Does Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Make You Stronger
We’ve seen fighters like Khabib obliterate his opponents. Yes, he’s an athlete, but sometimes he grapples like an animal! Is his strength superhuman, or is it down to his BJJ knowledge?
Depending on your fighting style, BJJ forces your muscles to resist against your opponent’s body weight – especially when they mount on you. Through sparring, this conditions your muscles to build relative strength, locking strength, and functional strength, which is most noticeable in the core, upper body (especially the neck and trapezius), and legs.
BJJ gives you a different type of strength to methods like weight training (involving static, isolated exercise) as it’s a sport incorporating compound, dynamic movements. While you won’t notice gains in the gym, you’ll have ‘farmer strength,’ making day-to-day tasks more effortless.
The extent to which BJJ makes you stronger depends on your skill and experience:
- Beginners see the most strength gains because they’re unfamiliar with techniques and fighting IQ, so they use lots of brute force, pushing, and pulling when grappling. This exerts huge amounts of energy – resulting in muscle recovery and adaptation.
- Experts use less strength because they’re technical enough to use their opponent’s body weight to their advantage. This uses minimal effort and won’t tear and repair muscles; at most, it will increase their endurance rather than strength.
Does BJJ Get You In Shape
BJJ combines HITT, cardiovascular, and strength training, three of the most intense training methods. As a result, athletes get in good shape when sparring, commonly having a lean body with high muscle definition – particularly in the shoulders, neck, and lats.
BJJ fighter’s bodies differ in shape and size. This is partially down to the art of fluctuating in intensity, muscle demands, and pace. For example:
- It uses both anaerobic and aerobic thresholds.
- Sometimes, you relax your body weight on your opponent; other times, the roles reverse.
- It triggers both fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers.
Because of this, your fighting style alters BJJ’s impact on your body. For example, if you spend lots of time below your opponent, you will constantly lift them up – hence, you’ll have bigger muscles than other athletes—nonetheless, all fighters (regardless of their style) tone up their bodies from BJJ.
The extent to which you see body improvements depends on the intensity at which you train. If you only practice drills, you don’t condition your muscles or sweat. As a result, the gains will be similar to a light walk. However, if you spar and compete repeatedly, you’ll quickly shed off fat and build muscles.
It’s worth mentioning, BJJ athletes such as Benson Henderson aren’t in ‘poor shape’; instead, they’ve likely achieved their body via strict dieting, additional strength training, and lots of calisthenics – rather than BJJ alone: check him out below:
Embed from Getty ImagesIs BJJ Good For Weight Loss
If you want to trim your waist, is BJJ a good option? Kind Of.
If you’re currently in shape, BJJ is great for losing weight and athletic conditioning. However, the fitness returns diminish the better you get at the fighting style because you learn to use less energy during grappling; hence, you burn less calories.
So yes, the initial BJJ training helps lose weight. But then, again, what exercise doesn’t? Only when you’re inexperienced does BJJ become ‘exercise‘; otherwise, you’ll be technical enough to fight without releasing much energy. After all, it’s a skill-based sport.
For BJJ to be an effective weight–loss method, you must constantly grapple at a high intensity to stay within the anaerobic threshold. However, with the nature of the sport (mounts, submissions, and chokes) slowly damaging your body, this isn’t recommended.
We hear many stories of students sharing their weight loss journey with BJJ. For example, a ‘couch potato’ who lost 40 pounds in 4 months. But, what they don’t say is they’ve never worked out before. So, it’s not necessarily BJJ helping them lose weight, but participating in activity for the first time.
Yes, beginners initially shed weight through BJJ, but if weight loss is your primary goal, it’s better to do another training method without diminishing returns or a high risk of injury.
Noticeably, there’s a handful of plus-size BJJ artists in the industry. Despite training day-in-day-out, they still have lots of body fat. However, this doesn’t bother them because they want to thrive in BJJ – and that they do – rather than shed weight. For example, Roy Nelson:
Embed from Getty ImagesDoes BJJ Get You Abs
BJJ is the ultimate compound exercise. From sweeps to submissions, each position requires a tight core to balance your body. However, what’s the visible impact? And will you see your abs come through…
If you’re in average shape, BJJ alone is enough to make your six-pack visible. The greater the intensity – through live drills and sparring – the more intricate the abdominal conditioning is, so the more prominent they become.
All variants of BJJ training strengthen your core and thicken your abs. You’re constantly rolling, locking, and resisting body weight, but how visible they are depends on your current fat levels:
If it’s less than 25%, BJJ alone conditions your six-pack noticeably. However, if it’s more, additional cardio may be necessary to trim your belly fat before seeing gains.
It can be broken down as follows:
- BJJ relentlessly conditions your core so your abs beef up.
- These gains (a.k.a, your six-pack) are only visible if your body fat is low.
Even with extensive BJJ drilling, yes, your abs experience muscle gain; however, you only see a six-pack/ ripped body by combining a strict diet.
Does BJJ Get You Fitter
The fitness rewards from BJJ are totally dependent on how intense you train.Â
We’ve seen sessions hour sessions been taught with 20-minute warm-ups and cool-downs. For argument’s sake, how about a generic session? Say a 90-minute session, with a 10-minute warm-up and cool down, drill practice, and live rolling…
In this case, yes, BJJ will get you physically fitter and more athletic. The strength exerted when rolling, coupled with the cardiovascular and muscular endurance when drilling, conditions your body to increase its power and long-distance endurance. Over time, you’ll be noticeably more explosive and won’t get out of breath as quickly – even against bigger opponents.
So yes, it gets you ‘fitter,’ but to what degree? Unfortunately, it won’t enable you to run a marathon effortlessly; in fact, the effect on your VO2 max is pretty much limited. Here’s why:
- Despite rolling taking your heart up to 85% of its maximum, research indicates that the endurance gains are BJJ-specific. E.g., a long-distance runner, despite his lung capacity, will be exhausted after only a few rounds of sparring – the same way a BJJ artist could struggle to run a marathon.
It can be summarised as follows: practicing BJJ improves your work economy in the sport; however, the gains are only noticeable when rolling and aren’t universal. Why? Because it’s a skill-based sport.
To optimize your fitness in BJJ, we recommend incorporating additional aerobic and anaerobic training into your workout plan—for example, fartlek or circuit training. Not only will this improve your V02 max, but it also pays dividends on the mats because there will be a reduction in lactic acid production.Â
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