Excuse the lack of ROK fitness article last week, a bit of backstage difficulty, so to speak.

Anyway, things are back on schedule, and my article this week is about two special exercises you can do to develop an iron chin that can take a punch.

“Develop my chin? What do you mean, Larsen?” Just to clarify, I’m not talking about giving you that sculpted lantern jaw that all men want but most men can’t obtain. That’s mostly a combination of losing fat and genetics—although my colleague Jon Anthony recommends chewing mastic gum. You can try that if you want, but that’s not really what we’re here to discuss today.

No, I’m using “chin” in the boxing/martial arts sense—the ability to take a punch without going down. Anybody who follows combat sports will have heard terms related to this phenomenon: “good chin”, “hard chin”, “iron jaw”, “glass jaw”, and so forth. Many will also assume that this, much like having a defined jawline, is something that you either have or you don’t.

That’s completely wrong.

The first misconception people have about developing this is the name. The ability to take a punch, in fact, does not have anything to do with the structure of your jawline at all!

A knockout or concussion occurs when the head is hit and the brain literally slams into the inside of the skull. Thus, we can surmise that the more the head moves from the blow striking it, the more susceptible the person is to a knockout.

Thus, to enhance your toughness and lessen your susceptibility to knockouts from blows to the head, you have to keep your head from moving when it’s struck. And to do that, you will have to strengthen not your jaw, or any of the muscles of your face, but your neck.

Read it here