Be Kind to your Insides: Unconventional yet Safer Exercises for your Abs

Be Kind to your Insides
Unconventional yet Safer Exercises for your Abs

Naturally you want to avoid punches while dishing it out, but for when the time comes you'll need to be prepared to take a punch too. There are many different exercises for strengthening your abdominals, but in this post I'm going to describe a few safe exercises that are not normally used.

Now if you’ve ever talked to a body builder about their training they might tell you that today is their leg day, chest day, or today is “[insert-favorite-body part-here] day”. But there’s one guy who was right on the money when he said, "Everyday is a kidney day." The same applies to your liver, and pancreas. When we have gotten through a tough fight, and when we work hard to improve our fitness, our bodies have to work extra hard to flush out all of the toxins and wastes that come as a result. Most people don't give their insides the proper care that they need. Over training can set you up for shitty workouts when your insides have had more than what they can handle. In fact when it comes to training the abs there are a few exercises that are still being practiced that are detrimental to training and perhaps even dangerous to fighters.

You've probably heard of the exercise in which a medicine ball is thrown or dropped onto a fighter's midsection. The idea behind this is that it will increase a fighter's resilience to body punches by conditioning the abdominal muscles to become tense at the moment of impact. This may be true but many people forget what lies behind those muscles. No one should ever forget the all important organs which lie directly beneath them are on the receiving end too. Talking about the kidneys, liver, pancreas, they have to work hard enough patching everything up that they don't deserve to in the line of fire themselves. What about the organs that are involved with digesting food, or allow you to have kids? Is there anyone in their right mind that would want to purposefully injure their insides? Besides, your muscles were not designed to be the perfect shock absorbers for your organs.

Another exercise that follows this same school of thought is to stand still and let your opponent use your stomach as a punching bag. Again your guts are taking one for the team. The consequences range from your pee resembling the color of Kool-aid, to the typical side-effect of feeling tired like you would from overtraining, and even worst is if you go overboard, your kidney's might have to throw in the towel! You get the point. Now for the rest of us death is not an option since we can get all the same benefits without turning into an organ donor ourselves.

Be on the Ball
Here's one old school approach that uses the medicine ball to tense the abs while also taking the "getting hit" part out of the equation.

First assume a push up position. Place a medicine ball beneath your belly. Now put your hands behind your back with the medicine now supporting most of your weight. Keep your stomach muscles very tight while turning your body to your left and right. It will be uncomfortable at first, but over time this can make your abdominal muscles stronger without injuring the organs behind them. Alternatively you can use a durable basketball, since the ball’s weight is not a factor in this exercise.

Drop down on the Ball and give me 20
The Swiss ball, also known as an exercise or fitness ball can be a good way to introduce tensing your muscles upon impact in a safer manner than what is typically practiced.

To begin the exercise, start in a kneeling position with a folded towel or rubber/foam mat beneath your knees. In doing so keep your torso erect with only a slight bend at your hips. Make sure that your feet are secure. If there is nothing that you can find to put your feet under, you may then have a partner assist you by holding your ankles down. The Swiss ball should be placed in front of you. Allow yourself to fall forward onto the Swiss ball, and tense your abdominal muscles hard at the moment of impact. If you want to take impact out entirely, you can also do this exercise in a different manner without the use of a Swiss ball as explained below.

To perform this exercise the other way you simply lower your body to the ground under control, and then bring yourself back up. It can be a very humbling exercise requiring you to tense your abs while your hamstrings and glutes also get a fair share of the work. Note that for most people it is difficult to bring themselves up at first. To overcome this you may have to lower yourself down to a push up position (knees should still remain against the floor), and use a little arm push to get you back to the starting position. This is also a great way of developing the knee flexion function of your hip flexors.

The Heavy Bag Strikes Back
Perhaps you don’t have a Swiss ball, but you’re still turned on by the idea of getting hit. If you got a heavy bag available, then there’s another old school exercise that you can do.

