The Strenuous Life Podcast With Stephan Kesting / Grapplearts Radio

Jon Thomas is a BJJ master strategician with an uncanny ability to connect grips, sweeps, submissions and positions together to create a seamless attack gameplan.  In this episode we do a deep dive into the closed guard position and I think your jiu-jitsu will definitely improve if you implement his training methods and organisational concepts. Check out The Closed Guard System in video format at https://www.grapplearts.com/closedguard

How to learn from instructionals, avoid bad seminars, improve BJJ training methods, the Australian MMA scene, trends in grappling, and much more with the eloquent Sonny Brown from the Sonny Brown Breakdown!   And check out the latest Grapplearts instructional on the Closed Guard at https://www.grapplearts.com/closedguard

Steve Koepfer is a Master of Sport in Russian Sambo, and has translated his skills on the mat into a busy career as a stuntman appearing in the John Wick movies, Ray Donovan, The Blacklist, The Punisher and more.  In this conversation we go into depth about what doing stuntwork is really like, how fight scenes get choreographed, and Steve's best advice for people wanting to step into the industry. Check out Steve's school - NY Sambo - at ussambo.com and/or follow him on Instagram @sambosteve.   Also check out The Strenuous Life Podcast episode 328 to find out more about training Sambo.   Finally, a rating or a review in the podcast platform of your choice is always SUPER appreciated, so thank you if you've already done this!   Cheers, Stephan Kesting

Here's a story about the first time I 'won' a streetfight when I realised that the other guy - an older, shabbily dressed, homeless man - was almost certainly mentally ill. A good streetfight is one that you walk away from or de-escalate, because even if you KO the other guy you could still lose (as I discussed in detail in this article here: https://selfdefensetutorials.com/death-after-the-knockout/) Be compassionate and be strategic my friends, Stephan P.S. Sign up for my email newsletter for free at https://www.grapplearts.com/newsletter.  I promise you'll get a TON of great training material in your email inbox!

Dom Hoskins is a BJJ black belt, coach and fierce competitor who is helping bring the lessons of jiu-jitsu to public schools in California's East Bay. Follow Dom Hoskins on Instagram @dominat10n Check out his school at @dominat10nma And follow the Youth Jiu-Jitsu Collective at @yjcbjj

Ami Palmer is a wrestler, judoka, and an adjunct professor of philosophy at Ohio Northern University.  The topics he researches include how widespread conspiracism and science denialism affect democratic policy making. I was thrilled to have him on the podcast and I think it's a very important conversation!   00:51 - Introduction 02:17 - Wrestling, judo and philosophy 11:15 - Why the BJJ community is so prone to conspiracy theories 20:17 - When is it rational to defer to an expert, and how do you know who to defer to? 32:22 - How do people discern claims from different experts 34:53 - The Great Barrington declaration 38:48 - Commonly used propaganda tools and how to recognise them 48:34 - Brandolini's bullshit asymmetry principle 57:15 - Conspiracies in social media 1:03:19 - The university environment post Covid 11:09:44 - Difference between vaccine refusers and vaccine hesitants 1:11:28 - Training pods 1:16:47 - How to get in touch with Ami

Today's conversation with Marcio Pie was a blend of two of my favorite topics: the science of biology and the science of BJJ.  Marcio is a professor of zoology at UFPR and practices Jiu-Jitsu in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil 01:17 - Introduction to evolution 06:20 - Runaway selection 09:44 - Jiu-Jitsu strategies 14:28 - Evolutionary stable strategies 18:09 - The prisoner's dilemma 21:41 - Evolution applied in jiu-jitsu 25:58 - Mathematical approach to the study of memes 35:10 - How does evolution create complex things  38:46 - Religion and evolution 44:23 - Denialists of fundamental science 50:36 - Basic body types in jiu-jitsu 59:30 - How to contact Marcio

Mike McCastle set a new world record on Jan 23, 2021, immersing himself in ice for 2 hours and 40 minutes and surviving! He joined me on Episode 323 of The Strenuous Life Podcast to talk about this absolutely insane challenge including The physical preparation and mental strength required to it off, The limits of the human body, Tummo (inner fire) breathing and visualisation, How 'normal' people can use his principles to challenge themselves, How his father's struggle with Parkinson's motivates him to persist in his 12 Labors project, And much more! I'm SURE you're going to love this episode! Follow Mike on Instagram @mikemccastle For more Mike McCastle also check out our "Pain is a Universal Language" conversation, episode 240 of The Strenuous Life Podcast, also available on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuYR_wHqW9w

