Search for the benefits of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and you find long lists: stronger, leaner, more flexible, calmer, more confident. They almost never say where the claim comes from, how well it is supported, or whether the study looked at BJJ at all.
So we worked through the research ourselves. This page sums up what we found. For every claim it says how well supported it is, which sport was studied and where the source is, including where the result does not favour BJJ.
First, a disclosure: we run a BJJ academy, and we believe in this sport. So we have an interest in BJJ looking good. That is exactly why we also show what is not supported.
How we went about it
For this page we reviewed 159 papers on BJJ and related combat sports:
- individual studies;
- reviews and meta-analyses;
- case reports;
- a few sources that are not peer-reviewed research, such as theses or statements from public authorities. We marked these as such and did not use them as evidence here.
For each paper we recorded its design, how many people took part, which sport was actually studied and how robust the result is. Where possible, we checked the figures on this page against the original paper. A large part of the research is not about BJJ but about judo, wrestling, taekwondo or other martial arts. We say so in every row. The papers this page relies on are listed below with links.
In brief: which study counts for how much?
Not every study carries the same weight. Roughly, from strong to weak:
- Reviews and meta-analyses combine many studies. They are only as good as the studies inside them.
- Randomised controlled trials assign people to groups by chance, for example training and no training. Only they can show that something is the cause.
- Studies without a comparison group measure before and after. Whether the change came from the training or would have happened anyway stays open.
- Cross-sectional studies are snapshots. They show that BJJ athletes differ, but not why. Perhaps certain people simply stick with BJJ.
- Interview studies describe experiences. They explain what people go through, but they do not measure an effect.
- Case reports describe individuals. They show that something can happen, not how often.
In the tables below we use five ratings:
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| Well supported | Several studies, or one large, well-run study, show the same thing. |
| Early hints | Small, short or uncontrolled studies point in one direction. |
| Conflicting | Serious studies reach different results. |
| Not supported | Studies exist, but they do not support the claim or point against it. |
| Not studied | We found no robust study on it. |
Fitness and body
| Claim | Rating | What the research shows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| BJJ is intense training | Well supported | A systematic review of BJJ matches: effort phases of about one and a half to almost five minutes, pauses of 5 to 44 seconds, high lactate after the match. In ordinary training too, beginners worked at about 70 to 77% of their heart-rate reserve. | Andreato et al., 2016; Lorenço-Lima et al., 2020 |
| BJJ improves endurance | Early hints | 16 beginners, women and men, raised their maximal oxygen uptake in six weeks, without a comparison group. In 18 experienced men it also rose over ten weeks with ordinary BJJ training; there it was estimated from a running test. | Lorenço-Lima et al., 2020; Ribeiro et al., 2015 |
| BJJ reduces body fat | Not supported for ordinary training | No measurable change in beginners after six weeks. In 90 male competitors, body fat was linked to competitive level, not to years of training. A pilot study of 13 men found less body fat at higher belts. Only programmes with targeted interval or circuit training changed body fat. | Lorenço-Lima et al., 2020; Cerqueira et al., 2022; Almeda et al., 2023; Ribeiro et al., 2015; Wąsacz et al., 2025 |
| BJJ makes you flexible | Not supported | In a snapshot of 43 recreational practitioners, men and women, most had poor flexibility. We found no training study showing more flexibility compared with a control group. | Detanico et al., 2021 |
| BJJ improves balance | Not supported | 15 BJJ athletes and 16 untrained people swayed equally while standing, on the standard measure. The BJJ athletes reacted faster. A small snapshot. | Kędziorek et al., 2025 |
| BJJ makes you strong | Early hints for leg strength, not supported for strength overall | After six weeks, beginners squatted 19 to 29% more, without a comparison group, and in untrained people that is partly a learning effect. The bench press did not change. In 13 recreational athletes, strength was linked to weight-training experience; the study reports no link with BJJ experience. | Lorenço-Lima et al., 2020; Almeda et al., 2023 |
