Joe Rogan Experience #1166 - Diamond Dallas Page
Joe Rogan (host), Diamond Dallas Page (guest), Young Jamie Vernon (guest), Young Jamie Vernon (guest), Young Jamie Vernon (guest), Diamond Dallas Page (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Diamond Dallas Page, Joe Rogan Experience #1166 - Diamond Dallas Page explores diamond Dallas Page On Reinventing Wrestling, Healing Pain, And Owning Mindset Diamond Dallas Page explains how severe spinal damage and doctors’ predictions of retirement led him to create DDPY, a strength-focused, yoga-based system that restored his career and mobility. He and Joe Rogan discuss the physical toll of pro wrestling, the importance of mobility and core strength, and how DDPY differs from traditional yoga through dynamic resistance and constant time-under-tension. Page highlights dramatic transformations, especially disabled veteran Arthur Boorman, to illustrate the power of combining movement, nutrition, and mindset change. They also explore diet (anti-inflammatory, largely gluten/dairy-free), recovery technologies like hyperbaric chambers, and Page’s philosophy of “owning it,” which underpins his upcoming book and broader mission.
Diamond Dallas Page On Reinventing Wrestling, Healing Pain, And Owning Mindset
Diamond Dallas Page explains how severe spinal damage and doctors’ predictions of retirement led him to create DDPY, a strength-focused, yoga-based system that restored his career and mobility. He and Joe Rogan discuss the physical toll of pro wrestling, the importance of mobility and core strength, and how DDPY differs from traditional yoga through dynamic resistance and constant time-under-tension. Page highlights dramatic transformations, especially disabled veteran Arthur Boorman, to illustrate the power of combining movement, nutrition, and mindset change. They also explore diet (anti-inflammatory, largely gluten/dairy-free), recovery technologies like hyperbaric chambers, and Page’s philosophy of “owning it,” which underpins his upcoming book and broader mission.
Key Takeaways
Pain and degeneration aren’t automatic sentences if you change how you move.
Page went from bone-on-bone L4/L5 with three spine specialists telling him he’d never wrestle again to returning to the ring and winning the world title by systematically combining yoga positions, rehab drills, and slow, dynamic-resistance strength work (DDPY).
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Dynamic resistance and time-under-tension can turn low-impact exercise into serious training.
By flexing muscles hard through each range of motion, slowing reps, and integrating movements like push-ups, squats, and lunges into yoga flows, DDPY elevates heart rate and builds intense strength and core stability without heavy weights.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Massive physical change is possible even for the severely limited.
Disabled vet Arthur Boorman went from canes, back and knee braces, and being told he’d never walk unassisted to losing 140 pounds in 10 months, discarding all braces, and running—proving that incremental daily effort, even starting in bed or a chair, can completely change capacity.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Diet-driven inflammation is a major, controllable driver of chronic pain.
Page emphasizes removing or sharply reducing gluten, dairy, excess sugar, and heavily processed foods in favor of “what your great-grandparents called food”—organic, minimally processed ingredients—which he says dramatically reduced pain for him, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Scott Hall, and many clients.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Mindset and inner dialogue are the real leverage behind workouts and diets.
Page argues that training and nutrition are only about 10% of the equation; the other 90% is the “six inches between your ears”—replacing defeatist stories (“I can’t”) with empowering ones (“I can do this”) and rehearsing success before big moments.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Programs must meet people where they are to eliminate excuses.
DDPY is structured from bed-based routines to chair workouts to standing and advanced flows, plus app-based tracking and modification options, so people at any level—from wheelchair users to pro athletes—have an on-ramp and can’t hide behind “I’m too beat up” as an excuse.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Recovery tools and habits compound performance and longevity.
From early adoption of icing and cryotherapy to hyperbaric chambers and daily mobility sessions, Page shows that consistent recovery practices let you maintain high function (e. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“If you say you can or you say you can’t, you’re right.”
— Diamond Dallas Page
“They told me my career was over at 42. At 43, I was world champion.”
— Diamond Dallas Page
“You can’t fake gravity.”
— Diamond Dallas Page
“I don’t want you to do it. I want you to own it.”
— Diamond Dallas Page
“The way you think about things is so important. It’s almost more important than the facts.”
— Joe Rogan
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much of DDPY’s results come from the specific exercises versus the mindset and community built around them?
Diamond Dallas Page explains how severe spinal damage and doctors’ predictions of retirement led him to create DDPY, a strength-focused, yoga-based system that restored his career and mobility. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Could DDPY or similar dynamic-resistance approaches be systematically integrated into youth sports to prevent long-term joint and spine damage?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What objective medical imaging or data would we see if Page re-scanned his spine today, given his reported function with bone-on-bone levels?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where’s the line between helpful dietary restriction (like gluten-free) and unnecessary dogma, and how should people test what actually helps their pain?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can mainstream fitness culture better reach the people Page calls ‘those who have nobody’—the severely deconditioned, addicted, or injured—without intimidating them?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
Four, three, two, one. (clapperboard snaps) Mr. Page-
(laughs)
... how are you?
I never had a bad day in my life.
Ever?
Oh, I've had plenty of bad moments. (laughs)
Bad moments, but you recovered.
Yeah. You know, um, to me, it's all your state of mind, period. And I don't stay there. If I go down, I get back up.
If you're gonna chew that-
Don't do it.
... people are gonna go fucking crazy.
(laughs)
(laughs) I put one of those in my mouth the other day-
(laughs)
... and I got like 150 comments 'cause I had a sore throat.
Oh.
Sorry. (laughs)
Well, I got, I got the throat coat, so. (laughs)
Throat coat. Yeah. Um, listen, man, first of all, I love what you're doing.
Thank you.
I really do. I think it's fantastic, and I'm a, a big fan of yoga. And what you've done for not just... What you've done is made yoga available to people that thought that yoga was for chicks.
Right. And, and, and I, I've, I, you know, now, it's really funny you say that because how it started, it was yoga for regular, it was regular people, you know, regular guys.
Yeah, w-
I made it for guys.
People think of yoga as being something that, like, you have to be into, you know, you gotta be all namaste-
Right.
... and sp- And you hear Dallas Diamond Page. What the fuck? Huh? How-
(laughs) Or Diamond Dallas Page.
Either one.
(laughs)
But you-
(laughs)
How... You know, you're this giant pro wrestler guy, like, you're into yoga? And you're really, really into it. I mean, you've got your own system of yoga. I mean, this is, for, for something that I think is, like, very important for body maintenance and for keeping your, your spine healthy and mobility, which is one of the things that a lot of us ignore-
Right.
... especially big guys who like to lift weights and-
Sure.
... do a lot of crazy shit.
I was a meathead. You gotta understand, Joe-
Yeah.
... I'm, I'm the guy who wouldn't be caught dead doing yoga the first 42 years of my life. But I didn't start wrestling until I was 35.
Really?
Really. And my career didn't take off until I was 40.
How old are you now?
62.
Dude, if you, if you folks saw what he just did with no warmup. No warmup, bent over, grabbed your ankles, fully, fully flattened your body out, pressed your body up against your thighs, with no warmup. Then he picks his knee, his ankle up and fully extends his leg over his head. I mean, that i- that is incredibly impressive for a 20-year-old person.
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome