Does having a lean muscle build help you to take hits?

Umm does being buff i believe is the term people use, is it really effective in taking hits? or actually it doesn't make any differences. actually while i'm at it does it even improve your martial arts actually? just wondering. umm when i mean buff i mean a lean muscle build.

 

yes and no. harder muscle (ie, stronger muscle that is contracted) = harder to compress, so you don't feel it as much and there's less chance of damage. that said, some people hit pretty damn strong, and if you hit hard enough... the issue being whether you CAN hit hard enough, but some people can, and it hurts, even through strong muscle (and if the msucle's not fully contracted, you're toast).
plus there are some areas of the body that are simply very sensitive, and strong enough hits there will ruin your day, no matter how much muscle you have. in general it's still a good idea to be strong, though, just for a variety of reasons, protection being only one of them.

 

but technically there is no downside in having a muscular body in martial arts? i'm not saying anything against beefing up of course, cause technically were still building muscles in martial arts of course. aside from you not contracting it fast enough when you get hit of course XD

 

I think you need to work on your google skills.

Anyways, like Fish of Doom said, it depends. There is a very good reason why most MA put such a strong focuse on your core. Strong core will decrease the chance of injury, such as tweaking your back, taking a shot to the gut, core is very important. So it depends on what your deffinition of buff is... if your damn sexy, you might be able to distract your opponent long enough to get a shot in.

Let me elaborate a bit more. Every little advantage you can get counts if you are training at a competitive level.

 

hahaha damn sexy XD, but umm pseudo if it weren't a competition like you said, does it really give you an edge in battle? not the sexy bit of course XD

 

being stronger than an equally skilled opponent is always an advantage

 

It improves your physicality, but can impede your learning process if your stronger then others and use it all the time.

Im currently coaching a 110kg ripped ex judoka, and untill he learnt to roll lightly he struggled, now he can he's smashing everyone in his weight bracket in competition

 

I never really felt body shots while boxing until I shed all my weight off. Now that I gained all that weight back, my wife can sock me as hard as she wants in the gut and just bounces off. A good layer of fat is great padding, no joke.

As far as the muscles go, that's like saying "does counting help you do algebra?" They certainly help a ton with figuring out the concepts and the stronger your counting skills the better you can potentially be. You can do algebra without numbers, but you'll be limited, just like if you don't build muscle and get used to taking hits.

 

I used to weigh 210 lbs, I had a decent layer of protective karate fat and It really worked. I could take body shots a lot easier.

My last weight check was 173 lbs, I can really feel the lack of padding. However, I've also been working on getting a stronger wall of abdominal muscles and it seems to help.

 

Oh yeah. Fat bodies for the win.

(insert chubby for fat if fat is offensive. )

 

Lol, the blubber is gone now so call it what you want!

I only miss it when I get punched in the belly

 

Lol, circle of protection: blubber! Effect: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to target blubber this turn. Mana cost: A lot of pies and beers. Spell type: Enchantment. Activation cost: Free.

...I may have been playing a bit too much Magic: The Gathering again recently, if you've ever played it you'll get the references

I weigh about 235lbs now with some (but not much) fat. The only body shots I really notice are to the floating ribs (which don't slow me down too much) and the diaphragm (which is pretty obvious), but shots to the stomach I can take pretty damn well without slowing me down.

When I was closer to 250lbs and almost all fat, stomach shots weren't that terrible still, but they were definitely more uncomfortable. When I was closer to 300lbs, they really hurt

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. There's one thing I miss about the larger stomach - when you lie on top of someone with a big belly, mentally they start to give up before you've started sweating over them

 

The feeling of being consumed slowly by someone else's fat is rather disconcerting, not to mention suffocating, add sweat then you have the perfect comditions to induce the fear of claustrophobia and drowning. ::shiver::

 

True story. BJJ has made me fear The Blob much more.

 

It's even worse when the guy is hairy too.

 

And they're always hairy.

 

I just started jujitsu and spend a lot of my time under big guys, you're giving me flashbacks!

 

there certainly is in competitive martial arts/combat sports, larger muscles require more oxygen. Not that this is an excuse for not being strong either but being strong is more about manipulating the nervous system than muscle size.

 

There's a reason ufc fighters don't look like bodybuilders, it's better to be lean than bulky as a martial artist