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April 25, 2016 - The Joe Rogan Experience
03:07:37
Joe Rogan Experience #790 - Steve Maxwell
Participants
Main voices
j
joe rogan
01:14:56
s
steve maxwell
01:50:51
Appearances
Clips
j
jamie vernon
00:09
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Speaker Time Text
joe rogan
And we're live.
Mr. Maxwell.
How are you, sir?
steve maxwell
Mr. Rogan.
joe rogan
Always good to see you, brother.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
And you brought your bag of all your belongings.
steve maxwell
All my goodies, man.
Everything I own in this world.
I'll show it to you.
People are always curious about this.
joe rogan
This always comes up with my wife whenever I say, Steve Maxwell's going to be on the podcast.
That's that guy that lives out of the bag.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
Look at him.
steve maxwell
I'm pretty crazy.
This is everything I own in this world.
joe rogan
That's insane.
steve maxwell
It fits right in my back.
joe rogan
He has a, I mean, that's not even a really large backpack.
Like, if you brought that elk hunting, people would be upset with you.
steve maxwell
Yeah, like 45 liters.
And then a little man purse, you know?
joe rogan
So a man purse in a backpack?
unidentified
Yeah, a little man purse.
steve maxwell
I carry my cords and my iPad and stuff like that.
unidentified
Wow.
steve maxwell
Stuff I need in a plane.
And I travel all over the world.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
Pack really carefully as you can imagine.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Three t-shirts, three pair of pants, three pair of shorts, a rain jacket, two lightweight hoodies, a long sleeve t-shirt.
I could pretty much recite.
I never felt more liberated than when I got rid of all my stuff.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
And I'm in a different country every couple of weeks.
A lot of people say, hey, why not the roller bag, Steve?
If you travel in any kind of third world country, down cobblestones, I actually had a roller bag, but I ditched it my first trip to London.
I changed trains like four times, going up and down those damn stairs with a clunk, clunk, clunk roller bag.
I said, you know what?
This really sucks.
I'm going to carry it on my body.
I don't get any money from these guys, but it's a Tom Bin, B-I-H-N. Fantastic travel bags.
So well configured.
You wouldn't believe the stuff I get in there.
I even had my whole workout gym in that thing, man.
joe rogan
Really?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
What kind of stuff's in there that you carry around with you everywhere?
Now this, Tom Benton, is this for hiking or is this just primarily a travel bag?
steve maxwell
No, it's a travel bag.
I wouldn't want to take a serious hike with it, but...
joe rogan
Looks like it's pretty sturdy.
steve maxwell
Very sturdy.
I use packing cubes.
There's different packing ways.
A good resource for your listeners that travel full-time, go to OneBag.com.
He has many recommendations for various bags where you can just basically one carry-on bag and travel anywhere in the world for several weeks at a time.
joe rogan
If you want to smell.
steve maxwell
OneBag.com.
A lot of this stuff is high tech.
I just wash my t-shirts out in the sink.
joe rogan
Very high tech.
Well, if you wear one of the things that I found from hiking and camping for long periods of times, wool.
steve maxwell
Wool was great.
joe rogan
There's a great company called First Light, First L-I-T-E, that a buddy of mine is a part of, my friend Ryan Callahan.
Out of Montana and actually Ketchum, Idaho.
Met him in Montana.
But they make wool outer gear and inner gear like long johns, stuff along those lines.
steve maxwell
Wool is fantastic.
joe rogan
A lot of hunting gear.
And you can wear that stuff for days.
steve maxwell
Days.
joe rogan
Days.
And it doesn't smell because it's natural.
steve maxwell
A lot of this stuff is this stretch polyamide.
It's like a little elastane, a nylon type material, which is real stretchy.
It's silver impregnated.
Silver helps stop the bacteria from multiplying.
So you can get like three or four days out of this t-shirt.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah, and it doesn't stink.
joe rogan
Maybe you could.
unidentified
Well...
joe rogan
I stink.
I'm a stinky person.
steve maxwell
Here's my gym.
Check this out.
I can train...
Rubber band.
I'm doing isometrics.
I can do good mornings.
joe rogan
What is the amount of tension on that rubber band?
steve maxwell
They just say heavy duty.
But remember, the further you stretch it, the harder it gets.
It gives this old man plenty of stretch.
Maybe not you.
joe rogan
I have a bowling ball bag that I bought just so that I could take on the road with me so I could throw a 50-pound kettlebell in it.
steve maxwell
Yeah, that works.
Although I try not to check.
joe rogan
I never use it once.
steve maxwell
This is...
My cardio, obviously.
A little jump rope.
You can jump rope any time, any place, anywhere.
If you can't run, I like to still do a little running.
Best self-defense ever, right?
Sprint the hell away, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you could run further than the person trying to kill you...
steve maxwell
And I don't want to be like one of these old guys that can't run, so it comes in handy in the kitchen.
joe rogan
That's great.
steve maxwell
And this is a little homemade suspension device.
unidentified
I can set this any length.
joe rogan
A suspension device?
steve maxwell
Yeah, I use it for isometrics, bodyweight rows, chin-ups.
Basically, do you know your knots?
joe rogan
Not really.
steve maxwell
I used to be a boy scout back in the day.
joe rogan
I know a couple fishing knots.
steve maxwell
Bowline, right?
You should know that one.
PVC. And then this is called a prussic knot.
So I can slide this, right, up and down the handle.
But if you would grab that handle...
And put weight on it.
See, it doesn't move.
joe rogan
Oh, I see.
steve maxwell
So it's instantly adjustable.
joe rogan
Huh.
That's interesting.
unidentified
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Prusik knot.
It's climbers use it.
joe rogan
How do you spell that?
Prusik.
steve maxwell
P-R-U-S-I-K. If you go to Animated Knots, it's like a little app you can throw on your iPhone.
It shows you how to do it.
joe rogan
What's the app called?
steve maxwell
What is it?
joe rogan
Animated Knots.
steve maxwell
It shows you every kind of knot.
So I can just throw this over a tree, do chin-ups, bodyweight rows.
unidentified
Oh, wow.
steve maxwell
But if I want, I can stand on it.
And I can do isometrics.
I'm really into isometrics these days.
joe rogan
Yeah, you showed me a lot of those the last time we worked out together.
And it was really interesting what you're trying to do now.
steve maxwell
Isolation-type movements.
I can do deadlifts.
Just absolutely incredible.
The kind of work that you can get in like 15, 20 minutes.
Great for you.
You're on the road doing your comedy act all the time, going to UFCs.
And I'll tell you, kettlebell, it's good.
But it is a pain in the ass, dude.
joe rogan
They lug around, yeah.
steve maxwell
Man, you can just, in your hotel room, literally in 20 minutes, your tongue will be hanging out.
Shockingly metabolic, amazing cardio.
At the same time, you get every muscle from your head to your feet.
Really good stuff.
I knew about isometrics back in the 60s as a young wrestler.
Our coach used to use a lot of this stuff.
So anyway, that's the workout, Jim.
joe rogan
Wow.
Now, Bruce Lee was really into isometrics.
He was into what they would call dynamic tension, which is essentially the same thing.
steve maxwell
The great Charles Atlas, Charles Bronson.
joe rogan
Well, Charles Atlas, those comic book ads that they used to have in the back, like becoming, you were a 98-pound weakling and becoming like a big stud.
That was like what he was advertising.
unidentified
A lot of dynamic tension exercises.
steve maxwell
The father of modern isometrics was the guy by the name of Alexander Zass, who was a Russian circus performer.
And he was traveling around doing wrestling and bending steel, breaking chains over his chest.
He was just a little guy about my size.
And he was captured by the Germans during World War I and imprisoned.
And Zass, in order to get a little extra food because he's worried about losing his physique, he offered to train the Comedan's dog for extra food.
So meanwhile, he's practicing his isometrics on the cell bars.
Every day and he eventually bent the bars and escaped.
Went back to the circus, got recaptured.
This time they put him in chains.
He broke the chains and bent the bars and escaped.
Not just twice, four times he escaped from the Germans.
joe rogan
What?
steve maxwell
It's all written in his biography.
joe rogan
Has that been verified?
Has anyone ever Wikipedia'd this gentleman?
Back then they couldn't verify.
He might have just told a bunch of goofy stories.
steve maxwell
But there's no doubt that this guy was strong.
There's actually an old, old, old black and white YouTube of him breaking chains and stuff.
unidentified
Jesus.
steve maxwell
Alexander Zass.
Another proponent of isometrics was the famed Henry Wittenberg.
joe rogan
See if you can pull up a picture of that guy.
steve maxwell
Yeah, ZASS. Z-A-S-S. His biography is fantastic.
How big was he?
unidentified
Probably about 160 pounds, 165. How the fuck did he bend chains?
steve maxwell
Well, he started as a kid in the force.
He actually went to a...
joe rogan
That's him right there?
steve maxwell
Yeah, there we go.
When he was a young boy, he was really, really...
I'll tell you something.
I've lifted beams like that.
That beam is really heavy.
joe rogan
He's got a beam wrapped around his neck.
steve maxwell
Actually, he's lifting it with his teeth.
joe rogan
Oh my god, that's what that is?
steve maxwell
Yeah, it's a teeth lift.
He has a special mouthpiece where he's gripping it with his jaws and using his neck.
Imagine how hard it'd be to choke that guy out with that kind of neck.
joe rogan
That's insane.
steve maxwell
And he would bend saplings in the forest because he couldn't afford steel, obviously, and he would bend trees to get his strength.
These guys were the real deal back in the day, man.
They were pretty amazing.
And it's funny too.
No supplements, no designer whey protein or BCAAs.
It was none of this like, dude, I'm going to anabolic or catabolic.
It's been 15 minutes after my workout.
They just ate good food and just trained.
A lot of meat.
joe rogan
They were also closer to monkeys because it was a long time ago.
steve maxwell
A long time ago.
joe rogan
They hadn't evolved yet.
steve maxwell
Hadn't evolved yet.
joe rogan
But these people back then, they also didn't really understand the modern principles of strength and conditioning.
I don't even think they knew exactly.
steve maxwell
No, I wouldn't sell them short.
joe rogan
No, I'm not saying it in a bad way at all.
But I don't think they necessarily had an understanding of all the mechanisms involved.
They just knew you train hard, you get stronger.
Yeah, train hard, get stronger.
This guy knows what he's doing.
Go visit him.
steve maxwell
You can actually buy his book on Amazon.
It's a pretty interesting biography.
I found it fascinating.
It was translated from Russian to English.
It translates kind of funny.
One of the confusing things is in Russia, they use different names for the same person.
Yeah, I know.
It's weird, man.
joe rogan
How so?
steve maxwell
They just called him by four different names.
joe rogan
Are they nicknames?
steve maxwell
Yeah, like nicknames.
Like, Christy's from the Ukrainians, right?
Don't they use different names?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Unfortunately, you're off camera, so we're not going to be able to hear you.
steve maxwell
Yeah, no.
They use different names, like little pet names.
joe rogan
Huh.
steve maxwell
So as I'm reading, I'm thinking, who the hell are they talking about?
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
And then I'm reading back, oh, they're talking about Alexander.
But they referred him with four different names in the text.
It was just kind of a weird translation, but absolutely fascinating about his life.
joe rogan
That's so weird.
You know, it's really interesting when you see those old school strongman type characters, because there's some people that were doing things back in the day, like, one I always bring up is the catch wrestling pioneer, Farmer Burns.
steve maxwell
Farmer Burns.
joe rogan
Who used to do these, he used to hang himself by his neck.
steve maxwell
By his neck.
joe rogan
Pull this up, Jamie, because there's actually photos of this guy.
This guy had a neck like my waist, and he only weighed about 165 pounds, and he used to drop like a hangman's drop and catch himself by his neck.
Look at him here.
steve maxwell
And he was actually beating heavyweights back in the day.
This is the day where it wasn't just for the pin.
You could do submissions in order to force a guy into his shoulders.
And people can also tap.
This is rough, tough American martial art.
joe rogan
Yeah, this is what's now known as catch wrestling or catch as catch can.
And when you would get someone in a submission hold, they would call it a catch.
And there were a lot of submission holds that they had back in those days that are still super effective today.
And if you go back over the old depictions and old images of submission moves from Farmer Burns, there's stuff that's still completely applicable today.
steve maxwell
Oh, some of that stuff is awesome, man.
I actually had his original mail order course back in the day when I was a householder collecting stuff.
I actually had his original home training course.
joe rogan
Wow, that's amazing.
steve maxwell
I had to keep it in plastic and stuff like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, like look at this neck crank he's got going on here.
steve maxwell
That's the old quarter Nelson, man.
joe rogan
There's a lot of moves that they had that they used to use back then that are absolutely effective today.
steve maxwell
But just ask Josh Barnett.
joe rogan
Yes, I was just going to bring him up.
steve maxwell
He really surprised Dean.
Dean's a hell of a black belt.
You know, really well-trained black belt.
And I think even he was surprised with that headlock.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I mean, he caught him in a scarf hold, too, which is like about as old school as it gets.
steve maxwell
Old school as it gets.
So some of these things are so old, they're new.
A lot of the younger guys.
unidentified
Right.
steve maxwell
I mean...
When I was coming up, in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, there were so many different defenses against the headlock, we just basically just kind of gave up on using it.
But if you don't practice that stuff, you get some wrestler, catch wrestler, judo guy, some rough guy, gets you in one of those headlocks unexpectedly, wow, he can really hurt you.
joe rogan
Especially a really strong guy.
steve maxwell
Really strong guy.
joe rogan
One of the things that's coming into play a lot is that bulldog choke.
You rarely see it.
You see every couple years someone will get one.
Last one being Raquel Pennington got it on Ashley Evans-Smith.
And Ashley Evans-Smith was kind of known as being the grappler in that matchup.
And Raquel Pennington was more of a striker.
But she caught her in that bulldog choke and put her to sleep.
steve maxwell
Describe that bulldog choke.
joe rogan
It's like a schoolyard headlock.
steve maxwell
Okay, because they're on their knees or whatever.
joe rogan
Yeah, and you're right in front of them.
But the thing is, when someone's head is here, and you get that forearm under the choke, and you clamp down, man, there's not a lot that guy can do.
There's not a lot.
When the head is here, and if you're a strong person, you're fully locked in, you're sitting on it, there is not a lot.
There you go, right there.
You see it right there.
steve maxwell
We used to refer to that as the rodeo choke, because it's like a cowboy taking down a stair almost.
joe rogan
It's a good way to put it, yeah.
steve maxwell
Actually, you know who used that really, really early was Bruce Lee choked out Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
unidentified
Yes!
joe rogan
He did!
That was Game of Death.
steve maxwell
Game of Death, one of my favorite movies.
joe rogan
He also had the first MMA gloves in that movie.
steve maxwell
The first MMA gloves.
That was what?
Enter the Dragon.
joe rogan
Oh, that was Enter the Dragon.
That's right.
steve maxwell
He did the armbar.
Was it an armbar?
Or was it the...
It was a neck crack.
What do they call that?
joe rogan
Was it a crucifix?
steve maxwell
Crucifix.
joe rogan
Yes, that's right.
steve maxwell
So he was pretty early.
joe rogan
As far as being open-minded, he was so far ahead of his time with combining martial arts.
I mean, he truly was the original mixed martial artist.
Because in the time, even when I was starting out in the 80s, the early 80s, you really weren't supposed to train anywhere else.
I would get the stink eye if I would go to a boxing gym and try to learn some boxing.
They would say at my Taekwondo school that you basically could learn everything you want here.
You didn't need to go anywhere else.
And you definitely didn't want to learn Muay Thai or any of those other techniques.
It's taking time away from your practice here, and this is what you really need to do.
steve maxwell
Well, that's martial arts teachers trying to protect their turf.
They're worried about losing income if the students are going from this to that to the other thing.
joe rogan
Well, you see it from even jujitsu instructors, unfortunately, where jujitsu instructors who only train with the gi start saying terrible things about people who train no gi.
And the reason being is because they have too many techniques that rely upon handles.
steve maxwell
On handles.
joe rogan
Yeah.
And as soon as they roll with a grappler, and they're going no gi, and they roll with a really good, solid college wrestler, they're going to get smoked.
steve maxwell
It's pretty tough.
joe rogan
Yeah, they just can't deal with someone who's just really good at manipulating bodies that are sweaty and with gable grips and overhooks and underhooks.
And they're used to those collars and they're used to grabbing sleeves.
steve maxwell
It's a whole different game, man.
Being a former NCAA... Division 1 wrestler.
I hated the Gi for my first three years of Shiu Jitsu.
And then finally, as I started getting a little older, getting close to my 50s, I started loving it because it does slow that game down.
joe rogan
Yeah, completely slows it down.
steve maxwell
And so if you're smaller and weaker, the Gi definitely gives you a chance to even the odds there a little bit.
joe rogan
Well, it allows you to control people, and I think one of the things that's really good about the Gi is people that live in cold climates.
If you ever get in a self-defense situation with someone wearing a jacket, like I had a conversation with a friend of mine, and I said, if you are in some sort of a street fight with a jujitsu black belt, and you have a leather jacket on, you might as well be a dead person.
Because if that guy just grabs your collar, all he has to do is get inside your collar, grab ahold of the back of that collar, and you're gone.
He's going to just clamp ahold of the other side, and he's going to choke you to death.
You have a weapon wrapped around your body.
steve maxwell
It's shocking how easy it actually is, man.
joe rogan
Or a judo person.
steve maxwell
People always think like in a straight fight, you know, you're going to be using all this fancy stuff, but it's going to be the most basic stuff you learn is a white bout and a blue bout.
You're going to fall back on that stuff.
joe rogan
Most likely, yeah.
steve maxwell
And, you know, you have to think like lame, you know, like...
A person you're fighting probably is not a trained martial artist.
joe rogan
No, most likely.
A buddy of mine got in a street fight with a trained martial artist once.
He told me that these two guys...
He and this other guy were yelling at each other or something on the highway, and they decided to pull over.
So they pulled over to the side of the road.
They got out, and they started duking it out, and he threw a leg kick, and the guy checked it, and the guy shot for a double, and he stuffed it, and they were both looking at each other like, oh, shit.
steve maxwell
Oh, shit.
joe rogan
And he said they went...
At it for like 10 minutes and then high-fived each other afterwards and got back in the car.
steve maxwell
Well, that had a good outcome.
joe rogan
Well, they realized.
They're like, oh, okay, we thought...
steve maxwell
I'm fighting another trained guy.
joe rogan
They thought they were going to...
Each guy thought they were going to get out and beat the shit out of some guy who didn't know what he was doing.
And they both got out and they moved around like, oh, look at this motherfucker.
And then after a while, they thought it was funny.
steve maxwell
That is...
Well...
I have used jiu-jitsu a few times.
joe rogan
In a fight?
In a street fight?
steve maxwell
Yeah, back when I had my school in Philadelphia.
joe rogan
Oh, when crazy people would come in the gym or something?
steve maxwell
Well, we had gym fights, but a couple of times even on the street.
Really?
Just crazy stuff, man.
I had a cab driver try to run me over one time.
And I was furious.
I used to commute my bike quite a bit.
And when I went by, I was so mad, I hit the side of his cab.
And, you know, just gave him a couple, expressed my opinion.
And then the guy pulls over and jumps out of the cab.
Yeah, it starts coming at me.
And, you know, I just used the inside control and just laid him over the top of the cab.
And it was over before it started.
You know, he gave up and just got back in.
But thank God for basic stand-up self-defense.
joe rogan
Well, I also thank God for him that you're a nice guy.
steve maxwell
Yeah, well.
joe rogan
You didn't decide to smash his face in.
steve maxwell
Nowadays, man, you smash someone's face in, you're going to have all sorts of lawyers knocking on the door and If there's a video of it.
You gotta wear a disguise everywhere you go.
There's almost always a video of it nowadays.
joe rogan
You gotta wear disguises, bro.
You gotta go out of the house with like a mask on.
That's the move.
steve maxwell
How do you do it, Joe?
It must be tough.
joe rogan
You gotta wear mustaches and shit.
Yeah, I don't know.
Self-defense is, like, obviously, last alternative.
Like, you would most likely never use any of the techniques that you learn.
If you're lucky, you could live your whole life and never use any martial arts if you're lucky.
unidentified
Hopefully, if you're lucky.
joe rogan
Yeah, absolutely.
steve maxwell
That's the goal.
I personally like to run not because I think running is such a good workout.
I like to run for the skill of running.
Because if you don't run, you're not good at running.
Most people don't like it.
I do it more as a martial art.
unidentified
Really?
steve maxwell
Because I want to run away.
joe rogan
Right.
But when you run...
steve maxwell
And old people can't run.
You see the way most people move.
I don't want to be one of those mid-60s, 70-year-old guys that can't run.
So I practice sprints at least once, sometimes twice a week, just for the skill of being able to run fast.
joe rogan
Right.
Well, sprints are really good for your system, too, right?
Your endocrine system?
steve maxwell
They can be very good, systemic-wise.
You know, there's a real interesting study done on running.
They found that people that run in the zone, that like do 10Ks, 5K, you know, competitive running, marathons, triathlons and such, actually have shorter life expectancy than people that don't run at all.
I was really surprised.
They claim it's the oxidative stress.
My theory is people don't use the lung apparatus properly and breathe properly.
They found that people that lived, all of them were the people that run real slow, just nice, leisurely, like zen running.
joe rogan
They lived longest.
steve maxwell
They lived longest.
joe rogan
Well, have you ever heard the theory that there's only a certain amount of heartbeats that you get in your life?
steve maxwell
I have heard that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I mean, it kind of almost makes sense when you look at the age of professional athletes, like how they die young.
steve maxwell
They burn, they flame out and die pretty young.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Now, that's something that you have been really a pioneer in avoiding, like keeping your body healthy, like deep into your 60s and 70s.
And I know you have a whole program about that, about with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
steve maxwell
Yes, I do.
We call it Jiu-Jitsu for a lifetime.
We're actually going to do a training camp this next spring in April in Maui.
joe rogan
What a good place for a training camp.
steve maxwell
Hey, how would you like to come?
joe rogan
I would love to if I'm available.
steve maxwell
Why don't you come as my guest?
joe rogan
I would like to, but I'm busy as fuck, dude.
It's hard.
It's hard for me.
steve maxwell
Just tell all those guys, hey, I'm just taking like a week off and going to Maui.
joe rogan
It's hard.
I would have to.
My time off is most of the time, if I actually have actual time off, I spend it with my family.
steve maxwell
Bring your wife and your young daughter.
joe rogan
Maybe.
steve maxwell
They would love it.
They can take paddleboard lessons while you come up.
joe rogan
Paddleboard lessons.
Maui's nice, but man, every time I'm there, somebody gets bit by a shark.
I don't know what the fuck is going on.
steve maxwell
I don't know about that either.
I have that morbid fear.
Ever since I saw that movie Jaws, It's like, forget it, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, while we were there, we were watching TV, and there was a newscast about this kid who got his leg mauled.
And my kids were just in the pool, or just in the ocean, rather, that day.
We were just snorkeling.
