stomach training

[rks9999]

Hi, I am new to this forum, and I have taken tae kwon do primarily as a kid. Anyway, I took a little bit of Karate in college, and the instructor put us through very intense workouts. One of the main things he did was walk on everyone's stomach. He was a pretty heavy guy at around 200 pounds.

I just wanted to ask, does anyone know what purpose this serves and has anyone ever tried it? I always thought in general that female instructors would be more effective in doing this since they usually weigh less. It seems to me that the heaviest a person should be is around 150 pounds, or else it can really hurt or injure someone. For those who have tried it, do you actually see results. Any information would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Kacey]

First, welcome, and happy posting! :wavey:

Second, I've been in TKD for over 20 years, and no one has ever walked on my stomach. The only purpose I can think of would be to inspire you to strengthen your abdominal muscles - but I can think of a lot of less dangerous methods for doing that. There are lots of practices that have been passed down from instructor to student that no longer serve their intended purpose, or the purpose has been lost. My best guess is that this is one of those.

 

[Tez3]

I've been told by several instructors in different styles and also by an Army PTI that this is a big no-no. I believe there is very little point in this exercise and in fact it could be dangerous whoever did it.

 

[rks9999]

The instructor did this to us just a couple years ago. I have tried finding information about it, and found hardly anything, so that is why I decided to turn towards a forum.

The only thing I could think of was that it will condition the body, because I have seen other martial arts (primarily on tv) where they would hit people hard in order to make sure their body is used to getting hit. You will see this a lot on human weapon on the discovery channel.

It is interesting to hear that some people have considered it to be dangerous. It really didn't hurt us that much at all, but I will mention that we were on our backs with our legs in the air, and he stepped more closer to our chests than on our stomachs. I don't really know if it is dangerous ( I haven't taken martial arts for a while and don't have much experience with it), but I would just guess that lighter instructors will be more effective at it since you made that point. Would love to hear other experiences and opinions since it seems to be a rare practice. Thanks

 

[Tez3]

The first person that tries to stand on my stomach will be swept, and subjected to some serious ground n pound.

 

[the kenpo kid]

i have been put though hard body trianing.which is what the old school masters used to help train the body to get used to geting hit and take pain. the main reason for this is that its theres an good chance that you well get hit. hard body well help you trun your pain into power.

 

[Tez3]

i have been put though hard body trianing.which is what the old school masters used to help train the body to get used to geting hit and take pain. the main reason for this is that its theres an good chance that you well get hit. hard body well help you trun your pain into power.

Standing on a persons stomach however is NOT the way to strengthen your body. There are far better body conditioning exercises than that. I am hit hard quite often and the way to deal with that is to fight more lol! Learning to deal with pain is a different thing than strengthening your body. I still wouldn't allow anyone to stand on my stomach and I wouldn't allow it in class either.

 

[qi-tah]

It is interesting to hear that some people have considered it to be dangerous. It really didn't hurt us that much at all, but I will mention that we were on our backs with our legs in the air, and he stepped more closer to our chests than on our stomachs. I don't really know if it is dangerous ( I haven't taken martial arts for a while and don't have much experience with it), but I would just guess that lighter instructors will be more effective at it since you made that point. Would love to hear other experiences and opinions since it seems to be a rare practice. Thanks

I suspect that yr instructor was stepping on yr diaphram rather than yr abdomen. The diaphram is a very thick, strong band of muscle that runs the entire transverse section of yr trunk. It can take a bit of punishment, whereas yr abdominal muscles aren't nearly as thick in that plane and are much more likely to rupture under the kinds of stresses you are talking about. In addition, there are a ton of delicate organs in yr abdominal cavity that you really don't want under that sort of pressure! :erg: Surely there are better methods for strengthening yr solar plexus and abdomen.

Actually, as an aside, i remember our singing teacher in high school once getting a class member to step on her diaphram to demonstrate how strong it was (prof singers have awesome diaphram/breath control)... however, she specifically told us that this was in the nature of a parlour trick and not something that she would encourage singers to do to strengthen that area.

 

[rks9999]

Well, I did find this one video on youtube

It seems like there are a few martial arts places that will use this technique. I think you guys are right about the part in which it does nothing to condition your body. In the clip, the instructor is possibly using it as an endurance technique, basically just seeing how much the boys could handle. I don't know, that is just my take on it.

As for my experience, I think my instructor could have been a little bit callous, as he made us do intense exercises that no one could keep up with, and told us to strike each other hard during the training. That may have been the reason he stepped on us, just to show off the fact that he doesn't play around. I did quit after that, not because of the intense workouts, but because my friends and I wanted to do Budo Tajitsu.

 

[Yeti]

The first person that tries to stand on my stomach will be swept, and subjected to some serious ground n pound.

Yup...mostly POUND!!!

 

[Senjojutsu]

One of the main things he did was walk on everyone's stomach.

This training stunt was somewhat common during the 1970's in karate dojos.

But back then we also did straight-legged sit-ups, bounced while we did our stretching, and listened to bad music (mostly).
:uhyeah:

Time to move on.

 

[Senjojutsu]

Deleted double post

 

[theletch1]

This training stunt was somewhat common during the 1970's in karate dojos.

But back then we also did straight-legged sit-ups, bounced while we did our stretching, and listened to bad music (mostly).
:uhyeah:

Time to move on.

Bad music?! In the seventies?! I can't believe it. It's great that medical knowledge progresses over time to help us not only train better but to train safer. I have had only one instructor ever walk on my stomach. He fancied himself more of a cult leader than MA instructor. His "conditioning" classes were always on days when he'd had a bad day at work and felt like beating on people. Didn't take long for me to leave.

 

[FearlessFreep]

We throw medicine balls at each other's stomachs to get used to taking a shot and going on, but not stomach walking; that seems like the wrong kinda weight/force for the desired goal.

 

[Lynne]

Our Master Instructor will "jump" onto people's stomachs while we're doing crunches. I thought he was teasing them. It's random.

 

[CuongNhuka]

Well, now that my computer is cooperating with me, I can finally respond to more then one post. S, here we go.
There is a guy in my area who did this for several years. Now, if you punch him, you go 'owe'. Think about the wording. You punch him, you get hurt. Keep in mind, they did this, after you had trained with them (with dedication) for a few years, and there warm up includes a few hundred sit ups. So, there abdominal muscles are already really strong.

 

[rutherford]

Well, I've seen this done, usually as a "trick" during MA demonstrations. There's two ways to approach it. You can tense up and hope your muscles are strong enough to hold the person up without tearing. Or, you can completely relax, exhale, and allow your organs to naturally shift. Both are usually built up incrementally, and both are really just a trick. I see little practical application, unless as part of a more dynamic drill.

 

[Rob819]

When I was in the military, one of the guys in my units dad was really high up in some sort of karate based freestyle system. I believe he was claiming a 7th degree BB. Being always interested in checking out anything combative to see if it has something worthwhile to add to my personal fighting style, I ask him for a demonstration (the dude in my unit claimed a 2nd degree in this style). While he were drilling a bit, he mentioned that his old man had put out some training manuals. He gave me one, and in the front "History of the Art" section it showed all the Founders participating in some off the wall stomach tricks that I will never attempt to do. One picture had the founder laying on his back while a car drove over his abs (or at least appeared to be doing so), and another had the dude preforming a deadlift like technique with the skin on his neck somehow (maybe a piercing or something) among other things. I myself just stick to set ups, flutter kicks, knee raises and medicine ball training. No sledgehammers to the gut, or grandmasters randomly swan diving on my abs while I am exercising.