Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has taken the world by storm lately and have encouraged people of all ages to ‘tap out’ from their boring workouts and stressful lives, and say yes to a new challenge that can truly change how you see exercising for good. Jiu-Jitsu is an art that requires great discipline, dedication and hard work, but it is also one that is greatly rewarding, not only as far as your fitness, but also on other aspects of your life, like improving relationships with others and even with yourself.
Physical Benefits
Jiu-Jitsu is known for involving rigorous training, studying and technique developing. Its physical benefits are no secret, since its workouts can include great cardiovascular exercise that will strengthen your heart and improve your blood pressure. It also involves your core and almost all muscles in your body, which will help with your stability, balance and strength. Additionally, it will improve your flexibility, agility, endurance and breathing.
Your main goal for starting Jiu-Jitsu might be to lose weight, and certainly all aspects of this training will most likely result in significant weight loss, but it will also lower cholesterol levels, improve blood sugar, stabilize blood pressure, prevent heart disease, strengthen your bones, and help with chronic pain. This is something to always keep in mind when training, especially during those times when we feel we might not be giving our best performance when fighting, because any outcome will still bring benefits to your body.
Mental Benefits
What makes a martial art most different from a sport is definitely the important role the mind has for succeeding in its training. Jiu-Jitsu requires patience, since timing and rhythm are vital when reading your opponent to make your next move. It is also an art that needs great concentration, since getting distracted for a single second can result in getting locked down and even result in important injuries. Staying focused will help you keep your mind from outside problems at home or at work, and will turn training time exclusively into your time, therefore, further lowering your stress levels and increasing your overall happiness.
Jiu-Jitsu can bring great confidence when you start gaining control over your own body and realize that you can achieve things you never thought possible. You will make friends and feel recognition and appreciation from your peers as you make your way up, which will boost your self-esteem, keep you motivated and even help you achieve a more positive outlook on life. With confidence will also come humility, since the fighting nature of the art will teach you to win but also to lose, and learn to respect and appreciate those who know more than you. It will also teach you to be calm under pressure, which will help you to better deal with frustration in you daily life.
Additional Benefits
Jiu-Jitsu will help you feel better in many ways at physical and mental levels, but it is also important to recognize other benefits that it can bring to the table. A very important part of training involves self-defense techniques, which is another very common reason for which people decide to begin training, that could help save a person’s life if a dangerous situation were to arise. In our increasingly unsafe societies, this will be a very valuable skill to develop that will make you feel more confident and safe in case you had to defend yourself or your family.
Another great benefit from Jiu-Jitsu is that it can be practiced by all kinds of people, no matter their age, gender or physical state, which means that it can become a family activity that will bring you closer and will teach you all important lessons that can make you a better father, mother, son or daughter. If you have decided to start your training on your own, you will find that there are others who can relate to you and are going through the same struggles, and you will soon make friends to help you keep on going.
The healthier lifestyle that comes hand-in-hand with Jiu-Jitsu will also affect your eating habits, which will tend to adapt to boost your training and achieve even higher goals. It will promote a diet that gives you enough energy to train and fulfill your daily activities and that will remove harmful substances from your body, like saturated fats, processed foods and sugar, and replace them for fresh and whole foods. It will also help you give up destructive habits like smoking and drinking.
It is not hard to see how beneficial Jiu-Jitsu can be. It surpasses regular expectations we might have as far as the benefits we can expect from regular exercise, and introduces aspects that are essential to our wellbeing, but that we usually don’t take time to nurture and develop. Stop doubting whether you can do it or not, and start getting hyped for how amazing you will feel after you finally decide to change your life.