Workouts - Fight Gone Bad (FGB), Champion's Version

Hi everyone,

When Tannys and I had to fit in a quick workout before heading out for the evening, we turned to an old-favourite that we learned from Crossfit.  A Fight Gone Bad (FGB) workout is a very intense circuit of five exercises, performed for one minute each, with no rest in between.  There is one minute rest in between each circuit (i.e. after five minutes of work). 

The FGB style mimics the pace and rhythm of a UFC mixed martial arts fight, where fighters will go through five minute rounds with only one minute rest in between.

This is likely how a real UFC fight gone bad experience feels... Our FGB workout was slightly less painful.

In the traditional Crossfit version, you complete three circuits, which is the same as a non-title fight in the UFC.  However, we modified ours to make it a Champion's Version, which was five, five minute circuits.  With the one minute rest periods, we finished the workout in exactly 29 minutes - before we had to collapse on the ground for another few minutes to recover...

FGB - Champion's Version:

• Racked kettlebell squats (Tannys 16kg, Alex 24kg)
• Alternating kettlebell deadlifts
• Pullups-to-pushups (ratio) - (Alex: five pullups to 20 pushups, repeated.  Tannys: 1 pullup to 5 pushups, repeated)
• Bench jumps
• Kettlebell snatches

When putting together an FGB workout, you need to carefully pick moves (and weights) that you can realistically perform for such high intensity and minimal rest.  For example, we could not do a full minute of pullups X 5.  Therefore, we combined pullups and pushups in a ratio, to target our upper body and allow us to do the full minute of exercise.

In an FGB, you typically record your number of reps for each exercise.  This workout is often done competitively and at events, where you can compare your total to others.  We did not record our totals (difficult to do on your own without slowing your pace), but we did maintain our highest intensity throughout.

The FGB kicked our butts - in a good way!  While it's not the type of workout you can or should perform all the time, we are already looking forward to doing it again in a week or two.

- Alex & Tannys