Episode 35 | Ask the Expert | Guest: Clara Kervyn – Sports Physiotherapist and Pilates Instructor, Fight Zone London
Clara Kervyn is not a typical physiotherapist. She holds a master’s degree in physiotherapy, is a qualified Pilates instructor, is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has spent the past six years working in and around the martial arts community at Fight Zone London in East London. She treats the athletes. She trains alongside them. She teaches their Pilates classes. That proximity gives her a clinical perspective that is, by her own description, a little bit more than the baseline.
In this episode of the London Bridge Sports Medicine podcast, Lucie sits down with Clara to cover the injury landscape across combat sports, the training habits that increase risk, and the case for Pilates as a complement to martial arts training at every level.
What is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – and why does it matter for injury?
For listeners unfamiliar with the sport, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a ground-based grappling martial art. Bouts begin standing, with one competitor taking the other to the ground, and continue there. Victory is achieved either through points (awarded for dominant positions) or submission – a choke or joint lock that compels the opponent to tap out.
Understanding the sport illuminates the injury profile. The twisting, falling, and weight-bearing nature of ground grappling places specific loads on the shoulder, knee, fingers, and wrists. There is no striking – BJJ is a pure grappling sport – but the range and force of positions makes it physically demanding in ways that differ from striking arts like boxing or Muay Thai.
BJJ can also be practised in two forms: wearing a “gi” (a heavy cotton jacket and trousers, used for gripping) or “no-gi” (rash guard and shorts, with no fabric to grab). The gi version involves considerably more gripping, with consequences for the hands and fingers that Clara describes in some detail.
Common injuries by martial art
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
The most common presentation Clara sees in BJJ athletes is AC joint injury – damage to the acromioclavicular joint, the point at the front of the shoulder where the collarbone meets the shoulder blade. The mechanism is characteristic of BJJ: being swept or taken down and landing on the shoulder with the combined weight of both athletes.
AC joint injuries range from mild sprains requiring conservative management and physiotherapy to complete separations that may require surgical intervention. Clara sees the full spectrum. Management depends on the severity of the injury, but returning to training always requires rebuilding strength and movement in the shoulder in a way that accounts for the specific demands of grappling.
For gi practitioners, finger and hand injuries are an occupational reality. The constant gripping of the gi inflames the finger joints over time, and acute injuries – caught fingers, forced grips – are common. In recreational practitioners these tend to be mild; in competitors training multiple sessions per day, the cumulative load can be significant. Fractures, when they occur, are largely a matter of allowing the appropriate healing time before returning to training.
Knee injuries also feature regularly, driven by the pivoting, twisting, and ground-based weight-bearing positions inherent to the sport. Clara notes that restricted hip and ankle mobility is a contributing factor – when movement is limited at the hip or ankle, excess load transfers to the knee.
Muay Thai and boxing
AC joint injuries appear across striking arts too, via the same sweeping and falling mechanism that occurs in training. Knee presentations are also common – driven by the pivoting and twisting demands of Muay Thai in particular, and by the same hip and ankle mobility limitations that Clara identifies in BJJ athletes.
A more sport-specific presentation in striking arts is Achilles and calf injuries in performers and fighters who generate power through the calf and forefoot – rising on the toes to throw a kick with more force. Clara also describes a pattern she sees after periods of travel or reduced training: a fighter comes off a relatively quiet period and immediately performs at full intensity on stage or in sparring, having not prepared the tissues adequately for that demand. The result is the same calf strain or Achilles complaint that Genevieve Tawiah described in musical performers in a previous episode – the excitement of the moment overriding the caution of the preparation.
What makes fighters more susceptible to injury
Clara identifies two ends of the same spectrum as the highest-risk groups.
At the beginner end: new practitioners, excited and motivated, who jump to high frequency training before their bodies have adapted to the demands. Jiu Jitsu involves unfamiliar movement patterns – twisting, inverting, rolling – that the body has typically never encountered. Beginning six sessions a week in a sport that requires the body to be upside down and moving in novel ways is a reliable setup for injury. There is also a tendency in beginners to use strength and power to compensate for lack of technique, which creates stiffness and reduces the body’s ability to absorb load safely.