It’s simple. Stand in front of the bag and then give it a little push. Allow the bag to hit your midsection, and brace for the impact. Some words of caution before you proceed with this exercise: a heavy bag does not have as much give to as a Swiss ball naturally does, therefore there’s higher risk that the force will penetrate into your organs. To minimize this risk it would be wise to only allow the bag to hit you with small amount of force, or you may go with a different exercise altogether.

Flexing with a Purpose
Taking from the body builder’s toolbox and worth mentioning here is flexing, which can be put to good use by boxers as well. When it comes to taking an unavoidable punch to the body that can neither be lessened through riding the punch, then the ability to tense the muscles upon impact is certainly an ability worth having. When body builders practice their poses, they are tensing particular muscle groups as hard as possible. Through many long hours of practice body builders will have acquired a high degree of muscular control, and for a side note more muscle tone. If you ever watched the film “Way of the Dragon”, during the scene where Bruce Lee is fighting Chuck Norris, he demonstrates a very high level of muscle control by rotating his shoulder blades. Through practice a boxer can keep their stomach reasonably tense and tighten them up on a quick moment’s notice should the unavoidable occur.

Practice this at your own leisure for a few minutes at a time. This is not to say to hold a contraction for a few minutes straight, you may choose to tense your abdominals for several seconds then pause for a brief moment and tense them for another several seconds. If preferred you can do this when you are feel fresh to achieve a more intense contraction, or you might want to do it at the end of your stomach workout.

Breathing for Fighting
When in the ring, be sure to keep fresh air flowing through your lungs by frequently taking short gulps of air, and then fully exhaling the used air. Do so especially when you are punching or moving. When you punch be sure to tighten your abdomen as a protective measure to ward off the affects of body punches. On another note, with less air in your lungs it’s less likely that you’ll have the wind knocked out of you.

If you find that you need to draw deeper breaths, do so while fully exhaling any spent air. This will delay the onset of fatigue as there will be more fresh air through your body. The only problem with taking deep breaths is that you will become more prone to getting the wind knocked out of you by a well placed blow. Staying out of range would be a better solution to catch your breath than covering up if clinching is not an option. Study the concept of the large and small circle in the ring. A good example is De la Hoya vs. Vargas. De la Hoya was able to play it safe by backpedalling around the large circle. This tactic is employed by many great fighters. This can allow you to recover if you are either dazed or hurt, as mentioned before allow you to get a breather, or like the great fighters would use it to control the fight.

Some Conventional Exercises for the Abs
Although this article is mostly about unconventional exercises, I just thought I’d give a very quick run through of some of the conventional exercises that I find are effective.

Sit ups
Why not? It’s a good exercise that’s been a staple in the regimen of many generations of fighters. There are many variations of this exercise. For more difficulty it can be done on a slant board, a roman-chair, or while holding a light weight.

Leg Raises
It puts more emphasis on the hip flexors, and the lower portion of the abdominals. This exercise can be performed while lying down, holding a pull up bar, or dip bars.

Ab-Wheel
Basically it’s a Wheel with handles. You start in a position either standing and bent over, or kneeling. The simple idea is to extend your body along the floor as far as it will go. It can be very difficult exercise if you are heavy or in less than great condition.

Side Bends
Hence the name, you bend at your sides. This can be done with or without weight. If you are doing this exercise with weight make that you are not bending forwards or backwards as the twisting can be harmful to your spine.

This is to just name a few. There are many other different exercises for the abs out there that are worth doing. One misconception that I want to clear up is the myth that you can isolate a part of your abs. The reality is that whether you do a sit-up, leg-raise, or a side bend, all of your abdominal muscles are all working together. At the most you can only shift some of the tension to part of your abs according to the kind of movement that you are doing.

[size=12pt]One last thing…
Now getting the abdominal muscles into fighting shape isn't the end all and be all, your stance along with some guiding principles will help keep you from taking any unnecessary punishment.

