The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

I've known and trained with black belt Sean McHugh for 16 years, so I was super-stoked to have him on the podcast.  We covered a lot of important material including  How to train your training partners so that they can help you get better as fast as possible  Strategies for optimal post workout recovery  BJJ injury prevention and rehabilitation How the teaching of BJJ has evolved since the art was...

In this episode I share one of my best tips to get your butt on the mat or in the gym, indicators for when it's NOT time to push, as well as a cautionary tale of when an MMA training session went too far and I ended up bleeding from the kidneys! Also, I've got some really interesting podcasts coming up in the near future, and if you subscribe then you won't miss them!

Are takedowns important even though so few BJJ gyms teach them, and can you get away with never training them if your focus is competition?  And what about self defense?  This are questions I answered during an recent Instagram Live Q&A session - follow me on Instagram @stephan_kesting and maybe next time I'll be answering YOUR question!

In this episode I answer questions and share some tips and tricks for training in BJJ as an older grappler.  How often should you train?  How can you recover faster?  Should you also do weight training as an older athlete and more!  The questions came from an Instagram Live broadcast I did; follow me on Instagram @stephan_kesting and maybe next time I'll be answering YOUR question on one of these...

In this episode BJJ and Judo black belt shares some of the lessons, commonalities, and differences he's seen from working one-on-one with 19 BJJ, Judo and ADCC world champions.  Do they all train the same way?  Eat healthy food or junk?  Drill, spar or do lots of conditioning?  Listen and find out! In addition we also talk about CTE and brain damage in the combat sports, MMA, boxing and grappling...

Some quick thoughts about improving the different forms of 'mobility' for jiu-jitsu, both in terms of movement on the ground, and joint mobility, from a recent Instagram Live Q&A. You can find me on Instagram at @stephan_kesting and I'd be thrilled if you followed me because I'm releasing pics and videos there all the time!

WARNING: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and is definitely not suitable for children. In this episode I talk with boxing and BJJ coach Rodney King about the epidemic of violence in modern day South Africa, how training helps you prepare for confrontations, and how dangerous a 'romantic' notion of fighting is. Some of the topics we covered include: 00:17 - Who is Rodney King?...

In this rant I go off about the importance of critical thinking, and include examples from the martial arts, business and life.  Somehow I try to wrap things up by bringing the Heaven's Gate cult and the biggest mass suicide on US soil into the discussion.  Let me know if this podcast worked on you on Twitter (where I'm @stephankesting), OK?

I love this episode where I talked with historian Daniele Bolelli.  In it we talked about a huge number of topics including... His process of researching and producing History on Fire, one of the leading history podcasts How to get rid of weight cutting in mixed martial arts competition The evidence for and against an ultra-violent human past vs a peaceful noble savage model of our hunter-gatherer...

It's amazing how many high level entrepreneurs also enjoy the challenge of jiu-jitsu!  In this episode Jack Wilkinson and I explore this connection, as well as going down many other rabbit holes... 00:25 - Jiujitsu and entrepreneurship parallels 05:12 - Dealing with tough guys 09:20 - Toxic people 12:56 - Story time 18:30 - Addiction 23:05 - Adversity 28:29 - Grips 37:24 - Teaching vs testing 41:2...

In this episode I argue that you should start by teaching and learning the most effective, most proven, highest percentage techniques first.  And I share a useful thought experiment that should quickly allow you to identify what those techniques might be (hint: it involves a hypothetical death match).

In this episode I talk with the amazing Clinton Davies, the blind wrestler who is a 10 time New Zealand national champion who competes against sighted opponents.  Clinton has also had a very successful submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition career, and has travelled the world.  Listen to this episode to find out how he does it!

In this episode Travis Stevens, 3 x Judo Olympian, Olympic silver medalist, and BJJ black belt goes deep into his training regimen.  You'll learn why and how he does 5 or 6 workouts a day, what the strength benchmarks are for effective judo, the differences between his BJJ and Judo training, and much more.  It's an amazing episode that I'm sure you'll find very interesting.

In this episode I try to answer as many questions as possible from my email newsletter readers, including whether BJJ gameplans really are for everyone (3:30), how to pace yourself against the young guys when you're 52 years old (8:36), the best stretches for grappling flexibility (13:12), what are the best drills for developing a specific position (15:30), what's my hypothetical plan for creating...

I LOVED talking to Bernardo Faria, 5 time BJJ world champion, about his getting 'kidnapped' in the Philippines, reflections on ADCC 2017, the toughest guys he has ever rolled with, whether you can get your BJJ black belt without competing, the connection between jiu-jitsu and entrepreneurship, building a BJJ school, if North America will ever catch up to Brazil in jiu-jitsu, and much more. Check i...

No gi grappling is very popular these days, and a lot of people find making the transition from training with the gi to training without it tricky and difficult.  In this episode Ritchie Yip and I go over some tricks and tips to make this an easier transition and to give you a fighting chance when you can't grip cloth to control your opponent.

In this short episode we talk about why training plateaus are actually more frustrating than training slumps, plus I share 3 concrete steps to bust out of a plateau and get back to getting better!

I really like this episode because we got the chance to go DEEP into the training routine of the world's fastest firefighter, Jamie McGarva.  Jamie has held numerous titles for the Firefighter Combat Challenge both in the team and individual category, including breaking the world record twice in two days. Even now he continues to push himself harder in a single workout than most normal human being...

In this episode I talk with BJJ black belt Rob Biernacki about gratitude and how that has shaped his visiting student program where people can train with him for free.  And, because it's Rob and I, we go off on some major tangents including the weirdos who have hit us up on the internet, how to identify fake martial arts, and why it's sometimes good to be the dumbest guy in the room.

In this episode Eva Schubert and I discuss our semi-annual 30 horizontal mile and 3 vertical mile 'Deathmarch' through the British Columbia mountains on the 'Kneeknacker Route' and why four was just not our magic number this time...

What belt level should you start training leg locks at?  It depends a little bit on what your goals are and whether you're doing gi or no gi, but it's a lot sooner than you think EVEN if you're competing only in the IBJJF rule set.  This podcast episode is excerpted from a 17 minute long Youtube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GQZPtpsg_U which takes you through how to do the actual leglo...

There is so much information (and misinformation) about knives out there that it's easy to get confused.  In this episode I talk with metal professional and knife collector Zoltan Schubert and we break down the different types of steel used in knives, optimal Rockwell hardnesses, as well as the characteristics that make knives better for different purposes.

In this episode I give The Grapplearts Radio Podcast a new dimension.  In addition to talking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts and Submission Grappling we're also going to start featuring people who push the limits in different fields of human endeavour.  This new format of show is going to be called "The Strenuous Life Podcast".  In this episode I tell the story of two mountains and two di...

I trained BJJ today despite being fresh off the plane, jet lagged and exhausted, so it seemed like a good day to tackle today's topic, namely whether you should train on those days when you're so tired you can't see straight.  Also I cover some examples of how to modify your workout on those lower-energy days so you don't get injured.  Hope this helps all you busy people trying to juggle life and...

In this mini-episode I talk Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor with Ritchie Yip, and we both come to the same conclusion about betting on this fight. Listen to this episode before you put money down on Conor McGregor