The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

If you ever find yourself slogging through a lake like I did, here are some helpful tips and tricks on safety and navigation. 

When I told people I would be going on a solo expedition for a few weeks, most thought it was a strange thing to be traveling in complete solitude for so long. However, I think it is an important part of the human experience to do things solo. If you are planning a trip by yourself, this episode will outline a few tips to help!

If you are watching someone document their expedition, you are likely only seeing their highlight reel. They would document their trekking over beautiful landscapes, setting up camp for the evening and doing it all again the next day. What you don't see are all of the extra tasks that have to be done to get to the trekking part.

In this blast from the past, I have a fun conversation about BJJ, Judo and MMA with Jeff MEszaros, one of the guy si started training with 25 years ago! Self defense applications of BJJ, Russian team MMA events , Judo and the early days of the Uncle Willy's Grappling Association. The joys and hazards of learning BJJ in Brazil, The evolution of BJJ (and how we got to double guard pulls), why descri...

It is day one of my canoe trip, and so far so good. Although some things were different than what I thought, my preparedness for this trip has left me feeling ready for almost any situation. People tend to believe that to chase a dream, one must keep running and running until they get to the top. This is what most people misunderstand. For example, this trip has been 20 years in the making and it...

On the one hand, I am a huge fan. I have been watching the UFC since its inauguration in 1993, and have enjoyed fights in Pride FC, Shooto, WEC and many other organizations. I have nothing but respect for the skill, athleticism and mental toughness of the modern MMA fighter. However, as the sport has developed so has the risk and impact of severe head injury. Fighters are getting hit more often an...

If you fail to plan, plan to fail. I am just about ready to leave for my 1000 mile journey to Hudson Bay. This is just a small glimpse at some of the planning I have had to do in order to survive all on my own for the next few weeks. Though I will have very little communication, I have made it possible to upload real-time podcasts from the field as I embark on this journey.

This summer I am attempting to travel 1,000 miles in a canoe by myself in Canada's northern boreal forest and the barren lands of the eastern arctic.  In this episode I talk about why I would ever want to do such a thing, the logistics and planning involved, contingency plans, dealing with bears, and how I'm going to pack 50 days of food into a boat that doesn't quite seem large enough... During t...

One of the most common questions I get is how to find a good school.  This is a REALLY important issue, given that in your martial arts journey you'll potentially be spending thousands of hours training and placing your health in the hands of total strangers.  In this podcast I give you some of my very best tips for picking the best school for your needs Check out my instagram at https://www.insta...

This blast from the past podcast brings back a good friend of mine, Brandon Mullins. In our time together, we discussed Life and Death on the seminar circuit, transitioning from gi to no-gi, the evolution of Jiu Jitsu and some ways to help manage training, conditioning and sparring. 

Roy Dean is a martial arts pro. In this podcast, he explains the fundamental differences between the different martial arts, including Aikido and how he translates it over to other martial arts. He also talks about what kind of markers and skill differences he looks out for when bringing people up to the next belt and whether the belt should be used as motivation or if it disrupts the learning pro...

This is a short rant about the dichotomy of individuality in the martial arts.  On the one hand you absolutely have to take responsibility for finding techniques and strategies that fit your body, your physical attributes, and your personality.  On the other hand if you spend too much time training in a small group without the opportunity to calibrate your skills against people much better than yo...

Not many people know that in 2015 I was dying of kidney failure and had to have a lifesaving kidney transplant surgery to save my life.  Here is the story of that transplant from my brother (eternal thanks to  https://www.instagram.com/christophkesting/ ), the recovery process, and getting back to normal. IMPORTANT: Listen to the end of the podcasts to get the details on how I'll give you a comple...

Scotty Nelson is one of the original gangsters of North American BJJ.  From training at the Ralph Gracie Academy back in the day, to training jiu-jitsu in Brazil, to developing one of the first online BJJ technique resources, to his adventures in Pakistan sourcing gi's for On The Mat, Scotty shares some incredible stories with us today! Grab my app for learning high level BJJ for FREE at https://w...

TEDx speaker Brett Piperni joins us on The Strenuous Life Podcast to talk about discipline, decision making, and deliberately putting yourself into situations where you have no options other than going forward. Brett was a nationally ranked Taekwondo competitor who was diagnosed with an illness that crippled him which specialists told him was incurable. He fought through it, returned to competitio...

I'm just getting over an injury that was completely, utterly, absolutely my own fault.  The fastest way to stall your BJJ progress is to get injured.  It's true that some injuries are unavoidable, but so many of them can be avoided by KEEPING YOUR EGO IN CHECK! Also, have you downloaded my free BJJ Master App yet?  Even if you never buy anything on it you still get more than 457 minutes of complet...

Vanessa Wexler is a BJJ black belt and a multiple no-gi world champion, PanAm champion, and Masters champion.  I caught up with her shortly after she won Gold in the Pan Ams competing with a completely destroyed ankle.  We talked dealing with injuries, pre-competition visualisation, how running a school does NOT give you unlimited training time, and her modelling career(!).

Knuckle conditioning is a two-edged sword in martial arts.  On the one hand hard knuckles and a conditioned fist make for a much more powerful punch in a streetfight and make it less likely you'll break your hand or sprain your wrist. On the other hand it increases the risk of arthritis and non-functional hands as you get older.  What should martial artists do? If you're interested in more informa...

Monty Collier is a black belt Judoka who worked with Keanu Reeves to get him ready for the amazing fight sequences in the movie John Wick 3 Parabellum.  This conversation was a fun one and we started with how Judo has evolved from combat art to Olympic sport, how he taught Keanu highly technical moves, breakfalling on concrete vs mats, and how to fix Judo.  Follow Monty's work and see some amazing...

Jess Munster was born with a severe brachial plexus injury which left her with only one functional arm. But this disability hasn't stopped her from training BJJ, competing against able-bodied fighters, and travelling the world to compete in para-athletic championships! In this episode I talk with Jess about what drives her past the limits of her disability, how she modifies her training and her te...

Lethwei is an incredibly intense full contact combat sport from Burma that allows punches, kicks, elbows, knees and headbutts. And did I mention that the fighters don't wear gloves and only have a thin layer of gauze over their knuckles? Today's guest is Patrick Marcil who combined Muay Thai, Sanshou, and JKD in order to coach Dave Leduc to World Openweight Lethwei Champion.    This chat will be h...

Tarsis Humphreys is a multiple time BJJ black belt world champion and Brazilian National Champion.  In this episode we go DEEP into the mental game, including how to keep a match on your terms, the optimal state of mental arousal for a match, how to avoid overtraining, how Tarsis came back after ACL surgery, mixing weight training and jiu-jitsu training, training with BJJ legend Fabio Gurgel, ment...

Switching to no gi grappling can be difficult. Here are 5 steps that will make it easier... 1) Accept that No Gi is an inherently faster style of grappling and be prepared to push the pace harder at times, 2) Change your grips so that they aren't gi dependent, 3) Get rid of your gi dependent guards and start developing guards that work in no gi, 4) Learn how to take the back, maintain the back and...

Here's one simple thing you should do every time that your training has stalled out and you're just not getting any better. Hell, you should probably be doing this even if your training is going great! Today's episode came from a Q&A I did on Instagram.  Follow me there where I'm @stephan_kesting or go to https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting

Today I talk with Kathy Hubble who is a professional Stuntwoman and multiple time Canadian National Judo Champion.  She shares how she got started in stunts, how she got injured on set in a Jacky Chan action movie, and how Judo helped her stuntwork.  We also delved into the differences in between Judo and BJJ energies, transitioning from throws directly into submissions, and the funny dynamic of b...