The Shintaro Higashi Show - How to Deal With Injuries

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Judo and other grappling sports are tough on the body, and injuries are, unfortunately, almost inevitable. As a result, it's not only important to prevent injuries but also recover well from them. In this episode, Shintaro and Peter talk about their experience recovering from injuries such as Shintaro's recent MCL injury, and offer tips on how to recover from them quickly. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. It's been a long time. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about injuries. Injuries. How to deal with them. How do I diagnose them, right? Yes. I mean, I'm not going to diagnose anyone's injuries,

so don't send me pictures or videos from your training. It's like you fall down on the ground. I'm not a physician, right? And a lot of the times people think i know way too much more than uh right because it's like oh sensei like can you look at this can you look at that what do you think about that it's like that's the question for your doctor that's not a question for your sensei you know i'm here to teach you though not you know help you with your health issues right right so that goes first and foremost yeah some disclaimer i'm not a doctor either yeah your

wife's a doctor though my wife's a doctor but she's a dermatologist not a orthopedic surgeon so she could probably help me with these wrinkles on my forehead oh she's helping me with that a lot so yeah look how smooth your forehead is jesus you could have gotten it too yep yep that's good too. Yep, yep, not scared. So now, you have a recent injury, you told me. Yes. This is the motivation behind this episode. So what happened?

Yes. So I hurt my MCL. I tore my MCL. You tore it? Not too crazy. Yeah, I tore it. So this is the thing, right? You have to first distinguish whether you're hurt or you're injured. This is an injury because I couldn't just stand up and train through it i mean i did but like i couldn't do another round after that i couldn't come in the next day and walk it off and train again i couldn't do it right so this would be classified as an injury and you know

for all injuries considered it's pretty mild right because it's not like an acl tear or pcl tear or one of those guys which require surgery mcl is actually the easiest one out of all of them to treat because it heals on its own even a full tear oh okay do you know i don't know the what's the medial side that's the inside of the knee right lots of a lot of blood flow there yes and it's pretty common because if you take shots from the outside of the knee, generally the inside ligaments gets, you know, grade one sprain, grade two sprain, whatever it is, you know. So I took one of those. Yeah.

How'd you diagnose it, that it was a full tear? Well, first I immediately like, oh, shoot. I, you know, felt it right away. It popped. I was like, you know, I hope it wasn't an ACL. I hope, you know, whatever it is. And you kind of have this like, you think, you think you know it's something but there's also lots of feelings but i've torn my mcl before so it felt very familiar right but i wasn't certain i see yeah

and i brought over eugene who's my you know physical therapist he's also my cousin he was shaking the knee and doing all the diagnostic tests to see if it was a torn ACL, which he thought it wasn't. I see. Now, he can do that because he's a physical therapist. He's a doctor of physical therapy. Yeah. Yes. So what's your first thing is to go to the doctor.

And when you go to the doctor, they're not going to give you an MRI right away. They're going to give you an x-ray to rule out bone stuff. Okay. Yeah. And usually it goes x-ray you know they look at your x film they do some diagnostics and then they give you an mri that's generally how the process goes you know right you could go to the emergency room when you get an injury right like oh shoot i'm gonna go to the emergency room but they're not going to give you an mri right away

usually because the swelling and all this so They want you to wait a couple of days. Yeah. So even if you go to the ER, the first thing they're going to do is take an x-ray. They're going to stabilize it, put you on crutches, give you some ibuprofen, and send you home. That's generally sort of the protocol. So for me, in an injury like this, it's not like I

have a complete torn ACL or a broken leg. It wasn't like I went down screaming and it was like a complete torn acl or like a broken leg it wasn't like i went down like screaming and i was like i couldn't move it wasn't one of those guys i felt it bang i was like oh shoot and i finished around and it felt really bad and then i was like all right i'm done and then i walked off and i sat down and george was like yo you want to do another one i was like dude of course yeah yeah hurt. Of course. I was like, I'm hurt. And Giorgio was like, oh. Yeah. And Giorgio was like, oh, why are you avoiding me? I beat you. Yeah, he was like, you want to do another one?

I was like, I got hurt. I don't know if you saw me limping off, but I'm injured now. Yeah. Oh, and Giorgio did. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not like one of those things. It's not like a broken leg.

