The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Latest Episodes:

400 - How to Use Injuries to Actually Refine and Improve Your Jiu-Jitsu Game Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

Rob Biernacki is my guest today to talk about how injury and physical limitations have led to some of the fastest technical development of his career and the refinement of entirely new techniques like the Roadhouse Choke. Since some form of injury is inevitable there are a LOT of takeaways in this episode.

We also discuss the concepts of risk vs reward in your choice of techniques, how new techniques and technical refinements get adopted, the risks of the buggy choke, the barbell strategy for allocating your training time, how rule sets drive evolution of the art, and more.

Check out the Roadhouse Choke Instructional at http://roadhouse.bjjconcepts.net

And sign up for my free email newsletter at https://www.grapplearts.com/newsletter

Good luck with your training

Stephan Kesting

399 - Breathing for Endurance during Sparring in BJJ and Other Martial Arts Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Many people completely run out of gas when they're sparring, and often this is because they are inadvertently holding their breath. In this short podcast I share four very specific ways that I've coached people past this problem and hugely improved their endurance.

Please share this episode with someone you think it will help.

Cheers,

Stephan Kesting

P.S. This episode is also available in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umD_zc5Bd3M

P.P.S. If you follow me on social media only then we are all subject to the whims of the algorithms, therefore subscribe to my (entirely free) newsletter so we can stay in touch and I can give you tons of good stuff: https://www.grapplearts.com/newsletter

398 - Building the Skills to Do Amazing Things, with Matt Pycroft Mar 06, 2024

Show notes

From war-torn Africa to climbing remote peaks in Greenland with Alex Honnold, Matt Pycroft has built a very impressive career working as a journalist and filmmaker. In our conversation he goes into detail how he gradually acquired the skills to achieve his goals and the lessons he's learned working with extreme athletes in inhospitable settings all over the globe.

Follow Matt on Instagram @mattpycroft and check out his latest film, Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold, on Disney, Amazon, and National Geographic.

397 - How to Get Maximum Results in Minimum Time in Jiu-Jitsu Mar 02, 2024

Show notes

The traditional class structure of doing a warmup, learning a couple of new techniques, and followed by sparring is NOT an efficient way to learn jiu-jitsu. We can do much better if we use insights from research on coaching and learning.

Today's guest is Cal MacDonald, a BJJ black belt and competitor who has dedicated himself to developing his teaching and coaching skills to the highest possible level.

Cal is a longtime blackbelt under Rob Biernacki at Island Top Team. Rob and his team are at the cutting edge of teaching and training methodologies that make people amazingly good incredibly fast. Cal coached full time at Island Top Team for five years and is also a fierce competitor, having won Gold at NAGA, Pacific Northwest Open, and many other tournaments. He has travelled to top academies for Worlds and ADCC camps, training with top athletes like Yuri Simões, Mason Fowler, and Caio Terra, so he knows what works at the highest levels.

His proudest accomplishments are the successes of his students, and he has spent thousands of hours coaching and cornering competitors as they fight their way to the podium.

Cal stays abreast of advances in sports science and cognitive science, and blended that with experience and experimentation to create the BJJ Foundations program - more info about that at https://www.grapplearts.com/foundations

Good luck with your training,

Stephan Kesting

396 - Longevity in Jiu-Jitsu with Mike "The Old Bastard" Mahaffey Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

In this episode I talk BJJ longevity, weight training, home gyms and training methods with BJJ old-timer Mike Mahaffey. I think there are a TON of valuable takehome lessons here for anyone who trains jiu-jitsu, and ESPECIALLY the over-40 crowd!

Also check out BJJ Foundations, the brand new Grapplearts instructional that gives you the best jiu-jitsu technique and training method curriculum I've ever seen at https://www.grapplearts.com/foundations

Cheers, Stephan Kesting

395 - The English Roots of Catchwrestling, with Oz Austwick Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

394 - The Anatomy of a BJJ Training Camp Dec 16, 2023

Show notes

Rob Biernacki and his competition team are on a tear. Rob recently took gold in masters middleweight the Canadian ADCC Open, silver at the California ADCC Open, and gold in black belt M4 at the IBJJF No Gi Worlds. In this episode we talk about designing an effective training camp, dividing your conditioning and skills training, detaching emotionally from the outcome of the competition, why sharktanking and competition-style rolls are overused, 80/20 analyses of different rule sets, training athletes to think strategically while in matches, the central role of games and drills in his competition training, and strategies that work in ADCC that will lose you the match in IBJJF

Check out his latest instructional, BJJ GAMES, at https://www.grapplearts.com/bjj-games. It features 25 different games and drills Rob uses at his school to get his students ready for competition.

393 - Historical Bareknuckle Boxing and European Swordfighting, with Oz Austwick Dec 08, 2023

Show notes

392 - Everest, Alone, In Winter, and Without Oxygen, with Mountaineer Jost Kobusch Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

391 - The Most Important Mental Models in BJJ, with Steve Kwan Oct 22, 2023

Show notes

Today I'm joined by Steve Kwan, the host and creator of the wildly popular BJJ Mental Models podcast. We discuss the most important mental models in the art and how they can improve your ability to perform on the mat!

Check out https://www.bjjmentalmodels.com/ for Steve's podcast and https://www.grapplearts.com/rollingbacktakes for my newest BJJ instructional.

And, as always, please send today's episode to someone you think would benefit from it.

Thanks, Stephan Kesting

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