The Strenuous Life Podcast With Stephan Kesting / Grapplearts Radio

Why some competitors excel at competition and others don't, hero worship in BJJ, and how to succeed at BJJ partnerships with Andrew 'Goatfury' Smith.   Andrew is a 3rd degree black belt who runs Revolution BJJ (https://revolutionbjj.com/) in Richmond Virginia and helped found the US Grappling competition circuit.   Please leave a rating and a review of this podcast if you can - it really helps!   And download my free checklist to the positions and strategies of BJJ at https://www.grapplearts.com/book   Cheers! Stephan Kesting

Today I chat with Dan "TrumpetDan" Lukeheart from Brea Jiu-Jitsu in Orange County about the steps he's taken to keep his school open in a responsible manner during the Covid-19 pandemic, how to improve your BJJ skills during a training layoff, and how to win more matches in tournaments.  Check out Dan's school at http://breajiujitsu.com/ The video form of this conversation is available on Youtube at https://youtu.be/JHvGYM0HWmU As always, please share this episode with someone you think would benefit from it! Thanks so much, Stephan Kesting

Your health is like a credit card.. You can definitely put things onto your credit card once in a while.  You can even use a credit card to help bridge the gap when you’re short on funds. But sooner or later you need to pay it off. But if you keep on making withdrawals against your card without ever putting money back into it then you’re going to end up in serious trouble. Your health is the same way. You can’t borrow against it indefinitely. If you keep asking your body to push hard without giving it the time and support to recover then things are eventually going to go catastrophically wrong. After beating the crap out of your body you need to balance the books by giving it the opportunity to recover. Hard training without quality recovery is a recipe for disaster, so recovery is a skill you need to master as well. Article format of this episode is here: https://www.grapplearts.com/the-balance-between-stress-and-recovery/ Cheers, Stephan Kesting P.S.  Sign up for my newsletter because it's the best, mo

Dr Chris Moriarty is a medical doctor and a former high level black belt BJJ competitor. In this episode we talk about the rapidly evolving situation of covid vaccines, viral variants, and what it means for training jiu-jitsu and martial arts in general.  Dr Moriarty has been instrumental in creating guidelines to make BJJ training during a pandemic safer (available at https://www.grapplearts.com/openingupbjj)

Today I talk with Matt Kirtley, better known to many as 'Aesopian', about Changes to jiu-jitsu culture, Crazy martial arts cults, Channeling of ancient spirits, How we can get more out of drilling, Red flags that you're in a jiu-jitsu cult And much more I met Matt ages ago when he published step-by-step breakdowns for the reverse omoplata and the rolling crucifix attack on a forum which I then republished (with permission) on Grapplearts. He's good people!   He is a jiu-jitsu black  belt who has been heavily involved in online jiu-jitsu culture for 15 years.   He writes extensively at Inverted Gear, has helped answer hundreds of BJJ questions for White Belt Wednesdays, and is a Functional Range Conditioning coach.     If you enjoyed this episode then check out Episode 290 with Steve Kwan about BJJ Cults and Conspiracies, Episode 291 with Derek Beres from the Conspirituality Pod about Cults and Conspiracies in the Yoga, Wellness and BJJ Community Episode 297 with Mathew Remski about Cults, Prophecies a

How leglocks and leglocking strategy have changed in the last 20 years. As they say for TED Talk Podcasts, this presentation contains powerful visuals and can be viewed at https://youtu.be/9mF_YtLOVI4  I recorded this while editing the Oliver Taza No Gi Leglocks instructional which is now available at https://www.grapplearts.com/taza. Much of the terminology I use comes from The Modern Leglock Formula with Rob Biernacki https://www.grapplearts.com/leglocks The 12 Positions of Modern Leglocking PDF I talk about in the video can be downloaded for free here: https://www.grapplearts.com/main-positions-modern-leglocking/ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 2:05 Difference #1: Refinement of Control Positions 8:13 Difference #2: Less Variety of Actual Leglock Finishes 13:02 Difference #3: Focus on the Reverse Heel Hook 14:59 Difference #4:Refined Dig Mechanics 18:00 Difference #5: Improved Breaking Mechanics 21:50 Difference #6: Transitions Between the Control Positions 23:52 Difference #7: More Entries from the Bottom

