Joe Rogan Experience #491 — Steve Maxwell Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! And I got one of your kettlebell DVDs, which I thought was very informative and very interesting. You're doing seminars all over the place. My father got me a York barbell set. I went kicking and screaming. But I sure liked to clinch and take guys down, man. Everybody was trying to lift weights and get huge. A lot more emphasis was placed on health.

3:35 something that you had, a conversation that you had with someone. Something got very skewed right towards the end of the 60s, early 70s. There's some sort of a weird psychological condition Really? But in those days, you know, it was still legal in the early days. Well, everyone talks about lactose intolerance and things along those lines, but a big issue with lactose intolerance is just homogenized and pasteurized milk.

6:13 lines, that's not because the milk is bad. It's because somehow or another it was handled poorly Cattle were never meant to eat grain. Yeah, people have this aversion to Like that's the best way to eat meat. come from eating bear meat. Interesting. I've had bear meat, by the way. This guy was a firearms expert. He's so hurt because, you know, he made this especially for me.

9:48 You just have to make sure you cook it correctly. yeah whether they're scavenging and so forth but you know back to uh quality of food and so forth Do you follow anything like a Gracie diet or one of those things where you don't combine foods to give your digestive system a bit of a break? Oh, man. Yeah, okay. Then I did a lot of research and reading about it. I read about this guy, Herbert Sheldon, who had a clinic in San Antonio,

12:31 meal, and a protein-based meal. I can have my protein meal for breakfast. I can have my protein meal for lunch and so forth. And usually with the protein meal, if it's really cold or I'm really hungry, I'll I mean, I'm in a different country every couple weeks. Yeah, the electromagnetic fields from the plane. I said, all right, well, let's look up how much radiation an x-ray does cause you.

14:34 and you're not overburdening the system, I find that if I rest up really well and don't do anything too strenuous, I bounce back pretty quick. transition, the second I get on the plane, I reset my watch to whatever time zone I'm going to be in. steps you can get on the exhale. So you might be taking like 20 steps in one inhale and exhaling over 20 steps and you'll keep that going. That's really interesting. I do something

17:09 So obviously it's not as harmless. They started the revolution. Zach, excuse me. Yeah. Really? but I make it fun. You know, I have them arm bar me and, you know, I just show them where to put Like they're standing on this thing. they have a panic response so it's passed on through their genetics cellular memory yes Because she did what I've done probably 100,000 times.

21:08 We may in our lifetime. When they turn over, for some reason, they go docile. Sure, cats. There's a crazy video of a lion, a female lion, killing a wildebeest. by holding onto its neck. It's fascinating to watch because it's totally like a couple times a day. or anything through so i bought like just one of these cheap little wooden slingshots and you know you don't

23:39 They would put the feet in the hips and flip each other over. Fascinating. you're just emile you know yeah he was crazy he had a lot of issues for sure i mean as you I mean, it's – and then the other bear hip escapes and gets back to guard. I was a college wrestler at the time. And it was amazing how this bear would use single leg takedowns. anyway he was throwing this joe has around and this was just like a little black bear. And then people could wrestle the bear, you know,

26:37 I don't even think we ever used it on the show. And then they start to think and act like they're human because they've been humanized. It's like 98, they have the same genetics, 98% of the readers. Crazy strong. He had a huge herd of the biggest. airplanes. He was a pilot. I wouldn't even imagine you'd get a fucking elephant on a plane. slaughtering elephants. So he decided to do some conservation work. But at any rate, he had a pet

29:58 Wow. Yeah, I bet it was coming at 300 miles an hour. A chimpanzee, they say that 150... I can't believe you found that picture. Pretty much. 1900s it was just a legend they did that was a recent discovery as far as like they were into trophy hunting and they were probably just and the different tribes actually hunt each other, They're omnivores. Yeah.

33:06 cannot be absorbed or assimilated into the body. So we have to do things like cook food, you know, Do you cold-press juice? It's like your body just goes, yes! He was in amazing shape. I mean, it was really bad, the cuts and so forth that he got. I mean, even if he wasn't in shape, Diego's just got such an incredible will. Well, maybe he's trained a little bit different way.

