Cameron Allen
Thousands of people have discovered the life-changing benefits of jiu-jitsu and have gone on to lead incredible lives. At the same time, for all the known benefits of jiu-jitsu and the transformational life effects, the reality is, people will still quit no different than they would quit their diet, quit their workout routine, quit school, quit their relationships, or anything else that yields personal improvement. In this article, we will discuss some of the transformative benefits of jiu-jitsu.
Top 8 Benefits of Jiu Jitsu
- Learn Self Defense
- Learn how to handle stress in a new way
- Getting outside your comfort zone
- Weight loss
- Community
- Have a new relationship with your ego
- Build Discipline in Your Life
- Become a stronger minded person
1) Learning Self Defense
Jiu-jitsu is a grappling martial art that focuses on submissions and ground-based techniques. One of the main reasons people join jiu-jitsu gyms is for the self-defense aspect that is ingrained into them. There have been many instances where everyday people use the skills they have learned inside the four walls of a jiu-jitsu gym to protect themselves from an aggressor.
Although you can never fully prepare for a situation like this, having experience doing jiu-jitsu is always going to be a benefit over not having the experience! When you learn self-defense a byproduct of that is an increase in self-confidence. It is a good feeling to know that you can at least de-escalate a situation no matter the circumstance you may find yourself in.
2) Handling Stress and Problem Solving
The nature of jiu-jitsu is violent and stressful.
When you are training you are going against someone who is actively trying to impose their will on you. This is a stressful encounter that does take some time to get used to but the rewards of staying consistent with it reap massive rewards.
After training jiu-jitsu for a couple of months and regularly showing up, you will be an excellent on-the-fly problem solver and learn practical ways to manage the stress that may come up in your life. If you can learn to stay calm while someone is trying to choke you you can learn how to stay calm in 95% of situations in the outside world!
The best part about training jiu-jitsu is the fact that a lot of these lessons you don’t pick up unless you embrace the sport fully. When you do so it can completely transform how you view the world!
3) Getting Uncomfortable
Putting yourself in uncomfortable situations or getting out of your comfort zone entirely has many benefits. When you decide to get comfortable with the uncomfortable things in life that used to scare you no longer have a grip over your mind. The power that this will give you as a human being in this world is immense and should not be underestimated!
4) Physical Benefits – Weight Loss and Getting Ripped Fast
Jiu-jitsu is a great way to get your body moving and lose that stubborn body fat. Many people start doing jiu-jitsu for a handle of reasons but usually top of that list of reasons is the physical benefits.
We started doing jiu-jitsu because lifting weights is just boring. It is very easy to slack off and just go through the motions. When you are training in a sport that requires you to use your entire body at all times and think through problems on the fly, it is very difficult to not take each moment seriously. We burn thousands of calories while training in one-hour sessions in our gym’s intermediate/advanced classes.
5) Create Great Bonds
We have several reasons why we chose to train jiu-jitsu but one thing that truly kept us around is the people we met and have been able to bond with over the past several years. The community of jiu-jitsu practitioners continues to grow each year as more people realize how powerful the sport is for your mental and physical well-being. When you run into strangers that also train jiu-jitsu it is like you meet a long-lost friend. You immediately understand what the person in front of you has gone through and that you two have common ground in loving this sport!
6) Managing Ego
Jiu-Jitsu is a sport that will introduce you to one thing everyone on the planet has, an ego. Managing ego is a tough thing to do and not many people go out of their way to be humbled. When you participate in the sport, you will be humbled and if you plan on sticking around for the long term you will need to cultivate a good relationship or understanding with your ego.
Time and time again the ego gets in the way of our greatest blessings. You may run into that issue from time to time but because you have learned the necessary skills to manage those outbursts, you’ll feel much more prepared for a situation when the ego could get in the way of a blessing.
7) Create Discipline in Your Life
One thing that we have benefited most from jiu-jitsu is creating a structured way of doing things in our life. We have built our life around our training and it makes life much easier when we know what exactly needs to get done and when we have time to accomplish it.
The more disciplined you are free you become.
It is an odd dichotomy that the world has in place but holds very true through our experience. When you decide to stay disciplined and not let excuses get in the way of your workouts or training sessions this same mentality will spill over to your everyday life. The way you do one thing is the way you do all things!
8) Build a Strong State of Mind
It takes a real special person to stick with the sport of jiu-jitsu.
You have to commit to yourself, commit to your school, and continue to show up putting your body on the line in order to improve. These are powerful choices that slowly morph you into an individual that can get things done. No one is perfect and no one wants you to be perfect. Everything is a journey and when you put one foot in front of the other beautiful things happen.
Other benefits
Increase Confidence
Increasing your confidence is a formula. When you pick up skills and become competent at something it is impossible to not have confidence in that thing. Because Jiu-Jitsu is a skill-based sport it will actively force you to get competent at something fast.
Knowing that you can fight and protect yourself in a dangerous situation if it were to ever arise, is a confidence booster in itself. No matter what anyone says about “jiu-jitsu not working” we are here to tell you they are wrong and it gets proven over and over again.
Handling Stress, Pressure, and Decision Making
Jiu-jitsu is a sport that teaches you how to handle stress, handle pressure, and make decisions while in those situations. Brazilian jiu-jitsu has been deemed as the sport of “human chess” it does not get that name by accident.
Handling stress and pressure is something that we have to do on a daily basis. Our everyday job can be stressful at times and jiu-jitsu has helped us learn to make solid decisions while under this type of pressure. Without learning these lessons on the mats we would have a hard time handling everything we do without be overwhelmed.
Embracing A New Lifestyle
The jiu-jitsu lifestyle is one that is full of pleasant surprises! From meeting new people, embracing new beginnings, and shifting the way you wat you will completely morph yourself into the best version of yourself.
Training jiu-jitsu has a ton of perks. Being able to defend yourself, being well-equipped for stressful situations, learning to love being uncomfortable, getting into excellent shape, and being able to make friends along the way are just a few to be named.
Jiu-Jitsu is very good at weeding out people with bad habits so cultivating strong principles from the start is something that everyone should immediately pick up when deciding to train! The Grapplers Graveyard is a website that is dedicated to helping martial artists not only level up their jiu-jitsu but also level up their life. The sport’s transformative nature is a message we want to instill in people worldwide!
Discover the world of Brazilian-Jiu Jitsu: a holistic martial art, a sport, an approach to life.
