My friend, another black belt, once said to me-

“Jiu Jitsu is no good for weight loss. If you’re fat, and you want to lose weight, walk a lot and go on a diet.”

I almost agreed with him.

On the surface of it, Jiu Jitsu is not a good weight loss product. Yes, the training itself can burn body fat, but the nature of the training means that your heart rate follows a sort of peak and trough patter. Periods of intense effort, followed by rest. This puts it behind other fat loss protocols that prioritise mid-range heart rate training to more efficiently burn fat.

Those would be walking, jogging, cycling at a moderate pace around the 120bpm mark for extended periods. But in my opinion, those are methods of getting one place to another and not very stimulating as a way of enjoying yourself. Other people seem to get pleasure out of them, but I just call them “commuting”.

And the same mate always says to his students “If you want to look good in the mirror go bodybuilding.”

And again, I sort of agree.

If you want that, you should go to a personal training gym. Tristan, the 23 year old with 50k followers and a sunbed tan will tell you how to get shredded in 6 weeks. You might even get tagged on his Instagram. He may even tell you where he gets his hair cut that way. I may be doing these people a disservice, they might be great people, but I will never spend long enough in any of their company to find out, so I can just assume they are as boring as they look. I know their training is dull as dishwater. 12 reps of this, followed by 30 seconds of me shouting slogans at you. In my personal hell, I have to spend eternity in one of those places, doing their workouts, and listening to their music, trying to avoid getting tagged on their Instagram story saying how “Barry absolutely smashed it today. Great work Bro!”.

But look at me, all negative on this Monday morning. The sun has just shown itself through my kitchen window, so let’s chat about what Jiu Jitsu WILL do for your physique.

Jiu Jitsu WILL burn fat, WILL build muscle, and you will get incredibly fit by training Jiu Jitsu. Here’s how-

As I mentioned previously, Jiu Jitsu training follows a sort of peak and trough pattern. You have periods of intense effort that might last about 30 seconds, let’s say an escape attempt, during which you might get to around your max heart rate of about 180bpm (age dependent). You’ll then either rest or have a lower effort period (when the escape is complete or not), followed by another effort. You’ll get a heart rate pattern that will look like a series of waves.

Now while you’re doing this, you’re also working against resistance. You’ve got a partner who you’re trying to move around, throw, sweep, push and pull. This partner is moving constantly, changing direction, shifting weight, and providing you with the single best piece of training equipment I have ever encountered- another human body. To train, you must move, push, pull, switch your hip position, engage your core, use your whole body.

Equipment companies would love to invent a machine as perfect as this to get fitter and stronger, but they can’t. We are it.

While this is happening, you are totally focused. You can’t not be! You’re figuring out a physical puzzle. You and your opponent start to set traps for each other. You must make your opponent lose their balance, make them overcommit to something so you can sweep them and get on top, use some pressure to make them defend incorrectly so you can get a submission, avoid losing your own balance as you do so. It’s constant. The moment you stop to think “Did I schedule that meeting with John from accounting for tomo….!” That’s it! You’re done.

So not only are you getting this incredible workout, you’re also totally in the zone. And not because Tristan is shouting “20 seconds to go!” at you while you do burpee jumps. In fact, Tristan isn’t there at all, thank God.

And then comes the real benefit.

When you go home, you are tired, but relaxed. Less stressed, more at ease, This is science fact, not something I’ve noticed or I’m selling you. Jiu Jitsu promotes the release of chemicals like Dopamine and Seratonin, so you go home and sleep better.

And then there’s the other REALLY big change, but this one, you have to make happen yourself. Jiu Jitsu just provides the spark. You start to want to get better, so you start to think how you can eat better, recover better, perform better. You might find yourself thinking “I have training tonight, so I’d better make sure I get enough water in beforehand”, or “Training was great this morning, I’ll make sure I have a high protein breakfast to recover”. And for a lot of people it can be, “I’ll just have one glass of wine with dinner, I’ve training tomorrow.”

Jiu Jitsu changes your life. I mean, maybe Tristan can too. I don’t want to give those guys too hard a time, but for me, all that stuff is superficial and temporary. No one wants to master the burpee jump, but so many people want to master Jiu Jitsu.

Okay, I’ve complained about personal trainers enough for one day. I’ve got training to do!

See you on the mat,

Barry