized workouts track your progress through the Crossfit program. This is an awesome idea that underscores the commitment of the CFCentral crew to the betterment of their clients.

This month’s benchmark was “Fight Gone Bad”. It apparently simulates the strength and cardiovasular load of a typical three-five-minute-round mixed martial art fight. To a first timer like myself it also felt like it simulated pretty well the “getting the shit kicked out of you” aspect of a typical three-five-minute-round mixed martial art fight:

Three rounds of five minutes, one minute each of:

• Row
• Wall Ball with 20lb medicine ball
• Sumo Deadlift High Pull, 75lb
• Box Jump, 20″ box
• Push-press, 75lb

Plus one minute of rest at the end of each round, to give you time to purge your stomach of that pesky food, or just let you dry heave until you feel better.

The scoring is one point for each of the rep-based exercises, plus calories burned on the rower. My score: 259 RX. Not bad, considering my goal was to get above 200 RX! As usual, I left feeling challenged, but excited because I felt I actually could have gotten 275 with a little more oomph.

The Concept 2 rower is an amazing thing. Deceptively simple: A metal frame, a sliding seat, a handle and chain, and some sort of friction device attached to a computer. Decidedly low-tech apart from the computer, it is a beastly monster that sucks the life out of you. One minute full blast and you feel like a husk of your former self, drained of all vitality and ready to stagger and stumble to the next station.

The push press is probably my favorite, as I found it much easier to get into a rhythm (even in the last round) than for the others. The deadlift high pull… Needs work, and we’ll leave it at that. Overall a challenging and awesome experience. Next time I want to break 300.