Joe Rogan is widely recognized as a skilled practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He holds a black belt in BJJ under Jean Jacques Machado and has been training in the art for over two decades. Rogan is known for his technical expertise and his ability to break down complex BJJ concepts for UFC audiences as well as on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
He has also talked publicly about the physical toll that years of training and competing have taken on his body. Recently, Rogan said that MMA training has destroyed his back. He said that training in grappling caused most of these issues.
Rogan was talking to author Mark Greaney on the Joe Rogan Experience. During the episode, Greaney talked about his bulging disks, and Rogan shared his own set of back issues. He revealed how he ruined most of his posterior chain.
“My back is all f*cked up.”
“From the top of my neck, all the way down to my lower back.”
Rogan said that the neck is under a lot of strain while training grappling. He’s famous for pushing himself to the max and even taking PEDs.
“Have issues from Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu is the worst. Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. It’s like people are constantly shoving your neck into the ground.”
Rogan is a huge advocate of stem cell therapy instead of surgical repairs. He revealed last year that he used the treatment to fix up his knee.
“And this is what I do. I get the stem cells and feel pretty good after four weeks. Start crushing the bag again and then, you know, I kind of aggravated one more time.”
Before that, he once revealed that he fixed up his shoulder using stem cell shots.
“They used exosomes, and it was gone. The next MRI I have, the [shoulder] tear was gone…It just seals up.”