And then we came back, and we were watching this thing about this surfer who just got mangled, and they had him all stitched up, and he was fucked up.
steve maxwell
It's just such a primal fear.
I don't know what it is.
I know it's irrational because my chance of being eaten by a shark is way less than being in an accident in a car.
I rent cars and drive.
joe rogan
People always say that, but that doesn't make me feel any better.
Because also, the odds of you being eaten by a shark when you're on the shore radically decrease.
steve maxwell
That's true.
If you ever go in the ocean, there's zero chance.
joe rogan
The ads increase when you get in the water.
So if you don't go in the water, you won't get bit by a shark.
That's just a fact.
steve maxwell
Another one?
joe rogan
What is this?
steve maxwell
Did you see this last week?
joe rogan
No.
jamie vernon
This is Sunset Beach, I believe is what it's called, which is just south of L.A. Oh, Christ.
joe rogan
What are you going to show me?
unidentified
A giant great work reaches the water.
steve maxwell
No, dude, you're just stealing it.
unidentified
Oh, no.
steve maxwell
No, I'm definitely not going back in there.
joe rogan
Right off of Huntington Beach?
Yeah.
Oh my god!
This is insane!
steve maxwell
That is one big ass shark.
unidentified
That's gotta be bigger than eight feet.
joe rogan
Does it say how big it is?
jamie vernon
I don't think they know because they just randomly caught it because they were doing some other stuff.
joe rogan
So he was filming something else and the thing just breached the water.
Oh my god, show that again.
steve maxwell
Could you imagine?
joe rogan
Look at the fucking size of that thing!
Dude, that's a big shark.
That's not a seven-foot shark.
steve maxwell
Now, can you imagine some kid on a surfboard and it just comes up underneath there?
That's how they stun those seals, if you've ever watched sharks hunt.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
The way they hit and knock it, kind of unconscious almost, and then...
joe rogan
Did you ever see the film that they got right off of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco?
Some tourists were out there, and they were just filming the water, taking pictures of each other, and seeing all these people hanging around by the water's edge, and a great white, fuck this seal up in front of everybody.
unidentified
Ooh!
joe rogan
Like right in front of everybody.
And we think it was probably two different seals that it killed.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
Because it killed one, and there was like this big bloody puddle, and then it seems like it got a hold of a second one.
It's hard to tell because, you know, you're just looking at the surface of the water, but massive red.
I mean, these people are 30, 40 feet away from this thing as it's tearing the seal apart.
It's really pretty crazy.
steve maxwell
That is crazy.
There was an awesome picture of an orca hunting with its calf, a great white.
The orca totally fucked the great weight up.
It stunned it, and it used jiu-jitsu, man.
It basically grabbed it and turned it over, and if sharks don't keep moving, they basically drown.
It held it until it basically drowned, and then it ate its liver.
And the people that analyzed the video felt that the mother orca was teaching the baby how to hunt.
joe rogan
How to kill a shark.
Yeah, sharks, they're not near as agile as an orca and nowhere near smart.
I mean, they're really dumb.
They have a tiny brain.
They just eat and swim around.
But the orcas, when you see that video, when they flip it up upside down, something about flipping a shark upside down also kind of like knocks it out.
steve maxwell
Yeah, they just go passive.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I've seen people actually do it, you know, like in shows and stuff where they'll just take and just flip it and rub its belly in.
joe rogan
How bizarre.
steve maxwell
That's pretty bizarre, man.
joe rogan
There's a lot of weird, like, flaws in God's early designs.
It's almost, you know, like, designs like that.
Like, the design of a shark.
It's like, what?
It has to keep swimming?
steve maxwell
It just has to keep swimming.
joe rogan
So here's that footage off of San Francisco.
Oh, this is a different one.
unidentified
It's the same one.
joe rogan
Is it?
Well, why is it so close?
jamie vernon
This is a little bit later into it as it got closer.
unidentified
It starts off a little farther away.
joe rogan
Oh, I see.
Okay.
Let's go further away then, because the further away you get to see it.
Back it up from the beginning, because you see that these people are just kind of...
This isn't the one though, Jamie.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah, the other one, it's from a distance, and you actually see the shark.
steve maxwell
The orca, you mean?
joe rogan
Well, which one is this, Jamie?
This is the shark attack eating the seal.
steve maxwell
Oh, this is the shark.
joe rogan
This is the shark eating the seal.
This is right off of Fisherman's Wharf, where all the restaurants are, where people are walking around.
Yeah, see, okay, so it's more than one Great White, too.
But there's more than one footage of this, apparently.
Obviously, this is a big deal, and everybody has a phone.
steve maxwell
True.
joe rogan
But to be watching this, I mean, look at that.
That's like, what is that, 30 feet?
steve maxwell
That's pretty intense, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, there's a better footage, though, a different angle, which is a little bit further off, where you actually see the shark breach the water with a seal in its mouth.
It's like, yeah, I'm going to stay on the shore.
steve maxwell
Yeah, I think I'll stay on the shore.
joe rogan
You know, Nick Diaz, he swam from Alcatraz five different times.
Five different times that guy swam from Alcatraz to shore.
steve maxwell
Well, you know, one of my heroes, Jekyll Elaine, used to swim that while pulling a boat full of people.
While shackled.
He did it as an annual birthday event.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
What a man.
joe rogan
He's an animal.
steve maxwell
Like the guy was still, you know, doing all sorts of crazy exercises right up until his 90s.
joe rogan
Yeah, he was a crazy man.
He was really a real pioneer of health and fitness and wellness and juicing.
steve maxwell
Yeah, he got into juicing.
You know, I always tell these kids, you know, don't be listening to these trainers in their 20s to their 30s or even their 40s because they haven't been over to the other side.
They don't know what's sustainable.
They don't know, you know, they just don't have the long-term experience.
All my mentors were guys in their 80s.
They're the guys I want to learn from.
Guys that went to the other side, that are super fit, really healthy.
They're the guys I've been looking at to put my own program together.
I don't want to listen to these young guys.
They have no fucking idea, man.
I didn't.
A lot of the shit I did when I was even in my 40s and even early 50s, I had no clue.
joe rogan
Look at him there.
steve maxwell
Yeah, there we go.
joe rogan
Well, he would tow not just a boat.
He would tow like seven boats or something crazy.
I mean, like 70 people.
I think he towed like a person for every year of his life.
So here he's towing like a whole stream of boats.
Like how many boats were back there?
steve maxwell
The guy was an amazing swimmer.
That water was cold.
It doesn't look to me like he has a wetsuit on.
It looks like he may just have a singlet type.
joe rogan
It's hard to tell.
It looks like a wetsuit there.
steve maxwell
Okay, there's a wetsuit.
joe rogan
It's hard to tell.
But either way, the guy's a savage.
steve maxwell
That guy was an amazing fitness guy.
There he is.
joe rogan
And he's handcuffed.
steve maxwell
Pretty amazing.
But here's a guy that stood the test of time.
He got to his 80s and 90s.
Another guy was Master Elliot Gracie.
I actually had a jiu-jitsu lesson with the guy when he was in his late 80s.
Okay, he's not going to beat anybody doing competitive jiu-jitsu, but you wouldn't want to go up and mess with that old guy.
He would mess you up.
joe rogan
He had some thick-ass hands.
steve maxwell
He had big hands, big forearms, and he would just slap it on you.
I used to hate to be the guy that he demonstrated stuff on, because he would just really put it on you.
I felt damn near injured, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah, well, he was a pioneer of no-holds-barred fights, like, way back in the day.
I mean, he was doing that in the 1940s, right?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
And even before him, his teacher, he didn't learn directly from this guy, his brothers did, was that guy Asa Maeda, that little Japanese guy.
I had heard he won over 800 no-holds-barred fights.
I don't know whether that's true or not.
joe rogan
Well, it's like the Hickson 400-0 number.
steve maxwell
Exactly.
But Maeda, he did a lot of no-hold-barred-type deals.
And he was one of the guys that really, really developed that guard because he was finding that big American wrestlers and football players were putting him on his back.
And he became deadly from fighting from his back.
He kind of specialized in that particular position.
joe rogan
That's so fascinating because that was a big part of Helio's game, too.
steve maxwell
Well, he's so low.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, he was like 140-plus pounds when he was competing and fighting against much larger men.
steve maxwell
Much larger guys.
I lived with him for a month down at his ranch in Terrasopolis, and I used to get daily lessons.
And his favorite thing was to have you put himself in just a really bad position, like mounted or whatever, and then just basically defy you to do anything to him.
And it's a great game that you can play well into advanced age, you know?
You just let the kids work on you a little bit and just play defense.
And there was nothing I could do.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
I mean, he just, you know, he basically knew everything I was going to do before I did it.
You know, he'd give his back, you know, let you mount.
And, you know, he basically, his defense was just so superb.
You would have either had to use an unusual amount of strength to do anything.
Or, I mean, there was no fool in him.
Let me just put it that way.
joe rogan
Well, Hickson used to let guys start on his back with a full rear naked choke, fully locked in.
That's how he would start.
steve maxwell
It's pretty amazing, isn't it?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, but if you could develop that kind of defense, if you're safe from there, you're safe from everywhere.
Like, one of the big parts of jiu-jitsu, I'm sure you'll agree, is...
The ability to be safe in any position and the ability to understand what it takes to be safe in those positions.
And the best way to do it, like, Eddie Bravo did that when he was training for Hoyler.
One of the big things that he did was he had people start off in bad positions.
He would have people start off mounting him, have people start off in side control.
He never started out just facing a guy, you know, where it's an equal, neutral position.
Every position, every role started with him on his back.
Every role started with him in a compromised position.
steve maxwell
It's such a great way to work if you're working with people that don't have the same skill sets as yourself.
For example, Hickson was in America for years and years and years and he only had white belt, blue belt level guys to work with but this is the way he kept his sword sharp.
He would put himself in these Bad positions, partially closed triangles, maybe a partially closed uma palata on the back with maybe a partially closed choke or whatever.
And he was just a genius at getting out of those positions.
joe rogan
Yeah, and if you can show your training partners what to do, you can actually make it more difficult for yourself.
If you tell them what they're doing wrong, and I mean, Hickson didn't just develop his own jiu-jitsu skills.
Obviously, he had a lot of great students as well.
steve maxwell
A lot of great students.
joe rogan
And a black belt under Hickson to this day is one of the most prestigious black belts you can get.
steve maxwell
I would say probably the closest thing you can get to Hickson is Luis Heredia in Maui.
The guy's unbelievable.
joe rogan
I love training with him.
Old school, man.
Luis gave me my very first private lesson at Hickson's Old Place on Pico.
That was before.
I didn't know that there was a difference in the Gracies.
When I was starting out, I was like, oh, this is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
Okay, this is just like the UFC. I'm like, who's Hickson Gracie?
Oh, that's the brother of Hoist.
I didn't even know that he was the man.
And so...
Carlson Gracie School was closer.
It was off of Hawthorne, like right off of Sunset.
That was closer to where I lived by like 20 minutes.
And you know, especially during traffic, it was a nightmare to get down to Pico.
So I was like, oh, I'll just go to this place instead.
So I fucked up and stopped training at like the best place in the world.
Like I didn't even know.
steve maxwell
Well, that's how it was when I first started.
You know, I didn't have a clue.
Well, I mean, I just didn't appreciate how good these guys were.
joe rogan
But I got lucky, though.
steve maxwell
Any given day, I could have a lesson with any of the brothers.
They were one big, happy family.
joe rogan
Yeah, and they were always there, too.
steve maxwell
Always there.
joe rogan
I got lucky, though, that when I came to Carlson's, Mario Sperry was there, Carlos Baghetto was there.
I got to watch those guys roll.
I got to watch those guys compete.
Vitor Belfort was there, and it was when Vitor was calling him Victor Gracie.
Do you remember that?
steve maxwell
I do remember that.
joe rogan
Yeah, they would spell it with a K. I don't know what happened.
They changed his name.
I really don't understand what happened.
They were calling him Victor.
steve maxwell
I know in Brazil, a lot of times, the women are able to keep their original name, so they don't always take the name of their husbands.
joe rogan
Well, he was taking Carlson's name.
I mean, Belford is his real name.
He doesn't have a Gracie background.
steve maxwell
So he didn't have a mother that might have been a Gracie?
joe rogan
No.
But there's some people that do that.
Who has that going on?
steve maxwell
Angela Gracie?
joe rogan
No.
Someone has that going on.
One of the men has that going on.
steve maxwell
Roger Gracie, his father...
joe rogan
Hodger, yeah.
steve maxwell
Yeah, Hodger is...
His father's Gomez.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve maxwell
And his mother was Gracie.
joe rogan
That's one of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think Caesar, too.
Doesn't Caesar have a similar situation, Caesar Gracie?
steve maxwell
That I don't know, but I do know it's not uncommon for a married woman to keep her maiden name.
joe rogan
That's interesting.
But anyway, so everybody called Vitor Victor back then.
And if you look at the early UFCs, I'm pretty sure I even called...
I remember someone pulled me aside and said you can't call him Victor Gracie at UFC 12. You can't call him Gracie because Horian was suing Carlson.
steve maxwell
Oh, I remember that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Like, Horian was suing all the other Gracies.
They couldn't even use their last name.
Meanwhile, Carlson Gracie is a legend.
steve maxwell
A legend.
joe rogan
Like a real legend in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and in MMA. And he was the guy who came in and beat the guys that Elio couldn't beat.
Because Carlson was a bigger, tougher, stronger guy.
I mean, he was more of a bulldog approach, which is why it was perfect that he had that logo, those two bulldogs.
steve maxwell
He pretty much bridged the gap between Elio's young sons...
Elliot was getting a little up there in age and was starting to fail physically a bit.
And his own sons were a little bit too young still.
So Carlson Gracie was the one to defend the family honor up until the point where Hickson and Halls Gracie got into their young manhood.
joe rogan
And he had a fantastic group of students.
steve maxwell
He was an unbelievable teacher.
joe rogan
Murillo Bustamante, Mario Sperry.
I mean, he had some really amazing, amazing students as well.
steve maxwell
Well, they said his ability to go out and recruit talent was just incredible.
You know, he just knew how to do it.
He had an eye for guys that were going to be really good.
joe rogan
Yeah, he also had a great family environment, like that Carlson Gracie team.
They were very tight-knit.
It's a fascinating time in the world of martial arts, if you go back and look at that, the early 90s and what happened to Jiu Jitsu in America and how it just sort of exploded and changed the face of martial arts.
steve maxwell
It really did.
I had my first experience in 89 and I just made up my mind I wanted to learn it.
I went in as a NCAA Division I wrestler.
I had a really good record.
I was like most wrestlers, kind of hard-headed.
What are these skinny Brazilian guys going to show me?
And then I'm tapped like a typewriter by Hoyler.
I'm like, oh my god, what is this that he's doing to me?
I've got to learn this!
And I asked Corian, how can I learn this martial art?
He said, come out to Torrance.
It's the only game in town.
At that time, that was true.
joe rogan
So you went from Philly all the way to Torrance to train?
steve maxwell
And I would stay for a week.
I'd have so much money.
I was a former school teacher, and I had a little retirement account set up, some money set aside after I quit teaching, and money I'd set.
So I used that to...
Wow.
Fun by jujitsu education.
In the meantime, I would open up Maxercise.
It was a personal training gym.
I put some mats in the back, you know.
And I would usually go and take like a thousand bucks.
And when I'd run out of money, I would go back to Philly again.
Since it was my business, I could just take off whenever I wanted.
unidentified
Oh, that's great.
steve maxwell
And then I had mats.
And it was the first gym of the Eastern Seaboard.
I would just get all my old wrestler friends, Philadelphia Judo Club, you know, Aikido guys, and just go in there and just work with these guys and practice my jiu-jitsu.
And then another, you know, a couple months later, I'd go back and spend time again.
Then I got smart.
I started bringing the Gracies to my place, and then they would stay with me.
I had Helson stay with me sometimes for a couple weeks.
Hoyce actually lived with me for a month one time.
joe rogan
Well, I think Hoyce and Hoyler, they don't even have schools anymore.
They just travel and do seminars, and they find that that's more lucrative.
And they get away from the hassle of having to pay rent and employees and all the other nonsense that comes with schools.
And they're just welcomed with open arms in these weekend seminars.
I mean, if a guy like Hoyce or Hoyler or Hickson wants to do a seminar, who's going to say no?
steve maxwell
Who's going to say no?
Well, that's kind of what I do myself.
I just go around showing the grace of self-defense.
But the other thing that I'm really into these days is just basically how can you keep your body still in the game?
Because, I mean, it is fun to roll.
It really is.
It's something that you can do into a van stage, but you've got to be careful, and you have to be very careful with the preparation of your body and everything.
joe rogan
What are the keys to a person that's like, you know, entering into their older age?
What are the keys to maintaining the body's elasticity, your strength and vitality?
steve maxwell
Well, one of the main keys is joint mobility.
Every single day you got to do some type of mobility.
People get confused between flexibility and mobility.
Mobility has a connotation of strength.
You want to be able to voluntarily go in and out of the movement.
I'll give an example.
Being a grappler and a striker, I've seen your devastating kick, that spinning roundhouse thing you do.
One way that, like, the difference between mobility, like, flexibility would be you maybe doing a split or putting your foot up on an elevated surface and just holding it and stretching, right?
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
That's flexibility.
But lifting your leg up slowly under control and extending it out and holding it, like the old Bruce Lee movie, you know?
That is mobility.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
So practicing moving through the full range movement regularly is extremely good for the joints.
You keep your ability to move.
The other advice I have to these guys out there, tap early and tap often.
Don't be a fool.
And this whole concept that you can't tap to a lower belt, that gets so many guys hurt.
I can't tell you how many purple belts or brown belts get really PO'd because some really big, strong, or technical blue belt gets them in a bad situation and they feel they can't tap and they'll literally risk injury.
That's insane.
joe rogan
Yeah, it is insane.
steve maxwell
Why in the heck?
joe rogan
It's very unfortunate.
steve maxwell
I don't know how that ever started that you can't tap to a lower amount.
joe rogan
Well, the problem is if you feel bad about tapping, that's one thing.
But if you get injured, you're going to feel so much worse.
steve maxwell
So much worse.
joe rogan
And it's going to take you so much longer to recover.
If somebody catches you in a guillotine, you're like, oh boy, this is tight.
You know what?
Let me just tap.
Fuck, I'm an idiot.
How did I get caught in that?
That feeling that you get is actually good for you.
steve maxwell
It's good for you.
joe rogan
Because that way you'll realize, you know, you can't just let your neck hang out there.
You can't not defend.
You can't think about those potential steps.
And I see in a lot of jujitsu situations, I see...
When a higher belt will go with a very enthusiastic and a very ambitious lower belt, they oftentimes disregard the possibility of getting tapped, and that's how they get tapped.
Whereas some higher belts I've seen, they'll roll with a purple belt or a blue belt or a white belt, and they'll roll with everybody like that person's a ninja.
Every single person like that person is like the greatest grappler that they've ever faced in their life.
And if they do that, I'm not talking about going hard and being really physical and hurting them, but being aware of all the possibilities and being on your toes and being at 10 at all times.
If you do that, you're going to be fine.
steve maxwell
Or purposely just put yourself in dangerous positions and get caught, just to practice.
I think it was Horian's boys, either Henner or Hero and one of those guys, They mentioned a guy that worked in their school, a black belt in his 50s, who was really down in the dumps over having been roughed up by a blue belt.
And they were saying, well, how old was the blue belt?
And the guy was like in his 20s and he outweighed him by about 30 pounds.
And I think they were the ones that came up with the idea that like for every 10 years of age and for every 10 pounds of weight, that's like the guy having an extra belt on you.
joe rogan
If he knows how to use it, for sure.
unidentified
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I mean, let's just say a big, strong, athletic white belt that's 20 years old and maybe outweighs me by 40 pounds, that's going to be like me fighting a guy at a much higher skill level.
What he lacks in skill and technique, he's making up for with hustle and youth, and he's not going to get tired, and strength.
joe rogan
Well, I also think it's very dangerous to roll with people that are much larger than you.
I mean, I think there's lessons to be learned in it, and I certainly did my share of it.
But man, there's a lot of times rolling with much larger guys, we come off and your neck is just fucked up, or your back is cracked, making weird noises.
It's like, Jesus, is this really worth it?
steve maxwell
Unless the guy's really, really technical.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, if someone's really, really technical, then it's completely different.
steve maxwell
Like I could roll with you and we could have a great time.
You wouldn't try to kill me.
You wouldn't try to crush me.
Maybe you'd sweep me and come on top.
But, you know, the smart big guy, if he's rolling with a smaller guy or, you know, an older guy, he's going to put himself on the bottom again and let you sweep me or whatever and just practice his defense in the bottom.
joe rogan
Well, I would way rather roll with a larger-than-me black belt than I would a larger-than-me purple belt.
steve maxwell
Well, good point.
joe rogan
Also, if you roll with a larger-than-you black belt, like a Hydra Gracer or something, they don't have anything to prove.
They're not going to hurt you.
They've also been doing it for their whole life.
They know how to do it correctly.
You can get away with so much with physical strength and explosiveness and just weight and power, but that doesn't make you any better.
It's one of the reasons why I always tell people, if you want to learn Jiu-Jitsu properly, learn it from a little guy.
steve maxwell
From a literal guy.
joe rogan
Learn it from like a Barrett Yoshida or a Hoyler Gracie or an Eddie Bravo.
If you learn jiu-jitsu from a smaller person, you're going to learn like really technical jiu-jitsu.
steve maxwell
Like Master Elio.
joe rogan
Exactly.
steve maxwell
His self-defense still stands the test of time, man.
Sure.
That's another thing that makes me really pleased to see that it's kind of gone full circle.
You know, jiu-jitsu was kind of going the way of a lot of other martial arts.
Like judo became like just a form of jacketed wrestling, really.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
steve maxwell
And, you know, Taekwondo, Tangsudo, you know, they were at one point deadly martial arts.
But now they're, you know, a lot of the martialness has been lost in a lot of these different, especially if they go Olympic.
But that was happening to Jiu-Jitsu.
You know, people are just basically shaking hands and jumping on their ass.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
And it was like, what?
Right.
And that's a fun game.
I'm not deriding it.
I'm not saying that the guys are not formidable athletes.
They're amazing.
But for the average guy, they're never going to be really great.
They're just going to be so-so.
They're doing it for fun.
I think it's important that you back yourself up with the self-defense.
And I see now a big trend to going back to the origins of football.
Jiu-Jitsu, the self-defense has been really big.
Guys want to know the basic stand-up street defense.
And it was extremely well developed in the old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
It was very well developed.
Gun, knife, stick, club, you know, all kinds of clenches, defending yourself against a guy trying to ground and pound.
It was all there, but it was lost.
It was lost.
joe rogan
Well, it is unfortunate when people are just trying to chase medals and win by points.
And in doing so, they become extremely unrealistic in the actual application against a fighter who knows what they're doing.
But one of the things that's really exciting right now is no-gi competition.
steve maxwell
That's kind of cool.
joe rogan
Yeah, and what Eddie Bravo's done, did you see the Eddie Bravo Invitational, which was number six, was yesterday?
steve maxwell
No, but I heard about it.
