I’m a Trainer, and I Trained Like Joe Rogan for 30 Days – My Body Changed in Ways I Never Expected

Joe Rogan is a functional fitness buff and martial arts enthusiast, so I wasn’t surprised that his fitness routine is as well-rounded as it comes. From bodyweight circuits and yoga to kettlebells and bag work, Rogan’s intense workouts put me through hell for 30 days, but I have to say, it has been a while since I felt this good.

Now that the month has passed and I’ve gone through it all, I thought it might be a good idea to share my experience. Who knows? Maybe one of you will decide to give it a go, and you can tell me how you felt, too.

Joe Rogan’s Intense Workout Split — What I Did For 30 Days

Rogan rarely talks about his workouts in great detail. We know he likes bodyweight work and kettlebells and that he still trains jiu-jitsu regularly, but that’s about it. However, back in September last year, he outlined a really good portion of this daily workout when he talked with Michael Easter, so I based my Rogan-inspired training routine on that conversation, plus a ton of other little excerpts from various podcasts over the years.

Here’s how it all looked.

Warm Up & Cool Down

The most dreadful thing about Rogan’s warm-up routine is that he starts every workout with a cold plunge. He spends three minutes in icy water, which sets him up for the day and helps him start his workouts with a ton of energy.

While research shows cold plunges can be beneficial, I don’t like them a lot (1). Also, I don’t have a cold plunge at home, and taking a cold bath and then leaving for the gym didn’t make much sense to me, so I did the next best thing. I took cold showers in the gym.

After the shower, which felt horrendous (but unbelievably energizing) every single time, I’d quickly dry off, get dressed, and start Rogan’s warm-up routine, which consists of:

• 100 push-ups
• 100 squats

I would perform five sets of 20 for both exercises. I’d do regular push-ups, which were nothing fancy, and since Rogan does his squats standing on the slant board, I would put plates under my heels. I liked this a lot because it allowed me to achieve depth while staying stable.

After that intense warm-up, I’d start the workout, which would be either a kettlebell routine or a bodyweight circuit.

After working out, Rogan cools down by going into the sauna for 20 minutes. Thankfully, my gym has a mini sauna in the locker room, so this was quite easy.

Bodyweight Circuit

Rogan is a big fan of bodyweight workouts and performs 20 reps per set, so that’s what I did, too:

Here’s his full-body split:

Exercise	Sets & Reps
Nordic curls	3 sets 6 reps
Chip-ups	5 sets 10 reps
Dips	5 sets 20 reps
L-Chin-ups	5 sets 10 reps
Decline sit-ups	5 sets 20 reps
Back extensions	5 sets 20 reps
Reverse hypers	5 sets 20 reps

This bodyweight circuit hits hard. My arms, back, and core would be extremely tired by the time I got to a fourth set, so I often had to cut the reps to finish the circuit.

I would perform the bodyweight workout twice weekly, and for the other two workouts, I’d do a kettlebell routine.

Kettlebell Routine

Rogan hasn’t explicitly detailed his kettlebell routine; his discussions with kettlebell expert Pavel Tsatsouline inspired the program I’ve put together. Check it out:

Exercise	Sets, Reps, and Rounds
Kettlebell Swings	10 rounds, one-minute round
Kettlebell Goblet Squats	5 sets, 10 reps
Kettlebell Clean and Press	5 sets, 10 reps
Kettlebell Halo	3 rounds, one-minute round (30 sec. per direction)
Kettlebell Push-Up to Renegade Row	5 sets, 10 reps
Kettlebell Russian Twists	5 sets, 10 reps

I suspect Rogan might do a lot more, as he’s all about volume from what I can tell, but this routine broke me every single time. I haven’t used kettlebells in a while, and going back to some of these exercises after several years made a big difference after 30 days, but more on that later.

Cardio

I really liked Rogan’s cardio training approach, so I dedicated two full days to it. Also, performing his Echo bike cardio session after a full-body workout seemed downright impossible.

Anyway, Rogan loves his intense cardio sessions. He also enjoys slow-paced, endurance-focused sessions, so on Wednesdays, I did his weighted vest treadmill workout and saved the assault bike for Saturday.

The treadmill session was dreadful. I’d put on a weighted vest, set the incline to 20 degrees (because that’s as far as it goes in my gym), speed to 2.5 mph, play a podcast, and just walk for an hour. By the 40th minute, my calves and glutes would burn so much that I couldn’t focus on anything but the pain. It was excruciating.

The assault bike session was even worse. I did eight rounds of 20 seconds of intense cycling, followed by a 10-second rest. Once I was done with that, I waited until my heart rate dropped to 100, and then I did it again.

Rogan says he does four to five rounds of four-minute-long Tabata intervals after a workout. If it’s cardio-only that day, he’ll do ten rounds. I only managed to do six rounds once, even though I was fully rested, so big props to Rogan.

Finally, Rogan is also big on rucking, mostly as a prep for his hunting expeditions. However, I wasn’t rucking during these 30 days. Thankfully, the weighted vest cardio session is quite similar to rucking. The view isn’t as nice, the air isn’t fresh, but the burn is real.

Yoga

As you might expect, intense cardio and daily workouts aren’t everything Rogan does. He also occasionally does 90 minutes of hot yoga, so I wanted to do that. However, it didn’t make sense for me to join a yoga studio for a single weekly session, so I just did 30 minutes of regular yoga in my apartment every Sunday morning.

