What do you do when earning your black belt means betraying everything you believe jiu-jitsu should be? Prof. Matt McPeake walked away as a four-stripe brown belt — and the BJJ Globetrotters gave him his black belt blind, mid-camp, without him knowing the evaluation was happening.Josh Button sits down with the Burlington, Ontario-based coach and BJJ Fanatics instructional creator for one of the most honest conversations about the sport going right now.Topics covered:→ The black belt story no one else has — how Globetrotters awarded it, why it mattered→ Does lineage still mean anything? A 30-year honest answer→ Concepts vs. techniques: why the best coaches teach fewer steps, not more→ The 4 things midlife men get catastrophically wrong on the mats→ Why your first night in jiu-jitsu is the most important night→ The recovery stack keeping a 50-year-old training twice a day→ Why sleep is the non-negotiable that overrides every other protocol→ The 100-reps accountability system for real skill acquisition→ Filming as a coaching tool — why Matt does it as a black belt, publicly→ The Earl Grey Kimura — and where that name actually came from→ One word that explains why jiu-jitsu is the most human thing you can do━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 Find Professor Matt McPeake:Instagram: @jitsrollsBJJ Fanatics (Power Line): bjjfanatics.comBJJ Fanatics (Backpack Attack): bjjfanatics.comBJJ Globetrotters: bjjglobetrotters.comYouTube: search "Matt McPeake" for free Globetrotters content🔗 Find Josh:Instagram: @thatjiujiteiro | @stopkillingtheplantsWebsite: joshbutton.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━TIMESTAMPS0:00 — Intro: Who is Matt McPeake?1:40 — Burlington Ontario, Finland camp, Poland Zen camp3:50 — Lineage: Carlson Gracie / Marcus Suarez and the tribal BJJ era6:00 — Why he walked away as a four-stripe brown belt8:30 — Training in garages and basements — jiu-jitsu for love9:30 — The camp where they surprised him with his black belt12:00 — Does lineage still matter? The 30-year honest answer14:40 — Cross training, information overload, and collecting techniques17:00 — Why concepts beat techniques every time22:00 — The ecological vs. traditional debate25:30 — The aha moment that became the Power Line system28:00 — Midlife BJJ: what men over 40 get catastrophically wrong33:00 — Your ego vs. a 150lb blue belt — what happens37:50 — Recovery non-negotiables for training past 5048:00 — Shifting to daytime training and sleep quality transformation54:00 — The 100-reps accountability system01:00 — Filming rounds, WhatsApp groups, and accountability that works01:10 — The Earl Grey Kimura explained01:17 — One word: Humanity

Matt McPeake, BJJ Globetrotters, jiu-jitsu black belt, BJJ coaching concepts, midlife BJJ, bjj over 40, bjj over 50, jiu-jitsu lifestyle, training after 40, hard to kill, Power Line BJJ, Earl Grey kimura, backpack attack BJJ, BJJ Fanatics, jiu-jitsu lineage, cross training BJJ, bjj recovery, sleep and training, bjj skill acquisition, Josh Button podcast, that jiujiteiro, stop killing the plants, jiu-jitsu community, bjj techniques vs concepts, jiu-jitsu for beginners, Canada BJJ, BJJ Globetrotters camps, Jay Pages, ecological approach BJJ

Josh Button sits down with Nahum Vizakis — EOD veteran, international award-winning author of The Indigo Flame, and men's performance coach at optimizinghuman.com — for one of the most honest conversations about what it actually takes to rebuild a man.Nahum shares how 10 years in the military, combat PTSD, a TBI, and a pharmaceutical cocktail that made him hallucinate brought him to his knees — and how weight training, Ayahuasca, massage school, and ruthless self-inquiry pulled him back.Topics covered:→ Surviving combat as an EOD team leader (Iraq, 2009–10)→ The pharma cascade that nearly erased his identity→ TRT, testosterone, and the epidemic of low T in Western men→ The peptide wild west — what to know before you inject anything→ Ayahuasca and the frequency of love→ Why no 20-year-old should touch PEDs→ Nahum's daily biohacking stack: sound lounge, red light, infrared sauna→ Breathwork, fasting, and the OG GLP-1→ Jiu-jitsu as problem-solving under pressure→ The return of tribalism and real-world community→ Battle Zone at Wolf's Gym with Kai Greene→ The Indigo Flame — autobiography, award-winning, raw and uncut→ One word: RESILIENCE
🔗 Find Nahum Vizakis:Instagram: @spiritual_bodybuilderWebsite: optimizinghuman.comThe Indigo Flame — amazon.comThe Biohacker's Guide to Spiritual Bodybuilding — amazon.comIn Person: Wolf's Gym · Boca Raton, FLBattle Zone: Sundays 4PM on Kai Greene's TikTok Live🔗 Find Josh:Instagram: @thatjiujiteiro | @stopkillingtheplantsWebsite: joshbutton.com

