Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is famous for its effective self-defense techniques of grappling, but it provides much more benefits such as building muscle, improving one’s physique and increase in strength. Martial arts are an efficient form of exercise, so which among them offers the best comprehensive workout? Here is why BJJ is a great workout.
BJJ training is an excellent workout as it involves extreme exercises that build muscle and increase body metabolism. Intensive activities increase the heart rate, thus improving your cardiovascular health. A student can burn up to 1200 calories per hour of practicing BJJ.
Training in BJJ includes all the significant elements of a good workout for optimum fitness. Core exercises that work the pelvis, abdomen and lower back. Aerobic fitness boosts the amount of oxygen in your blood and increases your heart rate.
Strength training involves exercises that build resistance, thus improving muscular fitness and bone strength. Stretching exercises improve body flexibility by working the joints and reducing muscle tension. Balance training helps stabilize the core muscles and increase general body balance.
Can You Build Muscle With BJJ?
The mechanisms of muscle growth show that it is a gradual process that does not just occur rapidly. In the professional BJJ field, pursuing a competitive edge over other BJJ athletes has led many to prefer more muscular bodies over the typical lean bodies associated with BJJ.
Integrating BJJ training with proper nutrition and muscle recovery can lead to the building of muscle. BJJ exercises work the main muscle groups: the upper torso, core and lower torso muscles. Hypertrophy, the formation of muscle fibers, is activated by BJJ exercises. Muscle recovery is essential to facilitate muscle repair.
Muscle definition and growth involve three main aspects: body fat percentage, muscle size and calorie surplus.
Body fat percentage comes to play when beginning the process of building muscle. Body fat percentage measures the amount of body fat stored in one’s body. Low body fat facilitates muscle definition. To accomplish muscle definition, men should have a body fat percentage of 10-15% and females 18-24%.
To build muscle, one’s body must be at a calorie surplus. The calories consumed must be higher than the calories used by the body. One needs to consume a high-calorie diet with protein-based foods, carbs and vegetables. With a calorie surplus, the body can either turn the calories into a muscle or store them as fat for later use.
Muscle size increases when the minute tears on muscles after intense workouts are repaired using calories. Muscle recovery is boosted by consuming post-workout foods rich in carbs, hydration, muscle massage and getting enough sleep.
Is BJJ A Good Way To Lose Weight?
Weight gain and loss is a common and normal factor in human anatomy. Diverse factors influence variation in weight. Every day, people are in endless pursuits to gain or lose weight. So, can BJJ be a light at the end of the tunnel for anyone who wants to lose weight and gain self-defense skills altogether?
BJJ is an excellent way to lose weight as it involves intense exercises that burn 700-1000, calories in the body. It encourages healthy living and discourages poor eating habits. Practicing BJJ reduces eating habits that increase calorie intake.
BJJ training involves grappling and extreme exercises that bring about a colossal caloric burn. In one session of BJJ, one burns up to 1000 calories; this translates to up to 3000 calories if you train three times a week. Intense exercising over extended periods increases the metabolic rate, thus making the body burn calories faster.
In BJJ training, students are encouraged to have proper nutrition and eat healthy foods to offer nutrients that facilitate the regeneration of cells. BJJ will positively impact one’s eating habits while helping them lose weight.
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BJJ discourages eating-based activities that bring about the consumption of unhealthy, high-calorie foods. Its students are taught the discipline of watching their calorie intake. Students must be very watchful of pre-training foods. Eating fast foods before training is detrimental to students as it may cause them to throw up when engaging in grappling techniques.
A study conducted on the physical and psychological aspects of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes in 2016 shows that their body fat was generally low. (sports medicine)
Can BJJ Get You In Shape?
Most martial arts students can attest to significant changes to their physical appearance even months after beginning training. Can BJJ be instrumental in getting one in shape?
BJJ can get you in shape; it is an intense anaerobic workout that can burn 700-1000, calories per session. It is a full-body workout that exercises the main muscle groups: upper body, lower body and core muscles. This serves as good cardio that improves body physique.
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At the onset of training, a student does not go directly to building muscle if they have a high body fat percentage. Due to extreme exercise, the body begins to burn calories, leading to weight loss. Losing weight is the first step toward getting in better shape.
After losing weight, the repetitive performance of BJJ strengthening exercises tends to facilitate the thickening of muscle fibers, leading to muscle mass-building. When students are ripped, their body structure changes and visible muscle definition occurs.
BJJ is a full-body workout that works on all muscle groups, thus proving to be effective cardio. Cardio exercises improve cardiovascular health by making the heart pump faster. It increases one’s fitness and stamina.
A BJJ diet includes healthy foods that will help improve your overall health and ability to fight off illness. Proper nutrition reduces the chances of high blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the body. BJJ practitioners are at a lower risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease due to proper diet.
How Many Calories Does An Hour Of BJJ Burn?
Calories are responsible for numerous things in the human body, such as losing or gaining weight, building muscle and staying in shape. So how many calories does an hour of BJJ burn?
BJJ training burns 700-1000, calories in an hourly session, depending on the intensity and frequency of the training. It incorporates grappling, rolling, drilling and stretching exercises. However, it is subject to variables such as physical size: age, sex, height, and weight.
BJJ training involves warm-ups that consist of intensive calisthenic exercises such as ab workouts, jumping jacks, lunges and push-ups. A student can burn less than 630 calories per hour during these warm-ups.
Stretching is the next exercise in BJJ training that burns a few calories. Stretching burns less than 200 calories per hour on average.
Drilling focuses more on educating the student than exercising and burns up to 250 calories per hour. Rolling can burn up to 500-800 calories per hour, depending on the number of rounds.
BJJ practitioners who weigh more are more likely to burn more calories than those who weigh less during grappling because, according to the laws of physics, you require more energy to lift a heavier object.
Final Words
Generally, martial arts are an excellent way to improve physical fitness, but BJJ stands undefeated due to its grappling techniques, making it a more effective workout.
BJJ is an efficient total body workout that burns calories fast, depending on the training intensity. It is instrumental in losing weight, building muscle mass, improving overall health and building an anaerobic physique.
BJJ is the solution for people who are struggling to find a good workout regime to adopt. Sign up for a BJJ class near you and see the numerous benefits of this martial art.
If you enjoyed reading this article, I highly recommend following the link to read about whether BJJ is effective for self-defense.