Podcast Summary | Bert Sorin on The Joe Rogan Experience

High-Level Overview

Joe Rogan sits down with Bert Sorin, president and co-founder of Sorinex Exercise Equipment, former elite hammer thrower and avid hunter, who has just delivered a new rotational power machine called the X-Factor to Rogan's studio gym. What follows is a long, rambling conversation between two strength-obsessed friends: why power matters for fighters, the history of Scottish stones and throwing, jiu-jitsu drilling and flow states, bowhunting gear and heavy bows, injuries and recovery, Westside Barbell legend Louie Simmons, and a blood clot that nearly killed Sorin and changed how he lives.

The tone is loud, funny and profane, full of gym stories, hunting talk and cooking tips, but it turns genuinely thoughtful when the two discuss online hate, how to disagree without dismissing people, mob mentality, and the choice between chasing greatness down a rabbit hole or living a balanced life of being very good at several things. The conversation swings between training science, adventure stories, cultural commentary and personal philosophy.

The Discussion Explores:

• The X-Factor machine and the case for strength and rotational power in striking and grappling
• Hammer throwing, Highland games and the history of Scotland's stones of strength
• Jiu-jitsu drilling, flow states and why technique learned from small people is sharpest
• Bowhunting equipment, heavy bows and the argument against glorifying weakness
• Injuries, ACL grafts, peptides, stem cells and electrical muscle stimulation
• Louie Simmons, Westside Barbell and seeing people for what they can become
• Online hate, candid-and-curious conversation, mob mentality and 2020
• Sorin's near-fatal blood clot and the choice between the rabbit hole and the 90% life

Deep Dive into Main Ideas

Strength, Power and the X-Factor

Sorin explains that the X-Factor came from a Sorinex series that remasters old, forgotten equipment designs, keeping what was good and fixing what was awkward or unsafe. After about eight iterations, the double axis became the key, letting a user push and pull at the same time while stabilizing through the core in all three planes of motion. Rogan calls it a genius idea for striking sports, since power comes from the ground through the core into the arms or feet, and Sorin notes that colleges and shot put champion Ryan Crouser were quickly interested.

Both men recall the old martial arts dogma that lifting weights would make fighters slow and tight. Rogan remembers thinking in the 1990s that Evander Holyfield was making a mistake when he started lifting with Mackie Shilstone as he moved up to heavyweight, until Holyfield got jacked and became a legitimate heavyweight, though Rogan also suspects steroids were involved. Sorin cites his friend, strength coach Loren Landow, who found that a double-digit increase in ground force power translated to about a 12% increase in punching power. Rogan's caveat is that lifting only hurts a fighter if it leaves them too sore to train, steals time from technique or causes injury. He also argues that people who claim a lighter bow is just as good are really saying "there's virtue in being physically weak and that's stupid."

Hammer Throwing and Scotland's Stones

Sorin describes the hammer throw as a 16-pound steel ball on a wire roughly a meter long, and traces it to Scotland, where he says people barred from carrying weapons trained with hammers and heavy stones. Each family had a clachneart, a stone of strength, and when a son out-threw his father he was recognized as a man. Men going to battle would add their stones to a cairn on the way out of town, so the piles left behind became monuments to those who never came home. Rogan describes a stone circle he saw in the Scottish Highlands, older than Stonehenge and simply sitting across the street from a house.

Sorin recounts lifting the Inver Stone, around 265 pounds and kept in an elderly woman's garden, while he was in Scotland with the US Highland games team; she invited the team in for tea and to sign a guest book that included strongman Bill Kazmaier, who reportedly carried the stone into a pub and chipped the bar. As throwers, Sorin jokes, their motto was to rest whenever possible and then do something very hard and very fast for three seconds, which is why he ignored Greg Glassman's advice to add cardio. Rogan shares his own golden rule: "I don't take advice from anybody. Looks like shit."

Drilling, Flow and the Jiu-Jitsu Mindset

Both men have experienced time slowing down during high-stakes moments. Sorin, citing the book The Rise of Superman, says the arrow seems to move slowly when he shoots at an animal. Rogan finds that state in jiu-jitsu, where submissions happen almost before he knows it, and says it only comes after thousands of hours of drilling with a little resistance, some speed and real intention. He passes on Eddie Bravo's analogy that techniques become like tying your shoes, and holds up Gordon Ryan, who trains 365 days a year and studies constantly, as proof that talent plus work ethic plus technique is nearly impossible to catch.

Rogan warns that big, strong grapplers often never develop a guard because they can always push smaller people onto their backs, and adds that "small guy jiu jitsu is the best jiu jitsu" because small instructors must rely on leverage and precision. He argues that striking is best learned young, citing Floyd Mayweather's encyclopedic reflexes and how hard it is to teach adult fighters spinning kicks, with Jon Jones and Alex Pereira as rare exceptions; Sorin suggests Pereira's work hammering tires and Francis Ngannou's childhood labor in a sand mine built their rotational power. The two also discuss Ngannou's journey from Cameroon, Rogan's heavyweight Mount Rushmore with a prime Mike Tyson as the one fixed face, Henry Cooper's knockdown of Cassius Clay, and why the UFC throws fighters in with the lions while boxing builds records carefully.

Bowhunting Tools and Heavy Bows

Rogan explains that he pulls 84- and 90-pound bows about 100 times a day and practices at 84 yards so he can be fully confident in a 70-yard shot at a bull elk, an obsession that gave him lower back trouble he is now treating with electrical muscle stimulation training. He praises the Leupold rangefinder that shows the arc of an arrow through a gap in the trees, and says image-stabilized binoculars let him run higher magnification. Sorin, who tested an onX-linked rangefinder that marks an animal's location, once came back the next day to shoot a mule deer at 14 yards. They share Remi Warren's trick of bracing binoculars against a clamped-down cap or a bow to steady them.