I heard some of the results, and it sounds like a very good way to contest skill versus skill.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's amazing.
What Eddie's done is he's figured out a way to, they have, it's submission only, so they go after it, right?
But when it reaches a time limit, if it reaches a time limit and there's no submission, then what they do is they start off in compromised positions, sort of like wrestling.
You know, in wrestling, one guy would start down, one guy would start off.
steve maxwell
Like the referee's position.
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
So you have the option of two positions.
Either you take the back with over-under, just over-under, not a choke locked in, but just the back with the hooks in and over-under, or spider web control, meaning arm bar.
The guy's defending the arm bar, lying on his back.
You're in side control, and you have the arm hooked, and your legs are across, and you start from there.
And so...
Either the person gets a tap, or the person on the bottom escapes the position.
And then you count up the amount of time.
So you do it...
I think there's three rounds of this.
And if someone taps, then the other person has an opportunity to tap that other person.
And whoever taps the quickest, like if one person taps the person within a minute and a half, the other person does it in 30 seconds, the 32nd person would win.
And if there's no taps in the, I think it's three rounds, three rounds of these submission attempts, then they count up the amount of time it took the person to escape.
So if one person escapes like 30 seconds quicker, you know, then the other person, that person would win.
That's how Gary Tonin wound up losing yesterday.
steve maxwell
What a fair way to do it.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a smart way to do it, too, because it ensures that you're going to have exciting situations.
Because if two guys are just locked up in front of each other and no one ever gets to a bad spot, you're not going to see any action.
But if a guy's on a guy's back and he has an over-under and they start from there, that's a dangerous spot.
And so you're going to see exciting stuff.
So it changes grappling from being this...
Thing that can really wind up, like Polaris, you know, they had those matches with Gary Tonin versus Husamar, Paul Hares, great matchup, but it went to a draw.
You know, AJ, I don't know how to pronounce his last name, Jake Shields.
steve maxwell
Yeah, the audience wants a winner.
They want a clear-cut winner.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Plus, it gives the athletes a chance to showcase their skills.
unidentified
Yes.
steve maxwell
That's what people want to see.
They want to see the skill sets showcased.
And you don't get to see that because sometimes these guys are so damn good that they neutralize each other.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
It doesn't always make for a great fight.
Two really good fighters?
I mean, you've seen this in the UFC many times.
You think, oh my god, this is going to be so good.
And it's like...
Oh man, this is really boring because the guys just basically neutralize each other because they're just so good.
joe rogan
They're so good they cancel each other out.
steve maxwell
They cancel each other out.
joe rogan
That is a problem and I think Eddie's come up with a perfect solution with this format of putting guys in bad positions in the last stage of the match.
steve maxwell
Sounds like a fun thing to compete in.
joe rogan
It's excellent.
And it's on Fight Pass now.
It's on UFC Fight Pass.
So now a lot of people are getting a chance to see it and they put videos on YouTube and all that jazz.
steve maxwell
So this is at the pro level pretty much?
joe rogan
Yeah, $25,000 for the...
steve maxwell
It might be kind of fun if they just did like a grassroots thing.
joe rogan
A grassroots thing?
steve maxwell
Yeah, you know, just for, like, you know, amateurs to go in.
joe rogan
Yeah, it would be a great program.
steve maxwell
Blue belt, purple belt, brown belt.
I don't know how...
joe rogan
I agree, yeah.
steve maxwell
I don't know what the logistics of a tournament like that might be, but, man, I'll tell you, it'd be fun to compete in something.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Eddie's done six of them, and they've gotten better and better, and yesterday's was the biggest one, especially because it's on Fight Pass now.
But he's really figured it out.
You know, he's figured out how to make this an exciting thing to watch for people who are on the outside looking in.
steve maxwell
Well, you know, speaking of that cast wrestling, a lot of people don't realize that pre-Civil War and just post-Civil War, wrestling was the most popular sport in America.
unidentified
Really?
steve maxwell
People used to sit outside the telegraph offices to listen to the results of a lot of these old-school wrestling matches.
It was way more popular.
Well, first of all, baseball was in its infancy.
It was like a Civil War era sport that was invented.
Basketball was still only like two schools, I think, were playing it.
They actually used real peach baskets.
unidentified
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
steve maxwell
Yeah, a physical education guy came up with a way just to, you know, like a game, just a conditioning game.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
That was the origins of basketball.
unidentified
And football was like, yeah, football was like this big watermelon looking ball.
steve maxwell
But wrestling was the most popular sport in America.
joe rogan
And it was real wrestling, though.
steve maxwell
Oh, it was the old school catch.
Guys like Georges Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch and Farmer Burns and even up to the era of Strangler Lewis, they were still doing real wrestling.
And then, of course, they started getting into more of the entertainment business.
joe rogan
How did it go bad?
Because it's really fascinating to me that wrestling itself is such an unbelievably difficult sport.
Like, if you watch amateur wrestling in the Olympics, at an Olympic level, it's unbelievably difficult.
And it's exciting and fun to watch, but there's no professional venue for it.
steve maxwell
Well, until the UFC came along.
joe rogan
Right, but that's fighting, though.
Yeah, it's fighting.
For people who just want to wrestle, they can't.
steve maxwell
It is a great basis, though, for a lot of different things.
joe rogan
It certainly is, no doubt about it, but it's just, to me, it sucks that there's not a professional avenue for actual wrestling.
steve maxwell
For actual wrestling.
joe rogan
I mean, think about all the things that are on television, golf or whatever, where there's this massive professional venue for it.
steve maxwell
It sounds like Eddie Bravo, though, has given one.
joe rogan
For jiu-jitsu, but jiu-jitsu is obviously very different than wrestling.
I mean, just wrestling itself, getting the pin and scoring points for takedowns and all those different things.
I mean, there's something to be said for that as a sport.
Maybe it's not the best as a martial arts for completing a fight, for finishing a fight, wrestling with the rules that are involved in amateur wrestling.
But to me...
The guys who get really great at wrestling, I would like to see them have a professional avenue, like a way to go from college and then compete as a professional wrestler.
Not that there's anything wrong with WWE if you're into that shit, but...
I would love it if it was an actual competition.
steve maxwell
Yeah, actual, real, honestly, God, not choreographed, nothing from.
There was an attempt for a while to actually come up with a professional wrestling leg.
joe rogan
A couple attempts.
steve maxwell
Yeah, but it kind of fell by the wayside.
joe rogan
Could you imagine if that was the case with basketball?
If you played basketball in college, and basketball was just like, really, like, people watched on ESPN, it was this big deal, it was in the Olympics in basketball, but then when you went to pro, everybody had to dress like a vampire, and you threw glitter onto the thing.
You know what I mean?
Like, you have music when you introduce, you have matches in a cage.
People are like, what the fuck happened to basketball?
steve maxwell
There are some countries where they actually do have real pro wrestling based on basic...
Not exactly Olympic roles, but like...
You know, each country has their own little native martial art folk style wrestling.
Some of the African countries do this.
It's huge in countries like Somalia and what was the other country?
I met this guy that travels the world for the International Olympic Wrestling Federation.
And he was just doing like, just looking at all the different aspects of wrestling all over the world.
I met him when I was in Turkey.
I went to the Turkish National Championships of Oil Wrestling.
These guys are all pretty much like professional level dudes, man.
And this is the one where they wear these buffalo hide trousers that are tied off at the knee.
And then they basically just pour a bucket of olive oil over themselves.
And then they go out in a grass arena and they just wrestle.
And it starts out with like 50 dudes.
And then, you know, half of those guys lose.
And then they just keep going towards like two guys standing.
joe rogan
Yeah, why oil?
What happened there?
Why'd that go wrong?
steve maxwell
During the Ottoman Empire, they had a standing army.
Basically, the Ottomans pretty much conquered the world.
So they had all these young soldiers with nothing to do.
And these guys were getting into some problems.
You know, you got to keep young men occupied.
So they came up with this.
But at the same time, you know, these are ferocious warriors.
You don't want your guys hurting each other.
So they came up with this idea of coating themselves with oil to make themselves slippery so you can go after each other, you know, like a rabid dog, but no one really gets hurt.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
And also it helps build heat tolerance because these guys were wearing armor in the freaking desert, you know, hundreds of degrees.
I mean, like 100 degrees and it really builds up a tremendous heat tolerance, you know, when you get used to training like that.
joe rogan
So training covered with oil builds up heat tolerance?
steve maxwell
Yeah, I mean, the skin can't breathe, man.
It's pretty brutal.
joe rogan
Oh, wow.
Okay, I see that way.
So, like, you just, like, your pores really can't sweat that good.
steve maxwell
Nope.
And those guys, they were able to keep themselves in tremendous shape.
joe rogan
That guy's got to work on his technique.
steve maxwell
One of the things they do is reach inside the pants to get a grip.
joe rogan
And grab it to his butthole.
steve maxwell
And it looks a little gay.
joe rogan
You think?
steve maxwell
But I'll tell you something.
I actually put on the kiss bit.
The oil, and I wrestled with the former junior national champ.
Dude, he was almost breaking my ribs with the lever.
He would come inside the waistband of your trousers and put his elbow in your spine.
See, the idea is to flip the guy over and expose your belly button to the sky.
If you turned the guy over, you win.
joe rogan
Yeah, but the guy on the bottom, this is a terrible look.
steve maxwell
It looks a little terrible.
joe rogan
He's like literally waiting.
steve maxwell
Let's put it this way.
It would never fly in America.
joe rogan
Why is there a gap between the waist and the body?
steve maxwell
It doesn't start that way.
It's really tight, but the oil over time.
But these guys are unbelievably strong.
And you can see the physics in these guys are like, oh my god.
And they are national heroes.
They're rock stars in their country.
joe rogan
But they're grabbing each other's packages, no?
steve maxwell
No, no, no.
There's no sexuality at all.
joe rogan
Allegedly.
Listen, there's no way you can get your hand deep in there like that and not have some shenanigans.
He's looking at his friend going, my whole hand has escaped me.
steve maxwell
You see how he's holding the leg and the pant?
That's used as leverage to flip the guy over.
It's almost like jiu-jitsu in a way.
joe rogan
Or he's making sure the guy can't get away while he's got his hand deep in his butt.
steve maxwell
Yeah, well, that's part of it.
But...
I'll tell you.
joe rogan
Come on, man.
You can't have this.
steve maxwell
I developed a keen respect for it, though.
joe rogan
I get it from that perspective.
unidentified
I mean, the guys are athletes.
joe rogan
It's definitely difficult.
steve maxwell
When they're flying to Western culture, no.
joe rogan
Right.
But you've done this before.
steve maxwell
But these are strict Islamists, too, you know.
And any kind of homosexuality is punishable by death in these countries.
joe rogan
But you also know that that doesn't stop it.
Like, people that have gone over to Afghanistan have talked about Man Love Mondays or whatever the fuck they have over there.
There's a lot of...
steve maxwell
The Mamba, you know, man, boy, love.
joe rogan
Super common, you know, that they have gay relationships.
Like, there was an article that was written about one of those gay websites, like an app, like a Grindr or something like that, and this guy went over to some forbidden country, you know, some Islamic country, and fired up the app, and it was just getting pinged left and right by all these gay dudes trying to hook up.
steve maxwell
Get out of here!
joe rogan
Well, that's forbidden fruit, my friend.
steve maxwell
Oh, my God.
joe rogan
You know how it is.
steve maxwell
I mean, I'll get a load up and put on a buffalo hide and wrestle, but that's about as gay as it gets for me, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, but if you were gay, you'd be psyched.
steve maxwell
I guess I would.
joe rogan
You know?
Like, if you were gay and somebody, like...
Put it this way, alright?
Being a heterosexual man, if a girl wanted to get all lubed up and wrestle and you could stick your hand down her pants...
steve maxwell
Dude, I'd be there.
joe rogan
Exactly!
steve maxwell
Matter of fact, after the show...
Honey, you got that coconut oil?
That's something set up.
joe rogan
What's up with the tarp?
unidentified
Nothing.
joe rogan
Nothing.
unidentified
Don't worry.
joe rogan
Just lay it down.
Roll out the vat.
You got a vat of oil?
steve maxwell
Put your Lululemon tights on.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Those pants look like they're sturdy, at least.
It looks like it's difficult to rip.
steve maxwell
They're buffalo hot.
It took me 15 minutes to get them on.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
Because they're so stiff, they stand up by themselves.
It's almost like armor.
And I literally had to oil up my balls and my ass and my thighs just to slide in that thing, man.
joe rogan
Again, there's some things.
See, come on.
This is not good.
steve maxwell
That's called a waist drag.
He's actually grabbing the jiu-jitsu belt.
joe rogan
That's what you could call it.
steve maxwell
He's going to pull him down into a takedown.
joe rogan
It's called a cock holster in my world.
Right there.
Look at that one.
Boom.
Look at that.
That is outrageous.
steve maxwell
He's lucky he didn't break his neck, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, for sure.
Well, I'm sure when you're dealing with people being real slippery like that, that's part of the problem with actually grappling.
Look at this.
Hey, my friend.
He's my friend.
That's the version of in prison, they hold onto your pocket.
That's what it is.
These guys looking at each other.
There are no girls.
What do you want us to do?
That's what they're saying.
In my country, there's no girls.
We just oil it up, throw it down.
But, you know, it is a very difficult way to grapple, all jokes aside.
That's really hard.
And in doing so, like, you have to develop.
Like, you learn that about no-gi as well.
And especially if you try to do no-gi with no shirts on.
There's a big difference between no-gi with a rash guard.
steve maxwell
When you're in Abu Dhabi, it was like crazy.
The thing also about that was it was very safe for the soldiers to go full at it.
I mean, what do you do with a standing army with no war to fight?
What the hell do you do with these guys?
But at the same time, you know, you can't have them hurting each other.
That was the so-called origins of the whole sport.
joe rogan
Yeah, there was an NPR podcast on Radiolab about the origins of football and how football was created.
And that was one of the reasons why it was so appealing.
It was like a way to compete in war without actually having war.
I mean, you had objectives, you have goals, and instead of bullets and bodies, you had a football.
steve maxwell
It's like team wrestling almost.
joe rogan
Sort of, yeah, in a lot of ways.
steve maxwell
And in a way, like if you think of the, let's say the rugby scrum, it's kind of like the old shield wall, isn't it?
joe rogan
Yeah, sure.
steve maxwell
When they formed the shield wall.
So, I mean, it's basically learning to work together, and there is grappling.
I mean, you're basically throwing guys down pretty hard, too.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I think whenever you have young men and you have competition, there's always going to be this desire to dominate.
Young men always want to dominate other men.
That's just always going to be the way it is.
So they've figured a way to have these workarounds that are acceptable by society.
And then, in fact, it became the biggest sport in the country.
steve maxwell
Team warfare, man.
joe rogan
Team warfare, like the NFL, is the biggest sport in the country.
steve maxwell
But, you know, it's interesting.
In the early football days, you know, you just didn't see the injuries like you do now.
I mean, there would be elbows, knees, shoulders like always, like all tough boy sports where you're throwing people to the ground.
You're going to get hurt.
But you didn't get the concussions.
And one of the theories I had was—and you don't see it in rugby or rugby union or Gaelic football or any of that.
joe rogan
You don't see it as much.
steve maxwell
Not as much.
joe rogan
But you definitely do see it, right?
steve maxwell
You definitely see it.
But it's not epidemic like in the NFL. I think the helmet became a weapon.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
And they start using the head as a weapon.
joe rogan
Yeah, definitely.
steve maxwell
And, you know, it would be interesting to see what the NFL does now with all these lawsuits and all these injuries.
Did you happen to see Will Smith in that movie...
joe rogan
Concussion?
No, I didn't, but I keep hearing great things about it.
steve maxwell
Yeah, I've got to check that movie out because I heard he did a hell of a job.
joe rogan
I don't know what they can do to mitigate it.
steve maxwell
Well, they do have a new kind of helmet now, I heard, that just came out that really reduces the sloshing of the brain.
joe rogan
How does it do that?
steve maxwell
I think it's some kind of gel or something in the helmet, kind of like a soft kind of thing that takes the absorption.
You know, the helmets are hard.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
So when you get hit, your brain still sloshes.
It's just like, you know, when you get hit with headgear on, it doesn't really stop the brain injury.
joe rogan
No.
steve maxwell
You just take more hits because there's no surface injury.
joe rogan
Well, not only that, a lot of people think it actually accentuates the movement of the brain because of the fulcrum effect.
steve maxwell
The fulcrum effect.
I believe they've taken...
Yeah.
There's a new helmet now that supposedly is gel-like that it takes the blow, but, you know, it saves the...
joe rogan
Yeah, we're seeing in here, Jamie pulled up this video, it says 0-1, believes it can reduce the chances of a player sustaining a concussion.
And this is interesting, because the helmet itself sort of gives and expands.
steve maxwell
I would love to see that happen, because I love pro football, and I would be thrilled to see that they come out of a way that these guys can still play the game without suffering those horrible injuries.
joe rogan
I agree, but honestly, I feel like the real option is probably no pads, no helmet.
The same thing with MMA. Or like the original football in the U.S. Well, I think with MMA, one of the things that saves fighters versus boxing is that you really can't tee off on someone the way you can with boxing gloves.
With boxing gloves, you almost can have no concern whether or not you're going to hit a forehead or going to hit an elbow, unless you have small hands or weak hands.
It's much more rare that boxers break their hands than MMA fighters.
But even MMA fighters, I think, they have an unrealistic amount of protection on their hands, and it's just to protect their hands.
To this day, I'll get interviews.
I got interviewed after the guy died overseas really recently, and they were saying, do you think that maybe we should have bigger gloves, or maybe we should make people wear headgear?
I think the real answer is no gloves.
Not only no gloves, no wrist taping.
Because I think that one of the more difficult aspects about punching someone is that your wrist joint moves when you hit things, and it makes it way harder.
I mean, you have to really concentrate to keep your fist completely tight, make sure that your wrist doesn't move when you make impact, and you have to make impact with the first two knuckles primarily, otherwise you could break your hand.
steve maxwell
Well, like the original UFC. I was one of the original investors.
I told you this.
I actually threw my little bit of money in there and was Hoyce's conditioning coach for those first three.
joe rogan
What did you have him do back then?
steve maxwell
I was actually trying to build his strength as much as I could because jiu-jitsu provided all of the conditioning that he needed.
He was doing a lot of work with just bringing in fresh partners.
He wanted to stay a jiu-jitsu purist, although he used some kicks and so forth just to kind of Close the distance.
Just close the distance, fake the guy out, make the guy wonder, like, what's he doing, so that he could get the clinch and stuff.
joe rogan
He would smack guys, too, to open up things where you don't run the risk of breaking your hand.
steve maxwell
But in all those original UFCs, the strikers all busted their hands.
A lot of them did.
There was, like, I think three broken hands in that first one.
joe rogan
Well, that's realistic, though.
steve maxwell
That's realistic.
And ground and pound would cease to exist.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
You can't just sit there and tee off.
joe rogan
Well, you could elbow people, for sure, just as much.
unidentified
You could elbow people.
steve maxwell
But imagine hitting someone at the elbow with your fist or at the top of the head.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
So that whole ground and pound thing would pretty much go away.
joe rogan
Well, just reckless punching would go away.
steve maxwell
Yes.
You'd see a lot more open hand strikes.
You would see grapplers able to secure holds if they can't hold.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve maxwell
It might be boring for the public because I think you would see grapplers win a lot of fights.
joe rogan
You might, but I think you would also see a lot better Muay Thai.
You would see people would have to develop their Muay Thai because you wouldn't see any change in the weapons.
The knees, the kicks, the elbows, all would be exactly the same.
The only difference would be the punches.
So I think a really high-level Muay Thai practitioner would probably have a really good advantage if they can keep the fight on the feet.
If the fight went to the ground, you'd definitely see a big advantage for grapplers, especially in securing chokes because you've tried, I'm sure, to grapple with MMA gloves.
steve maxwell
My God, it's just like wearing oven mitts or something.
joe rogan
Especially like rear nakeds.
If you try to get a rear naked choke, try to get the hand behind the neck.
steve maxwell
Or even a good guillotine sometimes is really hard to get it underneath the chin and stuff like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, and especially if you like pretzel grips or something like that.
It's just so much padding.
You create a good solid two to three extra inches of space that you don't want with all the padding on the gloves.
And it just gets in the way.
And also, it's easy for your opponent to grab them and pull them off.
steve maxwell
Pull them off.
I would love to see a return to the gloveless MMA. Yeah, I would too.
I think it would be really interesting.
I'd like to see a league somewhere, maybe on an Indian reservation or someplace, where they didn't have all the...
Boxing is the reason why they put the gloves on in the first place.
joe rogan
Sure.
steve maxwell
The boxing commissions all wanted...
joe rogan
Well, actually, it was Tank Abbott.
You know, Tank Abbott was the first guy to wear those gloves.
Tank Abbott wore the Chuck Norris MMA gloves, which was before anybody had them.
Tank wore them like, I want to say, oh man, it was like early, early UFCs.
Because Tank was a power puncher.
And he was smart enough to realize, you know what?
I'll just tape my hands up, put these small padded gloves on that are going to protect my knuckles, and just mollywhop these dudes.
steve maxwell
Was that before they went to the gloves?
joe rogan
Tank Abbott was before they went to the gloves.
The first UFC that I worked, they didn't have gloves.
I was at UFC 12. And they still didn't have gloves?
They did not have gloves.
It was not mandatory.
It was optional.
Vitor wore gloves, but he didn't have to.
I believe he also wore shoes.
No, he didn't wear them in those.
steve maxwell
Yeah, I remember that some of the guys were still wearing the wrestling shoes.
joe rogan
He wore them when he fought Vandele.
That's him versus Oleg Tektarov.
steve maxwell
Okay.
joe rogan
See, so Oleg has no gloves, but Tank has gloves on.
steve maxwell
Interesting.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Tank was, I'm pretty sure Tank was the pioneer of wearing those kind of gloves.
And I think that they would call those, I don't think they called them MMA gloves back then because I don't think they had the term MMA. But the original gloves were Century gloves, you know, Century Martial Arts Supply Company.
steve maxwell
For hitting the heavy bag.
joe rogan
Something like that, yeah.
And that's what the design came from.
The design of MMA gloves didn't come from someone sitting down and saying, we need the perfect glove for mixed martial arts.
No, they already had a model that was not really necessarily designed for MMA and they just sort of applied it to MMA and it became the standard.
There's a lot of really sloppy shit that's in MMA still to this day that shouldn't be there, that's only in there because it was in there in the beginning.
The 12 to 6 elbow, which I harp upon all the time, because I think it's so stupid that if you go down from 12 on the clock to 6 on the clock with an elbow, it's illegal.
Even if you hit someone on the thigh, which is so stupid, it's illegal.
And the reason why it's illegal is because the commissions, the athletic commission, saw people breaking bricks on those karate demonstrations.
You can't do that.
You would kill people!
So that's why that's illegal.
steve maxwell
Not understanding that they...
