Joe Rogan Experience #790 — Steve Maxwell Transcript

Transcript

0:00 And we're live, Mr. Maxwell, how are you, sir? People are always curious about this. That's insane. It at him. Pretty crazy. This is everything I own in this world. That's insane. I carry my cords and my iPad and stuff like that. hoodies, a long-sleeved t-shirt. I changed trains like four times, going up and down those damn stairs with a clunk, clunk, clunk, a roller bag.

1:39 I even have my whole workout gym in that thing, man. Very sturdy. and travel anywhere in the world for several weeks Well, if you wear one of the things that I found from hiking and camping for long periods of times, wool. A lot of hunting gear. So you can get like three or four days out of this T-shirt. Check this out. Maybe not you. And this is a little homemade suspension device.

4:29 Bow line, right? So it's instantly adjustable. you can throw on your iPhone. shows you every kind of knot so i can just throw this over a tree do chin-ups bodyweight rows oh And I'll tell you, kettlebell, it's good, but it is a pain in the ass, too. So anyway, that's the workout gym. Well, Charles Atlas, those comic book ads And he was traveling around doing wrestling and bending steel, breaking chains over his

7:07 got recaptured. Back then they couldn't. was the famed Henry Wittenberg. See if you can pull up a picture of that guy. Yeah, Zass. Another proponent of isometrics was the famed Henry Wittenberg. Well, he started as a kid in the force. He's got a beam wrapped around his neck. Imagine how hard it'd be to It's been 15 minutes after my workout. strength and conditioning.

9:34 Go visit him. So they keep – yeah, I know. Yeah, you use your father's. But they referred to him with four different names in the text. He used to hang himself by his neck. Yeah, this is what's now known as catch wrestling or catch as catch can. Wow, that's amazing. Dean's a hell of a black belt. I mean, when I was coming up, in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, there were so many different defenses against

12:58 You rarely see it. Yeah, and you're right in front of them. You see it right there. Game of Death, one of my favorite movies. Was it a crucifix? Crucifix. you really weren't supposed to train anywhere else. Well, you see it from even jiu-jitsu instructors, unfortunately, where jiu-jitsu instructors who only train with the gi start saying terrible things about people who train no-gi.

15:34 It's a whole different game, man. with someone wearing a jacket. Like I had the back of that collar and you're something on the highway and they decided to pull over so they pulled over to the side of the road and got back in the car. Well, In a fight? Had a cab driver try to run me over one time, and I was furious. But thank God for basic stand-up self-defense.

18:39 You've got to wear disguises, bro. Like you would most likely never use any of the techniques that you learn. I do it more as a martial art because I want to run away. They can be very good systemic-wise. They claim it's the oxidative stress. Well, have you ever heard the theory that there's Now, that's something that you have been really a pioneer in avoiding, like keeping your body

21:05 It's hard. They would love it. Ever since I saw that movie Jaws, it's like, forget it, man. I don't know what it is. The ads increase when you get in the water. Oh, no. A giant shark. That is one big-ass shark. That's got to be bigger than eight feet. Yeah Oh my god This is insane Giant shark And the thing just breached the water on a surfboard and it just comes up

23:22 of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco? and then it seems like it It basically grabbed and turned it over. They're not nearly as agile as an orca. Yeah. It just has to keep swimming. Oh, I see. Well, which one is this, Jamie? True. jack la lane used to swim that while pulling a boat full of people. Yeah, he was a crazy man. I don't want to listen to these young guys.

27:31 I think he towed like a person for every year of his life. It looks like a wetsuit there. you know when he was in his late 80s wow and you know okay he's not gonna beat anybody right doing Yeah, well, he was a pioneer of no-holds-barred fights like way back in the day. I don't know whether that's true or not. That's so fascinating because that was a big part of Helio's game too.

29:52 And his favorite thing was to have you put himself into just a really bad position, You would have either had to use an unusual amount of strength to do anything, is the ability to be safe in any position working with people that don't have the same skill sets as yourself. For example, Hickson was A lot of great students. That was before. So I fucked up and stopped training

33:07 They were one big happy family. And it was when Vitor was called. They were calling him Victor Gracie. Do you remember that? I do remember that. One of the men has that going on. So I think Caesar, too. suing Carlson. Oh, I remember that. Yeah. Like Horian was suing all the other Gracies. They Elio was getting a little up there in age you know and was

35:54 He just knew how to do it. I had a really good record. So you went from Philly all the way to Torrance to train. And when I'd run out of money, I would go back to Philly again. they don't even have schools anymore. They just travel and do seminars and they find that that's of your body. And what are the, what are the keys to a person that's like, you know,

39:02 I'll give an example. on an elevated surface lee movie you know that is mobility right so practicing moving through the full range movement Why in the heck? You know what? You can't think about those potential steps. and being at 10 at all times if you do that you're going to be fine. Or purposely just put yourself in dangerous positions and get caught just to practice.

