22
Jan

CROSSFIT SUFFOLK  **  Forging Elite Fitness

Five rounds for time of:
45 pound barbell Overhead walking lunges, 50 feet
21 Burpees

Let trailing knee gently kiss the ground on each lunge.

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P1190049   

Check out the following two videos courtesy of Youtube.com.  The videos are short training session clips of two professional mixed martial artists, Georges St.Pierre and BJ Penn.  These guys are two of the greatest fighters ever to grace the octagon.  Both are tremendously skilled.  Which brings me to today's observation.

If you have two fighters who are great at damn near every aspect of the fight game what factor may make the difference?  I see you back there jumping up and down with your hand raised.  You're right…..conditioning.

CONDITIONING.  You've heard this before: All things being equal the better conditioned athlete will win.

In the world of pro mixed martial arts it seems anything could happen.  You can be in great shape and get caught with a perfectly timed (or lucky?) punch or kick and get knocked out.  This is understood.  It's also understood that skill can trump conditioning.

These guys are both great fighters.  Did I mention that?  While both have made errors in the octagon those errors were few and far between.  Neither fighter makes a habit of making errors or losing focus.  In this particular fight conditioning is going to play a major part.

My comments are hardly going to be fair because they will be based on a few minutes of videotaped training out of 2 or more months of preparing, but here it goes:  After watching the following videos I have to pick Georges St. Pierre (GSP) to win the fight.  GSP performs whole body, explosive exercises that promote power and the type of muscular endurance one needs in a fight that consists of 5 five minute rounds that have a minute rest in between.  That's 25 minutes of fighting.

BJ Penn is working out on a bench or machines in what appears to be a globo gym.  What happened to "Fight Gone Bad"?  What's with the isolation exercises?  Seated curls, flyes……are you kidding me?  I'm hoping BJ's video was made with the expressed purpose of fooling GSP into believing that BJ won't be in shape for this fight.  I'm hoping that this was not an example of what all of BJ's conditioning was like.

If you were training for a fight in the ring or to protect yourself in the street who would prefer to train like, GSP or BJ Penn?

Jonathan Chaimberg training Georges St. Pierre

BJ Penn training for fight against Georges St. Pierre  

2 Responses

  1. Tommy H

    I’m not sure if you are aware (you probably are) but BJ Penn was one of the first professional athletes to adopt a Crossfit regimen and buy into Mr. Glassman’s programming. He has had individualized one on one instructions with top Crossfit trainers. The “Fight Gone Bad” workout was born with (and named by) BJ Penn. The only explanation I could offer to why he was performing these mass-building, isolation exercises was because he had to jump up in weight to 170 lbs. to fight GSP. He could be trying to pack on muscularity and poundage while still balancing that weight training with a crossfit related conditioning program. That being said, it is still worth noting that BJ Penn’s conditioning has always been in question throughout his fighting career.
    Also, I don’t know why he is continually shown trotting down the street talking to his friend. Are these jogs supposed to be “training”? I can’t imagine they are. I would guess the producers ask him to do it while conversing with his buddy to get some type of dialogue going for the production.
    – TH

  2. Thanks Tommy!
    I was aware of BJ’s relationship, to some extent, with CrossFit. This only left me more confused.
    I thought of the weight gain possibility, but believe you can CrossFit or at least do whole body work and still gain weight. (See Robb Wolf’s blog…www.robbwolf.com )
    In any event, I hope the fight is an excellent one!
    Take care.
    GD

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