Guest post by Evolve MMA, Asia’s premier championship brand for martial arts. It has the most number of World Champions on the planet. Named as the #1 ranked martial arts organization in Asia by CNN, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports, Evolve MMA is the best Singapore BJJ gym.
If you’re reading this and you don’t train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, take notice.
Training BJJ can be an overwhelmingly positive experience both physically and mentally. Once people begin training, they understand the substantial benefits attached to BJJ. Unfortunately, however, the people out there who have never tried BJJ are not sure what they are missing out on.
It’s time to change that.
Today, Evolve Daily shares the four benefits you are missing out on if you don’t train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
1) The community and meeting new people
More than most regular sports, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brings together many positive and like-minded people inside the one room or gym. Everyone is there for the same reason; they are looking to improve themselves, both physically and mentally.
By not training BJJ, people are missing out on the ability to create amazing new friendships and the incredible experience of positivity within the community.
In our modern lives, it can be challenging to find that sense of community. In fact, it is now common for people to focus on their career and study during daylight hours and then return home by themselves or their family at night. This might be the average life, but something is missing.
The community aspect that comes with training BJJ adds a whole new layer of positivity to your lifestyle that extends well beyond your time in the gym. You will immediately create a new network of friends and ‘family’ that respect and care for you and your self-improvement.
BJJ enables you to quickly make friends no matter where you are in the world. You could travel to a new country next week and immediately join the local BJJ community after attending a new gym and introducing yourself to the fellow students and instructors.
Of course, there are many ways to make new friendships and join a local community, but none are smoother than the path that BJJ offers.
When was the last time you met someone in a bar and formed a powerful and confident friendship? Has this ever happened inside a fitness gym? It is rare. People attend fitness gyms to train by themselves and remain isolated.
At a BJJ gym, there are no strangers. Everyone is there for a defined purpose, and ice has been broken long before you walk in that door to the dojo.
2) Learning something new
BJJ is more than just physical exercise. It is an applicable skill that is fascinating to learn.
Have you ever heard the saying: the more you know, the more you do not know?
It works like this. BJJ might look simple, strange, or completely useless as a self-defense mechanism to somebody who has never trained before. However, once you partner up with somebody who has experience with this captivating martial art, you will quickly find that there are many layers to this sport. Apart from the techniques, BJJ adds a whole new sense of meaning to your physical and mental wellbeing.
Most of all, however, is you are essentially combining your physical workout time with education. Attending a fitness gym to lift weights and run on a treadmill can indeed be beneficial. However, it pales in comparison to the opportunity of learning a martial art at the same time as exercising.
For what can often be the same price as a membership with your local fitness gym, you will have access to both education and fitness simultaneously when you train BJJ.
Running on a treadmill or doing bicep curls will seem incredibly dull once you combine your physical exercise with education at a BJJ class.
3) An overall sense of improvement
Most people who train BJJ will tell you it’s their favorite part of their day.
People who do not train BJJ are missing out on the perfect opportunity to improve themselves physically and mentally.
BJJ has a desirable effect on your body. The techniques, movements, and exercises are ones that you will have never experienced before, so your body will be forced to adapt to new situations and positions. This means that your flexibility will naturally improve and so will your strength. You may not look as bulky as the fitness gym can make you appear, but you will be much stronger than your appearance suggests after training BJJ.
Probably more significant than the effect that BJJ has while you are in the gym, is the lasting changes that it can make to your lifestyle away from the gym as well. Your time in the gym will make you healthier, of course. However, you will start to notice yourself making positive lifestyle changes so that you are healthier every time you step into the gym to get more out of your training sessions.
This means that you might stop undertaking in unhealthy habits such as smoking or excessive consumption of alcohol. Most importantly, you will become increasingly aware of bad foods and the negative impact that they can have on your energy levels throughout the day. You will start to respect your sleeping pattern more and potentially do extra exercise away from the gym, as well.
The positive mindset spreads far beyond your wildest imaginations and those who are not training BJJ are missing out on a completely life-changing experience.
4) Self-defense
This point ties in exceptionally well with the concept of learning something new.
While training yourself and engaging in a beneficial activity, you are also learning an instrumental self-defense technique which can help to protect you, your family, or friends if the situation ever arises.
BJJ was always designed and instructed with the basic concept of being able to overcome and defeat a larger and stronger opponent. It has never been instructed with the purpose of going out to the streets and testing your skills against a random person or using aggression. Instead, it is the idea of using non-impactful and non-lethal techniques to defend yourself.
Of course, if you do find yourself in trouble and needing to rely on a more impactful method of self-defense, BJJ teaches you ways to neutralize an attacker. Your actions will obviously depend on the severity of the situation, but there is potential to defend yourself against any and all opponents no matter the size.
Those who are not training BJJ are missing out on the opportunity to develop an advantage in the situation that self-defense may one day be required.
