DIY Body Armour

To build the kind of natural body armour you need for martial arts you don’t need sit-ups or crunches — you need these hardcore exercises!

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Punch plank

This traditional karate drill will get your obliques' undivided attention and teach you to ‘knit' your full body strength together for punches.

Assume the top of the push-up position on your fists (only on the first two knuckles). Your feet may not be wider than your shoulders. Lift one hand and hold it ‘on guard' by your face. Stay. Keep your shoulders parallel to the deck - this is very hard and extremely important. Even a slight twist reduces the effectiveness of this anti-rotation exercise.

A few performance tips: Look straight down, as you should in all planks. Lock your ribcage down towards your pelvis by shortening your obliques and lats. Cramp the pec on the side of the loaded fist and load the opposite foot.

Breathe shallowly and switch fists before you lose the perfect alignment. It is likely that you will only be able to hold the punch plank for a couple of seconds at first. No problem, just do extra sets to get more time under tension under your belt.

Full-contact plank

Drop into a regular plank, get tight, breathe shallowly and ask your sparring partner give you some ‘tough love' of carefully placed kicks, punches and shoves against your midsection, armpits and thighs to stimulate greater tension. I'm sure you will not have to ask twice. According to premier sports physical therapist Gray Cook, carefully kicking the soles of bare feet will recruit various intrinsic muscles like transverse abdominis (TVA).

Crunch chin-up

I dare you to find a single person who is good at chin-ups-twenty five dead hangs with the chin clearing the bar on the top are considered good-and does not have the abs to kill for. You just cannot help working your abs hard during chins.

You can make the chin-up an even more effective ab developer if you follow three simple rules: First, stretch your abs on the bottom to get a complete extension. Second, ‘plank' your body on the way up. Third, perform a sort of reverse crunch and ‘ball up' as your chin is clearing the bar. Steve Baccari, RKC, strength and conditioning coach to UFC's John Lauzon, puts the crunch chin-up on his very short list of highly effective exercises.

Headstand leg-raise

This bodyweight drill is a favourite of MMA legend Frank Shamrock. Kneel and place the top of your head - not your forehead - and your hands on a reasonably firm mat. Your head and your hands should form an equal-sided triangle, at least in the beginning.

Walk your feet towards your head while keeping your legs straight and together until your torso is almost upside down. Take a breath, tighten up your whole body, press your hands into the floor, and slowly lift your straight legs until they are vertical. You are in a headstand. If you overbalance, be prepared to tuck in your chin and roll forward. Now slowly lower the legs down to the deck under complete control. If you fall through the last inch or two, you are making the exercise a lot easier. Move at ‘tai chi speed', as my colleague Dr Mark Cheng, RKC TL, says.

By now you must be asking this question: this move is the opposite of a sit-up - an inverted, reverse hyper' really - where do the abs come in? Try it and you will find out.

A tip: Press harder with your hands when your feet are just clearing the floor or are about to hit the floor on the way down. Practise every day in the beginning of your workout for multiple singles and later for sets of up to five reps.

Here are six harder variations (if you ever need them). First is to move your hands forward almost in line with your head. The leverage goes down the drain, plus the balance gets trickier. Your dear abs will cry uncle.

The second calls for clasping your hands behind your head and resting your forearms on the floor. It is harder because without hand pressure you will have a harder time applying your shoulder strength.

For the third, very shoulder intensive version, keep your arms straight and push off your punching knuckles. The position looks like an inverted front deltoid raise.

The fourth optional technique is to lift and lower your legs slightly off centre. Start with your feet level with one shoulder rather than your head and lift them towards the centre until they are vertical. Lower your feet to the other side. You will notice that you have to press harder with one hand to get the job done.

Finally, you may hold a pair of shoes, a tennis ball, or some other object between your ankles.

Power to your abs, power to you in the ring!

Pavel is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor, a subject matter expert to the US Secret Service, the US Marine Corps, and the US Navy SEALs and the author of your abs' worst nightmare, the Bullet-Proof Abs book. Get your copy from www.dragondooraustralia.com.