JRE #625 – Steve Maxwell

This podcast dives into the world of fitness, health, and aging with Steve Maxwell, a seasoned fitness coach and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor. The conversation spans a wide range of topics, from the benefits of THC to the importance of breathwork and the dangers of overtraining. Underlying themes explore the value of open-mindedness, the pursuit of optimal health through experimentation, and the importance of recognizing individual differences in training and recovery.

1. THC and its Impact on Performance and Recovery:

• Maxwell’s personal journey with THC: He was initially skeptical but became curious after witnessing its use among BJJ champions and friends in Australia. He found it improved his vision, digestion, and focus, particularly during stretching.
• THC as a potential performance enhancer in sports: Maxwell discusses its use by ultra-marathoners and triathletes to improve pain tolerance and enhance muscle sensitivity.
• THC and Yoga: Maxwell highlights the synergy between THC and yoga, emphasizing its ability to relax and deepen stretches.
• Overcoming prejudices: Maxwell encourages listeners to be open-minded about THC, noting that many high-performing athletes use it and that preconceived notions can be misleading.

2. The Power of Brainwave Meditation:

• Theta brainwaves and subconscious programming: Maxwell explains how theta brainwave meditation, a technique that uses binaural beats to slow down brainwave activity, can induce a state of deep relaxation and promote subconscious programming.
• Potential benefits: Maxwell highlights its use for sleep enhancement, stress reduction, and visualization practices.
• Ease of access: There are numerous programs available online and via apps for theta brainwave meditation.
• Potential for mental health: Although more research is needed, some studies suggest theta brainwave meditation may regulate hormonal levels and even stimulate growth hormone production.

3. The Importance of Breathwork and Diaphragmatic Breathing:

• The prevalence of panic breathing: Maxwell observes that most people utilize shallow, upper chest breathing, which contributes to a heightened state of stress and exhaustion.
• The calming effects of diaphragmatic breathing: Maxwell emphasizes the profound calming effect of diaphragmatic breathing, which involves engaging the diaphragm and bringing oxygen deeper into the lungs.
• Combat and breath manipulation: Maxwell believes that breath manipulation is essential for combat athletes to manage stress, maintain composure, and recover efficiently.
• The link between breathing patterns and mental health: Maxwell connects chronic panic breathing to a heightened perception of threat and highlights the importance of regulating breathing for mental well-being.

4. Overtraining and its Impact on Athletes:

• The “more is better” fallacy: Maxwell debunks the common misconception that more training is always better, emphasizing that it can lead to injuries, burnout, and slower recovery.
• Wrestling as a notorious example: Maxwell points out that wrestlers are particularly prone to overtraining, which can lead to both physical and mental strain.
• The importance of technique and limited sparring: Maxwell highlights the Russian wrestling system, which emphasizes technical training, limited sparring, and a focus on developing skills through repetition.
• The impact on MMA fighters: Maxwell discusses the challenges of maintaining peak fitness and recovering from injuries in MMA, emphasizing the need for smarter training protocols to extend athletes’ careers.

5. Aging Well and Adapting Training:

• The importance of open-mindedness and experimentation: Maxwell emphasizes the value of staying open to new ideas and trying different approaches to fitness and training as you age.
• Recognizing your body’s limitations: Maxwell advises embracing a more conservative approach to training as you age, acknowledging that your body takes longer to heal and recover.
• The role of diet: Maxwell emphasizes the importance of a healthy diet for maintaining energy, focus, and overall well-being, especially as you get older.
• The Gracie family’s approach to longevity: Maxwell cites the example of the Gracie family, who have demonstrated that with careful training and lifestyle choices, you can maintain a high level of fitness well into your later years.

6. The Benefits of Cold Exposure:

• Cold showers and cryotherapy: Maxwell discusses the potential benefits of cold showers and cryotherapy, emphasizing their role in stimulating brown fat, boosting the immune system, and improving recovery from injuries.
• Cryotherapy and its mechanism: Maxwell explains how cryotherapy, a process involving exposure to extremely cold temperatures, can trigger an adaptive response in the body, leading to increased blood flow, reduced inflammation, and faster healing.
• Cold exposure and its ancient roots: Maxwell mentions the traditional practices of cold water immersion and dowsing, highlighting their historical use for health and wellness.
• The potential for brown fat activation: Maxwell highlights the role of brown fat in regulating temperature and burning calories, emphasizing the benefits of cold exposure in activating these cells.

