Protective apparel for use in martial arts or fitness training exercises involving contact between two participants, such as pad work or spar training, comprises a strike surface (11) carried on an inflatable bladder (12), and securing means (21-23) to enable the apparel (10, 40) to be worn by a user (30) during spar training. During use, the inflatable bladder (12) is inflated to a sufficient pressure to withstand strikes from a sparring partner. The protective apparel may take the form of a torso protector (10) or thigh protector (40), or other variants. These may be worn by the user (30) either alone or in combination to increase the area of the strike surface (11), and thus also increase the area of the user's body (30) which is protected.