Survival of the Fittest

My friend Kathy (strange to call her anything but “Sausage” — aren’t rugby nicknames great?) pasted a link to this CrossFit workout in a comment she left in response to my last post.

She says, “I just read the article in the mag on [the Tabata Protocol] … never thought 4 minutes could be so painful until I met a workout called ‘fight gone bad.’”

Indeed, I would not want to meet this workout in a dark alley.

Originally designed for mixed martial artist B.J. Penn, with the metabolic demands of ultimate fighting in mind, “Fight Gone Bad” is an intense, five-minute weightlifting, plyometrics and cardio circuit that’s repeated three times, with a one-minute break between rounds (just barely enough time to be able to breathe again … sort of). So, 17 minutes total. If you live that long.

After watching the video of the workout, I can see how the first five minutes could do you in. And I have yet to make it through one four-minute Tabata round on the treadmill (although I have muscled through it on the stationary bike now). But still … does anyone else want to work out right this minute?

It looks like you can rig up a similar circuit at nearly any gym (that is, you don’t have to be at a CrossFit facility) as a way to build your work capacity without courting your slow-twitch muscle fibers — fast-twitch types, rejoice!

UPDATE: As I was perusing the workout and exercise list at CrossFit.com (some really amazing stuff there), I came across a Tabata version of the “Fight Gone Bad” workout! See the video here (complete with music from Culture Club).

I think you can do just about anything cardio-related for one minute. You may not want to, but you just have to buck up, have heart, dig deep and git-’er-done. (Or so go the platitudes.) So four minutes didn’t seem like too big a stretch, especially when discussing a cardio workout in its entirety.

Ever since we published “The Tabata Tune-Up” in the March issue of Experience Life, I’ve been itching to try it. Big results in less time? I’m in — it just so happens I’m eager to hurry my progress along (within the parameters of training smart, of course). Sure, in the article we’re up front that it’s tough, but how tough could it possibly be?

Ah, well, yes. Post–Tabata cardio workout No. 1 — done on a treadmill at 12.1 mph, 2 percent incline — I’m here to report that four minutes can stretch on for some time. Especially when one’s vision is getting ever-so-slightly black around the edges.

I made it through two and a half minutes on Friday night, but I’m not (that) ashamed. Or rather, that’s not the end of it. Tabata No. 2 tonight.