Weaken those bricks.
joe rogan
Well, and also the reason why gloves are mandatory is because somehow or another they erroneously believe those gloves protect the fighters.
They don't.
unidentified
Not at all.
joe rogan
But knowing that, knowing that you...
I mean, I think if we got a room full of athletes and fighters and martial artists, and we all had the discussion, we said, let's just have a show of hands.
How many guys here think that the gloves protect the opponent?
Right.
steve maxwell
No, no.
joe rogan
You can punch so much harder.
So everyone who knows.
Everyone.
100%, I think, across the board.
I mean, there might be a contrarian or two that would step in and say, you know, hey, personally, I'd rather get punched by a guy with a glove than no glove.
But most people would say, fuck that.
Most people would say bare knuckles probably safer for everybody involved.
steve maxwell
Safer.
Am I correct?
Did they not take the headgear off Olympic boxing?
joe rogan
They did.
Yes, and I think that's a good move.
steve maxwell
I think it's a very good move.
joe rogan
You don't get hit as much when you don't have headgear on.
I used to hate headgear sparring because your peripheral would get screwed up, especially kickboxing.
It was really dangerous.
You know, you'd get hit with a jab, and you wouldn't even recognize the kick was coming, because they're coming over your shoulder until, whop, it's catching the side of the head.
Your peripheral would get all fucked up.
It would close your peripheral quite a bit, and I just always felt like I got hit way more when I had headgear on.
steve maxwell
You know, it's interesting.
The little bit of boxing that I did do, I always noticed, I always kind of had a dull headache after boxing with headgear.
And when I didn't have the headgear, I didn't have that same headache.
It was weird.
Even back then, I could never understand why my head always hurt more after boxing with the headgear on.
joe rogan
Because your brain's squishing around anymore.
steve maxwell
Well, now I know.
But at the time, I didn't put the cause and effect together.
All I knew was, intuitively, I hated wearing headgear when I was training.
joe rogan
Well, what's interesting when I've brought up this to people in high places, they always have the same thing.
The public would never go for it.
The public would think it's too brutal.
People would think it's too brutal.
steve maxwell
I don't know, man.
But what have we created?
joe rogan
What have we created?
Because we created something, you know, not me.
I obviously didn't have anything to do with it.
What MMA is, is we have a completely new sport over the last few decades.
And this completely new sport has redefined the way people think about combat sports and fighting, right?
Okay.
Well, why don't we be honest about what fucking, what's happening?
And why don't we be honest about, how come you can shin kick a guy in the face?
I can shin you in the face, full blast, but I can't punch you with a bare knuckle.
Do you know how stupid that is?
Because a guy like, you know, take, you know, someone who's a power kicker, like a Vitor Belfort or something.
steve maxwell
Oh my god.
joe rogan
The amount of power they could generate from a kick to...
In that raw shin to your face, it's so much more than anyone can ever punch.
I mean, like, multi-tools more.
steve maxwell
Three, four, five times more.
It's like a baseball bat, basically.
unidentified
It is.
steve maxwell
Like a baseball bat.
joe rogan
But we don't have to wear shin pads.
How come we don't have to wear shin pads?
Because the public's not used to shins being covered.
It's all it is.
I really honestly think that the smartest move would be to ban tape.
You can't tape your wrists.
And bare knuckles.
steve maxwell
I think so, too.
Well, if you go back in the early era of boxing, where it was all bare knuckle, you rarely saw knockouts.
Those fights used to go so, like, 30 rounds sometimes.
All those, you know, like Jack Johnson and those guys.
joe rogan
Do you think that's why they used to fight like this, too?
unidentified
I think so.
joe rogan
They would, like, smack each other with the knuckles like that?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Or do you think they just didn't know any better?
steve maxwell
I think they knew better.
I don't think the mighty men of old – there's not too much we could probably show those guys.
Imagine if we went in a time capsule back to Sparta, the first professional army in Europe, right?
Do you think we could actually show those guys anything about fighting or warfare and stuff?
joe rogan
I'll fuck all those dudes up.
Send me back.
No.
No, honestly, martial arts, I bet they'd get fucked up.
I really do.
Because when I look at the martial artists from 1993 that were competing in the UFC, and then I look at the martial artists of today in 2016, look at Jon Jones.
Do you know what the fuck Jon Jones would do to UFC 1?
I mean, you know how ridiculous it'd be if you send Jon Jones into UFC 1?
He'd be like, get that guy out of here.
This is not fair.
Like, he's doing a totally different thing.
I think the martial artists of today, like Demetrius Johnson, who I think is the best ever, But we're still talking modern, modern, modern.
steve maxwell
Let's go 2,000 years ago.
You put Jon Jones in the gladiator arena.
joe rogan
You don't think he would fuck those guys up?
steve maxwell
I think he'd be a hell of a gladiator.
joe rogan
I don't think anyone would have a chance.
I don't think they would know what they were doing.
steve maxwell
I think they knew what they were doing.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
Well, how come they didn't know in 1993?
steve maxwell
A lot of this information had been lost.
joe rogan
Right, but even jujitsu, which jujitsu has evolved...
steve maxwell
You know, this was like a resurgent of old stuff.
I mean...
joe rogan
Right.
Okay, I see what you're saying.
steve maxwell
You know what I'm saying?
It's like the dark ages, you know, where they, you know, like in medieval times...
joe rogan
But they didn't have the ability to share information like they have today.
steve maxwell
No, not at all.
There's no internet.
joe rogan
Yeah.
That's one of the reasons why jujitsu is at such a high level today.
There's all these 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, and you just...
I've been doing jujitsu for a long time!
And I'll watch something, and I'll just go...
Like the Home Alone guy.
I'm like, oh my god!
Look at this fucking move!
Like, every day these kids are coming up with new moves.
Every day.
I saw somebody figured out how to go...
Some dude went from being in a heel hook to catching a guy in a Kimura.
And spun out of the heel hook into a Kimura.
And I was like, what?
steve maxwell
That's pretty amazing stuff.
joe rogan
What did you just do?
Like, you watched it.
And you just kind of replay it over and over and over again.
There's so many of those now.
steve maxwell
Let's go back to what we were just talking about.
In ancient times, your ability to fight was a life or death thing.
You know, you were actually fighting to the death.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
We don't have that.
True.
But usually in the military, it's with shooting and guns and stuff like that.
You don't see guys fighting.
I mean, it could be hand-to-hand, but for the most part, these guys were trained warriors that would fight hand-to-hand.
That's why I say, when you're fighting to the death, you're damn good at what you do.
joe rogan
If you live.
steve maxwell
If you live.
joe rogan
But if you don't live, you don't get to really learn anything.
steve maxwell
Yeah, but there's plenty of guys that did live.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
And so my point is that they were well trained and they really knew what was going on.
joe rogan
I think there's some good points on both sides.
I think there were certainly some incredibly tough people back then, for sure.
steve maxwell
Oh, my God.
I'm sure the pain threshold was unbelievable.
joe rogan
But I think there's also this longing for nostalgia that a lot of people like to apply to the ancient martial artists and the ancient fighters, and they like to look at all those guys.
Boy, if they could fight today, if you could get this guy.
Look, Jack Dempsey, who's a hell of a fighter and an amazing boxer and just an unbelievably tough man, wouldn't last one round with Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson in his prime would have ran through Jack Dempsey.
He would have ran through all of them.
He would have ran through Gene Tunney.
He would have ran through all those guys.
steve maxwell
Of course, he ran through everybody in the modern age, too.
I mean, is that because he was Mike?
Or is it because those guys were really that bad?
Because he made a lot of modern guys look pretty shitty, too.
joe rogan
He certainly did.
But he had the benefit of having all of those guys on film.
See, he had his version of the internet.
unidentified
I agree.
joe rogan
What he had is his version of the internet, which was Customato.
And Customato, I mean, might not have got him on Reddit or, you know, showed him all the funny memes on Instagram, but what he did do is he played him these films, these black and white films of Sugar Ray Robinson, of Jersey Joe Walcott, of Rocky Marciano.
He got to watch these old school Jack Dempsey tapes and he got to emulate their techniques and understand.
And Customato would go over meticulously different positions and Different ways to encounter different styles and different ways to move to get better angles for counter shots.
And he learned from all those techniques.
In a way, those guys really didn't have the opportunity to do.
They had to train.
They had to learn from trainers.
They had to watch other people do it.
But they didn't have the benefit of having a library of film that spanned decades.
steve maxwell
You made a very strong point.
Did you happen to catch him in Ip Man 3?
joe rogan
What is it?
steve maxwell
Ip Man 3. No, what is that?
You know, the Wing Chun guy.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
It was one of those crazy kung fu movies?
steve maxwell
Yeah, yeah, but Mike Tyson had a...
joe rogan
Oh, that's right!
I saw the previews for that.
steve maxwell
Dude, he looks scary as shit!
joe rogan
He sounds scary.
steve maxwell
Even to this day, he looks like he could still, you know, if he just trained for, you know, six months or so, he looks like he'd still step in there and take somebody out.
joe rogan
Well, he definitely looks like he's still somewhat active.
There was a video of him hitting the bag recently for some shoot for something that he did.
And, you know, he starts off slow, starts getting loosened up, and then he starts teeing off in the bag, and you're like, oh, Jesus.
steve maxwell
Oh, my God.
joe rogan
He'd still fuck people up.
steve maxwell
He would still fuck people up.
Joe, you would still fuck people up.
I'm still haunted by that spinning back kick you did in your garage that time.
Your freaking banana bag bent in half, man.
My ribs just hurt just watching that, man.
joe rogan
Well, kicks are always going to be more powerful than punches.
I think that kicking technique is one of the few things that is a little bit behind in MMA in comparison to some of the traditional martial arts.
Especially like the spinning kicks and straight kicks.
Round kicks are pretty simple.
It's pretty straightforward.
If you look at the round kicks of the best Muay Thai fighters and the round kicks of the best Jiu Jitsu guys like Edson Barbosa, I think Barbosa is right up there with pretty much anybody as far as kicking technique in the world.
But spinning techniques, straight techniques like turning sidekicks, there's a little bit of lost knowledge in those.
steve maxwell
Not so many guys know that, man.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Matt Serra used to have that awesome spinning back fist, man.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve maxwell
Wow, that caught by surprise.
Am I correct?
You were the one that taught GSP that spinning back kick.
joe rogan
Well, he knew how to do it, but I helped refine it.
He actually came to me, John Donaher, who's like one of the best jiu-jitsu coaches in the world.
He's the guy who's in charge of, they call it the Donaher Death Squad.
He's all these guys out of Henzo Gracie's, like Gary Tonin, Eddie Cummins, all these animals.
steve maxwell
Yeah, in New York, I had a chance to talk to him.
joe rogan
And the young man that won yesterday, I think his name is Ryan...
Gordon Ryan, I think his name is, who won EBI. Can you find out what his name is?
Young kid.
He's 20 years old.
He won the EBI tournament yesterday.
But Donaher and I were having dinner, and GSP wanted...
He asked me if I knew anyone who...
Because he knew that I came from a Taekwondo background.
He's like, do you know anybody who's a really good Taekwondo guy that can show GSP the fundamentals of the spinning back kick or the turning side kick?
Yeah, Gordon Ryan.
Young kid, 20 years old.
Won the EBI. 16-man tournament.
steve maxwell
What's that I stand for?
joe rogan
EBI. Eddie Bravo.
steve maxwell
Eddie Bravo.
joe rogan
Invitational.
steve maxwell
Invitational, okay.
joe rogan
And so Don Herr asked him, and I said, well, I could show him some shit.
I know it's going to sound ridiculous, being a comedian and just a commentator.
steve maxwell
That's just your disguise, man.
joe rogan
Well, it sounds, even to me, ridiculous.
To me, to say to John Donaher, who's one of the best jiu-jitsu teachers in the world, you know, hey, there's a guy that I know, his name's me.
You know, it's just...
steve maxwell
Don't tell yourself short, Joe.
joe rogan
I'm not telling myself short.
steve maxwell
I've been to your house and trained you a few times.
You're a beast.
Had it been another time, I think you probably would have been a hell of an MMA fighter yourself.
joe rogan
Maybe, man, but...
steve maxwell
People ask me that all the time.
I say, Joe, probably...
I mean, you're a superior athlete.
There's no doubt about it.
You got the fast-twitch muscle fiber.
You got the power.
I think, had you had a chance, let's say maybe 10 years...
Prior to when it started, you know?
joe rogan
Well, that's very nice of you.
I don't know.
steve maxwell
I'm not being nice.
I'm being honest.
You're a really athletic, strong guy.
joe rogan
Well, I certainly would have competed, you know, in MMA like I did in kickboxing and Taekwondo, but I totally honestly though, I've always been terrified of brain damage.
I knew too many people when I was young that I knew were punchy.
It scares the shit out of me.
It still to this day scares the shit out of me.
That's one of the reasons why I tell anybody if they're even thinking even they even have one foot out the back door and If they're thinking about getting out, get out.
Just get out.
Because there's going to be some animal in there that's not thinking about getting out.
There's going to be some crazed young psychopath who's only thinking about putting his shin to your face.
And he's probably going to do it.
steve maxwell
Well, sooner or later it's going to happen.
You know, I lived in Philadelphia for many, many years.
And Smoke and Joe Frazier used to be down in my neighborhood sometimes.
The poor guy could barely put two words together.
You would say hello to him and you didn't even know what he said.
It was just really sad.
joe rogan
He was gone.
steve maxwell
What happened to a lot of those guys?
joe rogan
I've seen it.
I've seen it in my time in the UFC. I saw it in my kickboxing days.
When I went from Taekwondo to kickboxing, I spent a lot of time in boxing gyms.
I got to watch a lot of guys get beat up in training, and over the course of just a few years, like three or four years, I could see deterioration.
steve maxwell
And see, that's why jujitsu and submission wrestling is so much fun.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Because you can pretty much go full tilt, really spend yourself, get a nice workout.
No one necessarily needs to get hurt.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
If it hurts, even if it's highly uncomfortable, you just, you know...
That's it.
You know, I mean, provided your guy lets go, you always have to have trust with your partners.
But that is one thing you can do well into a van stage.
And it is a great anti-aging tool if you go at it in the right way.
joe rogan
Yeah, and I think one of the things that you brought up earlier when it comes to joint mobility and just flexibility and mobility, I think it's very important that people realize that if you want your body to be healthy, you have to use it all the time.
unidentified
You have to use it all the time.
joe rogan
You can't have any excuses.
steve maxwell
Old men actually have to work out more than young guys.
I got to work out every day, even a couple hours.
joe rogan
Every day?
steve maxwell
Just to maintain, yeah.
joe rogan
Seven days a week?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
No, it's not hard.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
I'm not doing high intensity every day.
You know, high intensity twice a week, so I don't burn out.
Even younger guys, especially if you're involved with any kind of sport, you got to be really careful that you don't overtrain.
Overtraining is epidemic amongst grapplers, jiu-jitsu guys, even MMA guys are just chronically burning out.
But, you know, two hard workouts a week is enough.
And every day, you've got to do plenty of mobility.
And I like to do plenty of breathing exercises, walking, cardio.
And I do some static stretching.
But it's enabled me to still, you know, I can still hold my own on the mat.
I surprise guys sometimes when we get on the mat and roll around.
At first they start babying me, and then they say, oh, well, old Steve, he's still got it going there.
And then they start upping the ante a little bit.
Of course, at the end, I'm usually the one tapping.
joe rogan
How was your shoulder?
I know you were having some shoulder issues for a while.
steve maxwell
I still got some issues with it.
joe rogan
Did you ever get it looked at by a doctor?
steve maxwell
I did.
There's a big old bone spurn there just from doing silly, stupid shit, not tapping quick enough.
Had a couple injuries to it, you know.
It started back in college, actually.
So I don't do any overhead pressing or anything anymore.
I can still do Hindu push-ups and things like that.
I can still do dips.
joe rogan
Well, you still do those shield casts with clubs.
steve maxwell
Not so much because I can't travel with that stuff.
So I pretty much went to body weight and isometrics and so forth, you know, a lot of mobility stuff.
But here's a good resource for your listeners.
Any of you guys out there listening that have shoulder issues, go and buy the book Shoulder Pain, Its Solution and Its Prevention by Dr. John M. Kirsch.
He was a former orthopedic surgeon who used to do surgery for a living.
That's how a doctor can either cut you or give you medication to mask the symptoms, but it can't do anything to really help you.
Well, Kirsch found that hanging with a brachial hang.
Cured almost every type of shoulder ailment.
It would get people out of pain.
joe rogan
Well, explain a brachial hang.
steve maxwell
It's a pull-up with the palms facing away.
joe rogan
Okay.
steve maxwell
Shoulder width.
You know, I usually don't use my thumb or finger.
joe rogan
Okay.
steve maxwell
I mean, my thumb.
joe rogan
You don't grab it like you would grab a baseball bat?
steve maxwell
No, just like a monkey grip, we call it.
joe rogan
Which is what you would do for a grappler anyway.
You never really grab it.
unidentified
Exactly.
steve maxwell
Like a Americana holder.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
And you just hang.
And it stretches out the coracoid bone.
What bone is that?
It's like a little bone in the shoulder that what happens is, as you get older, it starts to...
In fact, bring it up, that book, Shoulder Pain is Solution.
joe rogan
We need to make a t-shirt that says, bring that up, Jamie.
steve maxwell
There we go.
unidentified
This book is...
joe rogan
Shoulder pain.
steve maxwell
Yeah, shoulder impingement, rotator cuff tears, labral tears.
joe rogan
Damn, four and a half stars on Amazon, 135 customer reviews.
That is a strong endorsement right there.
steve maxwell
Dude, I'm telling you, man.
Of course, part of my problem is it's hard to find a horizontal bar sometimes when you're traveling.
You know, they take all the pull-up bars out of the playgrounds.
unidentified
Why?
steve maxwell
I don't know.
Maybe poor Johnny's too obese to pull himself up.
God forbid he'd feel bad about himself.
joe rogan
Does it have to be this way?
steve maxwell
Yeah, it's got to be a brachial hang.
joe rogan
So it has to be palms facing forward, not like this.
steve maxwell
Let the shoulder come out of the socket, and you just hang passively until your grip starts to get tired.
You can do it multiple times.
You would be absolutely amazed how good your shoulders would feel from doing that.
joe rogan
So full arm strength, or full arm locked out?
steve maxwell
Yeah, you just completely...
unidentified
Like this?
steve maxwell
Yeah, and you just completely...
joe rogan
So not like this, like you were doing before?
unidentified
No, no.
steve maxwell
Completely relaxed.
joe rogan
Okay, so you just hang.
steve maxwell
Just hang.
And just let the humerus come out of the socket and hang.
joe rogan
So what is it doing?
It's just like relaxing impingements?
steve maxwell
It just opens up the joint.
It gives the humerus more ability to move.
Even with the bone spur I have in the shoulder, when I hang regularly, I have zero pain.
joe rogan
Whoa, that's crazy.
steve maxwell
And this guy stopped doing surgery.
This is a guy that made his living doing surgery.
Now he doesn't advocate.
He says, this works better.
Wow.
This is an orthopedic, board-certified orthopedic guy.
And he shows the Kwari study, where he did a study with old folks.
I'm telling you, it feels really, really nice.
Really, really, really good.
I use this for all my clients.
I do a lot of online personal training, fat loss, diet programs and such.
And all my guys that have shoulder issues, I get them hanging.
And yeah, there he is.
joe rogan
Interesting.
steve maxwell
I'll tell you, Joe, if you're having any shoulder stuff going on right now, just start hanging every day, even multiple times.
Your shoulders are full of good.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
steve maxwell
I know it sounds counterintuitive, like it's too simple to be true, but it's one of those things that is true.
joe rogan
Well, I had some tears in my shoulder, and I was having some pain, so I finally went and got an MRI. Apparently it had been dislocated, and I never even knew it had been dislocated, you know, from Jiu-Jitsu.
steve maxwell
I don't even want to see the damn pictures.
joe rogan
And I had a labral tear, I had a torn biceps tendon, and I had a, what is it, a Label and rotator cuff.
Rotator cuff tear, too.
steve maxwell
You have any spurs in there?
joe rogan
I got a bunch of shit going on in there.
steve maxwell
Well, anyone that's played hard boy sports like we have all our lives, you're going to get that shit.
But I'm telling you, what Kersh found, it didn't matter what the source of the injury was, the relief is profound when you do that daily hanging.
It's just that amazing.
joe rogan
Well, what I have done is get stem cell shots.
I got stem cell shots in the shoulder, and it's incredible.
I mean, the healing...
First of all, I had all this clicking and weird shit that was going on there.
All that shit went away.
steve maxwell
Wow.
You throw the hangs in there.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm in.
I'm in.
I'm hanging.
I wish I could hang right now.
I'd like to do it right now while we're doing the podcast.
unidentified
I'd like to hang.
steve maxwell
I need to find some kind of portable device that...
joe rogan
What about one of the ones that goes in front of a door?
Like those ones that you do in a door stop?
steve maxwell
Oh, that'd be great, but I'd have to buy one in each city and then just dump it.
joe rogan
That's annoying.
You're committed to this, or you were saying before that you might be thinking about Maui as a base.
steve maxwell
Well, I am slowing down just a little bit.
I've been doing this since about 2005, I think.
joe rogan
Well, when I met you, you had a truck.
steve maxwell
Yeah, I was living in a van, a camper van.
joe rogan
And you're like, I can't be bothered with this fucking truck.
steve maxwell
And I really liked it.
But then I started traveling.
What the hell do you do with your RV? You can't just park it somewhere.
You can't store it.
joe rogan
You've got to find somebody you like and leave it at their house.
steve maxwell
And you've got to turn the engine over.
You've got to maintain.
Mice get inside a lot of these RVs underneath the electrical wiring up.
And, you know, it totally destroys your electrical systems.
unidentified
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
Abandoned vehicles, you know, if you just set it, little critters get in there.
unidentified
Wow.
steve maxwell
Yeah, it's not uncommon at all.
So what the hell do you do with it?
So I finally just sold it.
Talking of the power of the internet, I sold my camper van.
To a guy I'd never seen.
I was in Germany.
He was in San Diego.
And the van was up in Seattle.
I sold it to him sight unseen.
Just sent him pictures.
I was very honest.
I had a bunch of shit wrong with it.
I told him every single thing that was wrong with it.
You know, we agreed on the price.
He wired me the money.
I mailed him the title and the key because I traveled with, you know, 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 San Diego from Seattle.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
Power of the internet, my friend.
joe rogan
That's amazing.
steve maxwell
I put it on Craigslist, and boom, boom.
I had a few people bid on it.
And if you would have told me, oh, even 20 years ago, that I'd be making a living on the internet, you know?
joe rogan
Well, essentially you make a living doing not just seminars, but you do have a lot of online stuff.
steve maxwell
A lot of online stuff, yeah.
Once I understood the power of the internet for doing online personal training, wow.
joe rogan
Well, a lot of people found out about you, me included, because of the internet.
I mean, I found out about you from researching kettlebell exercises, and that's how I got some of your early stuff.
Also, I knew about you because I knew that you were one of the first American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts.
steve maxwell
One of the first.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Hells and Grace is first to be sure.
