Had a bit more body conditioning at training this week, including something that was really fun – iron stomach training!
In the previous style I used to do, we’d messed around a little with this premise before, so it’s been a while since I’ve last done it. I was quite surprised at how much punishment I was able to take though, much more than previously I reckon, but still, I want to be able to take more 😛
This isn’t too surprising in the grand scheme of things, as I’m currently suffering from Cake Belly. For those unawares (which would be most, since I’ve just coined the term :P), that when you’ve eaten multiple instances of yummy cake over a week and haven’t exercised your abs appropriately to offset all the awesome food 🙂 It also brought home that I really need to get back into the swing of doing weights, as it’ll help develop the muscles in my torso to withstand a bit more punishment.
BTW, for those unawares, broken down into its most basic form, iron stomach training teaches you how to tense and use the muscles in your abdomen to withstand a direct strike. The process involves two practitioners standing in front of each other exchanging reverse-punches directed at the stomach on each other, starting with a low intensity and progressing to gradually higher impact until the receiver of the strike reaches their absolute limit.
Or in simple terms, it’s two people punching each other in the stomach until one of them almost falls down 😉
At more advanced levels, I’ve seen iron body demonstrations where planks of wood, baseball bats, concrete, and so forth, are smashed against parts of the body (head, stomach, arms, legs), with little to no harm to the practitioner despite the object breaking/shattering as part of the process.
The awesome part of it was that I was actually doing the iron stomach training with Jyastin-kun, so we were pretty comfortable with upping the intensity of the training as we went, which was awesome fun. I once again fell into the habit of pulling my stomach as some of the punches were coming in instead of letting it hit without obstruction. By the end of it I was working hard to break the habit, but I still need more work.
The disappointing thing at the time was that it wasn’t looking like I was going to get any bruising, despite the fact I knew it had to have had some impact given that I was struggling to bow out at the end of class due to the tender muscles in my belly! Looks like some bruising is starting to come through, so at least I’ll feel a little justified for being a bit tender for the next few days!
So yes, I’m stupid, but body conditioning is fun 🙂
Bloginated Thursday, 17th September 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: body conditioning | stomach impact | training