Nahum Vizakis, spiritual bodybuilder, veteran mental health, PTSD recovery, plant medicine healing, ayahuasca, biohacking, TRT testosterone replacement therapy, peptides, low testosterone men, Josh Button podcast, The Indigo Flame book, men's wellness, resilience, EOD veteran, infrared sauna, red light therapy, breathwork, fasting, Wim Hof, cold plunge, jiu jitsu lifestyle, Kai Greene, Wolf's Gym, Boca Raton, men's coaching, trauma healing, optimizing human, biohacker's guide, spiritual bodybuilding, that jiujiteiro, stop killing the plants, midlife performance, hard to kill in midlife

He left corporate America, posted in a Facebook group, showed up in Taiwan and got shark tanked for 23 people straight, break danced at a nightclub the same night, and built a jiujitsu career across 50 countries on nothing but his ability to convince people he was not terrible and not an asshole. Charles Harriott joins Josh Button for one of the most wide-ranging conversations in the show's history.

Topics: The 80% Rule — every injury came from the same moment · Submissions as a hostage negotiation — why breaking the hostage loses the leverage · Training culture, ego, and who gets to say no to a roll · The Craig Jones heel hooker camp wrist lock story · Rolling with Nicholas Miragali and what world-class actually feels like · Why jiujitsu is not one thing anymore · Getting married and what it changes about injury risk · The choke is king and the science behind it · Charles's Patreon, instructionals, Peak Waza Camp, and BJJ Globetrotters

🎙️ Guest: Charles Harriott — @CharlesHarriott🌐 peakwaza.com📱 BJJ Fanatics instructionals🎯 Code BUTTON — first 5 listeners get a free month on Charles's Patreon

Chapters

00:00 The Journey Begins: Early Days of Jiu-Jitsu

06:52 From Corporate Life to Teaching Seminars

13:14 Traveling the World: The Seminar Experience

19:45 Building a Reputation in Jiu-Jitsu

28:26 Lessons Learned on the Mat

34:15 The Art of Lazy Jiu-Jitsu

35:15 Competitors vs. Hobbyists: Understanding the Skill Gap

36:09 Tactics Over Technique: The Role of Strategy in Jiu-Jitsu

38:15 The Evolution of Jiu-Jitsu: From Competition to Instruction

40:04 The Balance of Teaching and Rolling: Insights from Seminars

46:02 Ego in Jiu-Jitsu: The Changing Culture of Respect

49:31 The Unique Dynamics of Jiu-Jitsu Coaching

52:37 The Many Faces of Jiu-Jitsu: Different Paths and Goals

57:04 The Impact of Teaching: Personal Growth Through Instruction

01:03:19 Life Lessons from Jiu-Jitsu: Marriage and Responsibility

01:05:23 The Balance of Toughness and Strategy in Jiu-Jitsu

01:09:01 Trust and Communication in Training

01:11:22 Submissions as Negotiations: The Art of Control

01:17:01 Long-Term Goals: Training for Longevity

01:23:21 Diet and Nutrition: Finding What Works

01:29:23 Teaching and Community Engagement

#BJJ #JiuJitsu #MastersGrappling #HardToKillInMidlife #TrainingAfter40 #ThatJiujiteiro #JoshButton #CharlesHarriott #BJJBlackBelt #BJJLongevity #Submissions #BJJGlobetrotters #PeakWaza

You train hard. You keep getting hurt. You come back. You get hurt again. Dr. Evan Kappler — DPT, blue belt, two herniated discs, no surgery — explains exactly why this keeps happening and what you are actually missing.

Topics: The X axis and Y axis of jiujitsu longevity · Why tightness doesn't mean what you think · The joint-by-joint principle — mobility vs stability · Surgery vs conservative rehab for disc injuries · Stuart McGill and the 15-minute surgery thought experiment · The Batman neck and thoracic rotation · Return-to-training: the minor league model · Consistency vs intensity · Evan's 6-point daily health checklist

If you have been told to stop doing jiujitsu by a doctor — or if you keep getting injured and cannot figure out why — this one is required listening.

🎙️ Guest: Dr. Evan Kappler, DPT🌐 drevan.org — Free consultation📱 Follow: @DrEvanKappler

bjj injury, physical therapy, disc injury, back pain bjj, masters grappling, midlife athlete, hard to kill, injury prevention, mobility stability, dr evan kappler, thoracic mobility, training after 40, consistency, surgery vs rehab, that jiujiteiro, josh button podcast, return to training, stuart mcgill, bjj longevity, drevan.org

Nearly 30 years on the mats. Black belt since 2009. Academy owner at 50. Still rolling hard — and training better now than he did at 35. Steve Hordinski of Katharo Training Center joins Josh Button to break down the one thing most jiu-jitsu practitioners never address that eventually forces them off the mats: the way they move.

