Benefits of Brazilian jiu-jitsu positively impact everyday life for a wide range of demographics – but female practitioners in particular have sung the praises of the gentle art. There are the obvious protective factors of a pressure-tested martial art like Brazilian jiu-jitsu: improved personal safety in dangerous situations, for example, which tends to interest to women, people with smaller builds, and disabled people. These demographics often thrive in a good Brazilian jiu-jitsu school, where the power of technique and leverage enables them to overcome brute strength.
Improved Physical Strength and Fitness
Many women, however, also cite the benefits of Brazilian jiu-jitsu for their overall physical health. Sparring provides an excellent cardiovascular workout, resulting in greater heart health. In addition to cardiovascular health benefits like a lower resting heart rate and lower chances of heart disease, the sport also promotes greater overall body awareness. Indeed, the entire body benefits from a regular exercise routine, and thanks to the emphasis on constant movement, Brazilian jiu-jitsu rolling provides a great outlet for exactly that.
Interestingly, while Brazilian jiu-jitsu may be best known as a self-defense system, its greatest benefits to personal safety may in fact lie in its positive effects on overall physical health. While biological factors such as a family history or genetic predisposition to certain ailments cannot be fully curtailed by jiu-jitsu alone, it’s hard to argue against the overall greater quality of life the sport enables.
Mental Health Benefits
Alongside the many physical health benefits of Brazilian jiu-jitsu come a lesser known boon: its mental health benefits. While jiu-jitsu is absolutely no substitute for professional mental health treatment for serious psychiatric illness, the sport can still serve as an excellent supplement to overall mental health. In fact, mental health professionals including licensed members of the American Psychiatric Association, as well as primary care providers, family doctors, and social workers, often recommend hobbies like jiu-jitsu alongside therapy and medication to improve overall psychological functioning.
The reasons for this are myriad, but at least in the United States, they’re often focused on the mental hygiene movement, or the adoption of lifestyle choices and activities that reduce the ill effects of psychiatric illness and other emotional disorders and mental health disorders, including but not limited to: generalized anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorders, anorexia nervosa, panic disorders, antisocial personality disorder, clinical depression and related depressive disorders, dissociative disorders, and even alcohol use disorders or substance use disorders triggered by addiction issues.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu provides an antidote to adverse effects – like fear, isolation, and major depression or depressive episodes – stemming from these mental health challenges through not only physical stimulation, but positive social interactions with a supportive community. This, in combination with appropriate medication and therapy provided as needed by a licensed professional, often proves a highly effective treatment for a wide range of mental health disorders.
Regarding the modern landscape of mental health, America and other western countries increasingly promote the notion of mental health care as a holistic effort, involving not only traditional mental health treatment such as prescription medication or family therapy, but the support of a healthy community. Mental health has never existed in a vacuum – with comorbidity between disorders being particular common – and the benefits of personal growth and mental toughness stimulated by an encouraging support network cannot be overstated.
A Better Daily Life
Jiu-jitsu encourages its practitioners to get comfortable with surviving – and even triumphing over – difficult situations. After all, a growth mindset is key to success in the sport. As a result, practitioners see not only growing self-defense skills, but improved physical and mental health, and in many cases, thriving social benefits.
Among women in particular, these improvements to daily life are invaluable. Discrimination against people from minority communities – including women and girls, disabled people, individuals suffering from poor mental health care, and ethnic minorities like members of Black, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian communities – remains commonplace even in the modern United States.
This results in overall poorer outcomes for physical, mental, and social wellbeing for these marginalized populations. The physical and mental health benefits – as well as the opportunities to grow and connect socially – through outlets like Brazilian jiu-jitsu are particularly valuable in these instances.