I think there was a bunch, there was a couple guys the Machado's had given, but I was like that first tier of actual Gracie jiu-jitsu guys.
And then Horian and Master Elio had the Gracie instructor training program.
They were concerned that, you know, of the teaching quality.
There was a lot of guys out there teaching that probably shouldn't have been teaching.
So they wanted, they had a specific educational style, like how to teach the moves, and I was the first person to graduate from that instructor training program.
It was really good.
joe rogan
Well, I'm sure you're aware now of the controversy of this Gracie University, the thing they're doing online.
steve maxwell
Yeah, the sun's got a little carried away with that blue belt.
I'm not real thrilled with that.
joe rogan
Well, there's one guy who's giving away brown belts online.
steve maxwell
Get out of here.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Do you mean Gracie?
joe rogan
No, no.
I don't even want to say his name, but he's a pretty respected guy.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
And I read on the Underground that he's giving away up to brown belt online.
steve maxwell
How could you possibly respect that?
joe rogan
I mean, the only way I would think that it would make sense...
steve maxwell
Unless he came and tested, physically tested and improved himself.
joe rogan
That's what I was going to say.
steve maxwell
I have seen guys that have trained pretty much from the internet.
I went to Tahiti.
I was hired by a group of grapplers to prepare them for the Society Island Championship.
It was very popular.
Grappling is a traditional sport amongst the Polynesian peoples.
And I went to Tahiti.
I stayed there for three months.
I trained these guys for the Sasati Island Championships.
And the guy that was running it was still a white belt.
And he was a prison guard there in Tahiti.
Big guy.
And an unbelievable grappler.
He outweighed me probably about 50 pounds, yet he was very soft, relaxed, technical.
He had never actually had a teacher.
He learned it all watching online on the internet, speaking of the power of the internet.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
And I loved the way he trained with me.
He was very respectful, even though I was like 30 years older than him and much smaller.
We had some good training.
I just gave the guy the blue belt right in the spot.
unidentified
Wow.
steve maxwell
I mean, there's no way that that guy was a white belt.
You know, I've done that at different places where people don't have a good instructor, where they are under-promoted, and I get on the mat with them, I see what they can do, and I say, wow, okay, this guy is under-promoted.
He just hasn't had a chance to have a legitimate guy give him a promotion.
joe rogan
Who was that guy rolling with?
Did he have training partners?
steve maxwell
He had a whole group of students, and he was the teacher, basically.
joe rogan
White belt teacher, wow.
steve maxwell
Yeah, white belt teacher.
And his guys were good.
They were really, really good.
joe rogan
Well, if you just really pay attention to the fundamentals and you really understand the principles behind each individual technique, you can learn a lot online today.
steve maxwell
You can learn a lot online.
joe rogan
But not brown belt.
steve maxwell
No.
joe rogan
I just feel like there's...
steve maxwell
I think it's a little...
joe rogan
You need someone there, right there with you.
steve maxwell
Blue belt, almost anyone can get that.
joe rogan
Yes, I agree.
steve maxwell
I mean, I heard a really funny analogy one time from, I think, one of Carly Gracie's black belts, or maybe it was a health guy, but he said basically a white belt is a sperm.
Just the seed.
By the time you're a four degree white bout, you're like a little baby that was just born.
And then the blue bout is like a little toddler, like just a little kid.
Doesn't even know what he doesn't know yet.
But by the time you're like a four degree blue bout, you're like a child.
And then the purple bout is like a teenager.
joe rogan
Yeah, like a dangerous teenager.
steve maxwell
Yeah, you're a little...
You know, you got the technique, but you just, you know...
joe rogan
They're starting to know that they can do it, too.
Purple belts, I feel like, are some of the most dangerous.
steve maxwell
That's a dangerous guy because a lot of times he's still using a lot of power, but he got the technique too.
And then, of course, by the time you're a brown belt, you're like a young man.
Basically, a brown belt is a black belt in disguise.
Once you make brown belt, you're going to make black belt unless you just outright quit.
And then a black belt is like a grown man.
But for me, I don't know about you, but once I got the black belt, I felt like a whole new layer of learning was taking place at that point.
joe rogan
Well, you'd never stop learning in jiu-jitsu as long as your body still works.
Like we're talking about these new moves that are constantly coming out.
But then, you know, John Jock Machado has this really interesting take on things.
He said, the more you know, the less you use.
steve maxwell
The less you use.
joe rogan
He goes, I might know 10,000 techniques, but to win a match, I might use two.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
Well, Salo said that one time.
He says, look, I know 30 ways to pass the guard, but I only use two.
I have a backup move A and then backup plan B in case it doesn't work.
And I think that's just the way it is, man.
joe rogan
Especially that Salo game, that intense pressure solid top game.
steve maxwell
He uses body weight so well.
You know, when I used to train with Salo, he could tap me out on the cross side without even putting a submission hold, just crushing me with his weight.
And he's not, I mean, he's heavy, but he's not that heavy.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
He just would rob your breath.
It was just the most horrible feeling.
It's like being waterboarded or something, man.
It was like, oh my God, the intense pressure.
He learned to do that, you know?
But, yeah, I think for as far as moves and so forth, Probably one of the most outstanding clinics I've ever witnessed was when Jean-Jacques Machado was in the second Abu Dhabi.
I actually 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 another lost art.
You don't see too many guys use it.
You know, Kron uses a good closed guard.
But Jean-Jacques put on a clinic.
Unbelievable, man.
He had this super fight with Mario Sperry.
I never saw such.
He almost put Sperry out, man.
joe rogan
Yeah, Jean-Jacques is no joke, man.
He's always been a beast.
He's a really brilliant person, too.
Like, as a human being, he's a great guy.
On top of being this amazing jiu-jitsu practitioner, he's just a beautiful human being.
steve maxwell
And from that closed guard, he only used four basic moves.
Triangle, arm lock, omoplata, guillotine, and of course, you know, some sweeps to back it up.
That was it!
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
And the way he put them together was like a machine gun attack.
It was like the guy in the guard was working so hard just not to get caught.
Never saw anything like it.
It was like, wow.
Just goes to show you that the basic's done well.
That's all you really need.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, you know, Hickson and Krohn, I mean, Krohn to this day still just uses the basics.
steve maxwell
Unbelievable.
joe rogan
I mean, you know, and that's, it sounds derogatory almost, like someone, like Minotauro once got upset that Vinnie Magalese, Vinnie Magalese was talking about his jiu-jitsu and he said it's very basic.
But that's not bad.
Basic is not bad at all.
steve maxwell
Someone said that about me, I'd take it as a compliment, personally.
You know, basic is best.
joe rogan
Just honed to a razor-sharp edge, all the basic techniques that you know.
I think there's, like, Hodger Gracie's another example of that.
steve maxwell
Another example.
joe rogan
One of the best jiu-jitsu artists in the world, but very basic.
steve maxwell
What year was that where he won his division and then he tapped everybody in the open division with an X-choke from the mountain?
joe rogan
I don't know.
steve maxwell
He used that one takedown, that one throw he does, he mounted every single, and these were all professional level best black belts in the world, he tapped every single guy with the basic x-choke from the mat.
joe rogan
Crazy.
steve maxwell
That's the first thing you learn, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Your first couple months in jiu-jitsu, you learn basic x-choke.
The guy tapped the best in the world just doing basic stuff.
joe rogan
Well, there's such an advantage in Jujutsu to being tall and long.
steve maxwell
Oh, what a nightmare.
joe rogan
It's a giant advantage because the tall and long guys have so much leverage.
steve maxwell
So much leverage.
joe rogan
And also the ability to get techniques and lock them up where a short, stubby-armed person like me just doesn't...
My arms don't connect in spots.
Like with Darce chokes and things along those lines where you just...
They have more space.
steve maxwell
They have so much space.
joe rogan
Like their arm goes deeper.
They can...
steve maxwell
But you'll see people with every type of physique type do well in jiu-jitsu because, you know, speaking like fireplug kind of build, I mean, no one was shorter and stubbier than Solo.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
Yeah, he's like one of the most winningest jiu-jitsu guys ever in the world.
joe rogan
True.
steve maxwell
Wow.
You know, he just maximized, he adapted the jiu-jitsu to his physique.
joe rogan
Or Hussmar Poharis.
Another perfect example.
It's a little tank.
steve maxwell
That's the cool thing about the game.
It doesn't matter how you're built, big, tall, short, whether you carry a little extra weight or you're really skinny, you can adapt the jiu-jitsu to your own body.
joe rogan
So we were talking about you moving to Maui.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
We got off track a little bit.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
Why Maui and what makes you...
steve maxwell
Well, you're going to laugh at this because it's not scientific, but it is.
I use an astrologer.
This guy is amazing.
He used to be a Stanford professor.
Can I say his name?
joe rogan
Sure.
steve maxwell
Okay.
His name is Robert Koch.
His website is starcenter.com.
I've been using this guy for a few years.
When I first heard about it, I thought, this is such bullshit.
I'm never going to do this.
The person that turned me on to it was my girlfriend, and she says, listen, man, just do a reading with this guy.
Just do a reading.
And I'm saying to her, you mean you take advice from a guy you've never met?
And you're going to listen to this guy?
So I gave him my birth date, the time of birth, where I was born.
That's it.
Plus my name.
He read my life to me.
I was like, how are you doing this?
joe rogan
Well, maybe he got on Wikipedia.
steve maxwell
Maybe.
But this is an impromptu call, so I don't know.
All I know is that it's based in mathematics.
He believed, you know, like the Pythagoreans, you know, they believed everything can be explained in numbers and mathematics.
He was a former Stanford professor.
He came from academia.
And he gave it all up to this basic astrological...
But even more important, he's like an old philosopher.
He's read all the ancient Greek philosophers.
He's also...
Have you heard of this mental science?
joe rogan
Mental science.
steve maxwell
Mental science.
Basically, your reality is based on your thoughts, and your current reality is based on the sum total of all your positive and negative thoughts.
Thoughts are a vibrational pattern, and the vibe you put out is the vibe you attract.
So if you're like a real negative person, always saying negative statements and feeling a lot of negative emotional things, you're probably going to have a pretty shitty life.
And if you're thinking like a higher thought, of course the highest would be love.
That would be the highest vibration.
You're going to have good things happen to you.
That's the basic, in a nutshell.
It's much more complicated than that.
joe rogan
So like The Secret, essentially.
steve maxwell
Like The Secret, right, which is a great little book.
Anyway, Robert developed his astrological...
Based on mental science as well as basic physics.
So anyway, he read my life.
He looked at all the places in the world because, you know, you put off a vibration like an energy vibration.
It can actually be measured.
Yours would be as identifiable as your fingerprints or, you know, like an eye reading, iridology or whatever.
And there's places on the earth that put off a vibration also.
And the place that vibes best with me is anywhere in the South Pacific, but in particular, Maui.
And he really honed it down to the town Lahaina, Maui.
joe rogan
Did he try to sell you a house there?
I know the spot.
67 Clover Lane.
steve maxwell
Yeah, there we go, man.
joe rogan
Let's go online and look at that.
Oh, the house is for sale!
steve maxwell
Damn, Robert, you're amazing.
So anyway, Maui is supposedly the best vibration for me.
joe rogan
For you.
steve maxwell
For me.
joe rogan
So explain to me how this guy goes about it.
So he finds out what your address or what your date of birth is, what part of the world you're born, what time you were born, and then...
steve maxwell
What's he plugging in?
He has some kind of computer program with all his charts and numbers, and he plugs all this stuff in.
And then I ask him, like, well, what is it you're actually looking at at the computer?
And it says – it's just basically – he says, I can't make exact predictions.
He said, if I could make exact predictions, I'd play the stock market and – but I can come up with high probability for certain things happening.
And also, he's looking at...
You ever hear the collective consciousness?
You know, you have your higher consciousness, you have your subconscious, but then there's a collective mindset.
It's like everyone's emotions and moods and thoughts, right?
Right now, it's one of fear.
You know, everyone's so afraid.
I'm traveling all over the world, so you can literally feel the fear.
Right now, Europe is all up in arms because of the terrorist attacks and things, and people are really scared with ISIS and all this.
There's like a real fear mentality.
The problem is, if you give in to that fear mentality, you actually create the very thing you're afraid of, because you're basically concentrating on that.
It's like a form of visualization, right?
It was like the shark thing we were talking about.
I probably would create a situation where I'd meet a shark if I went swimming in the ocean because, you know, I put too much energy into that.
joe rogan
Yeah, me too.
Whenever I stick the snorkel, the goggles underneath, I'm like, where is he?
steve maxwell
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
Where's that fucker?
steve maxwell
For you and I, we would probably possibly actually attract a negative situation like that.
Just saying.
But anyway, there is a collective mindset.
You can even feel like different countries have different moods.
When I get off the plane, I can actually feel that I'm pretty sensitive to this.
Like in Russia, it's real somber, kind of almost depressed, you know?
A place like Maui is like, oh my god, I just feel so happy.
joe rogan
Because they're so lucky.
They're in paradise.
steve maxwell
They're in paradise.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
The mood is much higher.
The Aloha spirit, as they say.
unidentified
Aloha spirit.
steve maxwell
So he told me that was the single best place.
Other places were a place in Alaska.
It's a place near...
Where was it?
A little town.
I can't even recall.
And then another place was...
joe rogan
What part of Alaska?
steve maxwell
Near the coast?
On the coast.
joe rogan
The coast is not bad.
Like near Anchorage?
steve maxwell
Yeah, it was near Anchorage.
It was a little town.
joe rogan
You'd be amazed at how moderate the climate is, too.
steve maxwell
Everyone says it's quite nice, though.
So, you know, but still...
Alaska, Turkey, Maui.
Alaska, Turkey.
I think I'll go to Maui.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's not a bad choice.
steve maxwell
It wasn't a hard choice, you know?
joe rogan
Well, it's a very relaxed environment in Maui, too.
Like, the place is relaxed.
It's a relaxed place to live.
You know, as far as, like, the people that live there, they're really cool and chilled out.
steve maxwell
Totally chilled, man.
My webmaster lives there, Chris Crook.
Awesome guy.
So I always have business to do with him.
He's been doing a great job for me.
joe rogan
What if the guy told you you need to live near oil mines in South Dakota?
Would you be less reluctant or more reluctant?
steve maxwell
Well, that would be interesting.
Oil mines near South Dakota.
joe rogan
You know what I'm saying.
Someone that sucks.
You need to live right outside of some fracking fucking compound.
steve maxwell
Yeah, that's an interesting point.
I think someone with a really negative mindset might have attracted a place like that.
But I try to keep the vibe heavy and, I mean, light at a higher level.
And, you know, you can attract goodness and abundance in your life.
Just like The Secret.
That's a good book for people to start.
That U.S. Anderson was quite an interesting guy.
joe rogan
The power of positive thinking for sure is real.
I mean, for sure there's a lot of good that can be done in your life if you look at things, if you have a positive approach.
You could look at things in a good way and have those things have positive attributes, have benefit in those things.
Or you could look at the exact same thing, the exact same moment in your life and just decide that this is the end, life is terrible, you're a loser, and people have these Deeply grooved patterns that they've carved out in their consciousness over years and years of approaching different situations with very similar reactions.
And it's almost like automatically, like something happens to you, everything always goes wrong for me.
God, my life sucks.
I'm such a loser.
But if you compared your life to someone who's born in Bangladesh or Ethiopia or someplace where people are really genuinely unfortunate.
They would be laughing at you.
They'd be like, you live in America and you're white and you don't have cancer.
Will you just shut the fuck up?
What's wrong with you?
steve maxwell
A perfect example of that would be George Costanza's character, right?
joe rogan
On Seinfeld, right.
steve maxwell
Right, the guy that no matter how good he had it, he always would manage to screw it up somehow and things would always turn bad.
But we've all had the experience, right, of being in a room and someone would come into the room, kind of a dark vibe, and the whole room vibe would go down.
joe rogan
Sure.
steve maxwell
But then we've also had the experience where a guy would come in who was a real bright, positive-thinking person, and everyone's mood would just slip.
That's that collective consciousness you've got to be so aware of.
Because not every thought that a person has is their own.
It can come from the outside.
We don't manufacture all our own thoughts.
You can be influenced by negative thinking from other people.
Positive thinking from other people and you got to start to be very conscious of the kind of thoughts passing through your brain and Reject those those negative thoughts and it's not easy.
joe rogan
It's like a discipline like working out It really is and it's also one of the more important aspects about surrounding yourself with positive people When you surround yourself with positive people, you find them to be inspirational, you get excited, you all think along similar lines, you support each other and help each other, and it benefits everybody.
And you develop a real keen sense of love and community.
Whereas if you're around people that are constantly negative, you're in conflict all the time.
steve maxwell
All the time.
joe rogan
You're wearing out, you're constantly getting exhausted too by the stress of And I have a theory in that, too.
steve maxwell
And it's not just my theory.
I mean, it's part of the mental science we were talking about.
I believe that those people are the ones that attract all sorts of degenerative diseases and, you know, bad things happen.
joe rogan
Well, it certainly can play a factor, especially stress.
You know, stress has been shown to be devastating to your immune system.
People that have really stressful lives and don't get enough sleep and are constantly negative and thinking about things.
steve maxwell
Sleep is more important than diet.
You know, people that are overweight, man, I'll tell you, you could be in the best diet in the world and still having a lot of struggle with weight if you're missing your sleep.
I've seen that many, many times, even with my own clients, because I do a lot of fat loss programs.
And, you know, guys will be eating pretty decent and not losing the weight.
And then, you know, I'm looking, they're only getting like five and a half, six hours a night, and they're really stressed.
You know, you have a tendency to really hold on to water and And your body will hold on to that body fat.
It's hard to lose.
joe rogan
Yeah, that is an interesting aspect of lack of sleep is that your body holds on to fat.
steve maxwell
It really holds on.
And also fluids, you know, what they call false fat.
It's not even fat.
It's just like all this fluid just gets trapped in the tissues.
It might as well be fat because it just is unattractive and just is uncomfortable, you know?
joe rogan
So did you bother investigating what this guy is doing about this astrology stuff?
Did you bother looking into it or just like listen to him?
steve maxwell
Well, his website is quite interesting.
His rating list is, like, fantastic, you know, for people...
joe rogan
But what is the astrology itself based on?
It's based on the position of the stars to the time you were born?
steve maxwell
Yeah, it's a heliocentric...
The old astrology was Earth-based, because they believed that Earth was the center of the universe.
He created his own heliocentric, you know, with the sun as the center.
And then it's just basically...
joe rogan
This guy created his own astrology?
steve maxwell
He did.
joe rogan
How does one do that?
How does one create their own astrology?
I could almost, and I say almost, almost understand how someone could imagine that if you looked at thousands of years of data, you could figure out that people develop certain personality traits if they're born during certain times,
and you could sort of try to align those times with the constellations in the sky that are moving, and the You know, just the way the earth wobbles and where the stars are at any given moment.
That kind of almost makes sense, but this guy doing it on his own.
Like, how's he doing that?
steve maxwell
You know, I don't even pretend to really understand it.
No, what sold me?
I didn't have to.
joe rogan
He said Maui.
steve maxwell
He said Maui.
I didn't have to understand it because he basically read my life to me like a book.
There's no freaking way that he could have known this information.
joe rogan
What kind of stuff could he not have known?
steve maxwell
Just the way my life went, man.
You know, like my relationship with my parents and the relationship with my ex-wife and the way my marriage went and the way my marriage dissolved.
And like, you know, all sorts of stuff like that.
joe rogan
Like sort of like a tarot card reader.
steve maxwell
Yeah, but a tarot card reader...
joe rogan
Is bullshit.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
Exactly.
joe rogan
And this is not bullshit.
steve maxwell
Let's put it this way.
He's told me not to do stuff.
And I've done it.
And it never has worked out for me, man.
joe rogan
Right.
But isn't it possible that one of the reasons why it didn't work out is because he told you not to do it?
And that you thought about it?
And your negative thinking?
steve maxwell
And I had a negative thinking.
joe rogan
Just like we talked about?
steve maxwell
Yeah, like in the brain.
All I know is every time I go against him, It usually doesn't work out.
And when I listen to the guy, it almost always works out.
joe rogan
Right, but this is sort of contrary.
This goes along with what you just said.
Like, you're almost not giving yourself advice.
You're not following your own advice.
You literally were just talking about thinking about things in a negative way.
steve maxwell
Being afraid of thinking, like things are predestined.
joe rogan
Right, so this guy has sort of created these scenarios that you shouldn't engage in.
steve maxwell
Well, here's an interesting thing.
Like, he's told me something on my chart, right?
joe rogan
Uh-huh.
steve maxwell
And then I'll call him a day or two later and it's completely changed.
joe rogan
Your chart's changed.
steve maxwell
Yeah, like something changed.
And I said, well, wait a second.
Two days ago you said I shouldn't do this.
Now you're saying it's okay?
He claims, like quantum physics, right?
If you change your thought or your vibration level, he actually sees a change on his chart on his computer.
joe rogan
What?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
Okay, this makes zero sense.
steve maxwell
Well, I'll give you another example of how this might work.
I had this guy that was a professor, he was actually a PhD in biochemistry in board-certified nutrition.
His name was Dr. Greg Rialis.
And he used to take hair samples, right?
And he would test these things out for various deficiencies, this, that, and the other thing, right?
And he was into this electric...
Basically, I am attached to that hair forever.
And as my body would change, the hair sample would change, even though I was no longer connected to it.
joe rogan
Change how?
steve maxwell
It would no longer show the deficiency when he would retest it.
joe rogan
What?
steve maxwell
I know, man.
It's some pretty crazy shit.
joe rogan
I'm not buying it.
steve maxwell
He was a hardcore scientist, man, PhD.
joe rogan
Maybe he just had a tumor.
This doesn't make any sense.
I don't buy that.
That doesn't make sense.
Your physical hair is not going to change.
steve maxwell
It would actually change.
joe rogan
I don't believe it.
steve maxwell
Well, I had trouble believing it myself.
joe rogan
But did you see it?
Did you know for a fact?
Have you read into it?
Have you looked at data?
Have you seen it tested and peer reviewed?
steve maxwell
I didn't really actually understand the process.
joe rogan
Right, but this is...
steve maxwell
But I knew him not to be a liar.
joe rogan
I'm sure he's not, but he might just be delusional.
See, looking at something like that, you're talking about something that defies physics.
It defies science, defies everything.
steve maxwell
Yeah, but now with quantum physics, that completely threw physics on its ear.
joe rogan
Right, but it's...
steve maxwell
We know that electrons can occupy more than one space.
unidentified
Right.
steve maxwell
Which now opens up the whole door for parallel universes, all sorts of stuff.
Stephen Hawking just recently claimed that the black holes are like a door from one universe to another.
So there's all this crazy stuff that just put everything on end, what we know about physics and medicine and everything else.
joe rogan
I believe that.
steve maxwell
There's an actual book called Vibrational Medicine that they actually talk about this.
Check out that book.
joe rogan
Right, but see, here's the problem.
You're not testing subatomic particles when you're testing hair.
