Can You Break Someone's Arm with an Armbar?

Most people assume that an armbar will break an opponent’s arm if they refuse to submit. But that is not typically the case.

It’s possible to break someone’s arm with an armbar. However, a bone break is not the injury this submission technique is most likely to cause. Armbars put pressure on the elbow joint and are more likely to cause a dislocation or hyperextension. 

This article will detail the injuries that arise from this move. We’ll also discuss the specific mechanics that allow armars to deliver so much damage to someone’s arm.

What Kind of Damage Does an Armbar Cause?

Below is a list of the three injury types a standard armbar will cause, in order of likelihood:

• Elbow hyperextension

• Elbow dislocation

• Bone Fracture

If your opponent is wise enough to submit in time, these injuries are entirely avoidable. Still, let’s take a deeper look at the armbar injuries that arise when opponents are too stubborn to tap out.  

Elbow Hyperextension

Hyperextension is the injury most likely to occur during an armbar. Proper armbar application forces your opponent’s elbow joint beyond its natural range of motion, which is essentially the definition of an elbow hyperextension injury. Elbow hyperextension causes significant strain on the ligaments that hold your elbow bones in place. In severe cases, this leads to our second most probable armbar injury.

Elbow Dislocation

If you continue to hyperextend your opponent’s elbow while applying an armbar, it will probably result in a dislocation. When a dislocation happens, the three bones that meet to form your elbow joint separate from one another.

Elbow dislocations vary in severity and can cause damage to both ligaments and bones. In most cases, elbow dislocations are more noticeable than hyperextension injuries because they give the arm a twisted and deformed appearance.  

Bone Fracture

It’s far less likely for an armbar to cause a clean bone fracture compared to a hyperextension injury or dislocation, but it is possible. Bone fractures are most likely to occur when an armbar to places force on the upper arm or forearm rather than directly on the elbow joint. Depending on the specific location of that force, an armbar can fracture one or more bones at a time.

What Bones Does an Armbar Break?

There are three primary bones that give structure to your upper arm and forearm. All three of those bones are at risk during an armbar:

• Radius (forearm)

• Ulna (forearm)

• Humerus (upper arm)

The radius and the ulna are significantly thinner than the humerus bone, making them much easier to break. However, with enough focused force, it’s possible to use an armbar to fracture any of those three bones.

Still, bone fractures remain much less likely than the other injuries we mentioned for one simple reason—it takes significantly more force to break through the durable tissues of your arm bones than it does to damage the comparatively softer ligaments of your elbow joint.

How Do You Execute an Armbar?

To perform an armbar, you’ll need to control both ends of your opponent’s arm and hold it in an extended position. Then, you’ll apply force near your opponent’s elbow to force their arm past its normal range of motion.

Basic Armbar Technique

There are a few popular armbar variations. But for the sake of simplicity, we’ll look at the most common armbar style in jiu-jitsu. Here are the four general steps you’ll need to take to complete this technique:

• Control your opponent’s shoulder with your legs.

• Control your opponent’s hand/wrist with your arms.

• Extend your opponent’s arm until it is straight.

• Raise your hips, causing your pelvic bone to put pressure on the elbow joint.

Armbars are one of the best submissions in jiu-jitsu, and they are available in multiple positions, including mount and closed guard. They also rely on simple mechanics and a fundamental understanding of leverage.

Physics Behind Armbar Leverage

You don’t need to be a physics expert to do jiu-jitsu, but for some, it can help to understand the mechanics that make certain moves work.

In this case, an armbar is a near-perfect example of a class one lever. The easiest way to understand a class one lever is to imagine a seesaw. Like a seesaw, both class one levers (and armbars) include the following components:

• A beam (your opponent’s arm)

• A fulcrum (your pelvic bone against your opponent’s elbow joint)

• Forces on each end (your legs controlling the shoulder and your arms controlling the hand/wrist)

Those simple components are present in some form in all armbar variations. Employing leverage in that manner permits you to damage your opponent’s arm and force them into submission.

Armbar Safety

Since armbars can cause multiple forms of damage, you must use caution anytime you apply one in training. As is true of other submissions, armbars can easily injure your training partners when you fail to execute them with control.

Additionally, safety should remain a priority for both training partners. The practitioner applying the armbar is responsible for doing so with caution. Meanwhile, it’s the responsibility of the practitioner receiving the armbar to submit before injuries occur.

Why is the Armbar So Effective?

An armbar is effective because it uses the strength of several major muscle groups against the comparatively weak muscles of your opponent’s isolated arm. This discrepancy in power allows the person applying the armbar to exert incredible pressure on their opponent’s elbow joint.

Creating a power imbalance by using your entire body to attack a single body part is one of the core philosophies of jiu-jitsu. The armbar is the perfect move to illustrate this concept.

How Bad Does an Armbar Hurt?

The degree to which an armbar hurts depends on how mobile your elbow joint is. In most cases, armbars become incredibly painful as soon as the elbow joint extends beyond its normal range of motion. However, some jiu-jitsu practitioners have exceptionally mobile joints, making them more capable of withstanding the pressure of an armbar.

What’s the Easiest Way to Break Someone’s Arm?

Breaking someone’s arm is not easy, but some techniques can do it. The Kimura is one of the most likely submissions to cause an arm bone fracture. Although the main goal of a Kimura is to apply rotational force to the shoulder, this technique can also lead to a broken arm bone. As noted earlier, the armbar is also capable of breaking an opponent’s arm bone if you apply force in the correct location.

Whether they Break Bones or Not, Armbars Are Highly Effective

Ultimately, it’s not common for an armbar to break an opponent’s arm, but it can happen. Instead, hyperextension injuries and dislocation are more likely. Regardless of those injury specifics, the armbar is a highly effective submission technique that every jiu-jitsu practitioner should know.