The Strenuous Life Podcast with Stephan Kesting

Updated: 02 Dec 2025 • 439 episodes
www.grapplearts.com

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.

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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

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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

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Canoeist and author Adam Shoalts on the mindset that drives individuals to seek adventure, and the importance of safety and decision-making in the wilderness. We also dive into the mysterious disappearance of the greatest explorer you've never heard of.   Grab Adam's book, Vanished Beyond the Map, anywhere books are so

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Today the tables get turned and I end up on the other end of the microphone as Steve Kwan from BJJ Mental Models picks my brain about the huge benefits that arise to treating your jiu-jitsu submissions as positions first, and submissions second. I promise this will make perfect sense by the end of the episode, and may

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Renowned BJJ blackbelt Roy Dean came onto The Strenuous Life Podcast to talk about his research into how BJJ got started in North America, martial arts culture in Japan, the power of Judo in self defense situations, the importance of role models in shaping one's conception of masculinitym and more. If you get a chance,

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Beatrice Jin shares the competition strategies that have allowed her to become the American National adult black belt middleweight champion and one of the top ranked black belts in the world.   From guard pulls to sweeps to takedowns to pin escapes to conditioning to KO grips to structuring open mats so that they becom

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