Joe Rogan explains why athletes should be worried about sleep apnea

During his January 21 episode, UFC commentator and podcast king Joe Rogan discussed the dangers of sleep apnea for athletes with big muscles while talking with pro-strongman Rob Kearney. 

According to the CDC, one in three Americans don’t get enough rest, and one of the leading causes is sleep apnea, which is defined as a disorder when breathing starts and stops when sleeping.

While sitting down with strongman Rob Kearney, Joe Rogan and the strength builder discussed the health concern as one of the serious dangers that athletes face.

Joe Rogan discusses how sleeping disorders are a serious risk

During their discussion, Rogan asked Kearney if heart attacks were common among strongmen, after he admitted “passing out is a normal part of what we do” due to the intense strain from workouts.

“Well it makes sense after the f**king exertion. Does anybody have heart attacks?” he asked, to which the strongman replied with, “Not typically!” before getting on the subject of the sleep disorder. “Another thing is sleep apnea. Because the guys are so big that causes them a lot of stress on the heart.”

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“A previous coach of mine passed away in 2013 because of sleep apnea,” he told the podcast host. “Yeah it’s not good, it’s basically like not sleeping,” he replied, to which Kearney responded, “Yeah, and suffocating yourself. A lot of the guys at this level do, mainly because of their size.”

While Rogan has made it public before, he admitted to his guest that he suffers from the disorder as well. “Dude I have it! I have a fat tongue, and my neck when I lay back it closes off,” he said, while motioning his hands around his throat.

“Most football players have it. Most powerlifters have it,” he continued, to which Kearney agreed, stating “Once you get around that 300 pound body weight.”

Luckily the strongman explained that sleep apnea doesn’t seem to affect him despite his size, and said he felt he had “dodged a bullet” given how many athletes suffer it.

(Timestamp 03:10 for mobile users.)

This isn’t the first time the UFC commentator has spoken about sleep apnea either – during episode #1369 with guest Chris Ryan, he explained that he wears a mouth guard to stop his tongue from slipping back during sleep.

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Joe Rogan continues to be one of the most popular podcast hosts in the world, with over 3.6 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he discusses a wide variety of topics from politics to health issues.