BJJ black belt and entrepreneur Elliott Bayev on the ability to test new ideas in jiu-jitsu, how the basics change over time, how to use jiu-jitsu in sales and running a business, and much more.   Follow Elliott on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/elliottbayev/.     And you can find me (Stephan) on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephanKesting   Cheers! Stephan  

Jules Evans studies the history of ideas and was the perfect person to help me understand the abundance of insane conspiracy theories on BOTH sides of the political spectrum right now. We discuss why there are so many lizard people in tunnels, why  many Nazi leaders held new age beliefs, how BLM resembles a religion, and why BJJ is such a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy thinking in 2020 and 2021.  Follow Jules on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/julesthephilosopher/ and on Medium where he posts many thoughtful and well researched articles: https://julesevans.medium.com/  

Daniel Goldberg is a medical historian, a public health ethicist, a lawyer and has practiced BJJ for 8 years. It was great to have him on the podcast to talk about the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and when we might be able to get back to normal.   00:50 - Introduction to Daniel Goldberg 06:09 - On the difficulty of persuading the unpersuadable 08:02 - How the current pandemic has many historical precedents 12:20 - Vaccine distribution in the USA 19:30 - What happens when everyone make individual choices during a pandemic 22:30 - Why have black, indigenous and latino communities have been rampaged with the virus? 27:45 - Covid-19 vs the Spanish flu 36:15 - Conspiracy theories about Covid-19 and where does distrust of experts come from 44:40 - How to talk to a covid denialist 1:00:20 - Politicians jumping to the front of the vaccination line 1:05:20 - Long term effects of Covid-19 1:12:30 - The BJJ community and Covid-19 1:17:10 - Would paying people to stay home really have worked? 1:25:00 - When might we a

2020 has been a hell of a year, but better times are coming soon, so it's time to get our collective asses into gear. In today's podcast I'll take you through the 7 mental hacks I've successfully used to punch on through to the other side and that I'm going to develop and keep my momentum in 2021 as well! The second half of today's podcast was recorded during my 1000 mile solo in the arctic (go to https://www.grapplearts.com/solo to see my notes from the field for that trip). If you found today's episode useful then please share it with one person who might benefit from it as well. Take good care, Stephan Kesting

How to get better at predicting what your opponent is going to do, develop faster reactions and train your intuition with Rob Biernacki.  Check out Rob's Submission Formula instructional in which you'll learn how to make all your chokes, armlocks and leglocks much tighter and much more effective: https://www.grapplearts.com/submissionformula

Today I talk with pro-wrestler Tad Lincoln Murphy about catch wrestling in early American circuses, the development of luta livre in Brazil, Shootwrestling in Japan, and how one trains to becomes a pro wrestler in the first place!   Follow Tad the wrestler on Instagram at @tadwrestler or in his customer success career at @lincolnmurphy   And if you could find it in your black little heart to leave a rating or a review of The Strenuous Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts I would be forever indebted to you!     Stephan Kesting

01:32 - Qualifications of epidemiologists Dr Katrine Wallace and Madeline Lewis 04:42 - Is COVID-19 actually 99.5% survivable? 06:33 - What are the current best estimates of the COVID-19 infection fatality rate and case fatality rates? 10:00 - How important are IFR and CFR in the policy decisions? 10:50 - Is COVID-19 no more deadly than the flu? 13:55 - Problems with comparing Covid to the seasonal flu 15:18 - Are scientists under-reporting the flu and/or counting every case or the flu as covid? 22:05 - Do scientists and the CDC want everyone to lock down forever? 23:57 - Did lockdowns work in other countries? 26:28 - Would less intrusive measures work to control COVID-19? 28:54 - Where are the deaths, is this a casedemic, and are there only more cases because of more testing? 31:40 - How long does it take to go from infected, to getting sick, going to the hospital, and dying? 32:56 - When will we see the cases and deaths peak from 2020 Thanksgiving celebrations in the USA? 36:16 - How many people are going t

