Does anyone know of any kind of specific conditioning that would help protect against direct shots to the rib cage (especially toward the side)?

Im not talking about fighting techniques (elbows tucked, etc) .

Weighted twists on the decline and pullovers come to mind, but how much good can they really do for an area largely unprotected by anything other than skin?

Nothing that I could think off (take that with a grain of salt since I'm no striker - maybe there is stuff like that, but I dunno.)

From an anatomical point of view, for all practical purposes, there is almost no meat on the outside of the ribs, just fascia and skin (and the thin serratus anterior.) You could work your obliques, but they are below the rib cage (between them and the hips.)

The thing that keeps ribs in place is a strong core, so you may want to look into that. But even then, ribs can get separated by a blow, or even by sudden movements or impacts to the whole body (not necessarily at the rib cage, but which cause the torso to twist.)

I am a striker, and no- not really. Nothing specific anyways. Like macho said, the best you can do is work your whole core and practice on turning your body to absorb blows with yours abs instead if need be. Spar alot, and learn to keep elbows tucked.

There are some fighters who say that more fat helps, and it probably does to a certain extent, but I for one don't want to get fat enough to find out. I've cracked he ribs of big guys anyways, so I don't think it really helps much.

Thanks for the response.

What about taking advantage of Wolff's Law. I train with heavy weights so I know I am getting some overall benefits there. But what might be some good and safe to take advantage of Wolff's Law specifically regarding the rib cage? Dropping a medicine ball repeatedly on the gut something like that? .... just kind of thinking out loud here ...

I would think you could toughen it in terms of pain threshold, but the damage would still be there. In other words, you might train and condition yourself to fight through a cracked rib, but that would probably come as an aspect of being superbly conditioned, and mentally tough. I think your idea of dong the medicine ball is a good place to start, BTW. I hardly see anyone doing that in my boxing gym anymore. Another thing you can do, if you and when you can't find a willing partner is to swing a heavy bag and let it lend against your gut. This way, you control the swing, not some macho dickhead.

do the ribs calcify like the shins do?

in that case, i guess getting hit a lot...?

Besides general strength training the only way to protect the ribs is to learn how to receive shots properly. My expirience is that kiokushin and thai boxing is the best regarding taking body shots.As stated before, there is nothing on the ribs to cover them. Heavy deadlifts can get you some additional meat there, but the best way is to learn how to receive it.

I found this website - http://expertboxing.com/ and it has some nice articles about how to take punches and also overcoming the flinch reflex. Hopefully you find something useful.

I'm pretty sure the ribs are there to protect the organs inside of them. I recommend definitely keeping your ribs.

Careful with Wolff's Law - if you want to take advantage of it, find some way to get smooth, steady tension on the bones from adjacent muscles (I don't know anything that taxes the intercostals offhand, but lots of core movements must connect to your ribcage somewhere), rather than high-impulse impacts. A few too many shots with a medicine ball and changes in bone density will give way to stress fractures.

Careful with Wolff's Law - if you want to take advantage of it, find some way to get smooth, steady tension on the bones from adjacent muscles (I don't know anything that taxes the intercostals offhand, but lots of core movements must connect to your ribcage somewhere), rather than high-impulse impacts. A few too many shots with a medicine ball and changes in bone density will give way to stress fractures.

So basically a medicine ball wouldn't be the best way to "learn" to take direct blows to the stomach, because if you continue it, it can cause fractures over time?

I haven't seen any convincing reasoning for getting hit in the gut by a medicine ball, but fractures shouldn't be a concern. There's the ribcage at the top, the pelvis at the bottom, and the spine at the back, but there aren't any bones where a medicine ball would hit the stomach - ergo, no bones to fracture*.

I was meaning more in terms of getting hit in the ribs with a medicine ball. Call me a wimp, coward, or pessimist, but I think the risk to reward ratio of that is leaning heavily towards risk.




* Unless the guy throwing the ball has bad aim. I screwed up catching one once and broke my workout partner's nose. True story.

My main issue, and this thread kind of helps so I didn't wanna start. I suck at taking body shots, plain and simple. I am new to it, but still its always been an issue Crunches/ab exercises is nothing to me, I actually *have* a fairly strong midsection. I was more looking on how to accept punches directly to the abs and not immediately get the wind knocked out. Even when I tense my abs it still kind of does that, and yeah, wondering what would happen if an 8 lb ball hit my abs a few times.

Yeah, the fat thing don't help. I got a big ol' gut and my first MMA fight I got my ribs cracked good. I kata guruma'ed my 300 lbs. buddy tonight and I think I popped a rib out. Ugh.