What exactly is herd immunity? How can we be sure that the vaccine companies aren't lying to us?  What is this 'R0' value and why does it matter? What are the proven methods to stop outbreaks?  Are what are the reasons for hope? These are just some of the topics I cover on today's podcast with Colin Furness, PhD, a epidemiologist at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.  Given the amount of deliberate disinformation and malicious misinformation going around please, please, please share this episode with someone who's on the fence about who to believe during the pandemic. Follow Colin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FurnessColin

Priit is a renowned BJJ black belt who has taught his style of defensive jiu-jitsu to thousands of people through his classes, seminars and instructionals.  He is known for his unusual approach to teaching jiu-jitsu and is famous for structuring classes in such a way so that people come away from them with the techniques and concepts they can actually use right away.  In addition we covered the topic of false positives in jiu-jitsu, programming a long term curriculum, and much more.   Find out more about Priit on Instagram at@jitsvulcan on his site https://www.defensivebjj.com/   And if you liked this episode then a rating or a review on the podcast platform of your choice would be INSANELY useful!   Thanks so much Stephan Kesting   P.S.  On a tangential topic, check out the upcoming Grapplearts instructional "The Arm Drag and 2 on 1 Formula" at https://www.grapplearts.com/armdrag

Today I talk with Dr Nicholas Tyau, a BJJ Black Belt and internal medicine specialist who was working in NYC hospitals during Covid Ground Zero in 2020.  We discuss the 5 key factors you need to consider after you've been vaccinated but before you decide to return to normal training, including... 1) Local hospital and ICU occupancy rates 2) Test positivity rates in your community 3) Vaccination rates within your community and your training group 4) Your tolerance for taking short term and long term risk 5) Your tolerance for, and the consequences of, potentially making others sick, especially the people you live with. Please check out my previous episode (ep 285) with Dr Tyau here:  https://www.grapplearts.com/doctor-covid-ground-zero/ Also episode 302 with epidemiologists Kathrine Wallace and Madeline Lewis: https://www.grapplearts.com/covid-myths-debunked-with-epidemiologists-kathrine-wallace-and-madeline-lewis/ And my series of discussions with Dr Chris Moriarty on guidelines for operating a BJJ school sa

Brandon Morgan is a high level powerlifter who trains, coaches and competes out of the Kabuki Strength gym in Portland Oregon.  In this episode we go deep into strength training and conditioning for combat sports drawing on his personal experience as a wrestler and training MMA athletes to be bigger, stronger, faster, and more injury resistant. Follow Brandon on Instagram at @bmorg33 and at @kabuki_virtualcoaching where he shares a ton of training tips. And please share this episode with someone you think would enjoy it.  It's how this podcast grows! Thank you Stephan Kesting

Nini Munoz PhD has a very strong background in risk and failure analysis, and statistical process.  She has used these skills and a background in biology to make the science around the Covid-19 pandemic easy to understand and digest on her amazing Instagram feed at https://www.instagram.com/niniandthebrain/ I think you'll enjoy our conversation about risk, science, and who to believe. Take care, Stephan

In this episode I'm joined by pro-wrestler Tad Murphy to talk about the legendary wrestler Karl Gotch.    Karl Gotch was a German-Hungarian wrestler born in Belgium who trained at the infamous 'Snake Pit' in Wigan, England, then competed in the United States and then taught several generations of pro-wrestlers in Japan.    His influence is the common link between just about every major Japanese MMA organisation including Pride, Shooto, Pancrase, Shootboxing, Rizin and more.   You can check out and/or download a high res copy of the Japanese MMA and Catch Wrestling family tree we discuss in this episode at https://www.grapplearts.com/karl-gotch/   Follow Tad Murphy the wrestler on Instagram at @tadwrestler or in his customer success career at @lincolnmurphy      

Regardless of whether you want to fight in MMA, work as a cop, or just be effective in self defense you have to know how to function in a stressful environment.  Today with Jeff Quail MSc we dive into the physiology of the fight or flight reflex, stress exposure training, the balance between training safety and realism, the carryover between combative sports and policing and much more.     Jeff Quail served as a Winnipeg police officer for 25 years, has a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Liverpool and is currently heavily involved in training police officers how to be more effective in stressful scenarios.  And, of course, he trains jiu-jitsu.   His book, 'A Scientific Approach to Reality Based Training', is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle formats https://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Approach-Reality-Based-Training/dp/177529840X/   Enjoy! Stephan Kesting   P.S. Check out my latest DVD and online streaming course on winning the guard battle using gripfighting and of

Two of the best ways to develop your guard are gripfighting and kuzushi. Today I talk with Rob Biernacki about these rarely taught critical skills and how to develop them. Go to https://www.grapplearts.com/gripfighting for more info! Cheers, Stephan Kesting

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)