42:05 Yeah. Unless the guy's really, really technical. to put himself on the bottom again and let you sweep me or whatever and just practice his defense in the bottom. do it correctly like you can get away with so much with physical strength and explosiveness and and And, you know, taekwondo, tangsudo, you know, they were at one point deadly martial arts.

44:36 I'm not saying that the guys are not formidable athletes. Guys want to know the basic stand-up street defense. or a fighter, rather, who knows what they're doing. I heard some of the results, Like the referee's position. And then you count up the amount of time. That's how Gary Tonin wound up losing yesterday. being this thing that can really wind up like Polaris you know they had those matches like

47:57 They want to see the skill sets showcased, They're so good they cancel each other out. Yeah, $25,000 for the... I agree, yeah. Well, you know, speaking of that cast wrestling, a lot of people don't realize that pre-Civil They actually used real like peach baskets. Sneakers and cars. How did it go bad? Right, but that's fighting, though. I mean, think about all the things that are on television, golf or whatever.

51:24 I mean, there's something to be said for that as a sport. couple attempts yeah but it kind of fell by the wayside. You have music when you introduce, you have matches in a cage. I met him when I was in Turkey. and then they just keep going until there's like two guys standing. So they came up with this. I mean, like 100 degrees and it really builds up a tremendous heat tolerance, you know,

54:34 Nope. I actually put on the Kisbit and the oil, and I wrestled with the former junior national champ. Let's put it this way. strong. And you can see the physics in these guys Well. Listen, there's no way you can get your hand deep in there like that and not have some shenanigans. That's part of it. But these are strict Islamists, too, love. Super common

57:09 You know how it is. Dude, I'd be there. Don't worry. They're a little hot. And I literally had to oil up my balls and my ass and my thighs just to slide in that thing, man. Right there. Look at that one. Boom. friend. That's the That was the so-called origins of the whole sport. Yeah, sure. Team warfare, man. And one of the theories I had was – and you don't see it in rugby or rugby union or Gaelic football or anything like that.

1:01:08 And they start using the head as a weapon. Well, they do have a new kind of helmet now I heard that just came out that really reduces the sloshing of the brain. There's a new helmet now that supposedly is gel-like that it takes the blow, but, you know, it saves the. The same thing with MMA. amount of protection on their hands and it's just to protect their hands. Like I still, to this day,

1:03:56 I mean, you have to really concentrate to keep your fist completely tight, What did you have him do back then? Breaking your hand. You can't just sit there and tee off. Yes. It might be boring knees, the kicks, the elbows, all would be exactly the same. Especially like rear naked. with all the padding on the gloves. where they didn't have all the, you know,

1:07:05 early UFCs because Tank was a power puncher and he was smart enough to realize, you know what, It was optional. Okay. But the original gloves were Century gloves, you know, the Century Martial they just sort of applied it to MMA. And it became the standard. It's illegal. Well, and also the reason why gloves are mandatory is because somehow or another they erroneously believe those gloves protect the fighters.

1:09:40 would say fuck that most people would say bare fuck that. Most people would say bare knuckles is probably safer for everybody involved. Safer. I think so, too. and I just always felt like I got hit way more when I had headgear on. I didn't put the cause and effect together. People would think it's too brutal. I don't know, man. think about combat sports and fighting, right?

1:11:40 Oh my God. used to shins being covered. You know, like Jack Johnson and those guys. I think they knew better. the first professional army I really do. artist of today, like Demetrius Johnson, who I think they would know what they were doing. I think they Okay, I see what you're saying. Like there's all these like viral BJJ, which is one of the ones I follow on Instagram. There's a bunch of them I follow on Instagram, where they'll have moves of the day, and they show these moves,

1:14:29 and spun out of the heel hook into a Kimura. again there's so many of those now but let's go back to what we were just talking about in ancient times your your ability to fight was a life or death thing you know you were actually If you live. And they like to look, oh, those guys, boy, if they could fight today. I mean, is that because he was Mike?