7. New Training Techniques and their Potential:

• The Katsu method: Maxwell introduces the Katsu method, a new training technique that involves restricting blood flow to muscles during exercise, leading to increased growth hormone production, enhanced recovery, and improved performance.
• The potential for injury recovery: Maxwell discusses the potential of the Katsu method for faster recovery from injuries and improving athletic performance.
• The combination of training modalities: Maxwell emphasizes the potential for combining different training modalities, such as cryotherapy, the Katsu method, and breathwork, to optimize results and accelerate recovery.
• The future of training: Maxwell suggests that future training methods will likely focus on finding new ways to stimulate the body’s natural healing and adaptive mechanisms.

8. The Importance of Technique and Skill:

• The dominance of technique: Maxwell emphasizes that technique is paramount in all martial arts, including BJJ, MMA, judo, and wrestling.
• The role of drills and repetition: Maxwell highlights the importance of drills and repetition in developing muscle memory and ensuring that techniques are ingrained in the nervous system.
• The Russian wrestling system: Maxwell contrasts the American wrestling approach, which often relies heavily on sparring, with the Russian system, which emphasizes technical training and careful periodization.
• The importance of recognizing and countering specific techniques: Maxwell stresses the need for understanding and defending various techniques, including those that are unconventional or less common.

9. The Impact of Performance Enhancing Drugs on MMA:

• The prevalence of PEDs: Maxwell acknowledges the widespread use of PEDs in MMA, particularly for recovery from injuries and enhancing performance during training.
• Increased testing and stricter regulations: Maxwell discusses the increased testing and stricter regulations being implemented by athletic commissions, particularly in California.
• The ethical debate: Maxwell raises the ethical questions surrounding the use of PEDs in sports, comparing them to the use of vitamins and caffeine.
• The impact on career longevity: Maxwell expresses concern that the use of PEDs may be contributing to the shortened career spans of MMA fighters, highlighting the need for alternative approaches to enhance performance and recovery.

10. The Importance of Tapping and Avoiding Injury:

• The ego’s role in injury: Maxwell emphasizes the importance of tapping in grappling sports to avoid injury, acknowledging that ego can sometimes override safety.
• The Gracie family’s emphasis on playfulness: Maxwell highlights the Gracie family’s approach to BJJ, which emphasizes playfulness, technique, and a focus on safety over competition.
• The dangers of overtraining and pushing your limits: Maxwell cautions against overtraining and pushing your body beyond its limits, particularly as you age, emphasizing the need for a more conservative approach.
• The importance of technique over brute force: Maxwell highlights the effectiveness of using technique to overcome physical limitations, particularly in grappling sports, and advocates for a focus on skill development over sheer power.

11. The Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and its History:

• The clash of cultures: Maxwell discusses the early interactions between Japanese judo practitioners and American catch wrestlers, highlighting the development of the guard as a response to the American wrestlers’ strength and size.
• The development of the guard: Maxwell explains how the guard, a position in BJJ that involves controlling an opponent from the bottom, evolved as a way for smaller practitioners to overcome larger opponents.
• The importance of understanding different styles: Maxwell highlights the diversity of grappling styles, including catch wrestling and traditional BJJ, and the importance of being familiar with different approaches.
• The evolution of techniques: Maxwell emphasizes the cyclical nature of grappling techniques, noting how some techniques fall out of favor, only to reappear later as new generations of practitioners refine them.

12. The Importance of Self-Defense and Confidence:

• The Gracie family’s philosophy: Maxwell shares a powerful quote from Hélio Gracie, who defined BJJ as “If you do this, I do that. And if you do that, I do this forever.” This highlights the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the art, requiring constant adaptation and anticipation.
• The connection between self-defense and confidence: Maxwell emphasizes the role of confidence in promoting self-assurance and reducing insecurity. He suggests that learning self-defense can empower individuals and enhance their overall well-being.
• The value of understanding the opponent’s intentions: Maxwell emphasizes the importance of recognizing the opponent’s intentions and anticipating their next move in self-defense, highlighting the importance of mental agility and strategic thinking.
• The importance of constantly learning: Maxwell advocates for a lifelong commitment to learning and refining your skills, recognizing that the pursuit of mastery is an ongoing journey.

