Kind of a dumb question: Would stretching your neck make you more vulnerable to a KO?

[Mike32110]

Well i was just thinking, if your neck muscles are more loose, it's obviously advantagous in BJJ. However, wouldn't that make your head move a bit more and thus making you more likely to receive a concussion?

Just a dumb question I was thinking about .

 

[AboFatima]

I don't know about BJJ, but by strengthen your neck's muscles, it will be much harder to someone give you K.O

e.g. Brock leaner neck, look at his neck, I have never seen him taken a K.O

 

[mjw1]

I doubt it they say flexibility reduces injury though I would also strengthen your neck if you are concern....

 

[Mike32110]

No, I understand that strengthening the neck muscles would make you more resilient. But wouldn't stretching them, make them more limber and less likely to take a blow?

Just a thought.

 

[BOMB LEFT HOOK]

You know what they say....always limber up before an activity

 

[CONQUERER23]

Get hit in the jaw HARD ENOUGH, jaw goes back to the cerebrum, that's your KO. Brock or no Brock, get hit clean and hard enough, anyone can go down.

 

[Inquisitus]

To CONQUERER23, if your jaw hits your cerebrum or any other part of your brain, your skull must've been crushed. No human can generate enough force to do that nor can you really do anything about it.

To the OP, if you mean by stretching, the act of stretching the muscles around your neck to limber/loosen up, then no, that won't affect your ability to "resist" a KO. Muscles are built to stretch and contract on demand. Making them limber does not affect their ability to contract unless it's over done and damages the muscle. Preventing a KO is about bracing your head so your brain does not slosh around in its cage.

If you mean by stretching, that your neck is stretched out, then yeah, that makes you more susceptible to a KO. If your neck is stretched out, the neck muscles are supporting the head at their max capacity. More force means your neck muscles are overloaded and cannot brace your head. This can result in bad things happening including a KO.

 

[YourOnlineHero]

If your neck dangles about so much that you can touch your chest with the back of your head... You've stretched your neck too much and you'll never be able to fight again.

 

[blizzard_armbar]

If your neck dangles about so much that you can touch your chest with the back of your head... You've stretched your neck too much and you'll never be able to fight again.

I have to agree with this statement.

 

[Lionidas]

Tie a rope around your head with a weight at the end of it.

Your neck will be bigger and stronger than Brock's in no time.
Problem solved TS.

 

[Hendo89]

Nah thats a good question and i have no idea

 

[Smw]

This is a silly question imo.

KOs are the product of not seeing the shot at all.

 

[Bennosuke]

Stretching before exercise has been shown to decrease the muscle's force output (causes the break down and stretching of components of the muscle's passive force production). However, I'm still not sold on the idea that neck muscles help prevent KOs. Aside from seeing no research based evidence, it's not like you actively engage your neck muscles to resist movement when you get hit (and if so, certainly not in the controlled way one would maximally enervate a muscle).

 

[Connoisseur]

Absolutely not. Dynamic stretches on your neck (really, your whole body) before your workout (boxing, wrestling/ jits, even lifting) will increase circulation and make the muscles more elastic/ effective. I normally roll my neck, look up + down and side to side, and gently massage it as well, before a class/ workout.

In your down time, there are stretches and exercises you can do to strengthen your neck (the major one being the neck bridge which wrestlers practice, it'll really make your neck strong).

At least according to Matt Pitt (whose articles I really enjoy), the sternoclastoid muscles in the neck are the only muscles in the body that directly resist blows to the head, and it's no wonder why so many pros train their necks. There is no substitute for not getting hit at all, though.

 

[00 Buck]

IMO, stretching the neck would probably help you from neck tendon/ligament straining a little when taking a punch.

Not sure if it helps or hurts in a KO though. Probably doesn't matter too much, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Mike32110]

To CONQUERER23, if your jaw hits your cerebrum or any other part of your brain, your skull must've been crushed. No human can generate enough force to do that nor can you really do anything about it.

To the OP, if you mean by stretching, the act of stretching the muscles around your neck to limber/loosen up, then no, that won't affect your ability to "resist" a KO. Muscles are built to stretch and contract on demand. Making them limber does not affect their ability to contract unless it's over done and damages the muscle. Preventing a KO is about bracing your head so your brain does not slosh around in its cage.

If you mean by stretching, that your neck is stretched out, then yeah, that makes you more susceptible to a KO. If your neck is stretched out, the neck muscles are supporting the head at their max capacity. More force means your neck muscles are overloaded and cannot brace your head. This can result in bad things happening including a KO.

Thanks for this explanation, and to everyone else who contributed. So the consensus is that having a more limber neck won't affect the ability to contract properly when experiencing a contusion to the jaw.

 

[Inquisitus]

Stretching before exercise has been shown to decrease the muscle's force output (causes the break down and stretching of components of the muscle's passive force production). However, I'm still not sold on the idea that neck muscles help prevent KOs. Aside from seeing no research based evidence, it's not like you actively engage your neck muscles to resist movement when you get hit (and if so, certainly not in the controlled way one would maximally enervate a muscle).

Would reflexively bracing for the strike not count as engaging your neck muscles similar reflexively bracing if you hear screeching in a rear-ender?

 

[Bennosuke]

Yes, but it's the difference in contraction between lifting your arm up to your face when you sneeze, and throwing an elbow at your opponent. In other words, the bracing contraction isn't that strong regardless of how strong your neck muscles are, because its a feedback loop. This is unless you spend the entire fight actively trying to engage your neck muscles.