When you test someone's hair, and you're testing hair for various mineral deficiencies and vitamins, those things aren't flying through the air and going back and forth.
So if your hair is deficient...
steve maxwell
He was actually testing at the vibrational level of the hair.
joe rogan
What?
steve maxwell
What does that mean?
Everything puts off an aura.
You can photograph it with the Karelian photography.
You can actually photograph the energy.
Everything has an aura.
Even this cup, this table, your body.
joe rogan
An aura that you can actually prove?
A real aura?
Or an aura that someone who believes in crystals?
steve maxwell
They've actually taken pictures of it.
You've heard of the Karelian photography?
joe rogan
No.
How do you spell that?
steve maxwell
Oh, fuck.
How do you spell that?
joe rogan
Karelian Photography.
steve maxwell
Yeah, Karelian Photography.
joe rogan
Karelian Photography.
steve maxwell
Yeah, yeah.
They actually have taken pictures of this.
And he can actually measure, right, the energy coming off this.
And it matched me.
joe rogan
Well, Jamie's a photographer.
Jamie should know about Karelian photography.
You ever hear about that shit, Jamie?
unidentified
I can't say I've ever heard of it.
joe rogan
If you ever tried to bang some chick who's really into crystals, I bet she'll talk to you about it.
steve maxwell
Yeah, man.
Check it out.
Anyway, it's pretty similar.
Listen, it works for me, man.
joe rogan
Well, I understand that it probably has its applications.
steve maxwell
The power of the mind.
joe rogan
Right, the power of the mind.
But is it a big, giant placebo effect?
steve maxwell
I don't know.
Oh, I do know this.
In a recent study, they found that placebo drugs work about 40% better than real drugs.
joe rogan
What test is this?
steve maxwell
There was a thing that I read.
joe rogan
They didn't give them placebo mushrooms.
steve maxwell
I read a whole...
They were giving people regular medication from pharmaceutical stuff, and they found that placebos worked way better.
joe rogan
Well, for what application though?
You know what I'm saying?
Like when you say that the placebos worked way better.
steve maxwell
For pain relief and stuff like that.
joe rogan
Well, pain relief makes sense because a lot of pain relief you can actually do with your own mind.
I don't take pain pills.
Me neither.
I got knee surgery and I didn't take a damn thing.
steve maxwell
I've just read so many negative side effects of the ibuprofen and the Well, ibuprofen is probably the safest of all of them, and it's still not good for you.
joe rogan
But my fear was always, I just knew too many people that got addicted to pain pills.
And I'm like, well, what's the worst part about pain?
It just doesn't feel good.
Well, isn't that just okay?
Can't you just deal with not feeling good while you heal?
Like, at least now I know I'm in pain because I'm healing.
steve maxwell
An awful lot of pain is, you know, a mind thing.
joe rogan
How you approach the signal.
steve maxwell
Yeah, like that back pain guy, Stuart McGill.
Dr. John Sarno.
Yeah, but also that Stuart McGill.
They were looking at x-rays of people's backs.
And, you know, people with chronic back pain a lot of times would not have any physical reason to be in back pain.
unidentified
Right?
steve maxwell
And then they were looking at...
You know, pictures of guys that were active like us, and their backs are a mess, all sorts of slip distance.
And the guys are not in any pain at all.
I must be afraid to look at an x-ray on my back, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah, right.
They tell you to feel bad.
steve maxwell
Yeah, right.
If anybody would have a messed up back, it's got to be me.
All the falls and throws I've taken over, you know, 45 years of wrestling and jiu-jitsu.
joe rogan
Little tiny micro-injuries constantly.
steve maxwell
But yet I'm not in any pain at all.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, pain is an interesting thing in that I think the mind can regulate pain.
unidentified
Well, that's what I meant by the pharmaceuticals.
joe rogan
But it doesn't make sense with other applications, like anti-epileptic medications or things along those lines, where you just know for a fact there's a physical effect on the body that these drugs have.
They don't understand placebo effect.
That's one thing for sure.
They know that placebo effect is real and it does work in certain circumstances.
steve maxwell
It's the power of the mind.
joe rogan
Well, especially depending upon who is receiving that effect and how much the person believes that this thing is going to heal them.
steve maxwell
And if people, you know, what I find, a lot of people are really into the body, but they're not really working with their mind or their thoughts or anything like that.
You know, it takes a lot of discipline.
joe rogan
It does, but it also, you really have to clearly establish what's woo-woo, what's nutty, crazy, crystal bullshit, and what is...
An applicable modality.
What can you really do as far as meditation, as far as things that are repeatable, things that people have shown to have a beneficial effect on your consciousness, a beneficial effect on the way you approach life?
steve maxwell
And that is pretty much individual.
joe rogan
It is.
steve maxwell
You know, you really have to, like you say, do self-experimentation.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Like, what I just talked about might sound pretty damn weird to a lot of people, but so far it's been working for me.
joe rogan
Well, as long as it works for you.
steve maxwell
And I feel good about it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
And I don't feel like it diminishes my life in any way.
No one's taking advantage of me.
You know, I feel like confident and really good about the type of information I'm getting.
And I found it work, but like you say, power of the mind.
joe rogan
Well, if you just approach it on that level, if you say, okay, this guy's going to give me advice, and I'm going to find this advice to be beneficial, and I'm going to follow through with it, and I'm going to use that as a guideline, and I'm going to have good confidence in that these choices are going to be correct because of this guy and his knowledge.
My problem is I've seen too much bullshit.
And so whatever beliefs I might have had even six years ago before I started this podcast, a lot of them have eroded just under scrutiny.
steve maxwell
I hear you.
I always advise people, give the guy a call.
The first session's free.
If you think he's a crackpot, never call him again.
joe rogan
Yeah, but I mean, what I would want to do, my problem with something like that is I would want to go down the rabbit hole.
I would want to find out, okay, how are you making these distinctions?
Like, how did you devise this method?
What's going on behind the scenes?
What do you base this on?
How do you know?
What are you saying?
Like, what are you saying?
When you tell someone, hey, don't take that flight to Germany because something bad's going to happen, like, who the fuck are you?
How do you know that?
You don't know that.
And the reality is you tell someone, don't do something.
If you tell someone, hey, Steve, I really don't think you should go to Florida.
Oh fuck, the guy says I shouldn't go to Florida.
You're already starting a cascade of negative thoughts.
And that, to me...
steve maxwell
Well, that is a very good point, and I have thought about that, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah, well there's not a fucking person in the world that can tell you that if you pick up your car keys and drive your car to Minnesota, something's gonna go wrong.
So if this guy's telling you that, I call bullshit.
Not only do I call bullshit, but I think that that kind of stuff is kind of dangerous.
steve maxwell
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.
He gives me like a little heads up.
He's able to see that.
joe rogan
How so?
steve maxwell
It helps me.
Like, if I want to do a seminar on a certain date, and he'll look at the charts, and he'll just say, eh, energy's pretty off that...
joe rogan
Okay, but what does that mean?
The energy's pretty off and looking at the charts.
What does that mean?
What does that mean by he's looking at what charts?
steve maxwell
Maybe he can kind of protect it.
I might be tired.
I don't know.
I haven't seen these charts, but I hear him clicking in the background on the computer.
joe rogan
That guy's on Facebook.
He's looking at pictures.
unidentified
Ha ha!
joe rogan
He's going on U-Porn.
He's checking out girls' asses.
steve maxwell
Just give him a call, man.
joe rogan
No fucking way.
unidentified
It's free.
joe rogan
Yeah, I don't care.
Time is not.
Time is valuable.
I don't think there's a guy in the world that can look at a chart and tell you where the energy of the world is.
steve maxwell
I think there is, man.
unidentified
Really?
steve maxwell
I've experienced it.
joe rogan
So you think that this guy can look at a chart.
I do know you.
Yeah, that's why I'm questioning this.
You're a little wacky guy who lives out of a suitcase.
steve maxwell
Yeah, maybe that's enough to...
joe rogan
I think you're a beautiful, brilliant man.
But if I was your friend, and I am your friend, but if I was there while this was going down, I would be asking this guy a fuckload of questions.
steve maxwell
I do find he's a really good guy to talk to about stuff, too.
He's almost like a psychologist or a psychiatrist in a way.
In ancient times, the scientists were philosophers.
And all the great – even Alexander the Great and all the great Roman emperors, they would have their own private philosophers to advise them on things.
Marcus Aurelius, for example.
And they would listen to these philosophers.
I kind of look at this guy almost as a philosopher.
joe rogan
As an advisor.
steve maxwell
An advisor.
joe rogan
I can buy that.
steve maxwell
I haven't always taken – I have gone against the guy.
joe rogan
In what way?
steve maxwell
I just didn't listen to what he said.
joe rogan
What did he say?
steve maxwell
He gave my advice, don't do the seminar this weekend.
joe rogan
Why would he tell you not to do a seminar?
See, this is bullshit.
steve maxwell
It would be a better day to do it on this day.
joe rogan
Oh, fuck.
steve maxwell
Why?
joe rogan
Because of voodoo?
Because you threw some chicken bones in the ground and one of the sticks was pointing south?
steve maxwell
I have done it and it would be not such a good one.
joe rogan
Maybe it's because he told you that it was going to be a bad one and you had it in your head and then you went and did it.
steve maxwell
Maybe.
joe rogan
Has he ever told you not to do something you didn't and it worked out awesome?
unidentified
No.
steve maxwell
That's what made me think.
joe rogan
Well, it's because you're thinking about it.
I mean, this is what we talked about with negative thoughts.
steve maxwell
Maybe.
joe rogan
Maybe.
More likely than a fucking chart that can tell you the energy of the universe doesn't want you to fly to Miami.
That's crazy.
steve maxwell
There's some pretty brilliant guys out there that know stuff that we don't, man.
joe rogan
Um, yes.
There's definitely some brilliant guys out there that know stuff that we know.
But this one guy that's got a computer that can tap into the collective energy of the universe and tell you where the energy is and what...
You should definitely not go to Ohio.
I've looked at your charts.
Fuck you!
That's what I'd say to that guy.
Fuck you!
Fuck you, crazy man!
steve maxwell
Haven't you ever gone and done a set in your show and it just kind of bombed, you know, it just didn't work out that well?
joe rogan
If anything ever went wrong, there are a bunch of reasons why it went wrong.
And I could look at all of them.
I could say, maybe I was tired.
Maybe I was overworked.
Maybe I didn't prepare well enough.
Maybe I have new material that's not worked out.
But it's not because I shouldn't have gone to Ohio.
You know what I'm saying?
It's not because some guy shows me a chart and the collective energy of the universe is off.
steve maxwell
But just maybe there are...
People, this guy in particular, that could potentially have seen that.
joe rogan
Seen what?
steve maxwell
The set going back.
joe rogan
But wouldn't you want to have a method?
But hold on a second.
Stop, because this is very important.
Wouldn't you want to have a method that you would clearly understand how this guy's making these arbitrary decisions and choices?
Because you're talking about bullshit.
You're talking about voodoo.
And if it's not bullshit, then it's science.
So if it's science, it's repeatable, and you should bring it to people that are experts, and they should analyze it and study it.
But for this guy to just sit there and click on some things and tell you don't go to Ohio, That's bullshit.
steve maxwell
Well, all I can say is it's worked for me so far.
The proof is in the pudding, as far as I'm concerned.
joe rogan
Okay, if your mind decides that something will work out well, and you have full confidence, and your plane doesn't get hit by a meteor, and everybody gets out alive, and at the end of the seminar, or the end of the trip that you took, you say, hey, that guy's advice really turned out well.
It really did.
What you've done, you basically give yourself a little mental shield to go into battle with.
steve maxwell
Well, there we go.
joe rogan
Well, that's what it is, but it's not real.
Do you know what I'm saying?
steve maxwell
Plus, I like this guy.
joe rogan
You can have that mental shield.
steve maxwell
Well, isn't it, though?
joe rogan
It is real!
It is in the sense that it was effective because you had confidence in it and because you approached all these events like you had confidence in it.
But is it real in that there's a guy who actually can look at a computer and tell you whether or not you should go 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 it's not real.
Do you know how I know it's not real?
Because there are millions of brilliant people out there, millions of scientists, and you talk about quantum physicists and theorists and all these different people.
They would have heard of this.
If you're talking about a guy who's making a computer program, they would analyze this.
It would be something that people would be talking about.
If this guy really believes it, he wouldn't just be holding on to it in Maui.
He would be telling the world, listen, there is a way where you can accurately predict events.
There is a way, and it would be up to peer review.
People would be studying it.
They would be putting out papers on it.
It would be something we would understand.
We have figured out a code, whether it's like the Fibonacci sequence or something like that, a code to the universe.
And if you follow this code, you have predictable, repeatable events.
steve maxwell
How do we know that there aren't a lot of people doing it?
joe rogan
This is a problem.
This is a problem.
This phrasing that you're using.
How do we know?
It could be.
It could be.
That's not enough to base your life and any decisions.
And this woo-woo bullshit that comes along with tarot card reading, with palm reading, with all that stuff...
It's all the same.
And it's all one person telling you, first of all, he's telling you stuff you already knew about your life, okay?
This is the strategy of charlatans.
I mean, this is what tarot card readers do, and palm readers do, and fortune tellers do.
They tell you shit that you already know.
And they tell you it through leading questions.
And they tell you it through a bunch of signs that they can tell from being really good at reading people.
Then, they go on to tell you what's going to happen, or what you should and shouldn't do.
And in doing that, you can plant some thoughts and seeds of doubt into people's head.
This is the reason why people used to think that someone could put a hex on you.
Because if I put a hex on you, and you believe I put a hex on you, and you leave this room, and you're like, I am fucked!
Joe just put a hex on me!
And you run around in life, that will be overwhelming your thoughts!
And if you allow that to happen, it will be true.
You can manifest bad things by having bad energy and bad ideas.
This is exactly what you were talking about earlier, but this is done through like a strategy and a repeatable pattern.
steve maxwell
Well, all I can say is...
joe rogan
Maybe it works.
steve maxwell
Maybe it works, John.
joe rogan
Come on, man.
This is crazy talk.
steve maxwell
Nah, not as crazy as you think.
joe rogan
It's definitely crazy.
steve maxwell
Okay.
I'm certified crazy.
joe rogan
Well, it's just, if there's a method to it, like if this guy says, oh, here's the reason why.
The reason why is, you know, there's like the golden sequence of the universe, and you can tap that golden sequence into a computer, and it's based upon all these different factors.
If that guy has information like that, and he's just holding on to it in Maui, or wherever the fuck he is.
steve maxwell
No, he travels like I do.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
He's kind of a no-man.
joe rogan
By the way, someone who went to Stanford and who's a professor, it doesn't exclude them from being out of their fucking mind.
Dr. Oz is on TV and he's telling people about weight loss medication that's a miracle.
And that fucking guy had to go to Congress about it.
Guess what?
He's still on TV. The guy's on TV telling people about miracle weight loss fucking berries.
steve maxwell
Crazy shit.
joe rogan
It's bullshit.
He's a charlatan, right?
steve maxwell
There's tons and tons and tons of guys out there selling this kind of stuff.
As you know, I'm pretty much an anti-supplement guy.
I just...
joe rogan
Well, you used to take a lot of them.
steve maxwell
I took $320 worth of supplements a month and I didn't notice a damn thing when I stopped taking all that shit.
Not one thing.
In fact, I felt better.
I felt better.
joe rogan
That's interesting.
steve maxwell
And, you know, once again, you know, a lot of this is placebo, you know?
joe rogan
There is some that's placebo effect, but there's also some that's been proven by science to have beneficial effects on a lot of different factors.
But, you know, you're a guy who's a healthy, active guy who's constantly eating correctly and you don't allow yourself...
steve maxwell
I'm extremely strict with the diet, you know?
joe rogan
How do you do that on the road?
When you're in these different places, and say if you travel into countries and you might not even speak the language, how do you make sure that you get the right food?
steve maxwell
Well, I try to always keep the quality as best I can.
But as you know, being a frequent traveler yourself, you can't always get the best quality stuff.
Talking about placebo effect, I won't let it get me bummed out.
I won't start thinking negative thoughts.
Let's say, for example, I have to eat...
Oh, I don't know, a bag of pretzels or something.
I believe I can sublimate any ill effect of that food, you know, just by being grateful, just by visualizing my body being able to respond well to the food.
It's just calories, you know.
I see myself digesting it and assimilating it, and I won't let it negatively affect me.
joe rogan
You just look at it as raw calories.
steve maxwell
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.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
And I'll be fine.
Because you can work yourself up into, like, a real negative thing.
I'm going to give you an example.
When I was younger, I had a friend that taught me a lot about higher mind science.
And we were in a restaurant one time together.
This is, I guess, maybe in the late 70s.
And there's a guy smoking.
This is when people could still smoke.
And this guy's blowing the smoke on me, and I'm getting madder by the minute.
It's really pissing me off.
So I asked the guy if he would please not blow the smoke over to me, and the guy started doing it even more.
And I wanted to punch the guy right in the face.
And I'm looking at my friend, Tim, and he's totally relaxed about the whole thing.
And I said, doesn't that bother you?
Doesn't that really aggravate you?
And he said, Steve, you're getting yourself all worked up.
He said, I can supplement the bad effects of the smoke by not letting it get to me.
He says, all those negative emotions and the anger and upset you're feeling are ten times worse than any amount of cigarette smoke blowing on you.
He says, you're actually doing harm by the way you're thinking about it as opposed to the actual harm the smoke's doing.
And wow, that blew me away.
And I'm seeing him so relaxed.
And I started thinking, well, that's probably everything in life.
So I started looking at food the same way.
If you eat something that maybe you know isn't the best quality because there's just no other thing available, well, so what?
You'll be fine.
You just go back to eating your really, really good quality stuff after that.
It's what you do most of the time is the key, not what happens upon occasion.
But I will say this, as a full-time traveler, I will pack my own food as much as I can.
I always carry a little grocery bag.
joe rogan
Yeah, I was following your Instagram and your girlfriend got their food confiscated at TSA. What did they confiscate?
steve maxwell
A lot of times you can't take anything that looks a little liquidy through the security.
Sometimes they'll grab fruit, you know, like going from Maui back to the mainland, all the fruit and stuff, any fresh produce.
They'll take.
For example, I had a salad, right?
The lettuce was fine, but they wanted the tomatoes and the cucumbers.
That wouldn't pass.
unidentified
What?
steve maxwell
Yeah, the Department of Agriculture guy.
Speaking of Voodoo, right?
It was just the craziest thing.
joe rogan
Did you ask why?
steve maxwell
I did, but he had no real firm...
They never have an explanation for any of this stuff.
It's just banned or...
Well, I don't know.
joe rogan
Well, certain flies, fruit flies and things along those lines.
Well, they're attracted to liquids.
steve maxwell
Could be attracted to the stuff.
But, yeah, usually I don't have too much trouble getting stuff through.
And it's funny, some countries are so amazingly lax.
Like, where was it?
It's Australia.
You can take liquids through the security.
joe rogan
You can?
steve maxwell
Yeah, you can take water and all sorts of stuff.
joe rogan
But you can't take a dog to Australia to see what happened with Johnny Depp.
steve maxwell
Johnny Depp and his girlfriend.
He's still in trouble with that.
joe rogan
Did you see his video that he made?
steve maxwell
I haven't seen it, but...
joe rogan
It's hilarious.
steve maxwell
It must be really funny.
joe rogan
It's hilarious because he mocked serious talk through his video.
Like, you know, he's an actor.
steve maxwell
Yeah, he's very funny.
joe rogan
So he made it look like he was being serious, but...
Did so in a way where it's pretty obvious to anyone watching that it wasn't serious?
It was so subtle that one of the politicians, one of the main people in Australia, actually had a comment on it.
You know, how it's pretty obvious that he wasn't taking it seriously.
He made this video.
steve maxwell
It's really weird what will go through security and what won't.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
For example, in China.
They were absolutely scrupulous.
I couldn't believe how good this girl was in that screen.
She got all my little secret shit.
I like, you know, because I do all carry-on now.
I don't check bags anymore.
I had a little key that's actually a knife.
It opened up into a little knife because you didn't need a blade, you know, to, you know, you always could use a blade no matter where you are to cut stuff or whatever.
You just always have a need for it.
She found that key.
I don't even know how the hell she knew that that was a knife.
I carry like little survival tools with me.
I have like a little flint steel fire starter sometimes.
joe rogan
Are you starting fire somewhere?
steve maxwell
The fucking zombie apocalypse, dude.
joe rogan
Does that ever come up?
Does your astrologer tell you that you need to carry that around?
steve maxwell
No, but I watch The Walking Dead.
I fear The Walking Dead.
Speaking of creating a mental...
But I also have one of those little drinking straws.
You mean a filter?
Yeah.
You can actually drink 250...
joe rogan
Pond water.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
Well, when I saw that...
Remember the tsunami at Hippali, that resort?
I'm in places like that.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
And I just figure, better safe than sorry.
joe rogan
Yeah, that makes sense.
steve maxwell
I do believe that my astrologer will keep me safe from these things.
But let's just say we would have a situation where the water would be really shitty.
I've been in places like Novosibirsk, Russia.
Dude, that's in the middle of absolute nowhere.
You know, if there would be any kind of natural disaster or something, at least I know I can drink, right?
unidentified
Right.
steve maxwell
And, you know, I have like a little thing I can make fire.
I mean, you never know.
Plane go down and I'm surviving in the Andes or something.
joe rogan
Have you ever made a fire with one of those things?
steve maxwell
Yeah, I have actually.
unidentified
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah, I just wanted to see if I could do it.
joe rogan
Do you bring kindling with you as well?
steve maxwell
Well, yeah, you get, you know, there's like a whole little art to doing fire from...
It's fun to try those, they call them earth skills or, you know, ancient skills.
joe rogan
Well, a lot of people bring like steel wool or something like that.
steve maxwell
Steel wool with batteries works really good.
I also have a little magnifying glass thing I travel with.
I always have a compass.
joe rogan
You bring a compass?
steve maxwell
Well, you know, it's old school.
I learned how to use a map and compass when I was a kid.
As a Boy Scout, you do orienteering.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
So I knew how to do the knots, you know, my little thing.
joe rogan
So when you're going to these places, like say you get an offer to go to some strange place in Siberia, are you reluctant to take...
Any of these?
Or just like anybody who wants to do a seminar, I'm open for the journey?
steve maxwell
I'm pretty much open for the journey.
I like to go to different places, you know?
But in China this last time, my God, they were taking my freaking nail clippers.
They want nail clippers.
They found that little key.
They took my little fire starter.
How she even knew what that shit was, I have no clue.
They must be well-trained.
Because she nailed me for...
Everything, man.
joe rogan
Wow.
Do you get in trouble when they nail you for that stuff in China?
steve maxwell
Nah, they just take it because none of it could be considered a weapon.
However, I was arrested in Switzerland one time.
I had been traveling by train.
I had one of those Gerber, or was it Cold Steel?
It was like a knife that was spring-assisted.
Rock climbers use it.
Because, you know, if you're rock climbing and your harness gets tangled, you may have to hold on to cut yourself free from your harness, right?