So immediately I knew it wasn't that severe. Okay. Could it have been a partial ACL tear? Maybe. But with my experience being around judo and doing lots of grappling sports and seeing this stuff, I knew it wasn't like, oh, man, I need to get an ACL repair. Right. Oh, man, I'm going to be out for six months. I knew right away it wasn't that.

That's a good point to emphasize because you've heard that before so you know how it feels and i did a drop on this guy maji from uh he's actually from cameroon or nigeria or something he moved to the united states he's trained in chicago i fought him at nationals i went for a drop in overtime and then i tore my mcl i see and then you know how it feels that's how you could kind of diagnose the injury and you also had help from like confirmation from eugene who is a professional but you know i've been through many knee stuff right now so it's like i know like what are the options right there's lcl pcl mcl acl so there's only four real ligaments going through there

then there's a kneecap and the patella tendon you you know, and the patella is the kneecap. And then it's like where that sits, you have meniscus in between, you have articulate cartilage behind the kneecap. So like, I kind of understand the anatomy, like in a general broad sense, because I've looked at it so many times, you know, and there's everything wrong with my knees period already, you know? Gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, uh, between that and the experience of it gosh yeah yeah so it's like uh between that and the experience of it you know it's like oh i get it i know what's going on here you know so then so that's the word of caution though for the beginners who might be listening to our podcast it's you know first you've never really you probably haven't really injured yourself like shintaro just did

and uh you probably don't really know how to differentiate between being hurt and being injured yeah if you're not used to pain at all and then you take a shot to the side of the leg and you're like ah and then it's a really scary thing right you know and people are like walking off don't be a baby about it but it's like if you've never experienced it it's scary right like if you ever put me in like a dark cave and say go exploring i will be petrified i would probably panic and be freaked out because i've never done it before it has nothing to do with like judo toughness it has everything to do with me being like claustrophobic yeah so like if you've never been injured in sport before you're going to be scared you know what i mean right but then how do you tell it's just sore muscle?

You know what? You can't really know when you're starting off. It's very, very – and some people have a high pain tolerance. Some people don't. Some people played contact sports before, so they're used to like, oh, man, something's going on. Or some people who spend a lot of time in the gym are used to like muscular soreness,

like DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness. So those people are familiar with that kind of discomfort. If you sat on the couch your whole life and you're an accountant or something, you're working a nine to five job and you've never done combat sports and you take a shot to the arm and you're like, oh, I think I broke my arm. It's like, which part? It's like, they can't even point to the part. They're like, here, like, is it the elbow? Is it the bicep? It's like, I broke my arm. It's like, which part? It's like, they can't even point to the part. They're like, here. Like, is it the elbow?

Is it the bicep? It's like, I don't know. Like, it's in the muscle. No clue. Right. So, you know, and nothing against those people. Like, they're new. They're not going to know.

Why would they know? They have no reason to know. So it's not fair to judge those guys. You know, you see it all the time. People go down like, ah, my hand. It's like, you know, know i quit being a baby people say but you shouldn't judge because you don't know you know they've never done combat sports before you've done combat sports most of your life right so it's different yeah it's a it's also another

thing is for big injuries i noticed that yeah you would imagine like oh if you're injured you tore you tear something you'll be writhing in pain rolling over the floor or whatever but sometimes they don't hurt like i remember when i tore my achilles completely off playing soccer didn't hurt at all i was a i was actually i i thought it felt like someone kicked me in the back of my leg and i was actually about to like argue with the guy like hey what's wrong with you why are you kicking me and then he was all like oh dude i didn't even touch you that's right then tore your achilles heel with zero contact zero contact and then i that's how it happens usually when you push off and i and it didn't hurt so i was about to walk it off and play

the match and i just couldn't stand up uh because i couldn't push put any pressure so that's i guess it just comes with experience a little but your body your body will tell you one way or the other so yeah you know it's it's okay to if you're in. Just tell people and don't judge. I've seen ACL tears where people go down screaming. We have to call the ambulance. We have to stop practice. Guy comes down the stairs and takes the guy out in a stretcher. I've seen that.

I've seen recently one of my guys, Joe, tore his ACL. He went down, got up to his feet, walked off to the side. He's like, I think I can walk out of here. He walked out of here and he was like, I think it's okay. And I was like, I don't know, man, go get it checked out. You got it checked out. The guy's like, yeah, you got a full ACL tear. You know, and he's going through it right now, recovering.

