Stomach conditioning...all help appreciated!

[el_guitarrista]

Hi everyone, I hoping someone can help me out here. I fought in my first tournament today, and it was a great event - I'll definately be doing it again!

During my second round, I took a medium strength punch badly in the stomach (basically I stepped into a gyak-zuki, the other guy's contact was light). The impact dropped me to the floor for about 10 seconds I'd really appreciate some suggestions for training exercises to strengthen my resistance to these stomach punches.

"Lots of sit-ups" is a bit of a problem as I get lower back pain when I do full sit ups in sets greater than about 30..will crunches acheive the same conditioning effect?

Should I work on expelling the air\tightening my abs when I step forward while sparring. I think at the moment I'm forgetting to do this with all the adrenaline of what for me is a new experience.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help provided,

el-guitarrista

[Kaminari]

Well, as long as crunches are done properly, it should be just as good.

While working out/training, keep your stomach really tight. After a while, you'll get used to tightening your stomach when you do this kind of thing. Another good thing to do is to lie down on the floor while a partner drops weights on to your tightened stomach. Start with smaller weights and a shorter distance from your body, but gradually increase the weight/distance dropped as you get used to the exercise and as your stomach strengthens. Be careful about this, however; I've seen people drop the weight in the wrong spot (just above belt level, in the middle of the abs), drop too much, or too high, etc.

Hope this helps, and good luck in future tournaments!

[1st KYU]

whenever somone hits you you should breath out.

i suggest focus pad drills with another person when they hit you breath out. this will condition you so when you actually get hit you will automatically breath out (make it a habbit).

[Ephrem]

Some excercies that work good are leg raises and planking. Planking is when you hold your body up as you are supporting yourself on your forearms and toes, legs are stretched out in a push-up position. I hope i explained that well. U can do your obliques by doing the same thing except with one arm as you lean on one side. Do both as long as you can, a couple of sets.

[Grenadier]

Stomach crunches and leg lifts can do as good of a job of conditioning your abdominal and oblique muscles, without the back pain.

Also, learn to tense your stomach while throwing your own techniques.

[Fish]

Crunches every day.

I'm just about to start doing them on a Swiss ball - I've heard that can help with lower back stability and pain, but you might want to check it out before trying.

[Ted T.]

Many, many years ago when I first got serious about stomach strength, I got the Weider pulley system for leg raises.

It allows the arms to help with the leg work so you can get an extended workout. The gains I made with it are still with me, tho I haven't used it since the late 70's.

Also, pull in your gut 1/4 of the way and hold it for the rest of your life!! Every time you think of it, pull it in. The day will come when you think of it and it will be in already. This one exercise to nes the muscles very nice.

[Grenadier]

One other note:

Nothing beats excercises. I doubt most people here would disagree, but I have run into a couple of individuals in real life, who were suckered into buying the electrostimulation devices, thinking that it would passively condition their abdominal muscles.

[JimmyNewton]

our gym has this device you can put your arms in to support yourself, and do leg lefts to target the abs. works well.

also, those excersise balls..like abig bouncgin ball to do sit ups on works well for relieving stree on the lower back. i'm sure you've see them..they've been around for a while now.

also, like someone else mentioned..breath out struck. kia, tighten the stomach simultaneously if punched and it will be quite beneficial. good luck

[Aodhan]

Crunches will work fine. The abdominals (Which include the obliques) run from the ribcage down to the pubis bone. They are responsible for flexion of the torso, as well as rotational flexion.

A traditional situp where you keep the back straight and bend at the hips actually has minimal effect on the abs, it mostly works your hip flexors. Crunches, side crunches, hanging knee curls, anything that pretty much tries to curl you into a ball against resistance (Gravity, weights, etc) should work the abs. If you want to really develop dense muscles, "squeeze" them at the time of peak contraction. Example, as you do a normal crunch, when you get to the "top", tense your stomach as hard as you can for a second. This helps recruit and develop more muscle fibers, and results in a "denser" muscle. Don't do this more than once or twice a week for abs, since it is a fairly intense technique. Otherwise, you are pretty safe in working your abs every day.

When you work the abdominals, be sure you also do back extensions (Good morning exercises, back lifts, etc), otherwise your abdominals will overpower the stabilizing muscles in your back. This can also lead to increased back pain.

Aodhan