The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Latest Episodes:

310 - Are you in a Jiu-Jitsu Cult with Matt 'Aesopian' Kirtley Feb 02, 2021

Show notes

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 and Deprogramming Your Friends.

(Yes, I know there's a theme, but in my opinion focussing on this stuff is more important than ever nowadays.)

If you get the chance, please feel free to share this episode with someone you think would enjoy it. Word of mouth is how podcasts like this grow!

309 - Seven Ways to Make Your Leglocks More Effective Jan 30, 2021

Show notes

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

308 - Jiu-jitsu Is The Art of Facing Challenges, with Elliott Bayev Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

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

307 - Nazi Hippies and Authoritarian Yoga Instructors with Jules Evans Jan 20, 2021

Show notes

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/

306 - How to Talk to a Covid Denialist Jan 03, 2021

Show notes

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 all return to jiu-jitsu?

305 - 7 Mental Hacks I'm Using to Maintain Motivation in 2021 Dec 31, 2020

Show notes

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

304 - The Role of Intuition in BJJ and How to Refine It with Rob Biernacki Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

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

303 - Everything You Wanted to Know About Professional Wresting But Were Afraid to Ask, with Tad Lincoln Murphy Dec 09, 2020

Show notes

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

302- Debunking the Covid Myths, with Epidemiologists Dr Katrine Wallace and Madeline Lewis Dec 03, 2020

Show notes

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 to die per day this winter? 37:11 - How infectious is COVID-19 (comparing the R0 value of covid to that of the flu)? 40:08 - Why are the CDC and the WHO changing their stories and the advice they give? 44:31 - Is Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment being suppressed by big pharma? 50:02 - Judging the quality of evidence and data in disease research 55:39 - Are scientists coordinating their findings and suppressing inconvenient findings? 59:33 - Do hospitals get paid more to count deaths as COVID-19? 1:05:38 - Are COVID-19deaths being overcounted or undercounted in the USA? 1:08:24 - Do cloth masks and surgical masks work? 1:13:56 - Are masks enough to stop the pandemic? 1:15:48 - Car accidents deaths vs COVID-19 deaths 1:17:50 - The minimum infectious dose, or will you automatically get sick if you're exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus? 1:19:23 - How can we have confidence that the vaccine will be safe? 1:29:57 - What about herd immunity, the Swedish approach and the Great Barrington Declaration? 1:37:50 - Potential longterm health effects of COVID-19 1:38:57 - Are personal sacrifices and limitations necessary to deal with the pandemic? 1:42:14 - How can one convince vaccine skeptics? 1:45:24 - Gyms and fitness facilities during the COVID-19 1:51:51 - False dichotomies and false choices in the jiu-jitsu community 1:56:40 - The difference between case numbers and test positivity rates 1:59:45 - How do epidemiologists stay sane in 2020? Please share this podcast episode my friends - it may be one of the most important ones I've ever done. The video version of it is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpgxjZRBV38&feature=youtu.be

Follow Dr Katrine Wallace on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/epidemiologistkat/?hl=en and on Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@epidemiologistkat

Follow Madeline Wallace on Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@maddy.epidemiology

Take care,

Stephan Kesting

301 - Back Pain in Sport and How to Fix It, with Dr Stuart McGill Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

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 herniations and back pain 19:42 - Dr McGill's work with Olympians and elite athletes 24:00 - The athleticism of MMA fighter George St. Pierre 29:55 - Principles for avoiding back pain injury 34:40 - The power of the neutral spine 45:24 - The advantages and dangers of developing power through spinal rotation 51:04 - How elite strikers hit so hard 54:28 - Posture and spinal position in jiu-jitsu 1:01:07 - Hip morphology and leg flexibility of great jiu-jitsu fighters 1:06:07 - Books and other resources by Dr McGill

Injury is the enemy, and avoiding injury is the key to a long and successful athletic career, so I hope you enjoy this episode!

Cheers,

Stephan Kesting

P.S. If you get the chance a rating or a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your audio would be HUGELY appreciated.

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