Edwardian Health Craze
Forget UFC, Jiu-Jitsu was already adopted virtually universally by the world's militaries in the early 20th century. Add to this Eugene Sandow, and you can trace the entire contemporary relationship with the body to the Edwardian health craze. Take a gander at this article and see how much the era resembles our own.
Suffragettes practicing locks and throws? Obsession with meat-eating? Vacillation between scientific (read: bureaucratic) analysis of the body and imaginative orientalism? Gandhi weighing the efficacy of Jiu-Jitsu against fidelity to Indian martial culture?