Bulking up

[Kid Achilles]

Bone density has been proven to increase to small degree but Roy Jones has the head the size of a walnut, to exaggerate a bit. He was only competitive in the heavyweight division against Ruiz because of his freakish handspeed and reflexes. Ruiz caught him with decent punches (never flush or serious) and hurt him several times. If Ruiz hit him with the hook Tarver did, it very well could have killed him.

Look at Bob Sapp. He weighs 350 lbs of lean muscle, owns a neck and pair of traps that probably makes Tyson and Holyfield feel self conscious but he can't even safely absorb an arm punch delivered by a K-1 level striker. No amount of muscle mass can help a weak chin. No amount of muscle mass can make a former middleweight take a heavyweights punch if he couldn't take that punch weighing 160 lbs (as Toney was capable of doing at that weight).

[Pugnacious_Z]

u say no amount of muscle can help u absorb a head shot and u use bob sapp as an example. bob sapp has a crappy chin with dat big neck, now imagine how his neck wud be without it, i bet it wud be alot weaker, dats prob why they tried so hard to strengthen his neck. and bob sapp is a natural heavyweight with a huge head, i mean HUGE.

[BigDozer260]

u say no amount of muscle can help u absorb a head shot and u use bob sapp as an example. bob sapp has a crappy chin with dat big neck, now imagine how his neck wud be without it, i bet it wud be alot weaker, dats prob why they tried so hard to strengthen his neck. and bob sapp is a natural heavyweight with a huge head, i mean HUGE.

Head size also has very little to do with withstanding brain trauma. The brain is not injured based on head size it is injured based on percieved force. Your neck muscle are the only thing between your brains perception of force. Part of a knock out is the violent whipping, of the head concurrently, and temporarily cutting blod flow to the brain, and the brains sustained injury from impact and resistive forces or lack thereof. Head size is of less importance than neck strength and the ability to resist impact. Football players often make helmut to helmut contact full speed and the enertia from both players. Emphasis on neck strength is tandamount because of the nature of the game. A large and/or powerful neck resist force better and less powerful and in some cases smaller neck. Now as individuals one person might not be genetically predesposed to excellent force generation, yet he might have very strong neck muscles, or any other combination of pros and cons(i.e. weak upper stronger lower body). Contrary to popular belief if u want to improve upon the performance of the human body just "Seek and ye shal find".

[Kid Achilles]

The toughest men in the sport (Chuvalo, Cobb, Fullmer, Marciano, Willard, LaMotta, Galento, Monzon etc.) all had huge frames for their weightclasses. These are wide shoulder heavy boned guys, and all of them could take a punch (to put it lightly). Thick bones respond better to traumatic force than thin bones, and weight lifting will not increase your bone mass to a signifcant amount where a fine boned man will suddenly have a huge frame capable of taking punches from much larger men.

Roy Jones was a small-boned light heavyweight. He really was a blown up middleweight, and not even a big middleweight at that. I don't care what he weighed against Ruiz, he was an artificial heavyweight in that fight. Jack Dempsey probably weighed about what Jones weighed against Ruiz but his natural frame (shoulder and torso width, skull size, hand size etc.) was taller and much bigger. He was a natural heavyweight with larger thicker bones.

James Toney is not a natural heavyweight. Look at him at 160-170. Did he look like a starved heavyweight? No, he looked at a guy fighting in his correct weightclass. Since then he's blown up, he's gained some muscle and a lot of fat, and that is not where his body was meant to be. He is still a legitimate threat to the poor heavyweight title holders at the moment, but he does not have a heavyweight's skeleton and nothing will change that. You can see the problems that arise from this in watching his match with Ruiz where Ruiz was completely outclassed yet easily shoved him back in every clinch. Ruiz, a naturally bigger man, had no problem controlling a 5'9" blowned up middleweight in the clinches.

The lesson here is that bulking up is fine if you have a huge frame and you're trying to fill it out, but if you're going up in weight for the hell of it know that you're going to be at a disadvantage in terms of strength and ability to withstand your opponent's punches, as well as hurt them.

[Kid Achilles]

Pug,

Being a huge framed guy does not ensure you can take a punch. Primo Carnera and Lennox Lewis didn't have good chins. However in most cases the guys with big heads, large frames absorbs punishment better than the small boned guy the same weight. Look at LaMotta and Chuvalo, who had stocky big boned builds and heads that looked large even proportional to their bodies. No amount of bulking up will give you a bone structure with that kind of resilience. You either have it or you don't.

[Kid Achilles]

Just so we're on the same page here, I'm not saying that a skinny guy with a freakishly large head and a pencil neck is going to take a punch well. Head size is simply one of the most apparent (in most cases) physical indicators of frame size.

[BigDozer260]

Just so we're on the same page here, I'm not saying that a skinny guy with a freakishly large head and a pencil neck is going to take a punch well. Head size is simply one of the most apparent (in most cases) physical indicators of frame size.

Wrist size is the most basic way to determine frame size for height or weight. I have 8" wrist very large frame and very large muscles to accompany it.

[leff]

Wrist size is the most basic way to determine frame size for height or weight. I have 8" wrist very large frame and very large muscles to accompany it.

have to go with big d here, i know wrist since is use to tell ectomorfh, endomorf and mesomorf from each other so its logical it stell about frame size

[Pugnacious_Z]

hey kidachilles,
u named around 10 guys who were big framed and cud take a punch. i cud name just as many big framed guys who cudnt take a punch. then i cud name ten guys with average frames who take a punch. i believe if u have a heavier head, it will help u absorb better shots becoz ur head will move slower becoz of the extra weight, but the extra weight is minimal. compare a middleweight head to a heavyweight head. i wud say the heavyweights head wud be around 1kg heavier and dats including the brain. so the difference is not dramatic, i believe most of chin strength has to do with inside ur skull, ur brain fluid and other **** around ur brain dat i dont know about, and ur brain itself. after dat, then its the neck and head size. dats why u find guys with normal neck sizes and normal head sizes who can take big punches and then u find sum1 like bob sapp with huge head, huge neck but cant take a jab, its becoz of inside his skull.
and u say marciano and lamotta had huge frames, dats bull**** man, lamato was a middleweight and marciano was a cruiser. ive seen marcianos pics, he wasnt big at all man, his head looked average, he looked like an average guy.

[fitness_fanatic]

Im trying to bulk up. What should I eat? What should i do to workout? Any advice. Please Help.

Guys make the mistake of eating all high fat and high carb foods to pack on weight as quickly as possible during bulks. By taking in the appropriate amount of calories, balancing your macros, and implementing a proper training program, you can gain lean muscle while putting on weight.
improvedsportsdiet.com has an excellent guide on how to do so in their topics section. Hope this helps!