Unless you have a perfectly good reason to do so, don’t stand square to your opponent, this just gives them a bigger menu to pick out of when it comes to your midsection. On the other hand, with a stance that is more slanted towards your opponent, it’ll be easier for you to maintain your defense as you aren’t giving your opponent such a large target.

When rolling inside of an opponent's hooks, be sure keep your elbows close to your body and don’t expose your back to them. When it comes to infighting, do what you got to do and then get out of there. If you don’t have a good reason getting close to your opponent, then don't be there! [/size]

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It's been a while since I posted anything of my own, and this little article has been in the back burners of my mind for a long time. 8)


-Chris

Good post Chris, All good stuff.

i've been thinking recently that i need to incorporate more abdominal workouts into my routine. Do you have any good ones for developments of the obliques chris? Perhaps with a medicine ball and that could be done solo.

I've been doing sit-up twists, side bends, and broomstick twists to work on my obliques. There's some simple drills that you can do while sitting, which involve twisting at your waist while holding a medicine ball.

One humbling exercise that I tried a couple months back was holding a weight straight above my head and trying to do sidebends that way. It's harder than it looks and you have to be very careful. The change of leverage that it poses in contrast to the typical sidebend can give you a lot more resistance even when using lighter weights in your workout. You can do this with any weighted object including a medicine ball. Just be careful, warm up your muscles with some dynamic stretches, and make sure that you can handle the weight.

CC Chris.

I have been questioning the long term value of having a medicine ball dropped on my guts or having a partner wail on them for 30 second intervals and I think I just got my answers...

Medicine Balls have a lot to answer for as far as Punchdrunk syndrome, it damages and bruises the reproduction organs. They are to busy repairing themselves, to repair what they are intended for. Its one of the things I feel strongly about it annoys me seeing it done.

On another note, getting hit repeatedly anywhere is going to cause bruising and damage which = wastes that have to be filtered via the kidneys. And just like any filter, the kidneys can get clogged, and the result would be a person finding themself in a hospital getting dialysis treatment.

I have to confess that during last summer I really mutilated myself with the medicine ball. The result is rock hard abs, that refuse to grow, they stay exactly whwerre they are and probably won't grow until I take a break from training altogether.

Same as, ive been hammering the medicine ball for about 6 months now and my abs have never been so hard. I cant decide wether it is a good thing or a bad to use one. If using the medicine ball causes so much damage why do so many boxers in the past and present use it????

The truth is the coaches havent a clue and thats a fact.

scrap is onto something..

I belive its good piece of gear if used proper. problem is its misused alot. i seen blokes get crazy with it, that where the problem lies IMO.

That is what I was hoping to address with this article. ;) I seen good coaches, and fighters out there who swear by this form of training. You can't beat muscles onto your belly, but you can have yourself one beat fighter. If they only knew, but I don't that think most would listen if they were told them.

I think maybe i will go a bit easier with the medicine ball now, maybe stop using it on the sides and only drop it from waist height on the abs instead of head height but im not gunna stop using it. I would be interested to see what Trainer Monkeys opinion on the medicine ball is he seems to know alot about coaching fighters??

As for many coaches dont have a clue, I know for a fact Hatton uses the medicine ball alot and so does Calzaghe so does that mean that Billy Graham and Enzo Calzaghe dont have a clue???

Just interested cus I can see both sides of the argument now!

Well having attended a coaching qualification course last saturday, it was revealed that droppping the medicine ball on the stomach was detrimental not only to the organs in the immediate vacinity, but also to the spine.

The trainer in charge of the course (also in charge of conditioning the national team) said that he felt it should be used only in conditioning (i.e. throwing etc)

Another fighter (po) that I know uses it standing up (much like Hatton). I have tried it this way and I feel it replicates body punches reasonably well.