1:16:28 I agree. and understand. It was one of those crazy kung fu movies? There was a video of him hitting the bag recently for some shoot for something that he did. I'm trying not to. It's pretty straightforward. Yes. He's the guy who's in charge of what they call the Donaher Death Squad. But Donahue and I were having dinner, and GSP wanted – he asked me if I knew anyone who –

1:19:49 Won the EBI. I know it's going to sound ridiculous, being a comedian and know just a commentator that's just your disguise man well it's just it's it sounds even to me people ask me that all the time Well, I certainly would have competed, you know, in MMA like I did in kickboxing and taekwondo. Because there's going to be some animal in there that's not thinking about getting

1:21:45 many, many years and Smoke and Joe Frazier used to be down in my neighborhood sometimes. The poor That's why jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling is so much And I think one of the things that you brought up earlier when it comes to joint mobility and just flexibility and mobility, Just to maintain. Overtraining is epidemic amongst grapplers, jiu-jitsu guys, even MMA guys are just chronically burning out.

1:24:05 then they say oh well old steve he still got it going there and then they start upping the ante I can still do dips. but it can't do anything to really help you. I mean my thumb, just a hook. And it stretches out the coracoid bone We need to make a t-shirt that says, labral tears. You know, they take all the pull-up bars out of the playgrounds. Yeah.

1:26:58 So not like this like you were doing before? It's just relaxing the impingements? his living doing surgery. Now he doesn't advocate. He says this works better. Wow. This is an and Like, it's too simple to be true. I had a torn biceps tendon. what Kersh found, it didn't matter what the and it's incredible. What about one of the ones that goes in front

1:29:40 I've been, what, doing this since about 2005, I think? And you gotta turn the engine over And the van was up in Seattle. He wired me the money. I mailed him the title and the key because I traveled with, I kept the key and I had the title with me. I mailed that to him. He went up and got it and drove it back down to Also, I knew about you because I knew that you were one of the first American Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts.

1:32:04 There was a lot of guys out there teaching that probably shouldn't have been teaching. Get out of here. Really? I was hired by a group of grapplers to prepare them for the Society Island Championship. and an unbelievable grappler. even though I was, you know, like 30 years And I get on the mat with them. Yeah, white belt teacher. No. but he said basically a white belt is a sperm, just the seed.

1:35:10 know they're starting to know that they can do it too purple belts i feel like it's like some of the Like we're talking about these new moves that are constantly coming out. I have a backup. Move And he's heavy, but he's not that heavy. went over to the Arab Emirates and I wanted to support Salo and Hoyler at that time. And I couldn't believe the clinic he put on. All closed guard, too. That's

1:37:33 On top of being this amazing jiu-jitsu practitioner, he's just a beautiful human being. Never saw anything like it. But that's not bad. Another example. Crazy. Like with darts chokes and things along those lines Right. Yeah. Yeah. When I first heard about it, I thought this is such bullshit. But this was an impromptu call, so I don't know. He's also, have you heard of this mental science?

1:41:52 like a real negative person, always That would be So like The Secret, So anyway, he read my life. And he really honed it down to the town Lahaina. No, but so anyway, Maui is supposedly the best vibration for me. And then I ask him, like, well, what is it you're actually looking at at the computer? because of the terrorist attacks and things, and people are really scared with the ISIS and all

1:44:43 ocean because, you know, I put too much energy into that. But anyway, there is a collective mindset. The mood is much higher. And then another place was- It was a little town. Like, the place is relaxed. He's been doing a great job for me. Yeah, that's an interesting point. have benefit in those things. Or you could look at the exact same thing, They'd be like, you live in America and you're white and you don't have cancer.

1:48:18 But then we've also had the experience where a guy would come in who was a real bright, positive-thinking person, everyone's mood would just let—that's that collective consciousness you've got to be so You support each other and help each other. And it benefits everybody. And you develop a real keen sense of love and community. Whereas have really stressful lives and don't get enough sleep and are constantly negative and thinking about things. Sleep is more important than diet. You know, people that are overweight,

1:50:18 Yeah, that is an interesting aspect of a lack of sleep is that your body holds on to fat. about this astrology stuff? He created his own heliocentric, you know, with the sun as the center. are at any given moment that kind of almost makes sense but this guy doing it on his own and the way my marriage went and the way my marriage dissolved. He's told me not to do stuff and I've done it and it never has worked out for me

1:53:13 You're not following your own advice. And then I'll call him a day or two later and it's completely changed. If you change your thought or your vibration level, he actually sees a change on his chart on his computer. And he would test these things out for various deficiencies, this, that, and the other thing, right? It's some pretty crazy shit. I don't believe it.

