The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
What is it that allows some people to push themselves beyond their limitations? Why can some people survive situations others do not? On this podcast we try to find out the answers. Stephan Kesting, is a lifelong martial artist, BJJ black belt, career firefighter, and outdoorsman. Join us as he talks to fighters, adventurers, competitors, coaches, firefighters, trainers and other people living the strenuous life.
Stephan also runs Grapplearts.com, where he has published many hundreds of martial arts videos, articles and tutorials.
His free guide to learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, A Roadmap for BJJ, has been downloaded more than 10,000 times and has become a foundational text for the art.
- Update frequency
- every 12 days
- Average duration
- 47 minutes
- Episodes
- 428
- Years Active
- 2009 - 2025
130 - Pro-tip: How to Improve Your Chokes in Just 10 Seconds
In this short episode I share a tip I learned from Elliott Bayev that'll simultaneously allow you to finish way more people with your chokes but also stop you from completely burning out your arms, l…
129 - Training with Dan Severn, Saving Jiu-Jitsu, and Training Around the World with Dan 'The Wolfman' Theodore
Dan was bitten by the MMA bug after watching UFC 4; soon he was training with Dan Severn and learning all he could about wrestling, jiu-jitsu, fighting and MMA. Many miles and multiple black belts la…
128 - Can Kung Fu, BJJ and MMA Coexist? A conversation with mantis boxer Randy Brown.
A conversation with Kung Fu stylist (and BJJ brown belt) Randy Brown that included the history of Chinese martial arts and what made them less effective over time, what traditional martial arts look …
127 - Why Techniques Never Work on the Day They're Shown (and How to Fix That)
OK, so you've just learned a cool new technique that you're pretty sure is the Kryptonite you need to defeat your hardest sparring partner. But then you crash and burn when you try it out in sparrin…
126 - Killer Waves and Night Time Rescues with Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Donald Lipscomb
Really enjoyed this chat with Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Donald Lipscomb. We went into detail about rescuing people from capsized ships, the selection process with a 90% attrition rate, and the trai…
125 - Reilly Bodycomb on Sambo, Leglocks and Competition
Loved this interview with Reilly Bodycomb. Reilly is a Russian sambo and leglock expert who has competed in a TON of different rulesets including BJJ, no gi submission grappling, MMA, Sambo, and wres…
124 - My Interview on the Cody Jitsu Podcast
This is a fun episode: instead of me doing the interviewing the tables get turned and I get grilled by Cody from the Codyjitsu podcast. We covered tons of stuff including my martial arts background,…
123 - What To Do When You're On the Bottom, Getting Crushed, and Unable to Breathe...
One of the very worst things is to be trapped on the bottom with all your opponent’s weight on top of you and be unable to breathe. This is usually followed by exhaustion, panic and surrender.
But i…
122 - How to Blast Through Physical Setbacks When Your Training Gets Stalled
How to deal with the super-frustrating but ultimately inevitable physical setbacks, limitations and injuries when you're doing a contact sport. Hint: it will ALWAYS be two steps forward, one step ba…
121 - Police Combatives with Lt Kevin Dillon (ret) - Survival
I really enjoyed talking to Lieutenant Kevin Dillon (ret) who served for 25 years as a police officer, SWAT team member, and detective commander before moving on to become a full time trainer for pol…
120 - Nick 'Chewy' Albin from Chewjitsu on BJJ, Wrestling, MMA and More
Chewy (aka Nick Albin) is well known for the BJJ advice he gives on his prolific Youtube Chewjitsu channel, so I was thrilled to have him on the podcast.
It's a great chat and we cover a ton of mat…
119 - A Trick for Beating Exhaustion When You Roll or Compete
Getting tired when you're rolling sucks. And it's even worse when you're competing; you can't breathe, you go into survival mode, your plans goes out the window and life starts sucking.
In this epis…
118 - Tips for Minimising Injuries and Maximising Recovery
To get better fast in any sport you have to be able to train hard, which means minimising injuries and maximising your recovery. In this episode I give you some of my best tips to accomplish both of…
117 - The Huge Difference Between Knowing a Technique and Being Able to Execute It Against Resistance
In this rant I go off about so-called 'technique collectors', which are martial artists who memorise 35 different variations of a technique but are unable to execute ANY of those variations against a…
116 - Should You Pull Guard in BJJ Competition or Not?
Should you pull guard in BJJ competition or fight doggedly for the takedown. You'll get some answers to this perennial question in my conversation about pulling guard with BJJ black belt Rob Bierna…
115 - Stephan Talks With 8th Degree Black Belt Carlos Machado
Loved talking to jiu-jitsu pioneer Carlos Machado about all things BJJ. His love for the art and experience in the sport comes through at every second. I hope you get as much out of this interview…
114 - Should You Stretch Before or After a Workout, a Controversial Topic!
You wouldn't think that something like stretching before a workout could be controversial, but it is. Some evidence and experts suggest that you should only do it after your workout, whereas most tra…
113 - A Close Call on the Mat, and 3 Takeaways for Avoiding Injuries!
The other day I almost tore a partner’s ACL off the bone, which would have required him to have surgery and many months of rehabilitation.
What happened exactly?
I was more experienced and a bit bigg…
112 - A Live Q&A Session with Stephan Kesting
Today's episode comes from a Q&A session I did on Instagram live (@stephan_kesting) and gave the answers to a ton of BJJ and training topics including...
05:00 - When I started training BJJ 06:56 - I…