Does getting hit (punched/kicked) help your muscles get stronger?

Weird question I know but I'm kinda serious. I kinda know how working out at a gym gets you stronger and eventually bigger if you work out hard enough and correctly but what about getting hit? I ask this because I recently started taking martial arts classes and my teacher said getting hit makes your body stronger. He said Bruce Lee would train by allowing others to hit him in his abdomen area. Idk. Is this true or not? Does muscle tissue tear when you bruise up the same way it tears when you work out hard at the gym?

stronger in the since that your body will get conditioned, but that won't do anything to help increase muscular strength.

Valid question. I wouldn't think it would make you stronger muscle wise, but your body builds a tolerance over time. Hopefully someone with experience in this field will chime in.

Thanks for the responses guys. I rep'd you. I wanna say yes but I also wanna say no. You don't get sore from getting hit. You get bruised. I just wonder if I should keep doing this or not. I wonder if getting hit actually hurts me with building muscle mass somehow. That would suck.

I think the thing with bruce lee was that he had it tensed the entire time, and flexing/tensing for long periods of time (although not the same as actual lifting) is a good workout in itself, and when you have someone punching you, I'm sure it helps

Yes and No to your question. Yes you get stronger, because any movement you do, builds muscle. When you get hit, you tense your body to take the blow. That tension is making your body stronger. When you strike, your muscles contract to generate force, and your opposing muscles help control the movement and deceleration, as well as return you back to your starting point. You also adapt your body to take more and more of a pounding. Your nerves deaden, and you get use to the feeling. But, you will not be able to lift more and more, longer and longer like a weight lifter. This is call specificity.

As far as repairing like weight lifting. Yes and No. Weight limiting actually tears the muscle fibers and when it recovers it tries to adapt to be able to deal with the stress you put oppond it. Thus becoming stronger. Any damage to your body will try to do the same. Bruising from attacks, you body will try to repair it and adapt. When a bone breaks, it will heal thick at the breaking sight than the surrounding bone. The thing is that your body would be adapting to different types of stress as being hit when compared to weight lifting. Also, bruising is more due to bleeding in the surrounding tissue, were as with most muscle sourness, that would not be the case.

As far as Bruce Le making that a part of his training method. I have never heard of him doing such a thing. But, then again, I never knew him personally. I have read a lot of his books and seen all of his movies, and again, never seen him do anything that indicated that was a training method to make him stronger. I will say, I would not hold against Bruce Le, to do such a think to adapt his body to the stress of being hit. To also prepare himself to be able to let the shock of being hit interfere with what he was doing at the moment. Many martial artiest do not know how to fight an actual opponent for this very reason. Yes they learn how to do nice kicks and everything, but it's one thing to kick air, or a steady target, but a whole different world to do it and do it effectively against a moving target and one that strikes back to boot. I think Bruce Le did something along that line, or under controlled situations. I know he enjoyed training and practicing in real, and practical situations. So, when he spared with someone, I don't think he would have a problem with you making contact. Just remember, if you get to touch him, he will defiantly touch you back. But, I don't think he thought it would actually make him stronger. At least not stronger in a power lifter since. I would be interested to know your teachers source for that. It would be fun to have new reading material on Bruce Le.

I will tell you Bruce Le did a lot of ideas that were really out there by most peoples standards, and beyond most science in any Kinesiology, Physical Therapy, Biology, Physics and what ever standards. But, Bruce Le really know his stuff. He would research what he did deeply, and put lots of thought behind his idea. I feel all his work was science based, just not traditional in use. As far as his knowledge of body mechanics, the man was extremely special and much deeper than chances are any scientist in any similar field you will ever meet. If you do meet one, you better make close friends with him. You will learn tons from that person. I have tried to understand what Bruce has done, and the more I learn the more impressed I become with the man. But, I have found it also take having extremely exceptional teachers to help you along the way. One that thinks the basics is the most important aspect to learn in martial arts. For with a great base in the basics you can master anything, even in a glance like Bruce Le did all the time. And, after that one glance, you will be able to do it much better due to your deep understanding of the basics.

Getting hit will not make you buff, however like the others said it will condition you to take hits. If you are doing bjj or mma then you will get intense work outs and shread down to ripped muscle because mass slows you down and that is the last thing you will want,

To show u what i mean 2 or 3 times a week have a partner from your ma gym kick you in the front of you thigs with thier shin with a little restraint of course (not too hard but not soft). Your first time after 2 mins your legs Will fail and you will want to stop, but after 2 weeks maby less you will start to notice that you feel it less and and less due to a build up resistance, dont know if that is strength but it certainly is conditoning. This is called the "low kick"

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VV0V8M5SyQ&feature=related[/url]

Video for you if u dont understand what i mean.

