Swimming is a great form of exercise for Brazilian jiu-jitsu (or BJJ) fighters as it helps develop both strength and stamina. What’s more, there are other BJJ benefits to swimming that are often overlooked.

So, in this article, we’ll be uncovering these benefits, and why you should be adding in swimming to your training schedule.

Top 6 Benefits of Swimming for Every BJJ Fighter

Do you like competing as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter but hate running on the treadmill to prepare? Then, there is an alternative that you should consider. Swimming for BJJ fighters is a great way to improve your cross-training and prevent injuries.

But not only that — from training to supplementing your grappling sessions, swimming has several benefits that ought to be highlighted. Here are some of them:

1. Help You Work On Your Grip

When you are on the mat, your grip should be top-notch. However, this happens only when your upper body muscle is training enough to support the grip and equally facilitate the weight lifting. With the help of swimming, your grip will improve, and you will notice improvement on the mat as well.

2. An Great Way to Work on Upper-Body Strength

Upper body strength means you will be able to grapple easily. As you have to swiftly change posture and acquire submission using technical pressure, your shoulders, back, and upper body muscles will all be at work. With swimming, you will have much more strength when you train your upper body, giving you better BJJ performance in the long run.

3. Excellent Cardio for Strength Training

Swimming is excellent cardio because it will help you engage your whole body. As you start to work out, you will see that your body can work for longer hours without getting tired. So, even when you are on the mat, you will not give up easily.

4. Trigger Easy Recovery

Your recovery period starts when you work hard and then take a rest. When you are on the mat taking the beat, you need a simple way to reduce the pressure on your muscle to ease pain and see improvement in your recovery, and this usually happens when you spend time swimming.

5. Help You Burn Fat Faster

Swimming helps you engage your whole body because it is an excellent full-body workout. With every muscle fiber at work, you will be burning calories from every muscle, so you will be able to burn more calories and shed a lot of fat.

6. Improve Lung Capacity

When you get into swimming, your breathing patterns change because you need to hold your breath underwater. This is especially very important in the case of BJJ, where you will have to know where and when to use your breathing technique for your benefit.

When you don’t learn to use the capacity of your lungs properly, you will never be able to fuel your energy formation process with proper oxygen supply, and you will also get tired quickly.

Bottom Line

From the outset, we need to emphasize the fact that any form of exercise is still beneficial for you, including swimming.

The goal of this article isn’t to convince you that you need to change your routine — it’s to show you how swimming can also benefit (and help prevent injury in) Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But alongside its health benefits, it will also improve your BJJ technique and your ability to escape the opponent’s grips and holds.