Topics: Budokon for grapplers · Why standard warm-ups fail · Training frequency at 50 · Rolling with Helio Gracie at 86 · Injury prevention vs injury treatment · Ego-rolling and why it ends careers · Nutrition and inflammation management · Mental health, veteran suicide awareness, and Forge of Unity · Consistency as the foundation of longevity

If you're a midlife grappler trying to stay on the mats for the next 20 years — this one is required listening.

🎙️ Guest: Steve Hordinski 📍 Katharo Training Center — Colorado 🔗 Follow Steve: @SteveHordinski | @JiujitsuOnTheGo | @KatharoTrainingCenter | @ForgeOfUnity

#BJJ #JiuJitsu #MastersGrappling #HardToKillInMidlife #TrainingAfter40 #Budokan #BJJLongevity #MidlifeAthlete #ThatJiujiteiro #JoshButton #SteveHordinski #KatharoTraining #ForgeOfUnity #GrapplingRecovery #BJJBlackBelt

At 47 years old I train BJJ twice a day. This is exactly how I do it —

the full daily recovery protocol, every element, and the science behind why each one earns its place.

Topics: midlife athlete recovery, breathwork for grapplers, cold water immersion,

morning sunlight, grounding, electrolytes, ancestral nutrition, sleep stack, magnesium, glycine

Follow @thatjiujiteiro and comment GUIDE for the free Midlife Grappler's Survival Guide.

Follow @stopkillingtheplants and comment RECOVERY for the free Midlife Recovery Protocol.

—

In this episode:

00:00 Why recovery is the training after 40

02:23 Training at Vagner Rocha's gym — why I don't skip Tuesday and Thursday nights

04:37 Morning foundations — grounding, sun exposure, lymphatic movement

06:53 Cortisol Awakening Response — why electrolytes come before coffee

09:15 Grounding — the science behind going barefoot every morning

11:33 The stress threshold analogy — why masters athletes are chronically overloaded

13:39 The physiological sigh — your in-the-moment reset tool

14:13 Early morning sun exposure — circadian entrainment and why glass blocks it

17:09 Vitamin D3, serotonin, dopamine — what morning light actually does

18:58 Morning breathwork — CO2 tolerance and the grappling connection

21:30 On the mats, you are drowning — the CO2 panic response explained

23:54 HRV, whoop straps, and why breath work moves the number

25:40 Morning Jiu Jitsu — foam rolling and post-training stretch

28:00 Post-training fuel — raw eggs, cholesterol, testosterone, and sourdough

31:40 The afternoon stack — ice bath, breathwork, and the walk with the dog

34:04 Cold exposure science — norepinephrine, dopamine, inflammation clearance

36:16 DOMS reduction and the mTOR caveat

38:32 Evening training and dinner — protein anchor, sweet potato, kimchi

40:54 The vegan trap — how I went carnivore and why Steak Moses was born

45:02 The wind-down protocol — magnesium glycinate, glycine, and sleep architecture

47:26 What a dialled-in sleep routine actually feels like

49:17 Why without a foundation, you will eventually stop training

—

Mentioned in this episode:

Laird Hamilton — XPT pool protocols

Wim Hof — breathwork method

Rob Garcia — Hawaiian boxing Coach, introduced Josh to Laird's pool

Thomas P. Seager — pre-cooled workouts and testosterone (check that episode- Ep 56)

Vagner Rocha — head coach, South Florida

Gregory Rodrigues — UFC fighter, trains at Vagner's

—

Free resources:

Midlife Grappler's Survival Guide → comment GUIDE on Instagram @thatjiujiteiro

Midlife Recovery Protocol → comment RECOVERY on Instagram @thatjiujiteiro

Ancestral Nutrition Guide → comment ANCESTRAL on Instagram @stopkillingtheplants

—

Follow Josh:

Instagram: @thatjiujiteiro | @stopkillingtheplants | @IamJoshButton

Website: joshbutton.com

Podcast: TheJoshButtonPodcast.com

—

#bjj #jiujitsu #midlifeathlete #recoveryprotocol #breathwork #icebath #masterdivision

#grappling #hardtokill #stayonthemats #staydangerous #ancestralhealth #coldplunge

#morningroutine #sleepoptimization #vagnerrocha #stopkillingtheplants

In this episode, Josh Button and Dustin Lebel discuss the unique challenges faced by midlife combat athletes, particularly in jiu-jitsu. They explore sustainable training methods, the importance of recovery, and how to effectively manage conditioning and strength training. Dustin shares insights on creating a balanced training program that accommodates the demands of life while maximizing performance on the mats. The conversation also touches on breathwork techniques and their benefits for recovery and performance. Check out Dustins Free 8 week Conditioning program- Gassed to Ready and more about his coaching @dustinlebel on Instagram.