Nice one Donny, yes i use it standing up as well and your right it does replicate body punches well. I sent the article Chris N posted to my training partner and we are both still trying to decide wether using a medicine ball does more harm than good. All I know is i can take a body shot so much better sparring in the gym than ever before and my abs have never looked so good. I just hope Im not damaging myself too much??

Yeah man I'm the same, I find that body punches effect me very little now unless I'm caught on the bottom rib and even then I don't really get bothered.

I have a fight in ten days, I think after that I'll move up in weight for a while and really concentrate on hardening and conditioning my core and abs.

Ill put an isometric stretch for the Abdominal wall and lower Back up when Ive got an Hour. When you do it swearing is not allowed ;D Easy its not

I'd like to see it Scrap. A little description would be fine. As for some time maybe you can find some in that odd time in the morning that your biological clock wakes you up at. :D

What I find good and is similar to leg raises is done off the floor.

Lieing on the floor place your hands behind your head and raise sit-up style so the abs slightly tense, but more importantly so your back is supported properly by the floor.
With the legs held perfectly straight lift the feet six inches off the floor and hold. I's difficult at first so hold for 5. Then bring slowly back to the floor.

It can be made more difficult with ankle weights, simply increasing the time, a medicine ball or varying leg movements.

I find it great for the lower abs and the beltline where punches occasionally stray.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hitmandonny

What I find good and is similar to leg raises is done off the floor.

Lieing on the floor place your hands behind your head and raise sit-up style so the abs slightly tense, but more importantly so your back is supported properly by the floor.
With the legs held perfectly straight lift the feet six inches off the floor and hold. I's difficult at first so hold for 5. Then bring slowly back to the floor.

It can be made more difficult with ankle weights, simply increasing the time, a medicine ball or varying leg movements.

I find it great for the lower abs and the beltline where punches occasionally stray.

I do these with leg weights on and you are right they are brilliant for the lower abs, you just have to make sure you dont bend your legs while doing them and also be carefull not to hurt your back.

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Dead Right mate, you really do have to be careful with the back here....and you're also right about the legs, bending them defeats the purpose.


I don't actually use leg weights anymore, I use quantity and a bunch of leg motions to mix it up.
The leg weights work great, they really help the abs, but I need my flexability to be peak ya know?

I don't have any trouble doing leg-raises, but I've found a couple of other ways to do them to make it very challenging.

One way is to do it on a bench with your butt hanging off of the bench. This way your legs are already elevated from the start requiring you to keep your abs tight, and the bench also allows you to achieve a greater range of motion as you'll be able your legs further than you would doing them on the floor. You don't need to raise your legs far, 18 inches past parallel will get you the most out of the exercise. Make sure that you have something heavy on the other side of the bench to counter your weight when you're doing leg raises like this. If you're feeling froggy you can try the Bruce Lee variation by only supporting yourself with your shoulders and arms (back completely off the bench). That's the pinacle that I want to reach, the only problem is that I'm a welterweight right now, the heavier you are the harder it is.

You can also add variation this by doing a bicycle motion when holding onto a bench which will force you to keep your abs tighter. Holding a fitness/swiss-ball in between your ankles can change things up a bit as well.

It's also challenging to do leg raises from a chin-up bar. Try doing it this way without swinging at all. You have to tighten up every muscle in your body just to manage one rep.

Good one Chris I use the cycling motion as well, another good one is too draw figures in the air with your feet/legs. I usually go from 1 to 20 with leg weights on, make sure any figures with circles in them are done nice and wide and slow cus they rip your stomach to bits!!

Try it on a bench for a real challenge.

Next thing I find good for toning abs and indeed increasing your resistance to body punishment is swimming!

I alternate between laps:
1 lap I drag myself using arms only,
other laps I kick only.
I find this really helps the stomach put on functional size, and also increases the lungs capacity so you don't wind easily at all.

those are great Chris! thanks!

You're welcome ellemint. :)