The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Yuri Simoes is a two time ADCC World Championship, a two-time IBJJF black belt Absolute No-Gi World Champion, and a two-time Pan American Champion. In our chat we go deep into developing the motivation required to train at such a high level, the importance of self defense, how he took down a Olympic Judo champion in competition, and much more. I hope you enjoy it! 00:44: Growing up in Brazil 03:07: Training self defense 05:38: On making BJJ your way of life 10:08: Judo and BJJ cross training 14:40: Yuri's match against Travis Stevens 17:30: On making the switch to no gi grappling 20:42: On coming to North America and training with Caio Terra 27:54: Is it OK to train at different schools? 31:06: New jiu-jitsu vs traditional jiu-jitsu 36:25: On switching from no gi to MMA 38:04: What made Yuri so stubborn? 42:25: Dealing with major injuries 49:50: Biggest adjustments in switching from jiu-jitsu to MMA 51:33: What's a typical week of MMA training? 59:59: Good days and bad days of training 1:02:56: Signing to fight with One FC 1:04:58: Where to follow Yuri If you get the chance, check out my Grapplearts BJJ Master App. There's a TON of free high level content in that app, giving you the opportunity to learn BJJ on your phone. Download the Grapplearts BJJ Master App for free at https://www.grapplearts.com/masterapp Thanks! Stephan Kesting

Coronavirus has most of the BJJ world locked down and it sucks. I get it: you desperately want to get back on the mats and train. Here are 5 strategies to keep your head in the game and prevent you from backsliding too much before that happy, happy day comes! Grab my free app for iOS and Android. It's called The Grapplearts BJJ Master App and has more than 700 minutes of free black belt instruction. Plus it now has links to every podcast episode and in depth article I write. Grab the app for free at https://www.grapplearts.com/masterapp Good luck! Stephan Kesting

In this episode I talk with BJJ brown belt and Joe Rogan approved professional comedian about how jiu-jitsu saved his life, ways to stay positive during the coronavirus lockdown, tribalism and much more. Follow Jamie on Instagram @thejamiekilstein, on the JamieKilstein podcast, on Rear Naked Radio and on his Youtube channel. Use the coupon code 'United' for 50% off on ANY of my instructionals at https://www.grapplearts.com/instructional-bjj-grappling-dvds/ for the duration of the corona crisis Here are some of my other social media links... Tiktok (NEW): https://vm.tiktok.com/QQDSBt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grapplearts Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stephankesting Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/stephankesting

Dr Leif H. Smith is the author of 'Sports Psychology for Dummies' and in this episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast he shares his very best tips for developing mental toughness, managing fear, not choking at critical moments, and how to perform optimally in training, competition and life. I think you'll really like this one! Check out 'Sports Psychology for Dummies' anywhere books or ebooks are sold, follow Dr Leif H Smith on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DrLeifSmith or check out his website at https://www.personalbestconsulting.com/ If you're enjoying these podcasts then please give it a rating or a review in the podcast platform you use most often. That really helps! And check out the new and improved Grapplearts BJJ Master App - it now has a podcast player and all the blog material right in the app itself. Cheers, Stephan

Moments ago I recorded a podcast with Raf from The Verbal Tap Podcast about what grapplers and martial artists should do during the coronavirus and COVID 19 outbreak and I'm sharing that with you now. Based on training in martial arts for 40 years, being a first responder, and also having a master's degree in biology my recommendation is that YOU DON'T TRAIN FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS at least. After that we'll have much better idea of what to do next. Read my detailed article here for more info: https://www.grapplearts.com/covid-19-bjj/ Flatten the curve folks, Stephan

What's your best strategy vs multiple opponents? Can Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu be part of that strategy. I gave my answer to this during an Instagram and Tiktok live session that I did recently. I'm sure it'll ruffle a few feathers, but then again, every martial artist has an opinion on this including those that have NEVER tested it. By the way, here's me on Tiktok (NEW): https://vm.tiktok.com/QQDSBt (@StephanKesting) And here's me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephan_kesting (@stephan_kesting) Good luck with your training, Stephan