So you need a knife you can easily open up with one hand.
So I just liked it.
It was a great little knife.
And I had been traveling by train and had it in my little man purse carry-on thing and forgot about the damn thing.
unidentified
Ooh.
steve maxwell
So it went through and they pulled me aside and they pulled that knife out of there and I was like, oh shit.
And they said in Switzerland, an assisted opening knife is considered a weapon.
And the police took me back.
I sat there.
I almost missed my plan.
They obviously were going on Interpol and doing all this bullshit to find out who I was and what I'm doing with this knife.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
To add insult to injury, I also had a little credit card thing.
It also had a little teeny blade in it.
It was like one of those multi-tools in the shape of a credit card.
unidentified
So they found two blades in my freaking carry-on.
steve maxwell
I could've got away with the credit card, because they wouldn't have even looked at that.
But once they found one thing, they tore my shit apart, man.
They looked at everything.
Oh my god.
But it's weird.
You know, like, Australia, China, you don't even have to take off your shoes.
joe rogan
In most places, you don't have to take off your shoes.
steve maxwell
In the U.S., you still do.
Fingernail clippers, all that stuff goes through.
Even small knives, they don't even bat an eyelash.
Multi-tool you can take through TSA. But they're looking for stuff like liquid and any kind of shoes.
Electronics a lot of times.
I saw them this past time making people prove that their computers could turn on.
I saw a number of that.
Because that one dude tried to slip a bomb through...
joe rogan
In a laptop, yeah.
steve maxwell
And recently, have you traveled lately?
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
steve maxwell
Did you find the security lines were like crazy?
joe rogan
Internationally, I mean, or locally?
steve maxwell
No, just even within the U.S.? Seems normal.
joe rogan
It's always sucky.
steve maxwell
And Maui was ridiculous and LAX was absolutely awful.
That lady got through security and actually boarded a plane with no credentials or boarding pass.
unidentified
When did this happen?
steve maxwell
It was just, I read like Bing news.
I usually read the, I don't like to read the actual news because it's always talk about negative mindset.
I just look at the headlines just to see like, just give me a clue like what's going on.
joe rogan
What should I be scared of?
What new virus?
steve maxwell
Well, yeah, I never read that shit, but I do like to read travel stuff just to see what the latest and greatest is.
Anyway, it hit international news.
Yeah, there we go.
She actually got the whole way through, and the word came down, because TSA was already under fire, basically just for being incompetent.
Anyway, this woman got through, and now all of a sudden, this will be going on for the next month or two.
They're just...
Oh my god, the travel is so delayed.
joe rogan
That's interesting, because I've been traveling a lot.
It seems totally normal.
It always sucks.
steve maxwell
Well, I usually go pre.
This last time I took the budget, Spirit Airlines.
They don't have any contract with TSA, so everybody goes through the long ass security lines.
But one of the best things I ever did, I did global entry.
And I can just walk through like a freaking rock star when I come into JFK. Yeah, global entry is nice.
Oh my god, it's so nice.
But along with it, you get the pre.
And I usually fly business or first class these days, especially for the really long flights.
Man, that pre is so nice.
No shoes off.
You don't have to take off your jacket.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's interesting how that's changed.
It's interesting how that's changed over the course of our lives.
You didn't even have to have an ID to get on a plane.
I don't remember that.
You used to just hand them the ticket, and you could give a ticket to a friend.
That friend could go on the plane instead of you.
steve maxwell
Yeah, that's right.
joe rogan
That was the old days.
steve maxwell
The old days, man.
You could just drive through Canada, no problem, come back.
I mean, it was none of that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
So this astrologer told you to move to Maui.
Are you going to follow his advice?
steve maxwell
Are you going to go there?
Yeah, I'm setting up a little home base to work out.
I'll still travel somewhat and do some seminars, but I'm going to set up a shop in Maui.
joe rogan
Yeah, because I was thinking, for a guy like you, a lot of people would come to you.
Like, it might not be a bad idea to just...
steve maxwell
Well, Maui would be a damn nice place to attract, right?
joe rogan
Yeah, and not only that, but you could set up seminars on a weekly basis and do them literally from the comfort of your own home.
You could just have a program where you run people out of Malibu and make a great living, or Maui, rather, and go back and forth if you so choose.
You could kind of go anywhere.
If you did do that and you could establish your own gymnasium and have a real gym there, Would you start changing your own training?
Because I know a lot of what you're doing now is mostly body weight.
steve maxwell
Yeah, I'd probably go back to some of the things that I really, really enjoy, you know?
joe rogan
Like what?
steve maxwell
I like the clubs.
I like club swinging.
I like swinging the light clubs, you know, just as a mobility thing.
It makes my elbows and shoulders and wrists feel good.
You know, talking about the little one-pound Indian clubs?
The wooden ones?
Yeah, I used to be quite the expert.
You know, I actually learned that as a physical education major in college.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
As a freshman.
As all PE majors had to learn the basic old-school physical culture systems, and one of those was the old wooden club system.
joe rogan
Back in the day, huh?
steve maxwell
Yeah, that was 1970 when I went through the School of Health and Physical Education at Westchester.
joe rogan
That's interesting that now 40-plus years later, those sort of training modalities are coming back.
steve maxwell
So old is new, right?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, kettlebells is a perfect example of that, right?
steve maxwell
Yeah, perfect example.
That was an old school training tool.
And they came from Germany, by the way, not Russia.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah, the Germans were the ones that actually established.
They called them ring weights in those days.
joe rogan
No kidding.
steve maxwell
A lot of the old German strong men used them.
joe rogan
And it looked the same, like a cannonball with a handle?
steve maxwell
Kind of.
There was a lot of really weird designs.
Some of them really, like, circle just on a cannonball, you know?
joe rogan
Uh-huh.
steve maxwell
They used to use real heavy ones in their act.
A lot of them were hollow, and you would unscrew it, and they would put weight inside and screw it back on.
unidentified
Hmm.
steve maxwell
That was kind of interesting.
joe rogan
Oh, so you could adjust it.
steve maxwell
Yeah, like adjustable weights and so forth.
joe rogan
If you had your own gym and you could do whatever you want and lift weights, how would you set it up?
Would you do standard Olympic-style weightlifting type exercises?
steve maxwell
Nah, I've never been a real fan of Olympic weightlifting.
I don't believe that it's the most efficient way to train athletes.
There's an awful lot of NCAA strength coaches.
NFL strength coaches are shying more and more away from the Olympic lifts.
They're finding their athletes are just getting too busted up and hurt.
Even just doing a front squat, why would I risk a million dollar athlete to teach them?
Olympic lifting is a hell of a...
I mean, it takes a lot of coordination to do Olympic lifts.
And as you well know, one sport doesn't make you better at another sport.
It really doesn't.
It just causes motor learning confusion.
There's no doubt that Olympic weightlifters are incredible specimens.
They're strong, they're fast, they're explosive, but it doesn't follow that doing Olympic lifting will make you stronger and more explosive than fast.
It's like self-selective.
The guys that already have those attributes do well at Olympic weightlifting.
So if I take a slow twitch wanderer and give him Olympic lifting, I can't selectively recruit those fast twitch muscle flavors and make him a fast twitch guy.
I'm probably just going to get him hurt.
If I was a wrestling coach or an MMA coach or a football coach, I want to be spending most of my athletes' time out practicing the skills of the sport.
That's the most important thing, the skill of the sport.
And most of your sports-specific conditioning comes from the practice of the sport itself.
Aside from that, I want a general strength training program to make his skeletal muscles as strong as humanly possible.
So I'm going to use modalities to do that.
And the idea is to keep it as safe as possible.
And I see Olympic lifting is pretty doggone dangerous.
I've seen a lot of guys bust themselves up, hurting themselves, you know, trying to do it.
So I'm not a big fan.
joe rogan
So you're saying motor learning confusion?
Is that what the term you used?
steve maxwell
Yeah, like sometimes people think that a power clean is like the snap, finish off a double-A pickup throw or something.
But it's a completely different skill set.
One isn't going to make you better at doing the other.
joe rogan
Do you think, though, that strengthening your muscles and having more explosion and more the ability to close the distance quicker from box jumps and sprints and things along those lines can directly translate to things like martial arts?
steve maxwell
I don't think so.
It's very specific.
Yeah, doing a box jump is a whole lot different than shooting a double leg throw.
Way different.
The best way to get guys really explosive at doing that is just do those things over and over and over again and get really good at it.
joe rogan
That's very controversial, isn't it?
steve maxwell
Oh, yeah.
There's many guys that talk like me.
There's just as many guys that would argue to the death the other way.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
But I've done both.
You know, as a young boy, I learned Olympic weightlifting from the last Olympic world champion, Robert Banarski.
My dad used to take me down to York, Pennsylvania, when the United States was still the mecca for Olympic lifting.
And I actually learned Olympic lifting down there at the old York gym.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
And I used to lift in my basement.
But what I found, even when I was just in high school as a wrestler, That it wasn't really helping that much and even then I just sensed like a real danger to my body.
And wrestling is a tough sport as it is.
Your training should prevent injuries.
If a person needs to foam roll and do massages and is hurting themselves in their supplementary training, there's something wrong.
If it's really a good training modality, it should prevent injuries, not cause.
So I'm a firm believer in getting rid of all of the dangerous stuff out of your training.
Because, you know, what we do, you know, martial arts is dangerous enough as it is.
joe rogan
That's really controversial, though.
I mean, there's a lot of high-level strength and conditioning coaches that think that strength training and power training and things along those lines actually improve all of your skills.
Your skills as a martial artist.
steve maxwell
I've been strength training for 53 years.
I didn't find that myself.
joe rogan
Right, but based on your own body and your own life.
steve maxwell
Yeah, but also with clients.
Remember, I've trained literally hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the years.
I didn't find a good correlation.
It's just interesting because in...
Was it men's journal?
There was just an article by a guy who is like one of the leading experts in speed training.
And he found that the thing that correlates most to your ability to run fast, like in a sprint, was the trap bar deadlift.
He tried leg presses, cleans, front squats, all this stuff.
The thing that had the greatest transfer into improving your ability to sprint was the trap bar deadlift.
joe rogan
Why is that?
steve maxwell
Just the way it positions the hips and the way that the weight is centered.
Instead of out in front of you, where there's a lot of spinal shearing, your hands are at your side, so it's like you're almost inside the weight.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve maxwell
And the way you hinge out in that trap bar deadlift, I'm a big fan of that type of deadlift.
joe rogan
That's the only way I do them now.
steve maxwell
They always felt just intuitively like such a damn good exercise.
Well, anyway, it was just in this month's issue.
I think it was Men's Journal.
joe rogan
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.
steve maxwell
Well, he was saying that it's not necessary to get that much range of motion for sprinting.
You know, because your legs aren't really bent that much.
Anyway, but there's a lot of strength and speed coaches, like really well-known guys.
They're now going against power cleans, front squats and all that.
Joe DeFranco is a really famous strength coach.
He won't risk the injury to his athletes anymore.
He's finding guys who are messing up their elbows, their wrists, their fingers.
I mean, if you have a guy that's like, you know, top-level NCAA, you know, wide receiver or something, you do not want to use risky modalities and risk hurting this guy.
Because what they do as an athlete is risky enough, you know?
Out there...
The way they run and sprint and cut and so forth, the kind of collisions that they have.
You want to make that training as safe as possible.
You want to make it as general as possible so they get as much strength transfer.
It doesn't have to be fancy exercises.
Basically squat, hinge, push-pull horizontal and vertical, some type of rotation or anti-rotation, and then work the ancillary muscles of the neck, the fingers, the hands, the forearms, the grip, and obviously The feet, calves, and ankles are really neglected in a lot of people's training.
Weak feet, weak ankles, and weak calves.
A lot of guys leave that out.
And of course, the neck.
Man, you know how many guys I know that don't train their neck?
It's crazy, man.
Even your jaw.
I can remember watching Muhammad Ali.
The old videos, they do these little snippets of his training.
He used to do a lot of jaw training.
He had this really cool thing where he would take a sling and hook it onto a pull-down, and then he would open his jaw against the resistance.
I thought, that is freaking brilliant, dude.
To strengthen the muscle of the jaw, because it's a well-known fact that if your jaw is stronger, there's a lot less chance of knockout.
joe rogan
Yeah, a lot of guys used to chew beef jerky just to strengthen their jaw.
They used to chew bubblegum all the time because you know your jaw gets tired when you have bubblegum and the bubblegum gets old and you just keep chewing on it and they would do that to keep their jaw strong.
steve maxwell
You know, it's funny.
Remember when we brought up Alexander's ass with the teeth lifting with that beam?
I used to actually have a mouthpiece and do teeth lifting when I was a kid.
unidentified
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
It was very popular back in the 60s, you know, teeth lifting for your neck and your jaws.
I used to lift my little sister up.
She used to lay down and I'd put this little sling and I'd do the neck work with my kid sister.
joe rogan
What are you feeling on those neck harnesses with the chains?
steve maxwell
Fantastic.
joe rogan
You like those?
steve maxwell
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
That's controversial, too, because my trainer hates them.
steve maxwell
You have to be careful.
And some of them are really crappy design, man.
They hurt your ears.
I already have qualifiers.
I don't need to make it any worse.
But they can be good.
I think one of the best things ever invented was the old Nautilus four-way neck machine.
That was a damn good piece of equipment.
And later, the Hammer Strength four-way neck.
joe rogan
See, those things, it's like Kelly Starrett.
I talked to him about those things, those neck machines.
He's like, those are terrible for you.
steve maxwell
Nah, that's bullshit, man.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
I know who to believe.
steve maxwell
Well, you've got to try it yourself.
I tell people to experiment.
But you know what works really well that I don't think would be too controversial for anyone?
Neck isometrics.
joe rogan
Yeah, you showed me those with a belt.
steve maxwell
Man, they are fantastic.
You know, Hickson used to do a lot of neck isometrics.
He used to use that rubber band.
joe rogan
And run up hills.
steve maxwell
Well, he would walk back.
joe rogan
And just hold it.
steve maxwell
It's almost like someone trying to pull you down into a front headlock or a front guillotine.
And then you go with it on your forehead and on your side and you develop tremendous stability.
I don't think...
The other stuff...
I can see where it can be controversial because it all comes back to your technique, your form.
You know, if you're an idiot and you're using a lot of momentum and you're using poor technique, I can see where you can really mess your neck up.
But isometrics, they're pretty safe.
joe rogan
Okay, but excluding isometrics, those neck machines, like moving your neck with those neck machines, where do you think the problems lie?
Do you think the problems lie in people using momentum too much?
steve maxwell
Too much weight, too much momentum, and not using good form.
I mean, okay, we know that you can get really strong and really fit using shitty technique and form.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
You see it all over the gym.
You see huge guys, really muscular dudes, just throwing the crap out of the weights.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's the best way to go.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
Many of those guys don't stand the test of time.
Remember earlier I was saying, you know, anyone under 60, if they haven't passed over, of course that's pretty convenient for me now.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
Saw you smiling there.
But no, seriously, if you haven't been to the other side, there's a lot of stuff that I did in my early days.
No way that I would advocate that stuff now, man.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
But I was always a firm believer in working the neck, and I used neck harnesses successfully using really good strict form, not necessarily heavy weight.
If you put yourself in a biomechanically inefficient position, you can really work those muscles really hard and very, very safe.
joe rogan
Now when you talk about neck, those neck harnesses, and you lift your neck up and you can lie on a bench and put a plate on your head and lift your head up, what about side-to-side movements?
steve maxwell
You can also join the side.
joe rogan
And you're cool with those?
steve maxwell
Yeah.
Another one, well, remember, too, in violent contact sports, someone's going to put your neck in some pretty weird positions, whether you want them to or not.
So you've got to kind of endure yourself to, you know, those basic positions.
joe rogan
And what kind of repetitions are you talking about when you're doing neck exercises?
steve maxwell
Pretty high reps.
I always like, well, it depends on the speed of movement, too, you know?
I mean, like, I like a slow, high-tension speed of movement to really fatigue the muscles.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
steve maxwell
So it just depends how fast you're actually moving.
joe rogan
So just a real slow...
steve maxwell
Usually I go by time under load, so somewhere between a minute to 90 seconds time under load is good.
joe rogan
For the entire set?
steve maxwell
Yeah, for the set.
Like a 90 second set.
joe rogan
One of the things I've gotten into over the last year or so is long negatives.
I like long neggos.
Exploding on the initial movement, the power of the out movement, like say if I do a chin up, exploding up, and then a very slow, maybe like four times as long, maybe even more than that on the way down.
steve maxwell
Negative emphasized training.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
It can be very, very good.
It's been used for a while.
One of the big proponents of that type of training was the famous Mike Mentzer, the only guy ever to beat Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We're talking about bodybuilding now.
And it's really interesting because Mike used to use these very intense brief exercises.
The year he beat Arnold in the Mr. Universe show, Mike was only training about 90 minutes a week.
And Arnold was training about 26 hours a week.
joe rogan
How is that possible?
steve maxwell
Because of the high-intensity training.
joe rogan
90 minutes a week?
steve maxwell
Yeah, he was very much into high-intensity training, like 30-minute workouts.
His disciple, Dorian Yates...
joe rogan
But that's three 30-minute workouts a week.
steve maxwell
Yeah, that's right.
Go check him out.
He has a whole website called Heavy Duty.
He was a real pioneer in the high tension.
He used a lot of negatives.
He was doing a lot of experimentation with isometrics towards the end.
joe rogan
That's crazy, though, that he could do just 90 minutes a week.
steve maxwell
And, of course, they're all using steroids, obviously.
joe rogan
Helps.
steve maxwell
But people can't say it was just the steroids, because Arnold was using steroids, too.
joe rogan
We were talking about Pavel before the podcast, Pavel Tatsulin, and he is a proponent of low reps, doing things like under five reps, five reps or under.
steve maxwell
Well, remember, his sport is his strength.
That's what he does.
He's not a fighter.
He's not a martial artist.
He's not an athlete.
His sport is weightlifting.
If your goal is to lift as much weight as you can, his system works extremely well.
Because that is the sport.
If you're an athlete and you want to use strength training to better you in your sport, the majority of your time should be spent doing your sport.
So the amount of weight isn't the most important thing necessarily because an athlete is not a strength specialist.
So once you can deadlift or press a certain amount of weight, it's pretty much going to get diminishing returns.
I mean, how strong do you need to be, you know, in a weight class sport?
I mean, if you're able to do a double bodyweight deadlift, how much stronger do you need to be?
In order to get stronger, you're going to have to specialize.
But that's going to take me away from the skills of my sport.
And also, a lot of the low repetition stuff, you know, that comes from the field of weightlifting.
There's no doubt it's a strong dude.
But it's not necessary for me to do that low of repetition when I'm just training for general strength.
joe rogan
Well, his philosophy or his claims are very interesting because what his claims are was that people doing these low rep exercises like five reps or under, they experience benefits in all of their sports.
And that power and strength translated to gymnastics and sports.
steve maxwell
All strength training is going to translate into sports to an extent.
Olympic lifting works, power lifting works, low reps work, high reps work.
I know many guys that did nothing but super high repetitions, you know?
Been plenty of guys like that.
It all works, one way or another.
What you want though is to get as efficient as possible and you don't want to be beat up for days after your workout, obviously.
That was one of the reasons why he liked the low rep stuff, you know, because it doesn't seem to beat you up quite as much.
But I found that doing short, brief, intense workouts, usually even single sets, translated just as well as anything.
I'll give an example.
You've heard of the 1973 Miami Dolphins?
joe rogan
No.
steve maxwell
They were under Don Shula.
They were the only team ever to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl.
No other team's done it before or since.
Ever.
In the history of the NFL. They use cocaine?
Well, who knows?
unidentified
They're in Miami.
steve maxwell
But, you know how they train?
They train a Nautilus machines with single set training.
joe rogan
What?
unidentified
Yeah!
steve maxwell
There we go.
So, it all works.
It all works.
You can get in great shape no matter what you do.
joe rogan
It's just what works best.
steve maxwell
What works best.
I personally believe for a lifetime, and believe me, I have a lifetime of injuries, if you're getting hurt in your strength training, you're doing something wrong.
Strength training should prevent injuries, not cause it.
So there's something wrong with your technique and your form.
Me being a wrestler and a jiu-jitsu guy, I can't afford to hurt myself.
And of course, at my age now, you get hurt.
Oh my god, it takes forever to get back.
We know that fast, explosive training works, but we also know there's a much higher chance of injury.
So for me, I like slow, high-tension reps, really controlled, and like you discovered, that slow negative.
joe rogan
Yeah, slow negatives seem to be having a really positive benefit on my training lately.
steve maxwell
And I found that doing my exercises fast and explosive did not make me faster on the mat.
I had to selectively pick the movements I wanted to be fast and explosive on and do those fast.
joe rogan
And drill those.
steve maxwell
And drill the crap out of them until I was like a freaking machine.
joe rogan
One of the things that I've gotten into also over the last few months is grip strength.
You know those captains of crush?
I have a 167 pound one that I keep in my car.
I just smash that fucker.
I do it for three reps and then I throw it down.
steve maxwell
Well, thanks for taking it easy on my hand when we shook hands this morning, man.
joe rogan
Well, I started with a 120-pound one, and then I got a 167-pound one that I use now, but I have a 200-and-something-pound one that I'm saving for when I get tired of the 167-pound one.
But it's like there's a rabbit hole with that, because I'm into squeezing things now.
It's really weird.
steve maxwell
Just make sure it's not people's hands with you.
joe rogan
Well, I just have gotten excited about the idea of strengthening my hands because my strength handing has all been accidental for my hands.
It's all been attached to deadlifts and kettlebells and chin-ups and all the different stuff, and that's how my hands got strong.
But I've never just actively trained my grip.
So in doing this, I've been doing it, I'll say like four or five months now, just been smashing these things all the time.
steve maxwell
Well, you know, there's different types of grip strength.
You know, there's that crushing strength, which the captains of crush would give you.
But there's also like endurance strength, which is really good for grappling.
Well, just hanging off a high bar, you know, either one hand or two.
joe rogan
Well, that's one of the things we found on Fear Factor that was interesting.
We did this thing where we had people hang all over water on a bar, just hanging by their body weight.
And the women all beat the men.
We had these really strong men, really like big yoked up guys, but they were too heavy.
steve maxwell
Strength to weight ratio.
joe rogan
And they probably just did curls like a bunch of bitches.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
Well, the grip is really, a lot of it, people just don't pay enough attention to it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
One reason why rope climbing has stood the test of time as a grappling modality is it's a very specific vertical type grip, like you grab a hand or a neck or a wrist or forearm or even an ankle.
Really good for grapplers.
And man, it takes tremendous grip to climb a rope.
joe rogan
There's a lot of stress on your joints, too.
steve maxwell
Well, there can be.
You have to know how to climb.
But it has been an exercise that's been around forever.
joe rogan
Yeah, I've got a big fat rope in my garage.
You know, you've seen the gym that I have set up in my garage.