1:55:10 Right, but this is— We know that an electron can occupy more than one space, You're not testing subatomic particles when you're testing hair. Like everything puts off They've actually taken pictures of it. Karelian photography. If you ever try to bang some chick who's really into crystals, I bet she'll talk to you about it. it probably has its applications.

1:57:17 In a recent study, and they found that placebos worked way better. I got knee surgery and I didn't take a damn thing. Can't you just deal with not feeling good while you heal? They were looking at x-rays of people's backs. little tiny micro injuries constantly but yet i'm not in any pain at all yeah well pain is an And if people, what I find, a lot of people are really into the body, but they're not

2:00:32 It is. No one's taking advantage of me. guideline. And I'm gonna have good confidence in that these choices are going to be correct because I would want to find out, okay, how are you making these distinctions? You don't know that. What he's looking at is like, you know, we're really influenced by the collective a lot, you know, like people's general moods and so forth.

2:03:06 He's looking at pictures. Time is valuable. You're a little wacky guy who lives kind of like a psychologist a psychiatrist in a way is like in ancient times the scientists An advisor. Why would he tell you not to do a seminar? I have done it, and it would be not such a good one. Maybe he's on to it, man. that know stuff that we don't man I've looked at your charts.

2:05:46 And I could look at all of them. that could potentially, right, have seen that. You're talking about voodoo. your plane doesn't get hit by a meteor and everybody gets out alive and at the end of Plus, I like this guy. Somewhere based on the energy of the universe. No. No, that's not real. It's definitely not real. I will tell you with 100% confidence

2:07:56 It would be something that people would be talking about. And if you follow this code, you will have predictable, repeatable events. And this woo-woo bullshit that comes along with tarot card reading, with palm reading, or what you should and shouldn't do. And in doing that, you can plant some thoughts and seeds of crazy well it's just if if there's a method to it Like if this guy says Oh here's the reason why

2:10:16 All these different factors Telling people about miracle weight loss fucking berries. Crazy a month, and I didn't notice Well, I try to always keep the quality as best I can. Yeah, it's just raw calories, you know. So it's some starch. It's not the best stuff in the world. It's not like I'm going to be eating that as a habit. it even more. And I wanted to punch the guy right in the face. And I'm looking

2:13:49 quality, because there's just no other thing available. Well, so what, you'll be fine. You What did they confiscate? Speaking of Voodoo, right? Could be attracted to the stuff. Yeah, you can take water and all sorts of stuff. It's hilarious. It's really weird what will go through security and what won't. a knife. It opened up into a little I have like a little flint and steel fire starter sometimes.

2:16:52 Speaking of creating a mental... Right. Right. Do you bring kindling with you as well? You bring a compass? Or are you just like, anybody who wants to do a seminar, I'm open for the journey? They must be well trained because she nailed me for everything, man. Rock climbers use it. opening knife is considered a weapon and the police took me back I sat there I almost missed

2:20:16 I could have got away with the credit card In most places, you don't have to take off your shoes. I saw them this past time making people prove that their computers could turn on. No, just even within the U.S. I don't like to read the actual news because it's always And anyway, there was a new... hit international news well yeah there we go This last time I took the budget, Sparrow Airlines, they don't have any contract with TSA.

2:22:43 Man, that pre is so nice. The old days, man. I'm setting up a little home base to work out. on a weekly basis and do them literally really enjoy. Like what? I like the clubs. I like club swinging. I like swinging the light clubs, Back in the day, huh? And they came from Germany, by the way, not Russia. There was a lot of really weird designs. adjustable weights and so forth. If you had

2:25:45 weightlifting i don't believe that it's the most efficient way to train athletes there's an awful Right. It's like self-selective. So I'm going to use modalities to do that. finish off a double-A pickup throw or something. Yeah, doing a box jump is a whole lot different than shooting a double leg throw. Right. danger to my body. And wrestling is a tough sport as it is, your training should prevent injuries.

