“Fight Gone Bad”
Thursday, March 20th, 2008 
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).
