In episode 308 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk with BJJ black belt and entrepreneur Elliott Bayev about using jiu-jitsu to face challenges, how to test new ideas, how the basics change over time, how to use jiu-jitsu in sales and running a business, and much more. Elliott has been featured in several Grapplearts instructionals including The Spider Guard Masterclass and The Self Defense … [Read more...]
Why Is Conspiracy Thinking Running Rampant in BJJ?
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 … [Read more...]
How to Talk to a Covid Denialist
I've been a first responder for more than 20 years, have a Masters of Science in Biology, and have trained in BJJ for almost 3 decades. This has put me smack dab in the middle of the Covid-19 controversy within jiu-jitsu. In the past year I've been pretty outspoken about taking science seriously, fighting against conspiracy theories, and how to teach and train BJJ more safely during a … [Read more...]
7 Hacks for Maintaining Motivation
2020 was 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 … [Read more...]
An Easy Way to Take the Back
Taking someone's back and achieving rearmount moves you right to the pinnacle of the BJJ positional hierarchy (click here for a downloadable guide to the BJJ positions). From the back you can attack your opponent with chokes and armlocks at will. By contrast he has very, very limited attacks he can use on you since all his weapons are facing away from you. Here's one of my favorite ways to … [Read more...]
How To Do the North South Choke
The north south choke is a powerful choke that you can apply from the top of sidemount or the north south position. This submission looks a bit like an upside-down guillotine choke but the mechanics of finishing the choke are quite different. Given that this technique works both with and without the gi I think everyone should experiment with it, at least enough to recognize when someone is … [Read more...]
The North South Kimura Armlock
Here's a short 1:55 video taking you through the the Kimura armlock attack from the north-south position. This Kimura setup is usually the first attack I go for whenever I'm in the north south position. If you run into resistance then there are a million ways to finish the Kimura or to transition into backtakes, leglocks and armbars. So if you learn this setup it ends up leading you to a … [Read more...]
Intuition in BJJ with Rob Biernacki
How to get better at predicting what your opponent is going to do, develop faster reactions and train your intuition with Rob Biernacki. In episode 304 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I meet with Rob Biernacki to discuss the situations on the mat when your intuition will serve you well and when it will serve you poorly, drills to develop the correct instinctive movements in a scramble, the … [Read more...]
The Step-by-Step Armbar from Mount
The armbar from mount is often taught as the 'CPR' armbar where you're mounted on your opponent, he sticks his arms straight up, you put both your hands on his chest and swing around into the armbar. It's slick, it's smooth, and it looks great. But the only reason the CPR armbar works is because your opponent has broken his own structure by pushing on your chest. Good opponents will almost … [Read more...]
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Pro Wrestling But Were Afraid to Ask, with Tad Lincoln Murphy
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! 00:53 - Training in wrestling 06:01 - Pro wrestling school 09:40 - Distinction between fake and real in pro- wrestling 13:00 - Catch and shoot wrestling 23:59 … [Read more...]
Covid Myths Debunked, with Epidemiologists Kathrine Wallace and Madeline Lewis
In episode 302 of The Strenuous Life Podcast (my podcast) I do a deep dive into the COVID-19 pandemic with two actual epidemiologists: Dr Katrine Wallace and Madeline Lewis. Here it is, along with timestamps to relevant sections... Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction 01:32 - Qualifications of epidemiologists Dr Katrine Wallace and Madeline Lewis 04:30 - Is COVID-19 actually 99.5% … [Read more...]
Cults, Prophecies, and Deprogramming Your Friends, with Matthew Remski from the Conspirituality Podcast
On episode 297 of my podcast I was thrilled to talk to Matthew Remski. Matthew is a cult researcher, cult survivor, 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 happens in some BJJ schools are … [Read more...]
Fixing Martial Arts Back Pain, with Dr Stuart McGill
Back pain is incredibly common in sport, including all martial arts and combative sports. 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 … [Read more...]
The Road from Judo to BJJ, with Robert Drysdale
Multiple time world champion Robert Drysdale came onto The Strenuous Life Podcast to share the discoveries he's made while studying the history of BJJ for his forthcoming documentary 'The Closed Guard' and accompanying book "Opening Closed Guard." There's a TON of good stuff here, including how Judo slowly evolved into BJJ, the role of George Gracie, why the Japanese (including Mitsuyo Maeda) … [Read more...]