35:41 and that he had some sort of a food poisoning that sapped him of his strength. and then later I got into Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Now that I think about it, I don't think it was Vegas. Airbnb. What? Airbnb. So much cheaper than hotels. So you go and go to a grocery store. I find, believe it or not, in Europe and even Russia, It's all waxy and shiny and everything is lined up.

38:28 Let's just take the cereal aisle for example. Boy, have you ever had, I grow tomatoes, and if I take one of my tomatoes and I pick it, there's just not there. I mean, they're grown in nutritionally depleted soil. and they eat food. They eat table scraps too, which is great because food that, you know, we necessarily might not eat. He lived up in the hills, and he had his own farm.

41:20 Wow. Extremely high in all sorts of nutrients and so forth. It was really cool. I mean, I thought about it. How big is 65 liters? It's about maybe in the eastern seaboard. And then I was Horace Gracie's trainer for his first couple years. Wow. I was trying to prep him for the Valigi fight. And she was actually going to get her degree in podiatric medicine.

45:04 He stayed with me for, I forget how many weeks. But she took Hoyes out and they fell in love. And that was the first snow that Hoyce had ever experienced. Of course, he wanted to drive my car in the snow. Very... What kind of car was it? That was back in the early days, you know, when things were still innocent. So you were way ahead of the curve. And what were you doing for work then?

47:21 I basically sucked at these striking arts. 70s and double leg takedown goes a long way. this whole self-defense aspect in mind, which they really emphasized in those days. But yeah, With Horian or Hoyce or Hoyler positions over and over again, and you can't or so, right, with the private lessons. and I would just basically beat up these poor guys. Oh, yeah, some good throws and so forth.

50:36 I went through the ranks, but then I reached the level of my incompetence. We were in the middle of a session, you know, and I was being what, you know, in the jiu-jitsu world is sort of rude. He said, well, why are you grinding your head these next 10 minutes going to happen was that emotional thing going on. And then he says, okay, how does it feel, Steve?

52:26 using all that power and strength and being so rude and I got the flu How do you roll with someone for 20 minutes if you're just going, you can't, you can't sprint for 20 minutes. Henner and Huron, they say that all the time. Elio told me one time that he considered the No, not that I know of. I mean, he did stretching and, you know, basic jujitsu conditioning

54:41 There was no way he was going to overpower anyone. Shigeru Kano organized all the Jiu-Jitsu clans in Japan They had knee locks. 1,000. You mean on stage? And there were no-hold And he fought boxers. And that became part of the training for Army aviators during World War II. He went to Mexico, and they would go to the mining camps or lumberjack camps where he had all these guys with a lot of money, and they would bet.

57:32 and his groundwork was just absolutely superb. That was the main sanctioning body in Japan at that time. five sons And they basically were doing the jiu-jitsu of Maeda. weights and the bantam weights he's 125 135 pound fighters and I have said many many times if you And they'll do that right up through a purple belt like myself. if that guy just fell in love with jiu-jitsu and just was passing the guard, mounting, taking backs, taking arm bars,

1:00:40 Yeah, none of them embraced jiu-jitsu. and they start to embrace the technique of jiu-jitsu. If you go to any high-level wrestling room, you'll watch guys hit techniques over and It's very subtle, a lot of setups. and how much more they rely on those techniques and the subtle varieties of their exchanges and, you know, attacks and counters. was Yasushi Miyake, who was one of the judges for Pride. He was a fourth on black belt in judo from

1:03:20 He puts on the white belt, you know, no fuss. Dude, he's doing like sagging augies from the knees and throwing guys, man. There was some kind of internet because I was completely non-tech. This guy is unbelievable, man. And I guess he had heard about Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wanted to try it out. You really put me on the spot with these dates. Maybe it was 2000, after 2000.

