It sucks to be out of the gym, anytime from the gym or training outside of the gym is bad. I wont comment on a body protector. Simply because I don't use one.

With out wishing to offend you, do you actually do ab exercises? Sit ups, twisted sit ups, hanging knee raises? These are just a few. You should do quite a few different ab exercises. To stop punches from messing with your internal organs.