The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting – Details, episodes & analysis

Catch wrestling was a brutal method for settling disputes on the American Frontier as well as one of the largest, most respected spectator sports prior to the modern era.  In this episode Val Childs - who has been training in catch wrestling since he was 5 - takes us on a tour through the historical roots of catch, the modern catch competition circuit, and the training methods that can be adopted to make any combat athlete much more effective.

Incidentally, catch wrestling has had a significant impact on my own development. For example it has had a strong influence on my submission game as you can see in something like the Kimura Roadmap. https://www.grapplearts.com/kimura.

Follow Val Childs on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cc_catchwrestling or check out his school in San Antonio, Texas at https://combatcitysa.com/

AOJ black belt Tom Wortman is a fierce competitor; he won IBJJ Pans, Euros, North Americans and Master Worlds in a single year as a brown belt.  He's also a jiu-jitsu gypsy, typically training at a club for 3 to 6 months, then moving thousands of miles to see a new part of the country and training at a new club.  Find out how he he does this, what the red and green flags are for training at new clubs, how to stay injury free even when training 7 days a week, and redefining success on your own terms.  I hope you find Tom as inspiring and insightful as I did - enjoy!

Also, please rate and review this podcast on whichever podcast platform you listen to it - I can't emphasize enough how useful this is and how much I appreciate it.

Finally, if you're interested in my take on living life on your own terms please check out my best-selling book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic, available anywhere you get physical, digital and audio books and also here: https://www.amazon.com/Perseverance-Death-Subarctic-Stephan-Kesting/dp/1639368612/

Thanks!
Stephan

Mike McCastle smashed David Goggins' pullup record by doing 5,804 pull-ups in 24 hours while wearing a 30-pound backpack... and pulled an F-150 pickup truck 22 miles through Death Valley... and flipped a 250 lb tire for 13 miles... and climbed a rope for the equivalent distance of Mount Everest... and has trained MMA fighters, alpinists, and extreme adventurers like Colin O'Brady, the first man to cross Antarctica solo and unsupported.  

As such, he's the perfect person to kick off our 4-part series on hybrid training, where we'll delve into the art and science of maximising strength AND endurance at the same time.

Some key areas covered include:
- How hybrid training is about giving yourself options
- Why strength training builds durability in joints and tendons
- How to achieve your goals by reverse engineering the outcome
- How to build mental toughness through conscious choices
- Exactly how training should be tailored to individual needs and goals
- Why recovery is crucial for optimal performance.
- How to include skill development within your sport into your training phases
- The methods Mike has used to create chaos in training to prepare for unpredictability
- How training often and testing rarely is key to success.

Subscribe to this channel to be notified of new episodes in this series when they come out!

Check out Mike's website at https://www.mikemccastle.com/ and his Instagram at
https://www.instagram.com/mikemccastle/

And check out my own book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic, on Amazon or anywhere books, ebooks, and audiobooks are sold!  https://www.amazon.com/Perseverance-Death-Subarctic-Stephan-Kesting/dp/1639368612/

Steph Gaudreau is a strength coach, nutritionist, podcaster, author and BJJ practitioner.  I was thrilled to have her on the podcast today to discuss the overlap between strength training and jiu-jitsu. I think you'll get a lot out of it!

Check out https://www.stephgaudreau.com/ or follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/steph_gaudreau/

And while you're reading this... Check out The Grapplearts BJJ Master App for iOS and Android - there's a TON of great content on there that'll directly improve your game. https://www.grapplearts.com/masterapp

Cheers!

Stephan Kesting

In this rant I go off about conspiracism, Ivermectin, Joe Rogan, anti-vaxxers, elk meat diets and more.  This is from an Instagram Live session I did with Dr Hanan Bushkin (@drhananbushkin) - Dr Bushkin is a psychologist so he really knew how to wind me up and set me loose!

Jeff Shaw runs Bellingham BJJ and despite coming to jiu-jitsu late in life fell in love with competition and eventually competed 8 divisions in a single tournament with pretty good results. I particularly love his pre-match psych up routine which you'll learn all about in this episode!

Julian Walker has researched, written, and podcasted about cults and gurus, spiritual bypass and quantum woo in New Age circles extensively.  He is also a cohost of the (amazing) Conspirituality Podcast.

Today's episode is really important, and we discuss why certain groups (like BJJ, MMA and Yoga circles) are more into conspiracy theories (starting roughly at 4:46), the tendency for some people to make connections and see patterns where none exist (17:59), end of the world prophecies in conspiracy theories (48:08), and more.

If you enjoyed this episode then please check out episode 291 with Derek Beres (https://www.grapplearts.com/cults-conspiracies-yoga-wellness-bjj-communities/), 297 with Mathew Remski (https://www.grapplearts.com/cults-prophecies-and-deprogramming-your-friend-with-matthew-remski/), and 325 with Ami Palmer (https://www.grapplearts.com/trust-propaganda-consipiracies/)

And, as always, a review of this podcast on iTunes or Spotify would be SUPER appreciated

Thanks

Stephan Kesting

In episode 335 of The Strenuous Life Podcast Stephan Kesting talks to cult expert, cult survivor and cult deprogrammer Joeseph Szimhart. We go into depth about QAnon, New Age cults, Theosophy, cult recruitment tactics, and people escape them. I think this is a fascinating and very topical conversation.

Find out more about Joe at https://www.jszimhart.com/

And if you enjoyed this episode then please, a rating or review within the podcast platform of your choice would be super appreciated!

Thank you,

Stephan Kesting

Dr Dr Chris Kavanagh is an Oxford trained evolutionary & cognitive anthropologist who co-hosts the 'Decoding the Gurus' podcast with Mathew Browne. Together they tackle the secular gurus propagating their ideas, grievances, and conspiracies on the internet.

In today's episode we look at the 10 factors that go into their 'gurometer', a highly scientific measure that takes the signature characteristics of gurus and uses advanced mathematics (simple addition) to determine how high up the guru scale they actually are.

From Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, Tony Robbins, JP Sears, to Brett and Eric Weinstein, we give lots of examples and pull no punches.  

Here are the 10 characteristics we discuss in considerable detail...

From the cheekiest triangle choke counter I've ever used to Khabib slamming the crap out of his opponents in the UFC, here's a short episode about the times you simply have to move the fight to a new location!  Hope you enjoy this, and if you do then a review or rating on the podcast platform of your choice would be super appreciated!

Stephan