My Karate instructor would regularly repeat the phrase “Pain is just an emotion”. I was lying on my back with my knees up and my karate instructor was standing nearby. I knew what was coming next. I saw him do what he was about to do many times before to senior grades in the Karate class. Now that I had joined their ranks it was time for me to receive intense abdominal training. I was 15 years old. We had just completed a couple of hundred sit ups, and when I saw him step to my side I flexed my abdominal muscles as hard as I could. I then saw my instructor jump as high as he could into the air. He then landed on my stomach heels first. I felt the impact and it hit like a sledge hammer. Wind escaped my lungs and I might have even farted. There was also pain. It hurt a lot to have that type of impact hit my body. Thankfully the pain did not stay, and due to the conditioning work that we did I was able to withstand this heavy impact. This is just one example of body conditioning…