The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Erin Herle is a BJJ black belt under Cobrinha and is a certified Mental Performance Consultant. In her work she uses an evidence-based approach and has a master's degree in sport and performance psyc…

Would you like a behind-the-scenes peek at what really goes on at one of the most successful grappling teams in the world as they get ready for ADCC and CJI, the Olympics of grappling?

Today I'm join…

Denis was one of the top MMA fighters in the world with wins over Minoru Suzuki, Murilo 'Ninja' Rua, Akihiro Gono and Marvin Eastman. In this interview he opens up about the mindset shift that took h…

Ramsey Dewey is an MMA coach now based in Shanghai, China.  I really enjoyed our conversation which included...

• How wearing headgear in sparring actually makes things WORSE for your brain
• His contro…

I just did a 19-day solo canoe trip in the Canadian Arctic, and here are the 3 big lessons I learned!

If you want to see photos and a day-by-day description of the trip please go here: https://essen…

This podcast episode covers all the details and preparations for a long solo trip in the Arctic that I'm starting today! After 30 hours of driving and a 2 hour bush plane flight to Nueltin Lake I'll …

Short episode today with my friend Denis Kang sharing three ways that fighters have improved their training methods to get ready for MMA fights.

Denis fought for the first time in 1998 (in an event w…

Luke Thomas is one of the most influential MMA analysts in the game and the host of The Morning Kombat Podcast. I was delighted to talk to him today about

• How the sport of MMA has changed
• The rise o…

In this episode I put on my adventurer hat and use my biology background to look at four studies and 352 aggressive bear encounters in Alaska to see whether bear spray or firearms was more effective …

There are times when it feels like life has you trapped on the bottom of mount against a vastly heavier, more experienced opponent intent on mauling you.  The steps to deal with these two situations …

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 lik…

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 co…

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 …

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 …

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…

Did you know that the England had many different wrestling systems including Cornish, Lancashire, Devonshire, Cumberland and Westmoreland wrestling and catchwrestling? In this conversation Oz Austwic…

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…

In episode 393 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk to Oz Austwick, who has extensively studied armed and unarmed combat systems in Europe. Topics we cover include the origins of boxing in England, h…

Today I pick the brain of the amazing Jost Kobusch is a German mountaineer who spent two seasons on Everest trying to ascend the legendarily difficult West Ridge route and the Hornbein Couloir alone.…