stomach training

[Vladko]

My old instructor did something similar, he asked the male members of the class to concentrate on tensing their stomachs and then he punched them (not full force obviously) in the stomach, he said if it hurt them, they were not concentrating hard enough.

He never did it to us women though which suprised me.

I would not do that to woment either.

[budo1952]

Where I train, men and women do the "ab punching exercise", though no one is compelled to do it. Personally, I like it and find it rather effective. Not only does it give you ab exercise, but it trains you to "armor up" to take a hit.

I don't know if anyone else has tried pilates, but I saw an ad on this site for a karate pilates DVD. I got the DVD, and the program has been a huge help to my training. If the ad isn't still up, I think their website is at karatepilates.com

I used to think that pilates was for women or for dancers, but its been very helpful for my kicking and deep stances, and it even helped save my back when I had to help my brother in law move.

I tried Yoga, and even Ballet classes, but yoga ended up being pretty new-agey and out there, and ballet was all skinny women. Being a 250lb. male fighter, I felt pretty out of place.

If you can find pilates classes in your area, or can get a DVD like I did, I think it would be a big help to your training.