The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

I talk with clinical psychologist and BJJ black belt David Ley about the psychology of jiu-jitsu, recent advances in psychology, the neurochemicals released when grappling, recovered memories, the prevalence of conspiracy theories in the martial arts, and much more. If you want to focus on the jiu-jitsu specific portion of the podcast listen to the intro then jump to the 45 minute mark. Dr David Ley is a clinical psychologist who runs a large mental health clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has been featured on the Anderson Cooper Show, the Dr. Phil Show, in the London Telegraph, The New York Post, Salon, and the Huffington Post. He wrote The Myth of Sex Addiction (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), and Insatiable Wives: Women Who Stray and the Men Who Love Them (Rowman& Littlefield, 2009).

Today I talk with BJJ black belt world champion Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins about finding a way to win in difficult situations, and why you need to have a long range guard. Check out our brand new bestselling book Nonstop Jiu-Jitsu on Amazon, links at https://www.grapplearts.com/nonstop-jiu-jitsu-book/

How to organise your strategies, techniques and tactics in the butterfly guard so you alway know what you should do next. A highly applicable podcast with black belt jiu-jitsu world champion Brandon 'Wolverine' Mullins. Check out our bestselling book 'Nonstop Jiu-Jitsu' here: https://www.grapplearts.com/nonstop-jiu-jitsu-book/

Black belt world champion Brandon Mullins and I talk about the fundamental movements of jiu-jitsu and their advanced applications in almost every technique you'll ever use on the mat. Check out our bestselling book, 'Nonstop Jiu-Jitsu' on Amazon.com https://amzn.to/3kwkHRH or go here to get the links if you live in Canada, the UK, Japan, Italy or Germany: https://www.grapplearts.com/nonstop-jiu-jitsu-book/ This is the BJJ book of the decade! Stephan Kesting

Dr Nicholas Tyau is an internal medicine specialist who was working at a hospital in the Bronx, the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in North America, during the spring of 2020. He's also a BJJ black belt, so he's no stranger to training and adversity! In this podcast we talk about the chaos that the pandemic created in the NY hospitals, the controversy over death certificates, hydroxychloroquine, vaccines, dealing with the second wave, and what it was like when Nicholas himself got infected by a patient. We get pretty granular in this one, but I hope it's still accessible for most people. Let me know what you think, Stephan Kesting P.S. The guidelines I published to help BJJ schools open (fairly) safely during the pandemic are available here: https://www.grapplearts.com/openingupbjj

Deliberate practice: if you try to get good at every aspect of your sport all at once then you'll get good at nothing. Instead break it down into specific skills, then break those skills down into components, and then refine those components before putting it all back together again. Note: this was recorded outside in the wind, so the message is good but the audio is a bit fuzzy. Sorry about that - I'll pick a spot with less background noise in the future

Medical doctor and famed BJJ competitor Dr Chris Moriarty is back on the podcast with a major update to the protocols for safe training during Covid-19. The biggest changes include the addition of monogamous training pods and class cohorts, and are applicable to just about any form of martial arts training. Check out Dr Moriarty's updated guidelines in written form at https://www.grapplearts.com/openingupbjj And check out my video and article about BJJ training pods here: https://www.grapplearts.com/bjj-training-pods/

Jessica Cox was born without arms but she didn't let that stop her from becoming the first woman to get her pilot's license using her feet to fly the plane. And she has a couple of black belts as well. Check out this episode; I'm sure you'll come away super-inspired and ready to smash your own limits!

Jeff Shaw and I geeked out about Jiu-Jitsu history at first, but then at about the 27:00 minute mark we pivoted to his school's innovative outdoor classes with dedicated training partners during coronavirus and how we can get back to normal in the sport. I hope you enjoy this episode. Please share it with your friends and training partners who are looking for ideas about how to continue training as safely as possible during the pandemic. Here are the recently updated guidelines for opening up BJJ academies in a time of Covid: grapplearts.com/openingupbjj Here's Jeff's series on the history of BJJ, from ancient times to today: bellinghambjj.com/2020/07/01/the-history-of-jiu-jitsu-from-ancient-times-to-today/ You can find out more about Jeff on Instagram @jeffmshaw Find out more about Bellingham BJJ at bellinghambjj.com or on Instagram @bellinghambjj Take care! Stephan Kesting

Robert Drysdale is one of the most highly decorated American grapplers in history. He remains the only person not born in Brazil to win both the IBJJF World Championships with the gi and the ADCC Open Division without the gi. Today we talked about the difference between Jiu-Jitsu in competition and in the gym, his research on the early history of jiu-jitsu in Brazil, and his upcoming documentary called, "Closed Guard: The Origins of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil." Find out more about the complicated relationship between Jigoro Kano, Mitsuyo Maeda, Carlos and Helio Gracie, and Kimura. Check out The Open Guard System available in DVD and online streaming format https://www.grapplearts.com/the-open-guard-system/ and in app format https://www.grapplearts.com/open-guard-system-app-phone-tablet/ Cheers! Stephan Kesting