Jiu-Jitsu and the Science of Happiness: 3 Ways the Gentle Art Contributes to Subjective Well-Being

I know this is probably a strange way to lead off on an academic-adjacent blog post, but have you been to an airport bathroom lately? If so, you may or may not have noticed that many of them have a touch screen when you exit the bathroom with “emoji’s” on it: you’re asked to rate your bathroom experience, by pressing one of the five smiley/frowny faces. Presumably, the airport staff analyze the data collected, and attempt to improve your bathroom experiences in the future.

Now, imagine that you had this same touchscreen by the door to your gym, and you were asked to select the smiley/frowny face as it applied to how you felt prior to training, and then again after you finish training. I think that most of us, without even thinking too hard about it, would assume that after a few months of data collection, ourselves and our training partners would overwhelmingly feel happier than when we came in.

While this is just a theory, and as far as I’m aware, nobody’s tested it, there are tons of studies out there to support the argument that on average, people feel better when they train Jiu-Jitsu, both in the short, and the long term.

I’m a HUGE fan of scientific research on subjective well-being (aka happiness) and continue to try and integrate the practical application of these scientific findings into my lifestyle in an attempt to live a happier and more fulfilled life. For me, jiu-jitsu isn’t just a hobby or a vocation, it is that as well, but a practice that I engage in regularly as just another tool to improve both my levels of subjective well-being as well as those of others. In fact, the act of giving, in and of itself, contributes to stronger feelings of subjective well-being!

Here is a very, very short list of some science-backed ways in which the practice of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can contribute very meaningfully to feeling happier and more fulfilled in our daily lives:

1. Skin-to-skin contact: There’s a growing body of peer-reviewed research supporting the idea that skin-to-skin contact (SSC) enhances subjective well-being, largely through mechanisms like oxytocin release, stress reduction, and improved social bonding¹. While most SSC research focuses on parent-infant bonding, the physiological mechanisms—like oxytocin release and vagal tone modulation—are relevant to adult interactions too. In BJJ, the close-contact grappling and rhythmic pressure exchanges may activate similar pathways, contributing to the “post-roll bliss”, presumably trumping the horrible, deep depression we all feel when we get tapped by that giant white belt over and over again (haha).

In Western culture in particular, we tend to avoid physical contact with others: we make an effort not to brush by people in the store or on public transportation. We don’t physically interact very much with plutonic friends, for example, while in many other cultures, kissing, hugging or even holding hands can be common. Other than the occasional handshake at a business meeting, or a hug from a friend, we rarely experience physical contact with other people outside of intimate situations. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is part of our culture. Therefore, unless we have a romantic partner or something, many of us are lacking in the benefits of close physical contact with others, and jiu-jitsu definitely can help out with that.

2. “Flow”: The concept of “flow,” coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is deeply tied to subjective well-being². “Flow” is kind of a difficult feeling to describe, but it’s basically when you are able to lock yourself in the zone, so to speak, and you’re able to execute otherwise repetitive tasks with pleasure and fulfillment. Just to keep this article short, let’s just say that you’d know it when you felt it. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is practically engineered for flow: it demands full immersion, balances challenge with skill, and offers immediate feedback through physical interaction. That’s why many practitioners describe rolling as meditative or euphoric, and it’s no wonder that BJJ can enhance our experience of subjective well-being.

3. Engaging in Activities with Others: While we’ve known for some time that engaging in activities with others can contribute to elevated feelings of well-being, there were some questions as to whether it mattered WHAT kind of activities might affect subjective well-being. Thanks to their brand spanking new study, Folk and Dunn (2025) have found that it doesn’t really seem to matter exactly what you do with other people; doing things with others makes us happier³. Finally, I can make a science-backed argument as to why I somehow enjoy that gi-burn-on-face experience so much: it’s because I’m experiencing it with other people! 

I’m naturally a fairly introverted person, so I know that I need to consciously make the decision to interact with other people in order to meet my emotional needs that I would otherwise probably neglect. Jiu-jitsu does this for me.

During the pandemic, many of us were practicing social distancing, at least to some degree. While this may have helped us to stay healthier, there is the obvious downside of not interacting with other people, which in many ways made us less happy. I won’t try to speculate as to whether or not it was “worth it”, or if I feel that it should have been done in a different way, as this is definitely a subject of discussion for another time. Regardless, hopefully it’s all in the past, and we can get back to improving our happiness by simulating murder on each other!

In Conclusion…

These are just three ways that we can say with a high degree of scientific certainty that practicing jiu-jitsu can improve our subjective well-being. While there are so many more ways, these are probably my top three. I could also write about how practicing BJJ can detract from subjective well-being, but from what I can tell, there are plenty more benefits than downsides.

References: 

¹Bigelow, A. E., & Power, M. (2020). Mother–infant skin-to-skin contact: Short‑ and long‑term effects for mothers and their children born full‑term. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1921. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01921

²Tse, D. C. K., Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2022). Flow experiences across adulthood: Preliminary findings on the continuity hypothesis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(6), 2517–2540. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00514-5

³Folk, D., & Dunn, E. (2025). Everything Is Better Together: Analyzing the Relationship Between Socializing and Happiness in the American Time Use Survey. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506251364333