1:05:48 So, uh, I went to Carlson's. It wasn't Vitor. And I got a chance to see Mario Sperry was down there. I came in and I watched that all happen Well, a lot of people don't realize I'll never forget when you showed me that spinning back kick on the banana bags in your garage. I did a bunch of different therapies for it. Do you do any of that? the postural integration techniques.

1:09:31 But this woman saved my life and my jiu-jitsu career. I'll put all these on Instagram later like if there's a fever. And so it generates this intense anti-inflammatory response. And I used to be quite the supplement hound. You're using your own body, so it's different than taking a sup. the fetal tissue there was so much fucking craziness craziness man and this this thing

1:13:01 It's done in Vegas and Dallas. He was ready to retire from football. Go ahead, man. and I have no financial, just in the interest of full disclosures, I have no financial interest in this whatsoever. Because it's pretty dramatic and pretty quickly. overdoing it i don't know but i work out like a madman and for me it has a huge difference between Like I eat very little sugar at this point in my life.

1:16:28 when you're eating raw, natural fruits. But the grass-fed butter and MCT oil is what slows down the digestion of the caffeine because it's blended up together with the coffee. Your body's getting this sweetness because you're ingesting all these nutrients. Good for your body. I have. When I lived in Florida. There was like a sugarcane field near our house that was University of Florida in Gainesville.

1:18:50 Is that what it is? But it's a fruit. He was a dentist. food, the freshness of the food, and the lack of stress in their diets. And of course, the exposure No, no, not at all. your body makes its own natural vitamin D. A lot of people don't even know about it, but vitamin D actually even has kind of a steroid Yes. But there was also Dr. Herbert M. Sheldon who wrote Food Combining Made Easy.

1:23:26 But I've done a lot of reading and research on my own and I pretty much pulled away from Western medical model. Yeah, yeah. Really? Well, for sure. your stud dog, they have relatively short lifespans. you should have as a martial artist. That's a huge issue that comes up a lot. Um, it comes up a lot brutal knockout puncher, couldn't put Diego away.

1:26:31 Guys with neurological efficiency are able to use a lot of their muscle fiber all at once, So they have less power. That's an inborn thing. Explosively to make you more explosive on the mat. I have. I've had acupuncture to release some of that tension in the muscle. But bold of you to talk about it. nothing more than your brain thinking that it's got the cure.

1:29:55 that a lot of these things happen. I don't buy into anything that's old when it comes to gets a little sketchy, you know, like, you know like Christ rising from the dead and all this stuff. called the New Thought where people began to realize That's basically what Einstein was talking about. Those people, you're right, nothing good ever happens to you.

1:32:28 And it empowers me, and I feel like it enables me to also spread that empowerment onto other folks. he's pretty much going to get his ass kicked right that said if you're some guy who's not very good Right. But I do know when it comes to the body, you have an amazing capacity for self-healing. but then when you start and think of harmonious relationships with your

1:35:14 with stuff they never use or don't need. taking more in. I mean, it's just like this whole belief system in accumulation like i need to add So they focus entirely on an ice cream sundae knowing that they But then that's quickly replaced with either disgust or self-loathing. I mean, if you think about it, you can kick cigarettes, you can kick most drugs.

1:37:37 It's a very good way of putting it. overeat and eat as much as possible because food was not very prevalent. Right. Now in this modern yeah yeah stuff your face, breed. I guess to take risks in the rewards of life. We had him on the podcast. I hope not. Yeah. bother me that much but man when i when i would head kick Both of them were two. My legs just gave out.

1:41:45 with just one left hook I'm going to beat the fuck I sort of realized And when I was completely obsessed with competition, I'm teaching. and just every day would get up and run hills and stairs And I'll never forget it. It's never, you know, never an intentional thing, at least on my behalf. well, I'm thinking about fighting, you're going to fight someone who is,

1:44:48 Then don't do it. if you want to be a fighter you have to only have that in your head if you have anything in your Like how do you go about doing it? You literally generate the feeling of being that. still using it yeah there's certain folks that just they have super confident and they i only You know, that was a crazy slam and he broke his collarbone and fucked him up.