I've got this rope that, like, I can't even get my hand all the way around it.
steve maxwell
It's like one of those ropes that would tether off an ocean liner.
joe rogan
That's what they're for.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, that's where they get them.
steve maxwell
But I'll tell you, just hanging on that or squeezing it, you know, just not even climbing, just hanging until your hand gets out is a tremendous grip exercise.
joe rogan
Oh, for sure.
steve maxwell
But, yeah, for jiu-jitsu and wrestling, I've found that captains of crush don't translate as well as doing things like towel, chin-ups, you know, obviously.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Climbing a rope.
joe rogan
A lot of guys throw a gi over a chin-up bar and just pull themselves up with the gi.
steve maxwell
It's a fantastic sports-specific grip strength.
Also, just hanging for time, like we talked about for shoulder health.
Awesome grip exercise.
And there's a very interesting correlation between biological age and chronological age.
Old people have really weak hands.
joe rogan
Well, then I'm like 20 because I'll smash it.
steve maxwell
There you go, man.
joe rogan
I have a friend who does these scapula exercises.
He's an archer, and he hangs the way you're talking about, and then when he gets to the hanging position, he just lifts himself up like this.
steve maxwell
That's a fantastic exercise.
joe rogan
And holds it.
He's like pinching his shoulder blades together, just pulling his body up slightly with his arms completely locked out.
steve maxwell
Those upper back muscles are so neglected, and it's good for posture, too.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I'll tell you, I like to superset that with a set of regular pull-ups sometimes.
unidentified
Woo!
steve maxwell
Do you feel that upper back?
Because, you know, usually when you do pull-ups, your arms...
Get tired first.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
But by pre-exhausting the lats and the rhomboids and all those back muscles, when you do your pull-ups, whew, man, you really feel your back.
joe rogan
So you do pull-ups, like do all your sets?
steve maxwell
Well, not all the time, but I would do the scapular retractions first, jump down, shake out my grip a little bit, and then jump up and do the pull-ups.
Wow, what a great little back workout.
joe rogan
Oh, so you do the scapula exercises first?
steve maxwell
First, to pre-exhaust those muscles because they're bigger and stronger than your little teeny grip forearm hands.
So usually what comes out first in pull-ups is the hands, the forearms, sometimes your biceps.
So by pre-fatiguing those upper back muscles first, they get much better workout when you add in the arms.
joe rogan
Ah, that makes sense.
steve maxwell
You temporarily fatigue those.
joe rogan
So when you do these sets of, if you do like those scapular contractions, what would you call those?
steve maxwell
I always call them scapular retractions.
joe rogan
Retractions?
steve maxwell
Yeah, retractions.
joe rogan
How long would you hold that position for?
steve maxwell
I usually like two seconds up, two seconds down.
joe rogan
Oh, short.
steve maxwell
Yeah, it's a short little movement.
joe rogan
He does it for 15 seconds.
steve maxwell
You could.
I've actually done static contraction where I just pulled myself up and held it so I couldn't hold it.
You know, like 30 to 40 seconds, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
It just depends.
joe rogan
That was another thing that Pavel was talking about with planks.
He was talking about like doing a plank but contracting every muscle in your body and holding that position.
steve maxwell
It's an isometric.
It's called an overcoming isometric.
There's two types of isometrics.
One is, I'm sorry, a yielding isometric.
One is where you have a measurable weight.
It could be your body weight.
Let's say you hold a chin up at the top with your chin over the bar.
It's a classic exercise called the flexed arm hang.
Okay, you have a measurable weight there, right?
The other version of that would be you just grab something and just pull as hard as you can.
No way to measure it.
Both ways will get you as strong as can be, as strong as a beast.
So that plank that you're talking about, it's like a yielding isometric in that you have a measurable weight, which is your body weight.
And rather than just hang out to see how long you can survive, what happens is you start to let the back collapse a little bit.
You start to relax certain areas of your body.
And now it's just not nearly as effective.
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.
And that should be the true purpose of exercise, to create that overload, that muscle fatigue.
joe rogan
And allowing your muscles to recover from that and establish a new base of strength.
I have a friend, and a lot of Jiu Jitsu guys are getting into this now, where they're doing super slow sets.
steve maxwell
I love super slow sets.
I was one of the original super slow trainers back in the day.
I still do them.
And as the man ages, and you have all the dings in your shoulders and elbows and stuff, you'll find that you'll be drawn more and more to nice, slow, high-tension sets.
joe rogan
Really?
steve maxwell
Very safe way to train.
joe rogan
How many seconds up and down do you suggest, like say for something like a chin-up?
steve maxwell
Well, Mike Mentzer, you know, for bodybuilding, hypertrophy, he found like 4-2-4, where you would like four seconds up, pause in the contracted position and four seconds down.
The contracted position, the push-up, the hard part would be the bottom part.
So you would hold just off the floor.
On a chin-up, it would be the top part.
joe rogan
So for a push-up, say, you would slowly go up for like one, two, three, four.
steve maxwell
Then turn around.
No, you would then turn around.
joe rogan
Would you hold low or just slowly?
steve maxwell
Then I would go back down and hold at the bottom.
joe rogan
Okay, one, two, three, four.
And then how long would you hold at the very bottom?
steve maxwell
Hold 1,000, 1,002.
joe rogan
Just two seconds and then back up one.
And that's surprisingly difficult to do for someone who thinks of a push-up as being a pretty mild exercise.
steve maxwell
Dude, you can just sandblast yourself with just about five or six reps if you do it right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I've even done them slower.
I've gone like, you know, 10-10, 15-15.
Try doing, try this, if you like negative accentuated.
Sometimes you're in a hotel room and you want to get a quick pump for your comedy act.
Start at the top.
joe rogan
You don't get pumped for a comedy act.
You've got to stretch out.
steve maxwell
You're a dude.
You got the rep.
But probably the fittest comic out there.
Don't you find that comics in general are pretty bad at lifestyle?
joe rogan
A lot of alcoholics.
steve maxwell
Yeah, smoking.
joe rogan
Yeah, a lot of smoking.
steve maxwell
It's the nature of the business.
joe rogan
It's nightclub life.
It's very unhealthy.
It's also there's this false correlation that you have to be an abuser of your body to be funny.
steve maxwell
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, that vanity and taking care of your body are connected, and that vanity is ego, and then having a big ego and being vain.
It's anti-comedy.
But I don't think it's vanity to take care of your body.
I just think it's intelligence.
I think it's foolishness to not take care of your body.
I just know too many people whose bodies are literally falling apart, and who are my age, or younger, who have massive issues.
steve maxwell
I've seen it myself, man.
It's really scary.
joe rogan
Yeah, and they realize with time the error of their way, and it's usually too late.
If you start a rigorous physical fitness program when you're 45, like, boy, you've got a kind of an uphill battle there.
steve maxwell
You've got an uphill battle.
It's not impossible.
joe rogan
Well, you know Anthony Bourdain.
You know what's going on with him.
steve maxwell
Yeah, he's a jiu-jitsu guy now.
joe rogan
He's got a blue belt.
He started at 58. A lifetime of drinking and smoking and even a problem with heroin in his youth.
steve maxwell
Getting himself cleaned up.
I heard his wife's into it, too.
joe rogan
Oh, she's way beyond into it.
steve maxwell
She's actually pretty good, man.
joe rogan
She's very good.
And she's obsessed.
And that's one of the reasons why he got into it in the first place, because his wife is a maniac.
steve maxwell
And he didn't want to get choked out anymore.
joe rogan
Well, no.
I mean, she talked him into it because she loves it so much.
And then once she actually bribed him with narcotics.
steve maxwell
Whoa!
joe rogan
That's how she got him in.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah, she told him she'd give him Vicodins.
And so she got him into it.
And then once he got into it, he's a very, and I say this in a good way, he's a very obsessive guy.
He gets obsessed with things.
That's why he's such a great chef and a great writer and he's great on his television show.
And he got obsessed with jujitsu.
He travels everywhere.
He brings his gi.
He trains every day.
He trains twice a day.
He'll do a private and then he'll do a class.
Every day.
Every day.
steve maxwell
He trained with Chris Crook, the guy I was telling you about in Maui, my web guy.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
He trained with Anthony.
He said it was really fun.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
steve maxwell
Oh, back to that push-up.
So, try starting at the top, right?
You very slowly use your iPhone, like a little timer on there or something.
I use one with a metronome, you know, so I can hear the ticks.
And I go on down in 30 seconds.
And when my chest just barely grazes the ground, I do a slow, what we call turnaround, where you change direction.
Very slowly come back up in 30 seconds.
I don't walk out of the top.
There's no resting at the top because the top is just too easy, right?
You can hold it forever.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
So I keep my elbows just a little unbent and then 30 seconds back down.
Dude, you have the pump of your life.
90 seconds time under load.
It's like, wow, what an amazing workout.
One freaking rep.
Actually, one and a half reps.
Negative, positive, negative.
joe rogan
Just negative, positive, negative for 90 seconds.
So do you set it like a timer for 90 seconds?
steve maxwell
Well, not for 90 seconds.
Just a running stopwatch.
I use like a little thing on my iPhone that goes tick, tick, tick.
joe rogan
What is it?
steve maxwell
What is it?
I don't know.
It's just one of those many apps.
But I wanted one that had an audible tick.
So if I can't actually see the iPhone, at least I can listen to the seconds.
So it's real easy to fool yourself when you're going too fast.
joe rogan
Now, do you do the same sort of technique for squats or for any other exercises?
unidentified
Yeah, man.
steve maxwell
I have this one bodyweight squat where you face the wall, where you can't unload by leaning forward, you know, letting your torso lean forward.
unidentified
Whew!
steve maxwell
Man, what a killer.
joe rogan
You face the wall?
steve maxwell
I face the wall.
Great for your posture, man.
Your toes against the wall.
joe rogan
So what are you doing?
Like, you're facing the wall, and how close are you to the wall?
steve maxwell
My toes, nose, everything's touching, the knees.
My hands are out to the side.
I slowly lower down.
joe rogan
And you keep your face on the wall?
steve maxwell
Your nose is just barely skimming.
And it's great for posture because your back is really arched.
So your back's working isometrically.
And I don't do the top third of the movement with a bodyweight squat because it's just too damn easy.
I would recover.
You're so mechanically efficient at the top that there's no work.
joe rogan
So you get to the top third and then you go back down again?
steve maxwell
Back down.
Sometimes I use that 30-30-30 for that one.
It's absolutely killer.
When you're done, your legs are just crippled.
For a second or two.
joe rogan
I've been doing slow Hindu push-ups and I'm just amazed at how tired you can get.
steve maxwell
It's amazing, isn't it?
joe rogan
Like a set of 20 slow Hindu push-ups and your heart is ready to explode.
steve maxwell
It's amazing, isn't it?
You don't have to go fast to get a good cardio metabolic workout.
joe rogan
I'm a big fan of that Hindu push-up, too, just for the range of motion.
It's such a wide range of motion in that technique.
steve maxwell
Really good spinal mobility.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I would say, arguably, that might be the only push-up a person would need just for fitness.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I mean, really, it's a hell of an exercise.
It's basically upward and downward dog of yoga combined with movement.
joe rogan
Yeah, and I do it with a 40-pound weight vest sometimes.
steve maxwell
Dude, you're a beast.
joe rogan
Well, it's just such a great workout.
steve maxwell
Try slowing it down even more.
Try doing 10 seconds down, 10 seconds up.
So you don't have to keep adding more weight to your vest.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
Also, remember, time under load is really important.
I'll give you an example.
I went to the gym one time.
I saw this guy just jacking off pull-ups like crazy.
He was using a lot of momentum.
It was basically one second up, one second down.
The dude did 25, which is impressive.
But he was pretty much yanking up his joints.
So I had my client do a set of six, but he was doing 4-2-4 each one.
So the guy that did the 25, his time under load was only 50 seconds.
My guy did six, his time under load was a minute.
My guy actually did more mechanical work and was physically in some ways stronger, better strength to weight ratio.
joe rogan
What do you think about those CrossFit style chin-ups?
steve maxwell
Absolutely insane.
I mean, well, we talked about this last time.
The Greg Glassman guy?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve maxwell
I mean, the guy's an obese cripple, man.
joe rogan
Well, he's got health issues.
I know that he kind of started it off.
steve maxwell
He's younger than me, man.
It's like, what the fuck?
I could have had health issues.
The injuries that I've had, if anyone has the excuse for not training, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but man, I never missed a training due to an injury.
Man, if you hurt your shoulder, you got your other shoulder and your legs that you can work in your core, right?
I busted up my foot one time, so I was able to work.
You always work around it.
joe rogan
There's something to do.
steve maxwell
Always something to do.
You know, not training just because you're injured.
I blew out L4 on my spine one time just doing the stupid abdominal rollouts from the feet.
joe rogan
What's an abdominal rollout?
steve maxwell
Oh, I saw this Jackie Chan movie and I was really...
You know, you use those ab wheels, you know, those little wheels.
joe rogan
Yeah, I use those.
steve maxwell
And from your toes, you roll the whole way out, the whole way back.
I was pretty good at that one time.
joe rogan
From your toes, you roll the whole way out and the whole way back.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
joe rogan
Which I'm not exactly sure what you mean.
steve maxwell
Can you...
Yeah.
Ab roller Jackie Chan.
This is pretty inspiring.
joe rogan
So you mean like you make like a scissors and then you go like that?
steve maxwell
Yeah, like an inchworm.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
And you blew your back out doing that?
steve maxwell
Well, I left my back...
joe rogan
Look at this guy.
This guy's doing it.
steve maxwell
Oh, here we go.
There we go.
I could do that.
I probably still could do it, but I'm just too afraid to do it.
joe rogan
Is that hard to do?
steve maxwell
Fuck yeah!
It's unbelievable, man.
Well, no, don't try it because I don't want you to hurt your back.
But you've got to really, really brace your abdominals and keep your glutes tight because the shearing force on the lumbar is really high, as I found out.
joe rogan
I don't do those, but I do do a lot of ab wheel stuff.
But I just never do it like that.
steve maxwell
You can do it off your knees.
Do you know what the same movement is?
Hanging leg raises.
Very safe.
Some people call it toes to bar.
Try doing it with no momentum.
Slow up, touch your tippy toes to the bar, pause for a second, slowly lower.
If you do three or four, wow, you're pretty strong core.
It's the same movement as that.
joe rogan
With legs straight?
steve maxwell
Yeah, with your legs straight.
joe rogan
Almost like you're touching your toes?
steve maxwell
Toes to the bar.
Not the ankles or shins.
That means the person's too tight in their hamstrings.
But yeah, I blew my back.
I had an L4 subluxation and spondiothesis.
And I was told I might need surgery.
I was in agony.
joe rogan
So you have a bulging disc?
steve maxwell
Oh my god.
I had sciatica so bad, y'all, I couldn't even walk.
joe rogan
When you were here, did I have the reverse hypermachine in the back when you were here?
steve maxwell
Yes, you did.
joe rogan
Yeah.
What do you think about those?
Have you used those at all?
steve maxwell
I have, but the strength curve, I think I told you, is off.
Because right where your glutes and your lower back are in the weakest part of the curve, the resistance is at its highest.
joe rogan
Right.
I see what you're saying.
Yeah.
steve maxwell
You know, you'd almost be better off putting ankle weights on and just doing reverse leg raises.
joe rogan
Man, I just love it, though, for decompression of the spine and strengthening the lower back area.
I mean, my whole back area is just so thick and strong from doing that exercise.
It gives me a lot of relief.
I'm a big fan of that machine.
steve maxwell
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not against it, per se.
I think there's just as good, if not better, exercises that you can use.
Because, I mean, you know, in my case, I can't travel with a reverse hyper.
joe rogan
Yeah, you'd have a hard time checking that thing.
steve maxwell
I'll tell you what I do enjoy is the...
45 degree back extension bench where you do back extension.
Fantastic exercise.
joe rogan
Is that called a Roman chair?
Is that what it's called?
steve maxwell
Not quite a Roman chair, but it's kind of along those lines.
I'm not talking about the glute hand raises.
I'm actually talking about 45 degree back extension.
Right.
I was at Arthur Jones Ranch when he was doing his experiments with Med-X, which was a machine for back rehabilitation.
And the Med-X studies is doing it with this Dr. Wayne Pollack from the University of Florida Medical School.
And they found that people's backs are pretty undeveloped and pretty weak and can cause a lot of problems.
So they were trying to invent a machine To work that area.
But the freaking machines were like $50,000.
It was ridiculous.
You know, you're getting all these electrical feet out and all this stuff.
So I said to Arthur, I said, surely there must be a very simple exercise that you could do that would give you really, really good results.
Because he was basically poo-pooing most back exercises.
He's not really working the back.
Most of them worked the glutes and the hamstrings.
Like kettlebell swings or deadlifts.
More glute than hamstring.
So he said the back extension.
He says that would come as close.
And I started religiously practicing back extension.
And man, I'll tell you, that's one area of my back that was always strong right up until that point where I did those abdominal rollouts.
That was the first back injury I ever had.
joe rogan
How'd you get over that?
steve maxwell
Well, I went to a Rolfer.
I had this woman that was actually a professor at the Rolfer Institute.
You know, they do circuits.
Really good hands-on Rolfer.
She was the one that I heard the word surgery come out of her mouth because she was pretty much anti-surgery.
That was the first time I ever heard someone say, Oh, Steve, you really did it this time.
I don't know whether I can help you, really.
You really messed your back up.
I'm going to try, but I can't guarantee anything.
So she would put me on their table like in a tense position where the table goes like this.
joe rogan
So it's bent for people who are not listening.
steve maxwell
Literally taking your fingers and trying to rotate that vertebrae back into position.
And then I was going to this guy for pain.
I didn't want to take painkillers.
This Dr. Frank Gu in Philadelphia on Art Street.
He was shooting me with the needles.
joe rogan
Acupuncture?
steve maxwell
Acupuncture for pain relief.
And I would walk in there in absolute agony.
And I would walk out probably 60 to 70 percent reduction in the pain.
And it would last for a day or two and then it would come back, of course.
But I was just doing it just to get out of pain.
joe rogan
Right.
steve maxwell
And over the course of, let's see, how many sessions was it?
It was like eight sessions.
By the eighth session, all of a sudden, I woke up one day and the pain was completely gone.
joe rogan
So it was slowly relaxing and the disc was going back in.
steve maxwell
Finally squirted back in there.
joe rogan
Stretching or anything like that?
steve maxwell
I was sitting in a back chair.
I used to be the trainer for the owners of the Philadelphia Eagles, the Jeff and Christina, or they're divorced now, but Jeff still owns the Philadelphia Eagle team.
He used to have all these really cool nifty devices because he suffered a lot from back.
It was a chair that you sit on a sling, like this playground swings, with these two clamps that grab you underneath your armpits and clamp, right?
So you're clamped.
You can adjust it.
And then you slowly release the sling.
So you're just basically sitting with your back completely just hanging there from your armpits.
And I would sit there and watch TV for an hour or so with my back in this traction.
That really gave me a lot of relief.
joe rogan
Yeah, the spinal decompression is gigantic.
steve maxwell
Yeah, the back chair.
It was a really expensive thing.
I just borrowed his for like a couple months.
Man, that thing really helped.
joe rogan
What do you think about those hang-ups?
steve maxwell
Inversions on that?
Yeah.
joe rogan
You like those?
steve maxwell
I do.
I didn't have the table or the room for it at the time, although I do like it.
I did have inversion boots that I used to hang off my pull-up on.
My problem was with the sciatic, I couldn't get into the position.
It was just too painful.
I was in too much pain.
joe rogan
You were so far gone.
steve maxwell
I was so far gone.
Everything was killing me.
But once it went away, it was like it never happened.
Never happened.
But you know, despite that, I didn't stop training.
I was still doing super slow machine work, pull-downs and chest presses.
And interestingly enough, with that injury, riding the Schwinn Airdone, you know those air bikes with the handles?
That didn't hurt.
It actually felt good.
I would feel good for like 30-40 minutes after that workout with zero pain, and then it would slowly come back on me again.
joe rogan
Those airdyne machines seem to be like a really popular exercise for strength and conditioning for fighters.
steve maxwell
A lot of wrestlers use them.
Because I'll tell you, man, the faster you go, the harder it is.
The air displacement.
The thing that's so cool about it is you're getting both upper and lower body together.
So it's not just lower body aerobics.
Your whole body's involved in strength endurance.
joe rogan
Do those bother you with your shoulder?
steve maxwell
No, no.
Any kind of vertical movement.
I mean, horizontal movement.
It's the overhead press that...
But interestingly enough, I can still do Hindu push-ups.
joe rogan
That is interesting.
steve maxwell
It's the angle.
You know, I can angle it.
And also, you know, corkscrewing the hands, gripping, activating the lats and all that kind of stuff can really keep you out of pain.
joe rogan
Steve, we just did three hours.
steve maxwell
Holy shit.
joe rogan
Flew by.
steve maxwell
Wow, man.
joe rogan
It's over.
I know you have this video though.
Tell people about this video, your isometric video.
steve maxwell
Well, I just came out with my second isometric because I was so thrilled with the first one.
I started looking deeper into isometrics and I found these old school techniques that I've made an advanced isometric video.
joe rogan
So is it a full workout?
steve maxwell
Yeah, what I did was, in the first one, I had either yielding or overcoming isometrics.
Here, for advanced guys that are really strong, like yourself, I combine yielding and overcoming isometrics in the same exercise.
Boy, I'll tell you, even an Olympic athlete could get a full workout in a hotel room with virtually no equipment.
Just your jiu-jitsu belt is all you'd really need.
Dude, you would know you had a workout.
Very safe, no chance of...
I mean, of course, some idiot could screw it up and get himself hurt, but the chance of hurting yourself with isometrics is virtually none.
Good way to also work around an injury.
You know, if you have a foot, ankle, knee, elbow, you can still do isometrics.
You could even potentially do isometrics if you're in bed.
You know, let's say you had an injury in a car accident where you could actually keep your muscles in shape laying in bed.
It's pretty cool stuff.
joe rogan
Where can people get it?
How do they get it?
steve maxwell
The website is MaxwellSC.com.
S as in strength, C as in conditioning.
MaxwellSC.com.
And I think...
Yeah.
Oh yeah, there's a link to the page.
joe rogan
Let's see.
MaxwellSC Training.
Is that what you say?
MaxwellSC.com?
steve maxwell
Yep.
MaxwellSC.com.
joe rogan
Okay.
steve maxwell
It's a really good video.
I shot it in Maui Jiu Jitsu, and it's really, really one of the best ones I've ever done.
joe rogan
Alright, beautiful.
And people want to get a hold of you on Twitter.
steve maxwell
Yeah, Twitter, Snapchat.
joe rogan
Steve Maxwell, SC. Yep, Steve Maxwell.
Snapchat, all that jazz.
unidentified
Yeah, man.
joe rogan
Instagram.
steve maxwell
Feed the media machine, baby.
joe rogan
The media machine.
steve maxwell
You got it.
joe rogan
Thank you, brother.
I appreciate you being on, man.
steve maxwell
Thanks for having me again.
Appreciate it.
joe rogan
Alright, friends.
We'll be back tomorrow.
See you soon.
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