13. The Phenomenon of Ronda Rousey:

• Rousey’s dominance: Maxwell discusses Ronda Rousey’s unparalleled dominance in MMA, attributing her success to her exceptional technique and mastery of the armbar.
• Rousey’s technical precision: Maxwell emphasizes the technical precision of Rousey’s armbar, highlighting her ability to anticipate her opponent’s movements and flawlessly execute the submission.
• The gap in technical skill: Maxwell suggests that Rousey’s dominance may be due, in part, to a gap in technical proficiency between herself and her female opponents.
• The potential for success against men: Maxwell raises the question of whether Rousey could defeat male opponents of similar weight, citing the example of female lions sometimes defeating male lions in the wild.

14. The Importance of Training with Women:

• Women as sparring partners: Maxwell recommends that older men seek out female sparring partners, highlighting their tendency to focus on technique rather than brute force, making for more technical and challenging training sessions.
• Different approaches and perspectives: Maxwell notes that women often have different approaches to grappling, bringing fresh perspectives and challenging training partners in new ways.
• The strength of women’s legs: Maxwell highlights the strength and endurance of women’s legs, particularly in grappling sports, where leg locks and sweeps are crucial aspects of the game.
• The benefits of tapping to women: Maxwell encourages men to overcome ego and tap to women when necessary, promoting a safe and respectful training environment.

15. The Importance of Playfulness and Enjoyment:

• The importance of finding joy in training: Maxwell emphasizes that training should be enjoyable and playful, promoting a long-term commitment to fitness and a healthy lifestyle.
• The Gracie family’s emphasis on fun: Maxwell highlights the Gracie family’s playful approach to BJJ, where technique and safety take precedence over competition.
• Avoiding overtraining and burnout: Maxwell cautions against overtraining and pushing your body beyond its limits, emphasizing the need for balance and rest to maintain enjoyment in training.
• The long-term benefits of playfulness: Maxwell suggests that a playful approach to training can promote longevity in fitness and help individuals avoid the pitfalls of overtraining and burnout.

5 Memorable Quotes:

• “I really think that one of the secrets to aging well is to be open-minded and just to experiment and learn new things, try new things, and don’t be such a stick in the mud with your belief systems. You know? Yeah. Don’t get so holier than thou with all all your beliefs because, hey, man, And, you know, if you think about it, a lot of really high spiritual adepts. They they all use some type of either, you know, hallucinogen or we we talked last time in the show about Ayahuasca — Mhmm. — and so forth and and, you know, the the shamans using their mushrooms and”
• “I was shocked. I was utterly shocked. The first thing I noticed was my vision improved. I’ve I’ve been to your side most of my life, and I I basically found my eyes were getting worse each year, getting stronger prescriptions. I finally read this book take off your glasses and see. And I just basically threw my glasses in the trash — Really? — and started doing eye strengthening exercises. Like, what kind of thing? I’m going through that right now myself. They improved a lot.”
• “But, yeah, it felt in Christ. he was you know, they have, like, a bouncing, shaking, vibrational kind of thing, and there’s like I said, the Dallas yogis have a a thing where they do this kind of stuff. When I was in Russia, they they they had, like, as part of their Slavic Russian health system is their mobility stuff. They would have shaking and vibrations and and all the stuff that you just kinda do to yourself and I read this guy, Alexander Lowen, he was a, like, a psychiatrist that treated people with with chronic mental problems with exercise and so forth. And — Really? — he was really big into shaking and moving the body and all these interesting patterns. And It’s very relaxing. It just gets a lot of attention on.”
• “Well, I think there’s a lot of guys that are taking things when they don’t think they’re gonna get tested, you know, when they they need to recover. Just for the training at all. Yeah. Just to get through the yeah. The the training. And also to recover from injuries. That’s a big one. Not just injuries that you know about, like, surgeries, but almost everybody’s tweaked. You got a a bum knee or your elbows bothering you or something’s going on with your neck. everybody.”
• “Well, Halston did another go into it. It was amazing. because the guy was pretty profound in his own very simple way. The way he had explained things, it was pretty amazing, but the same body was complaining how easily he was catching him. And she says, look, I know everything you know and everything else. because like, yeah. absolutely. He says, maybe maybe if I got sick or injured and was in the hospital for, like, 3 years and did train, maybe if I came back, you might have a chance. But it’s true. But it’s true.”