1:47:43 Not only that, he was way smaller than Tito. Beautiful guard work. took him down over and over again maurice defended while he was on the bottom and then eventually got when you think about how, Really in the early days. I interviewed him. And he taught a lot of guys that. You know, we saw these guys learning. Wow. And he wanted to use it as a showcase to show the superiority of jiu-jitsu or basically what happens to you if you don't know how to fight on the ground.

1:50:52 There's also what I had heard was that he couldn't control Hickson and that he didn't like that Hickson was a bit of a wild man. Yep. with those gloves. You would with knees Your hands break. The other thing, too, was with the no-time limit have a sip of water, someone is picking your feet up or relaxing your legs. It's impossible to underestimate, to underemphasize it or overemphasize it.

1:53:19 And Matt Hughes is a monster. Went hoisted to guys thousands of times. With good technique. He was constantly around guys that were really, really high-level, It was. That would have been really interesting. because Jeremy is a really smart guy no ego who has a body It became, yeah, it became a real bona fide sport. They would put on knee pads and fight in these hotel ballrooms.

1:56:48 To find out if a guy's any good. Zero. Really. and as strong as absolutely possible. is going to also improve. So if you do chin-ups, like say if you can do – I can do 20 chin-ups. It would. Absolutely. I have a black belt in the gi. put him to sleep with. That's a beautiful choke. They don't overly depend on grips. so he knows how to grapple. judo game and his Greco-Roman wrestling game were virtually identical.

2:01:15 receiving end of it. The guy was brutal. Well, when you see the guys that are really good at Yoshida? Was it Akiyama? It was really fun to watch. But you asked me some football questions. we talk about cardio and gas, right? The absolute best way to get your cardio and gas at a high level is to wrestle or to do mma the problem is a lot of bring his cardio up and get him really tired.

2:04:02 Oh, yeah. But normally, normally normally you You do need to lift weights a couple times a week just to keep, you know, fairly heavy weight, low rep, And, yes, okay, if you don't have someone to push you in the gym, yes, this stuff and then come back and you're just like, oh, death. So even when you're pushing hard, you're still pushing hard at your pace. You're not reacting

2:06:53 You're basically throwing a barbell over your head and jumping underneath it simultaneously. I mean, these guys are amazing athletes in their own right. Yeah. Let's face it. bell is for. Kettlebells are for swings, pretty much. Get-ups, you know, bodyweight training, There's a lot of things that kettlebells really don't simulate. Heavy strength work, low reps, heavy weights.

2:09:48 about developing strength, endurance, or cardio with the And hypertrophy, I've always seen that word. That seems to be the most important factor to increase muscular strength. Do you believe in It hasn't got worse. It's fantastic for that. What kind of system is it when the inventor of the system is not a good example of what he's putting out there?

2:12:08 Well, I'd listen to you anyway, but – hey, do you want to fight? Right, right. But that just doesn't happen. There was a major university study on CrossFit, right? And for sure, it improved people's fitness injuries, not cause injuries. If you're hurting yourself in the gym with your supplementary Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That's pretty sick, man.? Pictures of it. It's not a video, but.

2:14:34 It just fell on his, oh, fuck. Right. To make you a better athlete, to increase your performance. just love pushing myself. I'm like, okay, have you ever done jujitsu? You know, I tried to get is what he was coined. Now, he got better. It would take them a long time to adapt to jiu-jitsu or wrestling. I'm in shape. And part of the skill of jiu-jitsu, of course, is conserving your energy

2:18:29 when I was in really good jujitsu shape. I could roll hard for a long period of time and I'd a fight coming up in like four months and he would take the first six weeks and just concentrate And, you know, the shark bait drills. Man, I'm telling you, even a high-level black bot is going to get taken down by a blue bot at some point or get scored on because you get that tired.