At the experienced end: higher belts and competitors who may be training three sessions per day. The cumulative load is enormous. Recovery becomes as important as the training itself – and when recovery is inadequate, the risk of overuse injury rises significantly.
Clara’s recommendation for both groups is the same starting point: learn the foundations of the sport properly before loading volume. Fight Zone London’s model of running dedicated introductory classes for each discipline is, she argues, genuinely protective. Technical proficiency reduces injury risk at every level of training.
The role of Pilates in combat sports
Clara’s enthusiasm for Pilates as a complement to martial arts training is grounded in her own experience. She came to Pilates as a CrossFit athlete who was strong but not mobile. She noticed, within weeks of adding a single weekly Pilates session, that her barbell lifts felt lighter – not because the weight had changed, but because she could access better positions, breathe more effectively, and feel what she was supposed to be feeling in the movements.
“The same barbell started feeling lighter with just doing Pilates once a week because I could go better into those back squat depths. I could go lower. I knew how to breathe better. And lifting weights started to feel easier without changing the weight.”
That personal experience informs how she uses Pilates with her athletes. The benefits she emphasises:
- Core strength from the inside out: Pilates develops deep stabilising muscles in a way that conventional strength training does not address. For grappling athletes in particular, who are constantly shifting and stabilising under load from an opponent, this kind of functional stability matters.
- Breathing: Pilates teaches deliberate breath control. In BJJ, being placed in a compromised or uncomfortable position and being able to breathe through it rather than tense up is a meaningful performance and safety advantage.
- End-range strength: Pilates strengthens muscles through their full range of movement, including end range. This is particularly relevant to combat sports, where athletes routinely find themselves in joint positions that require strength at extremes of range. It is the difference between a muscle that can stretch and a muscle that can stretch and hold.
- Proprioception and coordination: an improved awareness of where the body is in space – directly relevant to the spatial demands of ground-based grappling.
- Stamina: isometric holds and sustained contractions improve muscular endurance, which translates to improved performance in rounds.
- Low impact: Pilates can be performed before or after a training session without meaningfully adding to the training load. It does not require the recovery that a heavy strength session demands.
How much Pilates is enough?
Clara’s answer is straightforward: once a week is sufficient to gain meaningful benefit, and it is a realistic starting point for athletes with full training schedules. More is better if time allows, but the threshold for effect is low. Some of her male students at Fight Zone now attend three sessions a week – having initially arrived sceptically – and she describes visible improvements in their training and reductions in the pain that brought them to Pilates in the first place.
She is also clear about what Pilates is not: a replacement for sport-specific training. If you want to improve at Jiu Jitsu, the only way to do that is to train Jiu Jitsu. Pilates is the foundation and the maintenance, not the substitute.
Pilates in injury rehabilitation
The same properties that make Pilates useful for performance make it useful during rehabilitation. It is adaptable to injury – positions and loads can be modified to accommodate almost any limitation – and it can be used as a bridge between the acute phase of injury management and return to full training.
Clara describes the pattern she sees at Fight Zone: an athlete presents with an injury, they work through the acute phase clinically, and then transition to Pilates – sometimes in parallel with physiotherapy, sometimes as the next step – before graduating to strength classes and then back to full training. The communication between her, the strength coaches, and the athlete throughout that process is, she argues, what makes the outcome reliable.
Recovery, she emphasises, is rarely a two-week process. Athletes who expect a short programme, full compliance, and a guaranteed return to training without recurrence are often disappointed. Building longevity into the body – the kind that withstands years of hard training – requires consistency over time, not a single intervention.
The bottom line
Combat sports place real and specific demands on the body. The injuries that result are manageable with the right clinical support – but prevention is always the better story. Building mobility, end-range strength, breath control, and proprioception through consistent Pilates practice gives martial artists a foundation that reduces injury risk, supports performance, and extends the longevity of their training lives.
For athletes who have dismissed Pilates as something that is not for them – Clara’s students at Fight Zone, many of whom arrive with that assumption, are the best argument against it.
Clara Kervyn is a sports physiotherapist and Pilates instructor based in East London. She teaches Pilates at Fight Zone London and works with martial arts athletes both in person and online. Her online platform – including a seven-day free trial – is available at ckpilates.co. Follow her at @clarasportsphysio.
To book an appointment with the LBSM team, visit lbsm.co.uk/booking
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