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Who trains abs for strength & hardness? (Martial artists answer!)
- Thread starter DaMan
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Baby Gorilla
New member
Hmmm....
They're a joke. Unless they fit your body like a glove, you just don't get the benefit.
Last gym had one. A personal trainer told me I was better off just to use a sit up bench and a plate than that contraption.
I've since gone beyond. I do 100 sit ups every morning, but I needed something for strength training. I currently do weighted crunches with a dumbell placed over my sternum for added resistance. I'm up to 125 now.
Of course, weighted crunches are just so many sets with failure between min and max rep--not 100 reps straight through.
DaMan said:
They're a joke. Unless they fit your body like a glove, you just don't get the benefit.
Last gym had one. A personal trainer told me I was better off just to use a sit up bench and a plate than that contraption.
I've since gone beyond. I do 100 sit ups every morning, but I needed something for strength training. I currently do weighted crunches with a dumbell placed over my sternum for added resistance. I'm up to 125 now.
Of course, weighted crunches are just so many sets with failure between min and max rep--not 100 reps straight through.
I was taught a routine by a nationally ranked powerlifter to build strength in my abs to improve my squat and deadlift, the unexpected benefit to the routine is that I ended up with hard, ripped abs that are extremely strong
You use a decline bench and lower yourself about halfway down, to the point where you feel the most resistance, and hold that for a slow count of 5 before slowly bringing yourself back up. That's one rep, try doing 5 sets of 5 to start. As soon as you can do that, either add weight or reps. This is the only ab routine that I have used for the past 5 years, and it's built an awesome set of abs. And the best part is that I only train them 1x per week
You use a decline bench and lower yourself about halfway down, to the point where you feel the most resistance, and hold that for a slow count of 5 before slowly bringing yourself back up. That's one rep, try doing 5 sets of 5 to start. As soon as you can do that, either add weight or reps. This is the only ab routine that I have used for the past 5 years, and it's built an awesome set of abs. And the best part is that I only train them 1x per week
Here's a few you can do, train these exercise like you would any other body part 6-8 reps, you can also do static holds for 5 seconds in the contracted position:
standing cable abs, straight leg sit ups with wts, glute ham machine abs you can hold a weight on your chest or a bar behind your head, go to a low pulley machine and grab the handle behind your head and do straight leg situps while someone is holding your ankles, spread eagle situps, side bends with dumbells, one arm deadlifts, kneeling cable crunches, seated zercher squats with bands or bar, You can also grab a steel bar (hands in the middle) you swing it side to side and hit yourself in the abs this teaches the abs to contract when struck--you can see this on Squat secrets, i think, video from Westside powerlifting.
standing cable abs, straight leg sit ups with wts, glute ham machine abs you can hold a weight on your chest or a bar behind your head, go to a low pulley machine and grab the handle behind your head and do straight leg situps while someone is holding your ankles, spread eagle situps, side bends with dumbells, one arm deadlifts, kneeling cable crunches, seated zercher squats with bands or bar, You can also grab a steel bar (hands in the middle) you swing it side to side and hit yourself in the abs this teaches the abs to contract when struck--you can see this on Squat secrets, i think, video from Westside powerlifting.
UltimaThule
New member
If you are looking to condition the abs to take hits,doing crunches all day ,or any other bodybuilding ab exercise isnt going to help you much.Its largely a mental thing.Medicine balls are good .Even better is to have a partner put on some sparring gloves and let him throw light punches to the front and sides of the torso.The solar plexus is sensitive at first but gets alot more resistant eventually.A cool trick I learned while training in Thailand was to have a partner hit you with a single poa pad.This can be done standing or lying down.
The above advice is very good, I would add only a couple things:
1. Proper Breathing: It is more importatnt than ANY training you can ever do when taking a punch or kick is the goal.
2. Lay down, do a nice long leg lift(like a minute or so), and have a close friend jump on your midsection. Not your girlfriend though, the heavier the better. Add that to your medicine ball work. Medicine balls are great for sudden impact, but I found that they lack sufficient weight for kicks which can throw a person several feet back.
When i was active in martial arts, i used to be able to take ANY puch or kick in the belly and walk away from it.
BTW: this is my first post here at elite after lurking for a LONG time.
1. Proper Breathing: It is more importatnt than ANY training you can ever do when taking a punch or kick is the goal.
2. Lay down, do a nice long leg lift(like a minute or so), and have a close friend jump on your midsection. Not your girlfriend though, the heavier the better. Add that to your medicine ball work. Medicine balls are great for sudden impact, but I found that they lack sufficient weight for kicks which can throw a person several feet back.
When i was active in martial arts, i used to be able to take ANY puch or kick in the belly and walk away from it.
BTW: this is my first post here at elite after lurking for a LONG time.
UltimaThule
New member
Yes.Thai pads are called poas in Thailand.
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