Are there exercises you can do to not get choked out?

Question

in judo, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, ect. are there exercises you can do that prevents you from tapping when you are being choked just giving enough time to get out of the hold? Any neck or chest exercises to strengthen the lungs?

Answer 1

Obviously, the best thing is to not put yourself in a position to be choked. I'm sure you already knew that.
To make your neck stronger and possibly give you that escape time you want you can go to almost any sporting goods store and buy a neck training harness. It's essentially a piece of headgear that you can hang weight off of. You can lie on a bench on your back, belly, and both sides to do a kind of neck crunch with the harness in different positions to facilitate this.
If you don't want to buy the harness (they're really not too expensive) you can keep your head straight and push against your hand/s (static contraction) in different directions.
Good luck and train hard!!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

The best possible way to evade being choked into a state of unconsciousness is to avoid the chokehold initially, either by reversing it against your opponent or striking them before they have the opportunity to consolidate it to a point in which you feel you are struggling to reverse it.
Im sure it would be possible to condition your body to withstand such attacks but the extent at which one must train and condition themselves to make this work i assume would take quite a long time, thus making it more productive to actually reverse the hold or strike the opponent before they have the chance to execute it.
Also if the opponent has a significant size and strength advantage over you then fundamentally it would be alot harder to withsatnd the choke.
As a martial artist myself i'd recommend exhaustively training your reflexes so that when someone tries to apply a choke hold on you, you will find it significantly easier to evade. :D

Answer 4

actually yes, i have done a form of excercise for years that may sound quite odd to most but is very effective. you first must have an open mind. first try "flexing" the muscles in your neck specificaly those around your throat, if you can (some cannot except when swallowing) then take your hand and clasp your throat as though choking yourself but be very careful not to squeeze hard, just enough to apply resistance then "flex" and relax your throat muscles against your hand. to strengthen your lungs try deep breathing excercises and singing yes, i know, but it does work. at some point you should be able to breath through a standard choke (full hand) by flexing those muscles. unfortuanatly a directed (fingers only) choke is still almost impossible to overcome

Answer 5

I'm amazed no-one has stated the obvious yet - a choke doesn't prevent you from breathing, it restricts blood flow to the brain. So whatever you do with your lungs or neck muscles, unless you can learn how to get blood into your head without using the carotid artery, then a well executed choke will put you out. And it will put you out much much faster than a strangle restricting breathing would do.

Answer 6

The issues of cardio aside, one of the most effective ways to improve your resistance to chokes and strangles is finger, wrist and arm strengthen exercises because a well-placed hand or even a couple of fingers between you and your attacker's hand (arm is tougher) can work wonders especially when you are both tired. Just a thought.

Answer 7

I am of the school of thought that no one should get that close to me. If it were to happen, it would be because there were many attackers and someone hit me in the head from behind with a bottle or rock they threw at me and caught me by luck.

I got into arguments with alot of people who during discussions comparing our arts would ask "If someone did so and so, what would you do?".

These are ludicrous notions to me.

Some one may get lucky enough to grab me but the last person who did got dropped like a sack o' shhh... doo doo.

This is the Koryu Mind.

Answer 8

well unfortunatley with your airway being blocked of course there is no way that you can do any type of exercises to help that situation, but i can suggest that you work on your cardio, which will help you breath even if you are limited to very low oxygen.