Why a Lot of Muscular Guys Are Bad Fighters

Many people see a big muscular guy and comment, “Wow I wouldn’t want to fight him.” As intimidating as stronger individuals may seem, strength translates to ability to fight as much as skinny means you can’t fight. It’s true brute strength is a great advantage in a skirmish, but because so many weight lifters neglect other facets of training, they’re lacking beyond muscles.

I’ll use Matt from Operacion Repo as an example again. Here’s a video of Matt in action:

As is the case in the video, Matt’s first reaction is almost always to wind up and push as hard as he can. (I know the show is staged but it’s still a good example.) The reason most big guys resort to pushing is to utilize their strength, which is strength. Aside from pushing, you can tell Matt isn’t very nimble or coordinated. So if someone throws a punch, he’s going to be confused and immediately try a headlock or some other strength based maneuver.  He’s also going to be off balance because of his need to throw his weight and muscle into what he does.

Bench press doesn’t make you a better fighter. Nor do curls. You need to train for fighting. What makes you dangerous is when you combine raw strength with fighting attributes such as speed, agility, precision, and skill. Brock Lesnar exemplifies all of these attributes except skill. Lesnar has a tremendous combination of athleticism and power that along with a wrestling background and developing MMA skills has led him to be world champion.

Many weight lifters and power lifters train their muscles to do only one thing: Lift.  So while there muscles grow and grow and eventually become huge, they lose mobility, quickness, coordination, and flexibility.  This leaves a lot of heavy lifters with a lot of pushing power but not much else.