5 Principles I Use When Evaluating Physical Risk
I've participated in a quite a few inherently risky activities in my life. Obviously there's the training, sparring and competing in a variety of martial arts including BJJ, Judo, Muay Thai and full contact stickfighting. But in addition to the martial arts stuff I've also been a firefighter since 1999, hazardous materials responder, a whitewater kayaker and solo expedition canoeist, all of … [Read more...]
An Interview with Frank Wolf – Explorer, Adventurer, Author, Filmmaker
In episode 295 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk with Frank Wolf who exemplifies endurance, determination and perseverance. His first major expedition 25 years ago was an epic 8,000 kilometer paddle across Canada in a single season and he hasn't slowed down since. Whether it's cycling 2,000 km on the frozen Yukon River in winter or paddling the entire coast of British Columbia he's … [Read more...]
Taking the Back from the Ball and Chain Sweep in de la Riva Guard
Over the past few months on this blog I've been sharing a lot of de la Riva guard material. This series has been centered around the Ball and Chain Sweep which is one of the keystone de la Riva attacks that has been used by a lot of top BJJ competitors including Otavio Souza, Pe de Pano, and Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins. In case you haven't seen it before here's a quick reminder of what the … [Read more...]
Training for High Level Competition, with Brandon ‘Wolverine’ Mullins
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 - … [Read more...]
Breaking Alignment to Set Up the Triangle Choke from Guard
Today we'll cover the real 'secret' to triangle choking higher belts from your guard! Tapping out higher belts is a different thing than tapping out beginners... There are certain techniques that serve you well against white and blue belts. But when you climb the ranks and start sparring against higher caliber opponents some of those moves stop working. The classic example of an entry … [Read more...]
When to Hang Up the MMA Gloves
Full contact fighting is inherently risky, especially when you consider the traumatic brain damage that's so common in boxing, kickboxing and MMA. And competing in sports where head shots and brain trauma is abundant ramps those risks up exponentially. While I totally support your right to take risks (and have taken many myself) there comes a point when the risk outweighs the reward. So what … [Read more...]
My Path from Kung Fu to Jiu-Jitsu (Podcast)
On today's episode I'm interviewed by Randy Brown on his podcast about my journey through Kung Fu and how I found jiu-jitsu. Lots of nuggets about training safely and effectively in this one! Follow Randy on Youtube, Instagram or check out his website. Tweet me @StephanKesting, check out my Instagram: @Stephan_Kesting, and get on my email newsletter - I use it to put out a TON of good … [Read more...]
Is It Safe to Train BJJ During Covid?
Probably the question I get most often these days is, "Is it safe to train BJJ during pandemic?" People ask me this question because I've been a black belt for a long time (got promoted in 2006), have been training in the martial arts for 40 years, acquired a Masters of Biology at the University of British Columbia, and have worked as a firefighter specialising in hazardous materials response … [Read more...]
Cults and Conspiracies in the Yoga, Wellness, and BJJ Communities, a Podcast with Derek Beres
I've been a fan of Yoga for a long time, starting in the late 90's as I started doing it to get an edge over my opponents on the mat in BJJ. In general I found Yoga useful and regenerative, although at times I really had to turn off my ears and ignore the quantum woo gobbledygook emanating from the mouth of some newly minted graduate of the latest teacher training program. But recently some … [Read more...]
How to Connect Your Sweeps and Guard Passes in Order to Dominate More Opponents on the Mat
The concept of connecting your guard sweeps to your guard passes is incredibly useful. Anytime you can use one technique to set up the next you have an advantage, yet many grapplers fail to follow up after a successful guard sweep. Let's go through both the theory and practice of this concept. If you start trying to this then we can probably improve your grappling overnight... The Theory of … [Read more...]
BJJ Cults and Conspiracy Theories
Steve Kwan, a BJJ black belt known for cohosting the most excellent BJJ Mental Models podcast, joins me to discuss cult behaviour in BJJ, good and bad club cultures, and the big picture behind effective jiu-jitsu training. This is a really important topic given the long history of less than stellar behaviour of some of the big names in the jiu-jitsu community. To give you a taste, here are … [Read more...]