In today's episode I talk to Scott Loughney about an incredible 640 km ultrarunning challenge in the highest mountain range of the world. Scott together with Ryan Wagner and Upendra Sunuwar successfully linked Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, with Everest Base Camp, a round trip distance of 640km. We really get down into the weeds with this one about the nuances of training for and then completing such a challenge. I hope you like it! 01:57 The Mount Everest Mailrun Challenge 07:54 Suffering and Type 1, 2 and 3 adventure 12:10 Hallucinations while pushing the limits of endurance 19:43 In-depth foot care and blister management for ultrarunning, 30:37 Risk evaluation and mitigation during the Everest Mailrun Challenge 39:19 Training to handle risks for the project 46:39 Oxygen levels and deprivation while running in the Himalayas 49:35 10 principles for achieving big projects 1:03:40 How to organise the rest of your life around training 1:07:40 How to prevent your body from breaking down and getting injuries 1:10:56 More information and future projects Check out the Grapplearts Signature Gi at https://www.grapplearts.com/gi Thanks Stephan

Oliver Taza trains at Tristar in Montreal with Firas Zahabi and at Renzo Gracie's in New York City with John Danaher. With his impeccable technique and aggressive grappling style he has amassed an impressive array of wins at Polaris, Metamoris, the ADCC Trials, the No Gi Worlds, and many more competitions. In this episode we go deep into the training and technical development required to hang with the Danaher Death Squad monsters and win at the elite level. I think you'll really like it! Also check out the new instructional I did with Oliver Taza called No Gi Leglocks at https://www.grapplearts.com/taza. I guarantee that it'll immediately take your leglock game up to the next level and allow you to tap out your training partners more often! Cheers, Stephan

Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern business management, once said, "You can't manage what you can't measure." Now I don't think that Peter Drucker did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (or any other form of martial arts) but the idea of measuring things in order to improve them applies to every field of athletic endeavour. So let's look at some concrete ways that we might quantify our training and improve the results we are getting… Quantifying Your Nutrition Nutrition is a fairly complex field but there are certain tenets that most thoughtful people agree on. For example, almost everyone agrees that you should drink enough water but not too much water. But most athletes still drink way less water than they should be. For me the problem is even worse… I'm a kidney transplant recipient which means I only have one kidney that needs to remain well-flushed. Furthermore I exercise a lot which means that I'm sweating out a lot of fluid. To stay well hydrated I have to drink about 4 to 5 litres of water a day, which is roughly 1 to 1.5 imperial gallons. There's no way I would end up drinking that much if I didn't measure it. Trying to reconstruct the amount of water that passed my lips based on half remembered sips from glasses and water fountains would be totally inaccurate. So I have a very simple method that I've stolen from the bodybuilders… In the morning I fill one of those large 4 liter water jugs with water. And by the time I go to bed it has to be empty. There's no second guessing about how much water did or didn't get drank that day. It's binary, either "Yes, the jug is empty", or "No, the jug still has water in it." This system is a method of quantification. There's no thinking required, so I can that mental energy for other, more important functions. Another example of quantification being critical is the experiment I did with the keto diet. In 2019 I tried the keto diet for a month. At the end of that I felt physically alright, but the data said different. My LDL and triglycerides had skyrocketed, my HDL to LDL ratio had crashed. 30 days of a diet with huge amounts of whipping cream and saturated fat was basically guaranteeing a heart attack within a year. This is NOT to say that keto is bad for everyone; it most certainly does work for some people but it also doesn't work for me. But the point is that you need measurements, bloodwork, and data to know for sure. So if you're going to try a new diet – keto, carnivore, vegan, whatever – don't just rely on some podcast or Youtube video for your information. What worked for that person may not work for you. Please, please, PLEASE go get the relevant bloodwork before you start a new diest to get a baseline, and then again after 1 to 2 months of being on it. Without that bloodwork data you're flying completely blind. With quantification you can see what's actually going on in your veins and arteries, hopefully avoiding a disastrous mistake. That which can be measured can be improved. Quantifying Your Strength and Nutrition Every serious athlete tracks their strength and conditioning, and the more serious the athlete the more minute the data they track. There's a reason that Mikaela Shiffrin, one of the greatest skiers of our time, tracks not only the weights, reps and sets of her squat workout but also the actual velocity that the squat bar moves at. For people at her level the coaches use the ridiculous amount of data generated to track the progress of their athlete. Now for most of us that's too much, but we could all do with a little tracking of workouts. For example, I've kept a training journal for the last 25 years in which I've tracked nearly every strength and conditioning workout I've ever done. From that journal I know that on March 17, 2009 I did the following workout… 8 circuits of bench pressing 155 for 6 reps, followed by pullups to failure, followed by sprinting up and down 6 flights of stairs, Then 3 sets of standing dumbell curl and press exercise in which I did 4 reps with 45 lb dumbells, 6 reps with 40 lb dumbells, and 8 reps with 35 dumbells, Then a single set of 30 back extensions, And two sets of hanging ab raises Note that this is pretty specific but it could have been quantified even more. I could have recorded the times for each of those 8 tower sprints and the number of pullups I did on each set. If I had done that then I could now go back to that workout and know exactly how much I've improved or fallen behind since that workout. Knowing your numbers prevents you from having to 'guess' if you're improving or falling back. That which can be measured can be improved. Quantifying Your BJJ Training Jiu-jitsu training itself is a little harder to quantify because your training partner gets a vote too. You might be planning to have a nice easy sparring session but then the other guy gets all fired up and before you know it you're in one of those death rolls. That being said you can still keep track of how long you trained for and how hard you went. You can quantify your drilling reps, sparring rounds, training intensity and total training time. For example I know that on September 17th last year I did 1 1/4 hours of BJJ drilling and sparring with my friend Alex Kask at a moderate intensity while fasting. If I was getting ready for a competition I might get more specific than that. I might keep track like this… 30 minutes: brainstorming and drilling turtle escapes, getting to guard and/or back to feet 5 x 5 min rounds sparring at easy-moderate intensity focusing on turtle escapes Then 2 x 5 minutes rounds going hard, starting on the feet The bottom line is that feelings can lie to you, memory is faulty, and you are the easiest person to fool. But data doesn't lie. So track what you can, regardless of whether you're using a physical book, a spreadsheet on your computer or the notes app on your phone. That which can be measured can be improved. Stephan Kesting Grapplearts.com P.S. Download my FREE app for iPhone and Android devices called The Grapplearts BJJ Master App. It's been updated recently and now contains more than 600 free minutes of BJJ black belt instruction. Seriously, you'll get a ton of value out of it Click here to get it for iPhone or iPad https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bjj-master-app-by-grapplearts/id1308072068 And click here to get it for Android phones and tablets https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grappleartcontainer And finally, as always, good luck with your training Stephan

In this conversation BJJ black belt Jon Thomas and I go deep into training and drilling methodologies that give you results as fast as possible. Jon is originally from the US but teaches at a school in Sweden. He still competes at a high level, so he has had to take extreme ownership over his results using reverse-engineering and a very analytical approach to his training. In this episode we go deep into how everyone learns BJJ differently and how therefore the optimal learning environment is also different for everyone. We also cover training methodologies you can use to get better at a smaller gym without a world class talent pool of sparring partners (hint: basically it involves turning your gym into a scientific laboratory for developing techniques). You'll also learn how to increase your mat time without incurring more injuries, methods to develop attack systems from different positions, tournament strategies vs training strategies, and our thoughts on how many top level competitors are on steroids Follow Jon on Instagram where he shares a ton of great techniques at @jonthomasbjj And while you're there also follow me (Stephan Kesting) at @stephan_kesting