Mr/Sifu Green Cloud,
That's interesting take, since I've never heard of getting a hernia by doing low stance work in Kung Fu? Not saying its wrong, but I've always believed low stance work was putting most of the stress on your legs to build and strengthen them up? In a sense, I guess you are tightening up the abs and while doing so, keeping your back straight, but I just don't see how it could bust a gut?? Coming from a Chinese background, I was always told the belt was used to hold your pants up and as my mom puts it, to keep the poor starving chinese people from being hungry by "closing up the empty space."
I know, mom's old wives tales