As a complete beginner, I stuck to beginner-friendly yoga poses, which felt great. Sunday was my day off, and doing yoga to start my day was a great decision. It was probably the best form of active recovery I could ask for after my week of Rogan-style training.

Why Do Hot Yoga — Joe Rogan Explains

The benefits of yoga are well-known and well-documented. However, nothing beats hearing about the benefits from Rogan himself.

“Out of all the exercises I do, yoga is the one where after I’m done, I always think “I gotta do more of this s***.”

Ninety minutes of hot yoga does more than work out my body; it purges my mind of stupid thoughts. The brutal intensity of holding challenging poses in 104-degree heat forces you to live in the moment, and the last 20 minutes are a massive struggle to avoid giving in to desperation. After 70 f****** minutes of sweat and strain, when you look up at the clock and see there’s still 20 minutes to go, you’ve got to put yourself in survival mode to get through. The physical benefits are amazing, too. When I do it regularly, my body is much limber, and I feel much less tension in my back.

It strengthens things in a very unique way and maximizes my range of motion and flexibility like nothing else I do.

It also feels like it “ties together” all the other s*** I do. All the different kinds of working out, whether it’s kettlebells or martial arts or hill running — they all have their own benefits, but yoga feels like it ties all those benefits together and strengthens all the loose ends.”

Martial Arts (MMA)

Rogan is an elite martial artist. He was the US Open Championship taekwondo tournament winner in his youth. Rogan also won four consecutive state championships in full-contact taekwondo after that. He’s a black belt in both taekwondo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which he trains to this day.

I wanted to try BJJ during this 30-day challenge, but I didn’t have the time. Instead, I did some bag work and practiced kicks after the weekly workouts, which was a fun way to end the session.

Read also: Joe Rogan Workout Program and Diet Plan

What Are My Impressions of Joe Rogan’s Training Regimen?

After doing all of this for 30 days, I have to say I like Rogan’s approach to fitness and physical health. For a man well into his 50s, he’s in tremendous shape. While he’s been open about his TRT and peptide usage, Rogan was always jacked, and his training has played a massive part in all of it.

I appreciate Rogan’s approach to fitness and his dedication to intensity. Everything he does is through the roof, whether we’re talking about the number of reps or the duration and intensity of his cardio sessions. Also, hot yoga for 90 minutes? Insanely demanding.

I have never felt more tired than during this 30-day challenge. While the exercises don’t appear as demanding on paper, the sheer volume and intensity really get to you. I would be drenched in sweat during the assault bike Tabatas. On some days, those 100 chin-ups and 100 squats felt less like a warm-up and more like a complete workout.

However, as someone who also appreciates explosive and intense workouts and training for peak performance rather than hypertrophy, his workouts aligned with me quite well. I’ll continue doing some of the things I did for the past 30 days.

What Are The Best Things About Joe Rogan’s Workout?

There are so many things I could talk about here, but the three things that stand out to me the most are:

It Is So Versatile

Rogan works out with kettlebells, is no stranger to weightlifting, does bodyweight exercises, practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu, runs, sprints, goes rucking, and, on top of it all, he also does hot yoga. That is about as versatile as one man could get.

You can’t possibly end up bored if you decide to try Rogan’s workout and adopt his training philosophy. It’s impossible. One day, you’ll do some bodyweight exercises; the next day, you’ll go running and rucking; and on day three, you’ll wrestle with someone in an octagon, hoping to get him in an arm bar. Seems awfully fun to me.

But being “fun” isn’t what’s great about this. What’s great about a versatile approach like this is that it builds your body from the ground up on all fronts. You build strength, endurance, and muscle and lose a ton of weight.

Recovery Is a Big Deal

Rogan is a proponent of cold plunges and saunas.

Cold plunges have been known to be extremely useful for athletes. They help alleviate muscle soreness, speed up recovery, and reduce inflammation. Sauna, too, helps with soreness, recovery, cardiovascular health, weight loss, and so many other things.

Of course, sleep is the key factor when talking about recovery, and according to Rogan, he gets seven to nine hours each night unless he has a show to do, in which case he sleeps really late and for only a few hours.

It Trains Your Mind and Your Body

Rogan’s workouts aren’t just about looking good. While his commitment to physical health is undeniable, the intensity of his training goes deeper, forging a mental resilience that’s just as impressive.

Every single part of Rogan’s workout routine is designed to make you quit before you finish it. Freezing cold plunges, extremely hot saunas, 100 reps, 40-minute high-intensity cardio sessions, 90-minute hot yoga, and two-hour long “up-the-hill” walks with a weighted vest — all of those things will break your spirit before they break your body. But if you persevere, you’ll feel like a million bucks!

Wrapping Up

These 30 days were tough, but they were fun. It has been a while since I was this focused on bodyweight workouts and cardio sessions, so this experience was as refreshing as it was gruesome.

Despite being nearly 30 years younger than Rogan, I couldn’t do everything he says he does, and if that doesn’t speak to how far you can come with this workout routine, nothing does.

Will I keep doing everything I did for the past 30 days? No. Will I do most of the stuff? Yes, especially yoga and kettlebells. And honestly, you should do it, too.

References:

1. Esperland D, de Weerd L, Mercer JB. Health effects of voluntary exposure to cold water – a continuing subject of debate. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2022 Dec;81(1):2111789. doi: 10.1080/22423982.2022.2111789. PMID: 36137565; PMCID: PMC9518606.

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