Takeaways:

Sustainable training is crucial for long-term success.

Midlife athletes need to manage recovery effectively.

Intensity in training elicits better adaptations.

Conditioning off the mats can improve jiu-jitsu performance.

A two-day strength program can be effective for busy athletes.

Recovery days are essential for overall health and performance.

Breathwork can aid in recovery and performance enhancement.

Understanding cardiovascular training is key for combat athletes.

Setting realistic expectations is important for midlife athletes.

Building strength should focus on maintaining progress as we age.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Midlife Combat Athletes

02:39 Sustainable Training Approaches

05:31 Managing Training Load and Recovery

08:30 Strength Training Myths Debunked

11:31 The Importance of Conditioning for Jiu Jitsu

14:06 Assessing and Improving Gas Tank

17:03 High-Intensity Interval Training Explained

19:53 Practical Applications of the Training Program

27:29 Psychological Challenges in Jiu-Jitsu Training

29:28 Maximizing Performance Through Conditioning

31:30 Sports-Specific Conditioning Techniques

33:25 Strength Training for Jiu-Jitsu Athletes

36:59 Recovery Strategies for Optimal Performance

42:38 Breathwork and Its Impact on Performance

48:19 Integrating Gi and No-Gi Training

In this episode of the Josh Button podcast, Dawson Church shares his transformative journey into the health and wellness space, driven by personal struggles and a quest for effective healing techniques. He discusses Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and tapping, emphasizing their effectiveness in treating trauma and PTSD. The conversation explores the importance of breathwork, meditation, and the innovative approach of Eco Meditation. Church highlights the balance between medication and natural healing, advocating for spiritual intelligence and the power of journaling and gratitude in personal growth. He concludes with insights on belief, passion, and the role of consciousness in creating a fulfilling life.  For Dawsons book visit: Spiritualintelligencebook.com and for a complimentary EFT Mini-manual visit Dawsongift.com and his website Eftuniverse.com 

Chapters

00:00 Dawson Church's Journey into Health and Wellness

03:01 The Science of Neurotransmitters and Natural Healing

05:49 Eco Meditation: A New Approach to Mindfulness

08:43 The Importance of Consistency in Meditation

11:45 Flow States and Physical Activities

14:24 Understanding Tapping and Its Benefits

17:39 Tapping Techniques for Stress Relief

20:20 Medication and Emotional Self-Management

23:24 Integrating Spiritual Intelligence into Healing

29:42 Cultivating Spiritual Intelligence

32:11 The Power of Journaling

34:57 Harnessing Gratitude for Growth

38:37 The Role of Belief and Passion

41:36 Affirmations and Mantras: Finding Passion

44:36 Navigating Change and Surrender

49:28 Creating Heaven on Earth

EFT, tapping, emotional freedom techniques, meditation, breathwork, spiritual intelligence, journaling, gratitude, mental health, wellness, immunity, immune system, energy, podcast, the josh button podcast, dawson church, josh button, coach, trauma, health, wealth, prosperity, guide, freedom, natural, stress, solutions, phd, author, scientist, visionary, scholar, bliss brain, ptsd, mind to matter, energy psychology

In this conversation, Wesley Mason shares his extensive journey in the health and wellness field, starting from his early interest in the human body to his experiences in massage therapy and holistic psychology. He discusses the limitations of allopathic medicine and emphasizes the importance of understanding the human body and its natural healing processes. The conversation also touches on parenting choices regarding vaccinations, the challenges within the education system, and the political aspects of health. Wesley highlights the significance of holistic psychology and personal empowerment, encouraging individuals to take charge of their health and well-being through informed choices. Follow Kennon @kennonwesleymason and check out his show on YouTube @thekennetichour

In this conversation, Josh Button interviews psychologist Faust Ruggiero, who discusses the significance of self-talk and inner dialogue in mental health. Ruggiero emphasizes the importance of recognizing and managing our inner dialogue, particularly in the context of emotions, competition, and modern life challenges. He explores how technology, dependency on medications, and societal pressures influence our mental well-being. Ruggiero advocates for a balanced approach to mental health, focusing on lifestyle changes and conscious thought processes rather than quick fixes. He also addresses the impact of authority and propaganda on public perception and behavior, urging listeners to critically evaluate the information they consume.

For more on Faust, the Fix Yourself Handbook series, and his practice please visit www.faustruggiero.com and his IG @faustinspire