| BJJ improves blood pressure, blood sugar or cholesterol | Not studied | Only what happens around a single training session has been measured, in 7 and in 18 athletes. Nobody has studied long-term values with BJJ training. | Belo et al., 2021; de Oliveira Chaves et al., 2024 |
More on this: Losing weight with BJJ? · Pillar 4 · Movement
Getting older
| Claim | Rating | What the research shows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| BJJ makes older adults fitter for everyday life | Early hints | 62 men aged 60 to 80, twelve weeks: in the BJJ group all six scores of a fitness test for older adults improved, while the comparison group barely changed. But the direct comparison between the groups was not significant, and the BJJ group started slightly weaker in all six tests. An encouraging hint, not proof. | de Queiroz et al., 2016 |
| Judo strengthens concentration and balance in older age | Early hints (judo) | A controlled judo study with 40 previously inactive older adults, most of them women: after twelve weeks they did better than the group without training on concentration, standing balance and muscle power. | Kujach et al., 2022 |
| Grappling is safe in older age | Early hints (judo) | 23 judo studies with 1,392 middle-aged and older people: where incidents were recorded there were none or under 1%, and nobody needed hospital treatment. Many of the studies carry a high risk of bias. | Palumbo et al., 2023 |
| Martial arts are better for older adults than other training | Not supported | 10 randomised trials of taekwondo, Muay Thai, judo and Ving Tsun, none of BJJ: an advantage only on one test of standing up and walking, none on balance, and on grip strength the comparison groups did better. The certainty is low. | de Mendonça et al., 2025 |
| Martial arts prevent falls | Not studied | In a randomised trial, a judo-inspired programme improved falling technique. Fear of falling dropped only within the training group, not compared with the control group. Whether there were fewer falls was not measured. | Arkkukangas et al., 2024 |
| BJJ extends life | Not studied | BJJ training studies run for weeks to a few months. None follows people over years. |
More on this: BJJ after 40 · Why we see BJJ as training for getting older
Mental health
| Claim | Rating | What the research shows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martial arts raise wellbeing | Early hints | A meta-analysis of 14 studies on martial arts training: a small effect on wellbeing; the studies varied a great deal. | Moore et al., 2020 |
| Martial arts help with anxiety or depression | Conflicting for symptoms; for BJJ in diagnosed conditions not studied | The same meta-analysis found a medium effect on symptoms such as anxiety and low mood, with very wide uncertainty. A review of 72 studies on combat sports in adults found conflicting or no associations. We found no BJJ study of people diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or depression. | Moore et al., 2020; Ciaccioni et al., 2024 |
| Martial arts build self-esteem and self-efficacy in adults | Not supported | The same review of 72 studies, 70 of them snapshots: according to the authors, the links with self-esteem and related traits were inconclusive. | Ciaccioni et al., 2024 |
| BJJ helps mental health more than other training | Not supported | The only direct comparison we know of, with 60 veterans and emergency workers who chose their own training: anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms, sleep and wellbeing improved similarly with BJJ and with CrossFit, with no significant difference between the groups. There was no group without training. | Channon et al., 2025 |
| BJJ eases trauma symptoms (studied in veterans and emergency workers) | Early hints | A small study of US veterans without a comparison group reports fewer symptoms, but only 9 of 23 participants finished the programme. In the comparison study above, BJJ did no better than CrossFit. There is no study with random allocation or with a group that did not train. | Willing et al., 2019; Channon et al., 2025 |
| Practitioners experience BJJ as strengthening | Early hints | Interviews with eight white belts: mental toughness, including learning to sit with discomfort, visible progress toward their own goals, and good relationships with others. | Morris & Bone, 2024 |
BJJ is not therapy. If you are struggling mentally, a doctor or a psychotherapist is the right place to turn.
