#179 – Georges St-Pierre: The Science of Fighting

The greatest fighter in the history of.

UFC and MMA, but even more than that, one of the greatest martial artists ever. Quick mention of our sponsors all form ExpressVPn, Blinkist, Theragun and the information. Check them out in the description to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say that getting the chance to hang out with George, talk to him on the podcast, record a quick self defense video that I'll release soon. All while both of us wearing suits was one of the most memorable days of my life. In setting all this up, I talked to Joe Rogan and originally we couldn't.

Schedule a chat with him and George.

On the JRE, which allowed me to pretend for a brief time that George came down to Austin just to see me. Who the hell am I? In truth, him and Joe probably conspired to make me feel special, but that's the point. It's inspiring to see George and Joe, who are at the top of their field, treat others as equals, as human beings, no matter who they are. Even silly Russians in a suit. Meeting George was an honor for me, beyond words, as usual. I'll do a few minutes of ads now, no ads in the middle. I try to make these interesting, but I give you timestamps so you can skip. But still please check out the sponsors in the description. It really is the best way to support this podcast. I'm really fortunate to be able to be very selective with the sponsors we take on, so hopefully if you buy their stuff, and you should, you'll find value in it, just as I have. Speaking of which, this show is sponsored by a new sponsor called all Form a furniture company. They're new in terms of reeds, but I've been using them for a long time. They ship to your home quickly, take it back for free if you don't like it. In the first hundred days, it's easy to assemble, looks beautiful and classy, so of course I like it, but it also just feels amazing. In fact, before all the sponsorship stuff, I had their love seat that I recently released a conversation with Michael Malice and Yaron Brooke. But the previous conversation with Michael Malice, I got to hang out with him on that love seat for a few hours after our know, there's something about a love seat that forces you to commit to this journey you're on with the other person. Like, we're going to be in this together. Armchair is like wolf pack of one, and then a couch is like, well.

I'm not sure I'm going to commit yet.

I'm just here to have some fun and to explore possibilities, relationships, love seat says we're in this ride or die.

Let's go.

So choose wisely which one you want. Anyway, go to allform.com lex. They're offering 20% off all orders if you go to allform.com lex. This show is sponsored by ExprsVpN. I use it to help keep my data and online interactions private. Much more private than when you use incognito mode.

I'm looking at you.

Internet incognito is not protecting you. It's funny, there are some tools that just kind of make us feel secure, and there are some tools that actually increase our security and privacy. I think a good tool should do both. And I think a big part of that, which not many tech companies are doing, is transparency. I believe that using people's data isn't the fundamental violation privacy. I think a lack of clear transparency about the use of data is the violation. Therefore, I think the first step in fixing privacy on the Internet is being transparent about it. I can talk about that for hours.

This is just an ad read for ExpressVPN, so I'll just shut up.

Anyway, go to expressvpn.com slash Lexpod to get an extra three months free. That's expressvpn.com Slash Lexpod, one of my favorite tools. Get it. Hopefully you'll enjoy too. This episode is supported by Blinkist, my favorite app for learning new things. Blinkist takes the key ideas from thousands of nonfiction books and condenses them down into just 15 minutes that you can read or listen to. I think reading stuff on screen or on paper is essential to do every single day. And Daniel Kahneman has the idea of.

Thinking fast and thinking slow.

I think there should be a concept of reading fast and reading slow. I think Blinkist is really great for reading fast, so giving you a shallow understanding of the landscape of knowledge out there, I think it's really important to do, because there's not enough time to do that kind of deep reading on everything. And at the same time, you also should be doing slow reading, which is just going very carefully, very slowly through particular books or blogs or even tweets, to be honest, giving ideas a chance to breathe in your mind and develop thoughts onto those ideas and let them sort of flourish, kind of date, or have a relationship with a book for many months. Anyway, go to blinkist.com lex to start your free seven day trial and get 25% off a Blinkist premium membership. That's blinkist.com lex. This show is also sponsored by Theragun, a handheld percussive therapy device that I use after workouts for muscle recovery. Mentioning theragun and every time I see it in my room reminds me of the previous summer where I had to.

Do the insane amount of push ups.

And pull ups and really ask myself some difficult questions about what I am.

And I'm not willing to do in.

The physical domain, but also in the mental domain. I actually think physical exercise is the easiest way to allow you to explore your own limits. I think sometimes it's almost more dangerous to explore the limits of your mind in the intellectual domain, in the thinking domain. Nietzsche talks about this with the gazing into the abyss. Anyway, when you bring up Nietzsche in.

An ad read, you know you've gone too far.

Theragun Friends is surprisingly quiet, easy to use, comes with a great app that guides you through everything you need to know. You can try for 30 days. The Theragun gen four with the OLED display. It starts at $199. Go to theragun.com lex. That's Theragun comlex. Oh, and by the way, about a podcast with David Goggins for people who haven't been paying attention. I got injured, so we delayed the crazy challenge we're going to do together and the awesome podcast we're going to do together. I'm sure we're going to do that maybe in May and June, that kind of thing. Maybe.

I'm coming up with excuses to delay.

It a little bit, but trust me, it's going to happen. This show is also sponsored by the information they do in depth, data driven, investigative journalism in the world of technology.

They are actually the first people that.

Made me realize that good journalism costs money. A few years ago when I signed up, I was actually broke, but it was worth it. It's funny, maybe actually part of it is when you pay for stuff, you.

Really take it seriously, but at the.

Same time, you have to pay for that kind of long term deep dives that journalists have to do. I don't always agree with what they write in there, but I always learn a lot. That's what journalism is supposed to do anyway. Get 75% off your first month if you sign up@theinformation.com. Lex that's theinformation.com lex. Beyond just the content, I see it as a good way of supporting in depth journalism.

I hope you do as well.

This is the Lex Friedman podcast, and here is my conversation with my longtime martial arts hero and now my friend, Mr. George St. Pierre.

In your fighting career, were you more motivated by the love of winning or the fear and hatred of losing?

I like to win better than I hate to lose because if it would not have been the case, I would never have fought in the first place because I don't like to fight at all.

But you talked about the anxiety, the fear that you experienced leading up to a fight. So to you, ultimately, the reason to go through that difficult process is because it feels damn good to have your hand raised.

There is that. There is also the fact that martial art had been introduced when I was very young, and it's probably the best thing I can do in my life. Fighting. That's what I do best. Also, it provides me of freedom, of access, of things that most of people do not have. But all that as a price. And a lot of money. I made a lot of money. Of course, with it, I was maybe predisposed with certain abilities. I met incredible mentors through all my life. I worked really hard, and of course, I had a lot of chances. The stars were all aligned. And in order to keep those advantages of freedom, money and glory and access of things that most people don't have and have these dream life that I have, I had to sacrifice myself and fight in order to keep it. It's very hard to understand because I also believe