Earlier this summer I completed a beautiful and difficult 19-day solo canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic. There's a lot of time to think on a trip like this, and here are the 3 big lessons I learned... You can order my new book "Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic" on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo/Chapters, or your local bookstore! Three Big BJJ Lessons Learned on a Solo … [Read more...]
BJJ vs Bears – Lessons Learned on a Solo Expedition in the Arctic
I just recently got home from a difficult solo canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic where I didn’t see anyone for weeks. Bears, storms, icebergs and exhaustion, this adventure had it all. Since I was alone, I had a lot of time to think. A big takeaway was how relevant some aspects of this wilderness stuff were to jiu-jitsu. Here are the three big lessons I learned from that trip, and how they … [Read more...]
Use BJJ Mentality to Get Through the Tough Times
On an instagram Q&A (@stephan_kesting) I was recently asked, "What is the most unlikely yet fortuitous place jiu-jitsu has come in handy for me?" You might think that the answer was using it to subdue an opponent in some crazy streetfight, but actually my antagonist was far more deadly than that; polycystic kidney disease... Here's the video of me answering this question in … [Read more...]
This Black Belt’s Advice Would Have Killed Me
Back in 2014, an old friend called. He was a very high-level striking coach and an occasional jiu-jitsu student of mine. As we chatted, I mentioned that I was dying of kidney failure due to Polycystic Kidney Disease and was waiting for a life-saving transplant. Holy crap, was I ever not ready for what came next. He went on an alternative health tirade with evangelical fervor... He told … [Read more...]
Strength vs Endurance Training, with World Record Holder James Pieratt
James Pieratt is a hybrid athlete who does things like deadlifting 520 lbs in the morning and then running fifty miles in the afternoon. I caught up with him shortly after he completed a 500-mile, self-supported mountain run along the Pacific Crest Trail. In this interview, we went deep into... How to balance strength, endurance, and skill training, The role of prehabilitation and … [Read more...]
How to Train BJJ, even with an Injured Arm (Drill)
This article and video are about how to train and continue to make progress in BJJ when you're dealing with a shoulder, elbow or wrist injury. Now I hope that you go through your entire BJJ career without ever suffering a single injury. And you should do everything you can to avoid injuries! But this is a contact sport, and therefore you're probably going to get a little banged up from time … [Read more...]
Wristlocks in BJJ; What Makes Them Work?
Wristlocks are submissions that bend the wrist by bending, flexing, extending or rotating the hand relative to the bones of the forearm. Some martial arts like aikido, hapkido, and traditional Japanese jujutsu specialise in wristlocks, making them a major part of their curriculum. Most of the common BJJ jointlocks target the elbow (e.g. straight armbars), shoulder (e.g. Kimura and … [Read more...]
The Implications of the 46 Million Dollar Jiu-Jitsu Lawsuit
The jiu-jitsu world was shaken recently when Jack Greener, severely injured in 2018 while sparring at a San Diego gym, was awarded $46,475,112 dollars by a jury. Rener Gracie testified for the plaintiff, and Clark Gracie testified for the defence. In this episode, I get together with Dan Lukeheart (Brea Jiu-Jitsu) and Alex Kask (Barrister and Solicitor) to discuss... The specific technique … [Read more...]
Judo and BJJ Injuries
Joshua Arellano is a physiotherapist with a black belt in Judo and a brown belt in BJJ. He works with combat athletes on rehab, prehab, and injury prevention, and - since injury is the enemy of progress - I was thrilled to pick his brain on the podcast to help everyone have a healthier grappling career! The 5 Most Common Judo and BJJ Injuries and What to Do About Them with Joshua Arellano (Video … [Read more...]
Sport vs Self Defense Jiu-Jitsu, with John Will
John Will trained in Southern California in the late 80's, was one of the first 12 non-Brazilians to get a BJJ black belt, and then went on to create the largest jiu-jitsu association in Australasia. We talked about how the art has changed, how to be 'centrist' in the sport vs self defense debate, teaching elite military personnel, how to create a curriculum, and much more. I'm sure you'll … [Read more...]
