Are muscle heads (powerlifters & bodybuilders) scary? Are they the last people in the World you’d want to have to defend yourselves against? Well, what can they do with all that muscle? I’m not putting those guys down, heck, as ‘Mater from Disney’s CARS said “I’d give my two left lug nuts to look like that”…..but here are some things to think about!
At our gyms, we have trained several competitive bodybuilders, powerlifters, and even an NFL lineman, several weighing 300 pounds or more. As a group, when they started with us, as far as self-defense went, they were terrible! They had strength but not one of them could get through a class. They couldn’t go hard for more than 30 seconds at a time, their cardio was horrible. We had a whole group of bodyguards quit after a couple of weeks because they looked impressive standing but couldn’t take the work in a basic level 1 class!
The other thing we noticed is that these guys all couldn’t turn their hips to save their lives and just punched with their arms. Now, their arm-only punches were mighty hard but it always impressed them when my long-time students who weighed 150 pounds less could punch harder! I would always tell them that they can punch hard now but when they learn to turn their hips and use their bodies they will knock people’s heads clean off.
We have had three of these big ol muscle heads stay with us and become long-time students. They are very good at Krav Maga now but all three have lost a lot of weight…one of them has lost over 80 pounds. It’s funny that the general public thinks that the bigger and more muscle a man has makes them tougher when all three of these guys discovered that they are better fighters and better at self-defense when they lost some of that weight. When I see muscle heads strutting around I want to ask them “what do you do if a gun is put in your face?” All the muscle in the world won’t save them but I have 95-pound female students who would take that gun from the Scum Bag and beat his butt with it!!
Take Mariusz Pudzianowski, the World’s strongest man. He wanted to be an MMA fighter but lost his first few big fights. Their opponents knew that if they could avoid a big shot that his cardio would be gone by the second round and that’s exactly how they beat him. He got tired and they got him! Read more about him here
If I am ever attacked by someone who has a lot of muscle (and I can’t run) I plan on doing the same. Don’t fight his fight, dance and drag it out. He’ll be huffing and puffing soon enough and then it’s my time. If you do find yourself in this situation remember not to look at how big or scary your attacker is, look at targets. All you should see are knees, throats, zyphoids, and groins! No matter how big he is he can’t build up those places! BE SAFE!