More on this: BJJ or CrossFit? · Uncomfortable is good · Wellbeing through community
Safety
| Claim | Rating | What the research shows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injuries are common in BJJ | Well supported | 5.5 injuries per 1,000 training hours. 81% of 881 respondents had been injured at least once in the previous year. | Stegerhoek et al., 2025 |
| Most injuries happen in free sparring | Well supported | 89% of injuries happened in training, 79% of those during sparring. In a second large survey, 78% of all injuries happened during sparring. | Stegerhoek et al., 2025; Hinz et al., 2021 |
| The knee and shoulder are hurt most often | Well supported | Knee 25 to 27%, shoulder 13 to 15% of all injuries. | Stegerhoek et al., 2025; Hinz et al., 2021 |
| Grappling loads the head less than striking sports | Well supported for wrestling and judo | Head accelerations in wrestling, and mostly in judo, stay below the threshold for a concussion; in boxing and taekwondo some are far above it. There are no sensor measurements for BJJ. | Lota et al., 2022 |
| Concussions still happen | Well supported | About a quarter of 778 respondents reported at least one over their time training, by their own account. | Spano et al., 2019 |
| Heel hooks raise the risk of knee injury | Early hints | One study of brown and black belts in competition: 26.5 knee injuries per 1,000 matches with heel hooks, 2.2 without. A relative risk of 12, but with a range of 1.5 to 96, because there were few cases. The direction is clear; the size is not. | Piekarski et al., 2026 |
| Chokes rarely have serious consequences | Early hints | 2 of 4,307 respondents reported ongoing symptoms, a lower bound. Rare serious cases have been described; there is no rate. | Stellpflug et al., 2020; Stellpflug et al., 2022 |
| Warm-up programmes prevent injuries | Not supported | The only randomised prevention trial in grappling, in judo with 269 recreational athletes, found no significant effect. | von Gerhardt et al., 2023 |
| Experience protects you from injury | Conflicting | In a survey of 1,140 practitioners, older age, a higher belt and regular competing went with more injuries. In a survey of 1,287 adults, more experienced practitioners were less likely to report an injury in the previous six months. | Hinz et al., 2021; Moriarty et al., 2019 |
More on this: Is BJJ dangerous? · Chokes in BJJ
Children and teenagers
| Claim | Rating | What the research shows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martial arts improve fitness | Well supported for karate, judo, aikido and taekwondo | A review of 16 studies with 1,615 preschool and school-age children: better physical fitness, including endurance, speed, strength, flexibility, coordination and balance. None of the studies was on BJJ. | Stamenković et al., 2022 |
| Martial arts build resilience and self-efficacy | Well supported in one large study (not BJJ) | A randomised trial with 283 secondary school students and a martial-arts programme: every self-rated measure of resilience and self-efficacy rose in the training group and fell in the control group. | Moore et al., 2019 |
| Martial arts reduce aggression | Conflicting | Studied mainly in taekwondo, karate, judo and other martial arts, hardly in BJJ. A meta-analysis of 16 randomised trials found less aggression. A later review by the same research group, of 11 intervention studies, found no consistent direction. | Luo et al., 2025; Deng et al., 2026 |
| Martial arts protect against bullying | Not studied | No controlled study of whether children are bullied less. | |
| Children get injured less often than older athletes in BJJ competition | Early hints | At tournaments in Hawaii, 4.1 injuries per 1,000 match exposures for participants aged 15 and under, 10.8 for older ones. A single study. | Scoggin et al., 2014 |
Women in BJJ
| Claim | Rating | What the research shows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women face particular barriers in BJJ | Early hints | Interviews with 23 women in BJJ in the US, and a review of 53 studies on women in martial arts: male-dominated spaces, gender norms, unease with close body contact, but also community and empowerment. | Silverman et al., 2024; Lindsay et al., 2023 |
| Fitness results apply to women in the same way | Early hints, barely studied | A review of 58 fitness studies in BJJ found only 2 that included women, both on body fat only. In the beginner study with eight women and eight men, endurance and leg strength rose in the women as in the men, without a comparison group. | Andreato et al., 2017; Lorenço-Lima et al., 2020 |
With us, women train on Thursdays from 18:00 to 19:00 in their own women's class with Coach Anke.
More on this: BJJ for women
What nobody has studied yet
Some gaps are so large that you should know about them before you believe any promise. In our review there is:
- no randomised trial of BJJ and mental health in adults, and none comparing BJJ with a group that does not train;
- no study that follows people training over years: the training studies run for weeks to a few months;
- no study of blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar or inflammation markers as long-term values with BJJ training;
- hardly any data on women in the research on fitness and body;
- no sensor measurement of head load in BJJ, only in wrestling and judo;
- no prevention study in BJJ, and only one in judo, with no significant effect;
- no study that measured falls in older age, not even in judo;
- no controlled study of whether martial arts protect against bullying;
- hardly any studies on skin infections in BJJ; the figures come from wrestling and judo.
Figures that don't hold up
Some claims get passed around in BJJ circles, in gym advertising and sometimes even in professional articles. When we checked them, they did not hold:
- "A randomised trial showed that twelve weeks of BJJ improves fitness in older men." The study does not call itself randomised and describes no method for assigning the groups. Above all, it found no significant difference between the BJJ group and the comparison group (de Queiroz et al., 2016).
- "No choke has ever caused an injury in competition." In the study usually cited, it was one in 46 (Scoggin et al., 2014).
- "55.7% of BJJ athletes show signs of an artery injury." People were asked about symptoms such as dizziness, headache or neck pain after training. That is not an injury rate (Harrington et al., 2024).
