I'm fairly new to MA, I did take a crap taekwondo class before and some Bujinkan, so anyway this has left me with not sparring experience.

I'm doing Taekwondo (yes, yes I'm looking for other options but so far no luck I'm in a small city in Korea) anyway, I did my first sparring session today with pads. I've been doing crunches about three to four times a week as well as sit ups for about the past ten years and I'm only 26. Yet at the end of sparring I felt like I was going to throw up from stomach shots. I am quite dissapointed, some of the problem is I'm an inexperienced white belt and took way more shots than I should have, but I would have thought with my ab training and the pads I wouldn't have felt this bad.

Will I toughen up with more sparring or is maybe my ab training not what it should be?

what kind of ab routine are you doing? I'm a puny little girl and I generally don't find most body shots to be too troublesome unless I really get caught. Maybe work on your evasion lol.

Gotta learn to tense the gut before you get hit.

A bit of karate style body conditioning wouldn't do any harm.

what kind of ab routine are you doing? I'm a puny little girl and I generally don't find most body shots to be too troublesome unless I really get caught. Maybe work on your evasion lol.

Well I'm only a 145 pounds and being you do your work without pads I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're a lot tougher than me :D

I do four sets of two hundred sit ups and then four sets of two hundred where I lift my legs up to my chest while I'm lying down (sorry don't know the name for those.) I used to do weighted stuff at the gym as well although I don't have the time or the money for a gym membership as well. I do have handweights though if you know anything I could do with those.

Gotta learn to tense the gut before you get hit.

Is there anything to breathing in on impact and then breathing out or is that old hokey kung fu stuff? Don't know that I'd have the wherewithal to time it even if it is useful, perhaps with practice....

Well I'm only a 145 pounds and being you do your work without pads I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're a lot tougher than me :D

I do four sets of two hundred sit ups and then four sets of two hundred where I lift my legs up to my chest while I'm lying down (sorry don't know the name for those.) I used to do weighted stuff at the gym as well although I don't have the time or the money for a gym membership as well. I do have handweights though if you know anything I could do with those.

I think you're going a little over board on the situps, actually, though I'd think you'd have a pretty tough body at this point. My advice as far as ab workout goes is try adding weight to the point where it becomes difficult to do 100 and go from there (dumb bells should be good, I use a medicine ball). I'd also recommend keepig your elbows in and learning to protect your body. The breathing thing you mentioned sounds pretty iffy, since if you get caught while breathing in it'll totally knock the wind out of you (I've had this happen to me a few times). Just do as PirateJohn mentioned and try tensing up as you get hit. Seems to work for me.

I think you're going a little over board on the situps, actually, though I'd think you'd have a pretty tough body at this point. My advice as far as ab workout goes is try adding weight to the point where it becomes difficult to do 100 and go from there (dumb bells should be good, I use a medicine ball). I'd also recommend keepig your elbows in and learning to protect your body. The breathing thing you mentioned sounds pretty iffy, since if you get caught while breathing in it'll totally knock the wind out of you (I've had this happen to me a few times). Just do as PirateJohn mentioned and try tensing up as you get hit. Seems to work for me.

How do use the medicine ball just hold it in the middle of your chest while sitting up?

I do a few different exercises with the medicine ball.

1. lock legs with a partner and do situps tossing the ball back and forth as you sit up

2. Keep your legs flat on the ground (preferrably with someone sitting on them) and sit up while holding the medicine ball just under your chin

3. Have some stand on your feet and drop the medicine ball on your belly, as the medicine ball hits you in the body do a crunch, do a seated twist with the ball in hand (works the sides of the body) and toss the ball back

I do a few different exercises with the medicine ball.

1. lock legs with a partner and do situps tossing the ball back and forth as you sit up

2. Keep your legs flat on the ground (preferrably with someone sitting on them) and sit up while holding the medicine ball just under your chin

3. Have some stand on your feet and drop the medicine ball on your belly, as the medicine ball hits you in the body do a crunch, do a seated twist with the ball in hand (works the sides of the body) and toss the ball back

Cool, thanks for the tips :)

Substitute crunches for situps. When I was in karate I could do about 800 situps in a row, and I still found my body conditioning lacking compared to the tougher heavyweights at the comps. I then switched to crunches and could barely do 100, but my ab strenght increased exponentially.

there's always the old favorite of madadors where on the down stroke of your sit up someone drops the medicine ball on your stomach with your hands in the waiting position on either side of your stomach from about 2.5 to 3 feet then on the contraction you grab the ball and raise it up handing it back to the person you are working with. It will help with abdominal strength, train you to contract when about to get hit and you will be used to getting hit. Or so the bull fighters say. I've done it occassionally and it definitely makes you feel like you're gonna puke the first few times. Just limit the reps.

Your abs are plenty strong. Your timing and evasion are what suck. It will come with time. There are a few tips though. You certainly wnat to trian yourself to tense the abs and exhale when you get hit but more importantly don't let yourself get hit directly try to roll your body with the shots so you aren't taking a solid impact.

The situps where someone drops a medicine ball on you or hits you with a thaipad are good for learning the impact timing and tightening your stomach fast.

If you want a tougher body, just hit your abs against a block of wood until the wood breaks. Then your abs are slightly harder than the wood. Move up to Brass, Iron, and Steel. Iron stomach!

On a serious note, your ab routine sounds pretty good (although I do suggest crunches over sit-ups) but just having good abs won't protect you in itself. You'll have to work on tensing your abs to meet the hits and slipping away from the shots - don't worry, this gets A LOT easier with time.

You might try a drill where one person puts on some 14 or 16 oz. gloves and punches you in the abs while your practice tensing your abs to meet the shots. This is a fun excercise in that you work your abs and your toughness at the same time, and the other guy gets to work on body shots! A crazy old man reccommended this to me, but he was a pretty good boxer, so I'd trust him (and I do it too, now ;)

Stick with it!

Manu did that drill with me and Kat when we first started training with him. After about the third hit I dropped and started whimpering like a little baby... of course I'd like to think I've got a stronger torso now.

what is all this ab workout ****? you'll learn how to move with a punch after a while. until then, you're gonna hurt. end of story. if you really want to lessen the impact eat loads of KFC until you become fat as a house. the padding will protect you real good