As for bruce lee like many people here he was a gym rat he spent every single day training his body from a very young age (not talking out my a$$ look it up)

And of course no disrespect to your Trainers because up to recently I did mma for 4 years and had just gotten into bjj in the past year. After taking an illegal knee to the face and blacking out I decided it was time to stop for a while. (yes he knocked me the F$*K out). But martial arts is very good for body and mind.

No, I don't think the muscles get stronger but I don't think anyone can give a definitive answer because I doubt there will ever be a study to examines this exact scenario lol.

I do know however that your bones do in fact get stronger from repeated impact over time. I also remember reading some article saying that repeated punching will develop sometime of protective layer over the joints in your hands which is why some people are able to pull the stunts with punching through bricks and things of that nature.

Thanks for the answers guys.

u will learn coordination of how to best tense up during the blow to minimize the damage caused to you. this is a skill to be practised, this was bruce lee's objective. not how toned he will end up looking.
as far as damage rebuild it is completely different from weight training. impact/bruising bursts soft tissue cells, they will heal back to the same size for the objective of same functionality, except in extreme cases causing scarring. weight training damages muscle fibers (not surrounding cells) & there are specific biochemical responses triggering muscle growth during rebuild.

[QUOTE=908;225354761]No, I don't think the muscles get stronger but I don't think anyone can give a definitive answer because I doubt there will ever be a study to examines this exact scenario lol.[/QUOTE]

You're probably right that there won't be a study of that nature but I don't think you need one. You just look at the microtrauma caused by lifting that increases strength and then you look at the trauma caused by getting hit. That trauma comes from the contraction of muscle fiber, which does not occur with being hit. There's also the obvious fact that the CNS component of strength training doesn't get worked when someone punches you.

If your teacher has any point at it, it's that it makes you a tougher *person* which some people need in order to actually get stronger. Any other connection is just bull****.

It won't make you stronger due to not overlaoding the muscles with resistance, but it will callous your body. I train in MMA, and it callouses your body just like friction does to your palms and callouses develop. Hope that helps!!

If someone punches your legs for a few years you aren't going to be able to squat mroe no, but hitting things repeatedly will deaden nerves and make you "tougher" Have you ever seen martial artists powerbreaking contests? Those guys can take baseball bats to their shins. Its something you develop, much like muscular strength, but it is not the same thing. You'll probably notice your hands/knuckles hurt less in a fe wmonths from now then they did the first day you worked on a heavy bag or something similar, the muscles in your hands probably aren't much stronger but your nerves are being pounded and aren't as sensitive as they were, and even your knuckles will have a bit more boney mass to them due to the stress you put them through.

In a nutshell:
-Does it make your body stronger/tougher like master myagi claims? Yes
-Does it make your muscles stronger? No, but you will get better at kicking ass.

As far as mass slowing you down. I would have to disagree with that. Increased muscle mass, is what I am referring to, not body fat. Because it is what makes you move, muscles. If you get slower due to more muscles, it is not your muscles but what you are doing that is slowing you down. Just think of it, if your muscles are getting bigger, they are also getting stronger. The are stronger due to the excessive weight you put your body through. Excessive weight meaning more than what your body would need to do on a daily bases. Meaning it is adapting to move much more than just your own body weight. So, the muscles would not slow a person down, but it is how the person is using his/her muscles that would slow them down.

[QUOTE=QuarterbackX;225478981]As far as mass slowing you down. I would have to disagree with that. Increased muscle mass, is what I am referring to, not body fat. Because it is what makes you move, muscles. If you get slower due to more muscles, it is not your muscles but what you are doing that is slowing you down. Just think of it, if your muscles are getting bigger, they are also getting stronger. The are stronger due to the excessive weight you put your body through. Excessive weight meaning more than what your body would need to do on a daily bases. Meaning it is adapting to move much more than just your own body weight. So, the muscles would not slow a person down, but it is how the person is using his/her muscles that would slow them down.[/QUOTE]

I understand what you are saying. Maybe I can paraphrase:
In general, a larger muscle is a stronger muscle. It contracts harder. It can generate more force (Power). POWER = strength x speed x distance This means it should be a faster muscle considering all things remaining equal. Not that you are QB..but don't confuse mass with a larger muscle. Mass can be in the form of fat, water, bone, etc. Other things that may contribute to speed are things that excite nerve impulses.

When referring to mass, I was referring to muscle mass. hence the reference to muscle I kept making, defining what mass I was talking about. Which is what most people in here would be looking to improve in. But, you are correct there are all type of mass. Even gaseous mass. Not what we want that. LOL. Just had to joke around there a little.

I think what it does is increase the sensitivity of your nerves. I've been hitting my forearms where I have medium-ish veins and the muscles are starting to become more receptive of stimulus. You probably wont have power from getting hit but you'll awaken your body by becoming more functional. When it's more functional it will change.

And when one area starts to change a cascading event happens. Like when you change how you walk or the positioning of your feet. Changing things like this will then affect bigger muscles because these smaller stabilizers are the base of everything.

A tree with strong roots is the most powerful.