[quote]Aussie Davo wrote:
No amount of conditioning will prepare you for the pain of an accurate liver shot, it’s just an extremely sensitive organ and the pain is debilitating. I did all of the conditioning drills, medicine ball to the gut etc, none of it prepared me when I sparred against guys with years more experience than me and they hit me with a liver shot. [/quote]
Felt it today, now I see how ridiculous you must find this idea 
. First time sparring with guys that have 10+ years more experience in MT, quickly found out the importance of protecting my body and ribs… Good reminder that I need to dump the weights and get in more sparring.
[quote]Robert A wrote:
“Core” is more of a concept than an anatomical term.
What humble is describing is that a “strong core” really requires a high degree of co-ordination between a bunch of different muscles and even joints. Like most co-ordinated movements it is position and function specific. So a “strong core” for lifting may come unhinged during tennis.
Muscular strength is also hugely important otherwise the coordination thing doesn’t work out.
So exercises to make the muscles themselves stronger=good.
Exercises to make your muscles work the way you need them to=good.
The deal is that in order for something to be functional, we have to have a defined function and use that to evaluate performance. If your function is to play tennis on the international level, a shit ton of what humble does in the gym is as non-functional as it gets. On the other hand if you are getting into the ring…
Regards,
Robert A[/quote]
posts like this will win u fans
i personally think its quite odd that most people think that ‘the core’ is comprised solely of the rectus abdominus. It’s only a link to an entire chain armor that dictates the strength of your true core. With that said, doing crunches doesnt do jack shit, period. Of course it might do ‘something’, but compared to different variations of planks and anti rotational isometrics, it is indeed useless as fuck.
to me the core is the cumulative effort between the post and anterior chain, working in synchronization to provide support for the hips, torso, and spine. Not, fucking, crunches.
back extensions, swings, dl, squats, pushups, pullups etc are true core movements. not fucking crunches.
anyways, getting hit repeatedly in the torso provides resilience… rather than strength for the core. You cant worry too much about your well being in a fight. Of course you should always protect yourself, but it doesnt matter how good your defense is, you’re gonna get hit… MANY, many times. With that said, it doesn’t hurt to build a rubber belly through constant punishment in practice.
kinda like kicking bamboo trees to strengthen the shin. err, build resilience. strength is subjective, in fighting terms (martial arts) at least.