Back pain is incredibly common in sport, including all combative sports like jiu-jitsu, MMA, boxing and judo. That is why I was thrilled to talk to Dr Stuart McGill, one of the world's leading experts on back pain. Dr McGill spent 30 years researching and teaching spinal mechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada.  He has published more than 300 scientific papers, written 3 textbooks, and has worked to improve sports performance with countless athletes from almost every sport.   His book, "Back Mechanic: The Step-by-Step McGill Method to Fix Back Pain" has become a classic manual for living a painfree life and "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance" is a guide for many coaches to bring their athletes up to the next level of performance while avoiding a debilitating back injury. Here is just a little of what we covered today... 00:42 - How to become a world class expert in spinal mechanics and back pain 08:16 - Studying spines in the lab and what that tells you about spines in athletes 14:08 - Disc hern

Here are 5 principles that I use on a daily basis for evaluating risk, along with concrete examples from martial arts training, fire fighting, white water kayaking, and behavior during a pandemic. I hope you find this useful! The single best way to stay in touch with what's going on with the podcast, grapplearts, and everything else is still my newsletter.  Sign up for free at https://www.grapplearts.com/newsletter  Cheers! Stephan Kesting

Division in BJJ community, angry people on the internet and the rise of conspirituality with comic and BJJ practitioner Jamie Kilstein.  Jamie is the cohost of both Rear Naked Radio and A Fuckup's Guide to Self Help and has a new comedy album coming out soon!

Today I chat with Black belt no gi world champion Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins about how the most efficient training methods to master the highly complex world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  Lots of great takeaways in this one!! 02:18 - Learning technique only vs learning technique and theory 05:42 - Fundamental movements in BJJ 09:24 - Advanced applications of fundamental movements 14:48 - Winning by achieving depth in a technique 25:40 - Successfully setting up guard submissions 37:22 - Off speed pitches and surprising your opponent in BJJ 44:03 - Starting at step 3 52:19 - Top tips for training 1:01:39 - Safe techniques 1:11:03 - IBJJF legalising reaping and heel hooks in nogi Check out the 265 page full color book we wrote together at https://www.grapplearts.com/nonstop-jiu-jitsu-book/ - it's the best BJJ book of the year for sure! Cheers Stephan Kesting  

I was thrilled to talk to Matthew Remski, a cult researcher and cohost of the Conspirituality Podcast who has written extensively about the pervasive cultism and abuse in Yoga, spirituality, and wellness culture.  The parallels to what's happening in BJJ are obvious. Here are some highlights... 01:48 - Matthew's own time in cults 05:39 - Conspiracy theories 08:02 - What are cults? 28:45 - Online cults 41:39 - What happens when cult prophecies fail to occur? 50:21 - How to help friends and family members in cults  

Multiple time world champion Robert Drysdale comes onto the podcast to share his discoveries about the history of BJJ. Here's just some of what we talked about... 00:52 - Opening Closed Guard, the Book 06:16 - The first japanese martial artists in Brazil 16:51 - Who was Mitsyuo Maeda? 19:27 - The role of the circus in the development of BJJ 23:20 - Early lineages of jiu-jitsu in Brazil 31:02 - The development and role of Vale Tudo fighting 33:08 - Why jiu-jitsu became so ground oriented 43:41 - George Gracie 45:47 - Helio's early fights 47:58 - The period of decline in jiu-jitsu 52:36 - BJJ andmarks between the 1950's and 1990's 1:02:26 - The role of jiu-jitsu federations 1:09:07 - Effects of legalizing heel hooks 1:15:16 - BJJ in the Olympics  

Today I talk with Mr Frank Wolf, a member of first two person team to paddle across Canada in a single season.  He has undertaken amazing expeditions throughout North America both in the summer and the winter, and has some amazing tips for getting out into the deep wilderness on the cheap.  I guess you could call him a wilderness travel hacker who is willing to share his secrets!   On an entirely different note, sign up for the Single Leg X Guard Crash Course that I'm giving out - it's entirely free and it's the fastest way to make you competent at one of the most powerful and versatile of guard positions! https://www.grapplearts.com/slxcourse/