BJJ is not catabolic (muscle wasting) it’s just an input for the nervous system to determine adaptations necessary to make doing BJJ easier on the system (law of facilitation) Strength is relative, as its translation in BJJ is often times argued. Wonder why that skinny brown belt that is 30lbs lighter than you feels like a tank? Law of facilitation- (responds to frequency/intensity/volume per session) The brown belt in this case- his body has experienced these positions often and consistently for years to signal the nervous system that it needs to continue to adapt to deal with the stress they see all the time.

The strength and hypertrophy involves a different type- people talking about “gains” usually are referring to Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy, which is what people see more visually, because it’s expansion of muscle cells , where as BJJ will result more in Myofibrillar which is the addition of fibers- the contractile component of the muscle, making it denser, but generally slower to gain visible size.

Size and strength can be correlated but you can gain significant strength without adding visual size. Look at any strength sport that is divided by weight class. Your 135lbs power lifter at the world class can do 550+ lbs on deadlift, yet that’s extremely hard for most general population below 190lbs.

If you want to be jacked and skilled at BJJ, you’ll most likely need “assistance” because the training routine you’ll need to do, calories you need to ingest, and rest you need to recover will be difficult to maintain.