Physical Endurance and Mental Toughness with James ‘The Biking Viking’ Benson King
Physical Endurance and Mental Toughness with James Benson King (Video Version) James 'The Biking Viking' Benson King is cycling from Alaska at the very top of North America to Argentina at the very bottom of South America. He's covered thousands of miles, endured injuries, dealt with bears, and gone deep into the reservoirs of his endurance. In this episode we talk about his mental and … [Read more...]
Risk-to-Reward Ratios in BJJ Training
Nothing brings your progress to a screeching halt like an injury. Therefore the goal is to get as much benefit from your training while at the same time minimising the chances of getting injured during that training. To do that we have to recognise that some aspects of training are just more inherently risky than others. And we have to consider how much benefit we're likely to get from that … [Read more...]
Long Covid & How to Minimise Transmission
Note - this was published on July 13th, 2022 and updated on July 22, 2022. I will try to update this page with new information as I come across it. Image of SARS-Cov-2 virus from Wikimedia. I can think of several jiu-jitsu training partners and several firefighters I've worked with who have been crippled by Long Covid. And I'm not unique; by now most people know someone who has been affected … [Read more...]
Covid is Airborne and Long Covid is Real – Here’s What to Do About It, with Colin Furness, PhD
No, the answer is NOT lockdowns. In this interview University of Toronto epidemiologist Dr Colin Furness, PhD, goes into detail about Covid transmission, the debilitating (and mostly denied) effects of Long Covid, and simple mitigation measures that don’t require billions of dollars. Covid is Airborne with Colin Furness, PhD (Video Format) Some highlights include... The evidence for … [Read more...]
Key Tips and Strategies for Older Grapplers
Rob Biernacki and I have just released BJJ for Old F***s, and from that instructional here are some of the most important tips for the older grappler. Specifically in this episode Rob Biernacki (age 46) and I (age 52) discuss... The two things that change most about your training as you get older How to improve as fast as possible by limiting your training Why base, posture and … [Read more...]
On Winning a Tough Fight in the UFC by KO While Partially Blind in One Eye – Lance Gibson Sr on MMA
Lance Gibson Sr made a HUGE impression on me when he KO'd Jermaine Andre in the UFC while partially blind in one eye. That fight was a masterclass in both grit and strategy, so I was thrilled to have him on the podcast. We talked at length about, How training for MMA has changed since the early days, Whether you can operate a gym and fight professionally at the same time, What really … [Read more...]
The Dark Side of the Keto and Carnivore Diets
Kevin Bass has a background in medical anthropology, is both a medical and a PhD student, a grappler, and a weightlifter who has been deep in the trenches of the diet wars. In this episode we discuss the evidence for keto, ancestral and carnivore diets, the seed oil controversy, LDL, and a tentative protocol to help minimize brain damage from concussive trauma The Dark Side of the Keto and … [Read more...]
Chiropractic Back Care and Martial Arts (Podcast)
In episode 353 I chat with Troy Schott about martial arts, recovering from back injuries, and living healthy. In a world full of woo I really appreciate his thoughtful, skeptical and scientifically informed approach to health. Chiropractic Back Care and Martial Arts, with Troy Schott (Video Format) Here's the video version of episode 353 of The Strenuous Life Podcast Some of the … [Read more...]
Jiu-Jitsu in a Time of Omicron, with Dr Nicholas Tyau
I've spent a lot of time talking about Covid with doctors and epidemiologists these last few years. Things are finally beginning to change... On the one hand we have vaccines, boosters, and are getting better at treating Covid. On the other hand, right now we're in the middle of a giant spike of the crazy infectious (but mostly less deadly) Omicron variant. Which begs the question, to … [Read more...]
About That Diet You Just Started
I write this a few days after New Year's, and that means that people are inevitably going to be starting new diets. I don't have a problem with cleaning up your diet but many people are also going to be trying out the more extreme diets (the Keto diet, the Paleo diet, the Carnivore diet, or whatever crazy diet the last kooky guy on some Spotify podcast endorsed). Here's the thing though: not … [Read more...]