In this episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast 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 layoffs Match strategy to win more often tournaments, And much more... Here's the video of my conversation … [Read more...]
The Balance Between Stress and Recovery in Training
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 … [Read more...]
Top Five Diet Tips for BJJ
I often get questions about diet and nutrition from grapplers and martial artists. People want to eat correctly because they think it will make them more effective in BJJ class, allow them to recover faster after training, and provide them with better health overall. Well, it's true. What you eat can have a HUGE effect on your performance. Nutrition is a super-important piece of the … [Read more...]
Guidelines for Opening Up Jiu-Jitsu Academies During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Last Updated Sept 10, 2020)
Everyone is itching to train again, and for many jiu-jitsu school owners opening up is a matter of financial survival. But just to make things even more complicated, as we learn more about this virus it means that the science, policy and best practice need to keep on evolving That's why I talked to Dr Chris Moriarty who has published a 6 phase process for reopening schools and getting back … [Read more...]
Are You in a Jiu-Jitsu Cult?
I've wanted to talk with Matt Kirtley for a LONG time because of his BJJ background, but it just so happens that he's done a ton of research into cults and cult-like practices, so we went off in some pretty interesting directions in this one! Some of what we talked about in episode 310 of The Strenuous Life Podcast includes... Red flags that you might be in a jiu-jitsu cult Changes to … [Read more...]
Implications of the IBJJF Legalising Heel Hooks and Reaping
Starting Jan 1st 2021 adult brown and black belts will be able to use heel hooks and leg reaping entanglements at the brown and black belt adult divisions in no gi competition. Long banned, heel hooks are rotational leglocks where the hip and/or the knee is held in place while the foot is bent and rotated. They are incredibly efficient because they attack the smaller ligaments of the foot and … [Read more...]
Jiu-Jitsu: The Art of Facing Challenges
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...]
How to Set Up the Triangle Choke from Guard
Today we'll cover the real 'secret' to using the triangle choke against higher belts from your guard - it's all about the set up! 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 … [Read more...]