Knee Sleeves for Badger: Managing 90 Squat Cleans Across Three Brutal Rounds

Badger is named in honour of Navy SEAL Mark Carter, who was killed in Iraq in 2007. It is one of the most demanding Hero WODs in the CrossFit catalogue - not because any single movement is technically impossible, but because of the extraordinary combination of volume, load, and duration.

The workout: 3 rounds of 30 squat cleans (95lb), 30 pull-ups, 800m run. Scored for time, with most athletes taking 55-80 minutes to complete it. That is 90 squat cleans, 90 pull-ups, and 2.4km of running in a single session.

The knee sleeve strategy for Badger is one of the clearest examples across the Hero WOD catalogue. The squat clean volume alone makes this the case - 90 squat cleans means 90 loaded catches in the bottom of a front squat, repeated across a workout that takes most athletes over an hour. The running and pull-ups create the familiar argument for selective wear. The structure gives you natural transition points.

Why 90 Squat Cleans Changes the Calculation

A squat clean catches the bar in the bottom of a front squat. Both knees go through full flexion under load at the moment of peak force in the lift - the deceleration phase of the catch where the bar's downward momentum is absorbed by the squat. At 95lb for men, this is not a trivial load per rep. Across 90 reps distributed over three rounds with running between each, the accumulated joint stress is significant.

Badger is the workout where I would most strongly argue for sleeve support during the squat clean sections. The volume is high enough that knee tracking quality in the later rounds is directly affected by joint fatigue from the earlier ones. The proprioceptive feedback from a 7mm sleeve - the compression-based joint position awareness that helps your knees stay in position as fatigue accumulates - is most valuable late in round 3, when you have already done 60 squat cleans and 1.6km of running and the form deterioration that comes with fatigue is at its peak.

The Structure and the Natural Transitions

Each round of Badger gives you natural transition opportunities: the movement between finishing the squat cleans and going to the pull-up bar, and the movement between finishing the pull-ups and starting the 800m run.

The sleeve strategy I recommend for Badger: sleeves on for squat cleans, off for pull-ups and the run, back on for the next round's squat cleans. This creates six transitions across the three rounds - three applications and three removals - but each transition takes under 15 seconds and happens at a natural movement changeover rather than during a single continuous exercise.

The practical sequence for each round: arrive at the barbell for squat cleans with sleeves accessible (worn around ankles or on the floor nearby). Put sleeves on in the 5-10 seconds as you set up at the bar. Complete 30 squat cleans with sleeves on. Transition to pull-up bar, take sleeves off in transit. Complete 30 pull-ups. Take sleeves (already off) to the start of the 800m run. Run 800m without sleeves. Return from run, put sleeves on before the barbell for the next round. Repeat.

Managing the Fatigue Across Rounds

Badger's structure means the third round's squat cleans are done on legs that have already completed two rounds including two 800m runs. The hip abductors that maintain proper knee tracking through the squat clean catch position are tired. The lower back that supports the front rack position is tired. The grip that maintains the clean catch is tired. Everything that contributes to a clean squat clean is compromised.

This is where the sleeve contribution is greatest. In round 1, a well-trained athlete does 30 squat cleans with good mechanics because they are fresh. In round 3, the same athlete is fighting fatigue on every rep, and the sleeve's compression and proprioceptive feedback are actively contributing to keeping the knees in the right position when the muscles responsible for that position are no longer doing it as reliably.

Athletes doing Badger without sleeves typically notice their knees caving inward in the third round, particularly in the last 10-15 squat cleans of the final set. The inward knee drift is a direct sign of hip abductor fatigue, and the sleeve provides external support that partially compensates for the muscular failure. This is one of the genuinely protective functions of sleeve use in high-volume loaded squat work - not injury prevention in the abstract, but active form support when fatigue has degraded the muscular contribution.

Pacing and the Sleeve Strategy Together

Badger requires pacing to complete. An athlete who sprints the first round of squat cleans will not finish round 3 in any semblance of good form. The sleeve strategy is part of the broader pacing strategy, not separate from it. Wearing sleeves for the squat clean sets means you can ask more of your knees across all three rounds rather than having them fail progressively from round 1 onward.

The running and pull-ups between each round are partly recovery for the legs. Getting 90+ seconds of running-based leg flush between squat clean sets, with no neoprene on your knees during that recovery, helps the joint temperature regulate and the leg muscles partially recover before the next squat clean set begins. Wearing sleeves through the run negates some of this recovery benefit by keeping the joint under thermal load when it could be cooling down.

A Note on Scaling Badger

Scaled versions of Badger typically reduce the squat clean weight and may reduce rep counts. The sleeve strategy scales with the workout - if you are doing squat cleans at any weight for multiple rounds, the knee-loading argument for sleeves during those sets holds regardless of the specific weight. A lighter squat clean done for 30 reps is still 30 loaded squat catches, and the accumulated stress across three rounds still justifies sleeve support during the squat clean sections.

For athletes who are scaling the squat cleans to hang power cleans instead (a common modification to reduce technical demand), the sleeve argument weakens slightly - a hang power clean catch is at a shallower knee angle than a squat clean catch. But 90 hang power cleans across three rounds still involves meaningful knee flexion under load, and sleeve support during those sets is still worthwhile.

For the full framework on Hero WOD knee sleeve strategy and why the on-off approach makes sense in workouts with this kind of structure, the Murph piece covers the foundational logic. Badger is a more demanding version of the same principle - more squat clean volume, more running, more rounds, more reason to have the right sleeve strategy.

If you are choosing sleeves specifically for CrossFit WODs like Badger, our full CrossFit knee sleeve guide covers what to look for and why 7mm neoprene is the right choice for this kind of volume work. For a broader view across all lifting contexts, the Australia buyers guide is the place to start. And if you train in a regular gym setting outside CrossFit boxes, our complete guide to gym knee sleeves is worth reading alongside this one.

Buff Roo Generation 2 Knee Sleeves - 7mm neoprene, velcro strap, five sizes. The sleeve that makes Badger's six-transition strategy executable without adding meaningful time to a workout that is already testing your limits.

- Andrew