I remember in high school weightlifting class our teacher told us to punch ourselves in the stomach to tighten up our abs. I always wondered if this was just a load of crap or whether I was really doing something.

For those skeptics out there, when you are working out a muscle, you’re actually breaking it down and rebuilding it to be stronger. So the theory behind this is that by punching yourself AND working out, you’re doing more damage and helping yourself to grow stronger abs more quickly.

However, I can’t find any credible sources that will back this up.

The best excuse that I can find is that boxers would do it to build up a pain tolerance. That way, they are building muscle and helping themselves to build a resistance to being hit in the stomach so often.

I guess that makes sense though. I mean, you don’t really punch yourself in the legs or biceps to grow stronger muscles. I guess if hitting yourself was really effective then people would just punch themselves a lot instead of workout.

I think the key is resistance. Your muscles need to be broken and rebuilt with resistance training. A simple punch to the gut won’t do that; it’ll just make you feel sick.