2:29:46 your skills as a martial artist? He tried leg presses, cleans, front squats, all this stuff. I'm a big fan of that type of deadlift. My only feeling on trap bar deadlifts is I always felt like I didn't get deep enough because the 45-pound plates were so large. because what they do as an athlete is risky enough. And then work the ancillary muscles of the neck, the fingers, the hands, the forearms, the grip.

2:32:54 against the resistance. I said, that is freaking brilliant, dude, to strengthen the muscles of the Remember when we brought up Alexander's ass with the teeth lifting with that beam Yeah, yeah. I think one of the best things ever invented was the old Nautilus four-way neck machine. to believe? Yeah, well, you gotta try it yourself. He used to use that rubber band.

2:34:56 You know, if you're an idiot and you're using a lot of momentum and, you know, you're using I mean, okay, we know that you can get really strong Many of those guys don't stand the test of time. No way that I would advocate that stuff now, man. What about side-to-side movements? I always like – well, it depends on the speed of movement too. Like a 90-second set.

2:37:31 It's been used for a while. 90 minutes a week? He used a lot of negatives. We were talking about Pavel before the podcast. That's what he does. Right. And also, a lot of the low repetition stuff, you know, that comes from the field of weightlifting. Olympic lifting works. you don't want to be beat up for days after your workout obviously that was one of the reasons why

2:41:20 No other team's done it before or since, ever, in the history of the NFL. So it all works. So there's something wrong with your technique and your form. And drill those. I do it for three reps, and then I throw it down. Just make sure it's not people's hands. Well, that's one of the things we found on fear factor. That was interesting curls like a bunch of bitches.

2:44:42 There's a lot of stress on your joints, too. It's like one of those ropes that would tether off an ocean liner. But, yeah, for jiu-jitsu and wrestling, fantastic sports specific grip old people have really weak hands And holds it. Right. biceps. Yeah, retractions. I've actually done static contraction where I just pulled myself up and held it so I couldn't hold it.

2:48:15 hang. Okay, you have a measurable weight there, right? The other version of that would be you But if you're really trying to shorten the abdominals and really squeezing and creating this tension, you create a tremendous amount of muscle fatigue. I was one of the original super slow trainers back in the day. On a chin-up, it would be the top part. And then how long would you hold at the very bottom?

2:50:25 I've gone like 10-10, 15-15. But probably the fittest yeah a lot of smoking that you have to be it's vanity to take care of your body i just think it's intelligence i think it's foolishness to not Well, you know Anthony Bourdain. Getting himself cleaned up. Well, no. And then once he got Every day. I use one with a metronome so I can hear the text.

2:53:47 Well, not for 90 seconds, just the running stopwatch. Now, do you do the same sort of technique for squats or for any other exercises? Like you're facing the wall, and how close are you to the wall? I would recover. explode. It's amazing, isn't it? You don't have to go fast to get a good cardio metabolic workout. of an exercise. It's basically upward and downward

2:56:04 lot of momentum. It was basically one second up, one second down. The dude did 25, which is impressive, I mean, well, we talked about this last time. The injuries that I've had, if anyone has the excuse for not training, You know, not training just because you're injured. Ab roller Jackie Chan. This guy's doing it. Try to, well, no, don't try it because I don't want you to hurt your back.

2:58:32 Very safe. It's the same movement as that. I had sciatica so bad, Joe, I couldn't even walk. in the weakest part of the curve, the resistance is at its highest. Right. I see what you're checking that thing. I'll tell you what I do enjoy is the 45-degree back extension bench where you do back extensions. I was at Arthur Jones Ranch when he was doing his experiments with Med-X, which was

3:00:58 Because he was basically poo-pooing most back exercises. And man, I'll tell you, that's one area of my back Really good, hands-on rolfer. So it's bent for people who are not listening. And I would walk in there in absolute agony and I was sitting in a back chair. underneath your armpits and clamp, right? Spinal decompression is gigantic. I didn't have the table or the room for it at the time,

3:04:06 I was so far gone. With the handles that didn't hurt For fighters a lot of wrestlers use them. No, no. And also, you know, corkscrewing the hands, gripping, activating the lats and all that kind of stuff can really keep you out of pain. I started looking deeper into isometrics and I found these old school techniques that I've made but the chance of hurting yourself with isometrics is virtually none.

3:06:36 where you could actually keep your muscles in shape And I think, yeah. MaxwellSC.com one of the best ones Feed the media machine, baby. We'll be back tomorrow.