Rogan calls Cam Hanes his bowhunting mentor and says Hanes' philosophy is to shoot the most powerful setup you can handle to make a clean, fast kill. Sorin admits tree stands drive him crazy, and they compare traditional archers, whom Sorin says are either weirdos or absolute killers, with compound shooters. Rogan also recalls an unforgiving 95-pound bow with 540-grain arrows that was so flat-shooting it startled other archers, until he switched to a more accurate 80-pound Hoyt.

Injuries and Recovery

Rogan describes two knee surgeries, including an early patellar tendon ACL graft that took about a year to trust and a later cadaver Achilles graft, which he recommends people at least consider because the body gradually replaces the donor tissue, though it stays vulnerable for about six months. He says his surgeon once told him to stop martial arts, and he refused. Sorin had the same attitude when he tore a knee at 22 with Olympic trials two years away.

They discuss BPC-157 and TB-500 as a combination friends have used after tendon reattachments, and Rogan argues some orthopedic surgeons resist new approaches out of ego, recalling how Aaron Rodgers used stem cells against medical advice after his Achilles surgery and recovered faster than expected. Sorin notes that some podcasts carry more cutting-edge training information than many working strength coaches, pointing to Derek of More Plates More Dates as an example.

Louie Simmons and Seeing Potential

Sorin tells stories from Westside Barbell in 2002, including a drunk woman who wandered in off the street. Louie Simmons put two weight vests on her, had her pull a sled, then taught her speed box squats. When Sorin asked about her, Simmons said a couple of people in that room had been that person a year earlier, and that broken people with addictive tendencies might become world champions if they channeled it. Sorin says Simmons, like his own father, taught him to "look for something not of what it is but what it can be."

Rogan connects this to people like Matt Brown who survived addiction and became some of the scariest fighters he knows, having found the good addiction of training. They talk about the suffer-more culture of wrestling, why wrestlers often have the best foundation in MMA because they decide where the fight happens, and the danger of tangling with a judo black belt when you are wearing a coat.

Online Hate, Conversation and Mob Mentality

Rogan says he stopped reading comments about himself years ago and that everything changed; friends who follow the same advice all say they feel better. Social media is not the problem, he argues, but engaging with anger or letting strangers' hate into your head is. Sorin describes the ideal as being "candid and curious," and adds that "the disagreement doesn't have to mean dismissal." Rogan says he tries to steelman people, lets them finish their thoughts, and wants to know whether someone is a real thinker or has adopted a package of ideas with an ideology.

They discuss how Rogan has learned to avoid being baited by passive-aggressive people, the idea that men wonder "am I good enough" while women ask "do you see me," and a high school party where a punch set off a brawl that spread like a disease. Rogan argues mob mentality is hardwired from ancient intergroup war and that 2020 showed how quickly it erupts without law and order, adding that COVID revealed how many people fold under pressure. He credits Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter with restoring a platform where people across the political spectrum can coexist, and they touch on the JFK files and the attempt on Trump's life.

The Blood Clot and the 90% Life

Sorin recounts an ankle injury that led to a blood clot from his knee to his hip. He kept competing and flying for months, icing, heating and massaging it, until a doctor finally diagnosed it; a smaller vein had grown to bypass the blockage. Later, his doctor told him he should not have survived. That scare ended his competitive career, because he realized he had sacrificed relationships and good judgment about his body to winning, and needed to grow up and think about his family and the people relying on his business.

He describes the choice between being a rabbit hole person, who forsakes everything to try to be the greatest and may still finish third, and a 90% person, who becomes better than most of the world at several passions and lives a balanced life. Rogan says the important thing is to know what you truly want, since you cannot beat an obsessed and talented person with one foot in, but that if you feel compelled to chase greatness you should go for it and know when to stop. Sorin recalls his mentor Judd Logan, who returned every five years to break age-group hammer records, and says he found his own line in Africa, happily hunting Cape buffalo whose meat and even guts fed a village, but declining a lion hunt. He adds that "the biggest part about being interesting is being interested."

Food, Fishing and Wild Game

The episode closes with plenty of food talk. Rogan explains that about 90% of his diet is meat and eggs, recommends people who eat meat try a month of carnivore eating, and sees no argument against fruit, saying the main thing is to cut out processed junk. They mention Shawn Baker thriving on an all-meat diet, Sorin's green dock light that draws striped bass every night, Guga Foods' buttermilk-marinated steak, reverse-searing wild game, Rogan's habit of eating cold elk with hot sauce, his Senor Lechuga hot sauce collaboration, and Sorin's flip-flop method of grilling a whole deer leg, carved in layers like a Brazilian steakhouse. Sorin says his eight-year-old son just shot his first wild pig, which they cooked for Thanksgiving.

Conclusion

This is a big-hearted, meandering conversation between two men who love training, hunting and hard things. Its practical lessons are clear: strength and power genuinely improve fighters and hunters, technique comes from thousands of intentional repetitions, and recovery science is moving faster than many practitioners. Its deeper lessons come from Louie Simmons' habit of seeing what people could become, from Rogan's advice to stop feeding on online hate and talk to people candidly and curiously, and from Sorin's brush with death, which taught him that chasing a single goal at any cost has a price. Whether you choose the rabbit hole or the 90% life, both agree, you need to know what you really want and when to stop.

This is a summary of "Bert Sorin on The Joe Rogan Experience" from The Joe Rogan Experience, giving you the GIST so you can decide if you want the REST.