2:20:41 a lot of the endurance in the ring now imagine imagine an MMA fighter that has to have high-level endurance on takedowns, Yeah. How do they figure out how they're overtrained? It's pretty handy. What? It's called Instant Heart Rate. You hold your finger on the camera lens and do it. It's pretty handy. Because the Samsung Galaxy S5, the new Galaxy Samsung, one of the things I like about it that I was thinking about picking it up is it has a heart rate monitor built into the actual phone itself because they have some sort of fit app.

2:22:18 You know, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I was running here. I sell them. I'm going to send you one. So it's laying out there on Santa Monica Boulevard somewhere on that little trail. Yeah, some stinky bum. Sure beats Toronto or Chicago. Yeah. Is it working? Yeah. And you hold your finger on the lens. Yeah. You're doing it, Jamie? Yeah. Is it working?

2:23:34 Yes. Dude. Okay, let's see. There you go. Take it for seven, divide. Fascinating. that means if you have an elevated heart rate, there's days when you're beat and exhausted and you got to push through. a lot of these kids are pretty addicted to training, but you could also do skill rehearsal. Yeah. No, look, I was very impressed with Zach. So stretch.

2:27:29 Let's put it this way. You've the biologic level. And Jim Miller was talking about how he believes that weight cutting took completely out cold, eyes open, lying on top. So this guy's got to be pretty doggone good. But, I mean, what the hell is that, man? That's only three more years older than I am. But that aside, you know, people that are just doing this for fun,

2:31:07 Won the title. Held his own. It's incredible. it tried it again missed it again and then wound up fighting for a non-title fight because he You're not going to be at your best. experience, like Somehow I got talked into going down to I got sick. Usually about 170 maybe. then and there there's no cheating the scales can Can't do that for the UFC, though.

2:34:48 I mean, you know. But if everybody's doing it, it almost is a necessity to compete at the highest levels. Well. I didn't believe him. No one's clean. And guys would get up. That's crazy stuff, man. They probably have to. Like a thing like cycling and triathlons. It's absolutely, utterly devastating if you're not used to it. Because he'll throw a lot of punches that aren't even that fast.

2:37:46 Yeah. it illegal they are now testing the the place winners in the munja and you're suspended now And now we have the TRT issue, which I had Dr. Mark Gordon, which I think is very important. and the only way to do it is with testosterone, But, yeah, doing high-intensity interval training. gains that they're making in genetic engineering and what they're pushing for?

2:40:33 It's going to happen. Their workmanship. Yes, the work that this guy... Their workmanship. I can't believe I said Muhammad Ali, Just screaming. Remember Drago in Russia? there spiking him you know, I mean, Golden age of Greece. And that was it. But probably when it goes into full swing and becomes completely accepted by society, Your diet is very unusual in that respect.

2:44:18 greece where there's an unusual amount of people that live to be over 100 years old The idea is if you overburden your digestion by overeating or making yourself feel full, It probably goes way back to ancient times. We got like five. that you don't go black belt now Right. I like to do light roles. Usually the instructor at the school is pretty good.

2:46:11 I try not to roll with the really heavy guys anymore. routine. You have a DVD on it? Yeah. Video downloads, actually. I've switched from DVDs Where do I get it from? .com. So if someone wants to get a strength and conditioning program from you, you do all I don't care how long you've been in the game. You were also, God, we're running out of time here. I wish we weren't. Um, you were in Russia recently.

2:48:21 Man, he put me in the most painful wrist lock. What does it have its roots in? Good for any sportsman, wrestlers, jiu-jitsu guys. Did you back it up? A lot of that is Ryabko's punched those guys, and he hurts when he punches. But there's something to it. It's funny because the Gracies all did it, but they never taught us. out here. I shot a trailer for a possible reality TV show. And that's what I was doing here in LA,

2:51:35 No keys, because I don't have any locks to need them for. Hell no. I appreciate you coming on, man. I have no idea, man. So if you want to learn about kettlebells or how to teach them better, get to the Revgear expo. Go to Squarespace.com On Thursday, we got Greg Fitzsimmons, It might be sold out this week.