413 - Strongman Training Secrets, with Kalle Beck
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Release Date: 11/25/2024
422 - How to Condition Yourself to Deal with Adrenaline in Stressful Situations
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
The fight-or-flight reflex is always lurking just below the surface. When things get sufficiently stressful, our hormonal system dumps enormous amounts of adrenaline into our bloodstream, and—BOOM—suddenly we’re ready for action. That adrenaline serves a purpose: it elevates your heart rate, makes you much stronger, more pain tolerant, and able to ignore injury. If you ever have to lift a car off a child, you don’t want to be calm. Instead, you want to be mad, scared, enraged—whatever it takes to get into that adrenaline-soaked state of high arousal to lift the damn car with your...
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421 - BJJ Training and Conditioning Myths, with James Deirmendjian from Fit Fight Training
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Three time IBJJ World medallist James Deirmendjian joins me to discuss optimal training methodologies and the science behind strength and conditioning for sport. We cover hacks to improve recovery, debunk common myths in the Jiu-Jitsu community, and go deep into the need for a more scientific approach to training and nutrition. Follow and get in touch with James via https://www.instagram.com/fight_fit_training/ on Instagram. And check out my best-selling book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic at...
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420 - Braving Polar Bears, Facing Off Against the Columbian Military, and Team Dynamics with Frank Wolf
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Frank Wolf is an explorer, a writer, and one hell of an adventurer. In this episode we cover what he learned about endurance and survival during his travels in the Arctic, Central America, and Antarctica. Check out his fantastic book Two Springs, One Summer anywhere you get books in including Indigo and Amazon. Please feel free to share this episode with that one crazy outdoor enthusiast in your life because that's how the show grows! Cheers, Stephan Kesting P.S. Also check out my own book Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic - links available at
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419 - Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic (Audiobook Format)
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
I've got something special for you today: a true adventure story set in the Far North featuring that I underwent a few years ago after a kidney transplant. I ended up learning a LOT about mental toughness, resilience, and strategies for making progress when I was absolutely at the end of my rope, lessons that I think are universally applicable. The book out today in hardcover, Kindle, and Audible audiobook formats. Since this is a podcast, I thought I'd give you the first three chapters in audio form, including an incident so embarrassing that I almost didn't include it in the book at...
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418 - Spartans, Samurai and Ninja with BJJ Black Belt Jeff Nelson
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
I was thrilled to have Jeff Nelson on the show to talk about Spartans, Samurai, Ninja, developing confidence through jiu-jitsu, fight scenes in movies that drive us crazy, and pro-training at some of the best BJJ schools in the world. Follow Jeff on Instagram () and check out his book ! Also check out my new book, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo, or your favorite local bookstore!
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417 - Can You Get Your BJJ Black Belt Without Affiliating with a Specific School?
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Paul Kindzia describes himself as a "homeschooled, non-denominational, it takes a village black belt" and had a very unique route to getting his BJJ black belt. He was a ronin, training at different schools and did a lot of his training in his home dojo. This paid off because he was a top IBJJF Masters competitor at blue, purple, and brown belt, before being awarded his black belt by a coalition of other black belts (myself included) in October of 2024. In this episode we talk about so many things, including - How to get really good if you don't train at a top-tier school - Key aspects...
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416 - How to Climb Everest, with Extreme Alpinist Jost Kobusch
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Jost Kobusch is just back from Everest, where he is doing a multi-year project to climb the tallest mountain in the world... by himself... without oxygen... up the incredibly difficult West Ridge route in the middle of winter. In winter, the effective altitude of Everest is over 9,000 meters, and the winds can reach 250 km/hour (155 mph). And - on top of that - the mountain was hit by a powerful earthquake while he was on it. Find out... How Jost Kobusch optimises his training The relative importance of physical vs mental attributes in extreme sport How he overcame a...
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415 - BJJ and Self Defense, with Tyson 'The Warrior Philosopher' Larone
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Tyson Larone is a BJJ belt, a Muay Thai teacher, TEDx speaker, and a strongman competitor. In this episode he and I dive deep into exploring how BJJ can be used for self defense, including how context changes everything in self defense… adaptations that women and smaller people need to make… the problems with the one time self defense seminar model… the need for force-multipliers and whether guns can act as that force multiplier… the single biggest thing any man can do to keep the women in his life safe and more. We also perceptions and expressions of...
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414 - Optimized BJJ Training for Non-Athletic Grapplers, with Jesse Walker
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
The standard BJJ approach of throwing newcomers to the wolves may work for young and talented athletes, but it's definitely not optimal for most older, non-athletic, or female grapplers (otherwise known as the vast majority of people). In today's episode I'm joined by Jesse Walker from Rough Hands BJJ in Louisville, Kentucky, to discuss the training methods and school culture that'll make jiu-jitsu accessible to (almost) everyone. Check out Rough Hands BJJ training center in Louisville, Kentucky at https://roughhandsbjj.com/ and/or get in touch with Jesse on most social media...
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413 - Strongman Training Secrets, with Kalle Beck
The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting
Kalle Beck has competed, coached and commentated in Strongman events and has helped thousands of people become much, much stronger. Here's how some of the lessons learned from Strongman apply to other sports... Check out Kalle's site at and the Facebook group he runs (the biggest strongman community in the world) at Check out Stephan Kesting's latest jiu-jitsu instructional, No Gi Pin Escapes at and also his book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic, with links for more information here: Cheers, Stephan Kesting
info_outlineKalle Beck has competed, coached and commentated in Strongman events and has helped thousands of people become much, much stronger. Here's how some of the lessons learned from Strongman apply to other sports...
Check out Kalle's site at https://startingstrongman.com/ and the Facebook group he runs (the biggest strongman community in the world) at https://www.facebook.com/groups/startingstrongman/
Check out Stephan Kesting's latest jiu-jitsu instructional, No Gi Pin Escapes at https://www.grapplearts.com/PinEscapes and also his book, Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic, with links for more information here: https://essentialwilderness.com/book/
Cheers,
Stephan Kesting