- "Heel hooks raise knee risk twelvefold." The direction is right, but the range runs from 1.5 to 96 (Piekarski et al., 2026).
- "BJJ makes you flexible" and "BJJ makes you lean over time". Neither is supported by the studies that exist.
- "A good warm-up prevents injuries." Not supported in grappling (von Gerhardt et al., 2023).
- "Studies show that BJJ helps mental health." A review of 72 studies on combat sports in adults found conflicting or no associations for anxiety, depression and self-esteem (Ciaccioni et al., 2024). In our review there is no randomised trial of BJJ and mental health.
- "Martial arts are proven to reduce aggression." One meta-analysis found less aggression; a later review by the same research group found no consistent direction (Luo et al., 2025; Deng et al., 2026).
What this means for you
Put it all together and an honest picture remains:
- BJJ is demanding training. That is well supported.
- It carries a real risk of injury, mostly in free sparring and at the knee and shoulder. That is well supported too. Whether the way people train can lower that risk has not yet been tested in a BJJ study.
- Many people find BJJ enriching: for the challenge, the progress and the community. Practitioners describe this in interviews; it has hardly been measured.
- For most health promises, longer studies of BJJ itself are missing.
So don't try BJJ because of a miracle promise. Try it because it appeals to you, and see whether you stick with it.
What we believe, and how we train
We believe Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can improve people's lives: physically, emotionally and socially. Our mission is exactly that: the continuous improvement of people's lives through the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. But this page also shows that this is a conviction, not a study result. That is why we don't promise you weight loss, better mental health or a longer life. What we offer is training built around what the data shows.
- Safety first. The risk sits mainly in free sparring. In our Foundation classes you roll under a coach's eye, and control comes before intensity. Whoever taps is released immediately, without exception. We look out for each other.
- Fixed rules where the data shows a risk. We train heel hooks only from brown belt. Anyone with symptoms after a knock to the head stops for the day and gets checked by a doctor; you come back to the mat only once the symptoms are gone and a doctor has cleared you. And anyone who gets choked unconscious in training stops for the day.
- A place where everyone feels safe and welcome. And a place where you are respected, on the mat and off it. That is what our written code of conduct and our published infraction system are for.
- Professional infrastructure and a structured curriculum. Visible progress is one of the things practitioners describe in interviews. With us, after every class you know what you learned and why. How progress and belts fit together is covered in How long to blue belt?
To be honest: the limits of this overview
- This is not a formal systematic review, but a careful review by a BJJ academy. We may have missed studies.
- We have an interest in BJJ. That is why we give the source for every claim, so you can check it yourself.
- For some papers we could not get the full text. Figures we could not check, we left out.
- Research moves on. When new studies appear, we update this page and the date at the top.
Frequently asked questions
Is BJJ good for you?
BJJ is demanding training. But for health benefits specific to BJJ there are only small, short studies, and there is a real risk of injury on top, mostly in free sparring. We believe in BJJ, but we don't promise you a health effect.
Which benefits of BJJ are scientifically supported?
What is well supported is mainly that BJJ is very demanding training. For better endurance and more leg strength in beginners there are early hints from small studies. For flexibility, weight loss or mental health, robust BJJ studies are missing.
Are there any studies on BJJ at all?
Yes, but most are small, short or snapshots. The training studies mostly run for only weeks to a few months, and among the 159 papers we reviewed we found no randomised trial of BJJ and mental health in adults.
Is BJJ more dangerous than other sports?
That is hard to compare cleanly, because studies count injuries differently. On head load, wrestling and judo measure far lower than boxing and taekwondo; there are no such measurements for BJJ itself yet. Injuries to the knee and shoulder do happen regularly in BJJ.
Does BJJ help mental health?
Many people experience it that way, and small studies point in that direction. It is not proven: in the only comparison study we know of, participants improved similarly with BJJ and with CrossFit, and there is no randomised trial. BJJ is not therapy.
Why would a BJJ academy publish what isn't supported?
Because you deserve honest answers before you choose a sport. We believe in BJJ, but a conviction is not a study result, and we keep the two apart.
Sources
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About the author. João Macedo is a 1st-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, has been on the mats for more than 14 years, and is co-founder and head coach of Imperial Ground Martial Arts in Düsseldorf-Derendorf.
Read on: Is BJJ dangerous? · Why we see BJJ as training for getting older · Wellbeing through community · Starting BJJ in Düsseldorf