So you never know, you know, what kind. But like, if you get like a broken leg or like a crush fracture or one of those severe ones, like, you know, like you have a broken rib, it's sticking out. Like that's, you're not walking that off. Yeah. You know what I mean yeah exactly so yeah you one way or the other you know consult the your doctor you know yeah then get an x-ray talk to the doctor they're going to give you their opinion but

there's no way for anybody to know until that you get an mri right that's then you have to encounter you know the crushing claustrophobia you know knees not so bad because your head's out of the tube but if it's shoulder neck dude i don't know if i could go through that man i don't know if you want to scare people off the mri i don't have claustrophobia and i i'm fine with it was actually pretty chill for me when i got the mri so you want to know what's funny about this one my knees have been hurting lately so I got a double MRI for both knees. And then I went to the doctor and he gave a list of issues with

my knees. And then I was like, okay, whatever. Went to practice, tore my MCL, went back to the doctor. I was like, can I get another MRI for my right knee? And he's like, why? I was like, I think I tore my MCL. He's like, you're going to have to come in.

And he was like,'re gonna have to come in oh my god and he was like yeah it's torn yeah he should know better by now no is there a new doctor yeah new relatively new yeah i got a lot of stuff going on in my knees yeah yeah so all with all these injuries i've had a fair share of injuries you know i've I got, uh, gotten surgeries or a lot, whatever. But now I think, yeah, so you get your surgery or in now, or you're just,

uh, you've rested enough that now you're on the path of recovery. Yeah. Or, you know, now that's like a critical period. Cause you can't just sit around and no let the body do its thing you gotta look at it like an opportunity to get better you know what i mean right that's i've seen all the

best champions in the world who have been close to who've been injured you know you look at anybody on the international circuit like they're sitting out half the year you know on the injury reserve you know right it's what you do at that time that really makes or breaks a champ you know like for instance i hurt my mcl recently that was about two and a half weeks ago doubled down on the upper body so i'm doing an upper lower split now and when i have my upper body days i'm lifting heavy like i usually do right i probably increased volume there and on my lower body days i treat it more for you know know, rehabilitation stuff, PT stuff. And then I do more core work. I still go to training. I'm still engaged in the process. You know, I'm still learning and like looking into stuff. And actually it's kind of nice the last two weeks because I'm

not like, oh, I got to do a rounder here or train with that guy or work out with him or he's asked me to do a rounder. Maybe I should get some exercise tonight. I'm not thinking that way. or work out with him, or he's asked me to do a round, or maybe I should get some exercise tonight. I'm not thinking that way. I'm sitting there and watching and observing and learning and then really doubling down on sort of the intellectual side of judo. I get to watch my guys and say, oh, this guy did this that I'd never really seen

because I'm much more in focus that way because I don't have to work out. Right. In a way, you may come out of an injury better at judo you know i think so i think that's how it should be you know if you get your mcl hurt obviously like there's limitations you know if you have a broken leg right and you have bolts going through it to hold it together and you're on crutches and you can't walk you know stay home right that's okay like god bless you you know like hope you feel better soon, you know, stay home. That's okay. Like, God bless you, you know, like, hope you feel better soon.

But, you know, torn MCL, like, two weeks go by, you're, like, getting around, you're fine, like, walking's normal. You know, go to the dojo. You know what I mean? Right. Use that time to do push-ups on the side. You can get, you know, 100, 200 push-ups in. You can get a core workout in. You know, you could put on a gi, put a knee pad on over the gi pad.

Okay? I can't stress that enough. That's a visual cue for everybody. Hey, my knee is hurt. If you wear a knee brace underneath it, no one's going to see it. I usually do that, but that's interesting. It's not just for... Everybody does that.

They put a knee brace on. They say, I'm going to go light. Hey, can you, you know, I hurt my knee recently. There's nothing reminding the other person. You forget to say it. The other person forgets it. One shot to the knee, you're done. Right.

But if you're wearing a knee brace on top of the gi pant, first of all, it looks stupid. So everyone is like, everyone's looking at that. Yeah. And then you mention it once, everyone like oh yeah that's right he hurt his knee i see so between like that right now yes i have my knee brace on over my gi pad it looks dumb even we were just doing a little training earlier today some of my guys and like i put on a gi and i did like core and push-ups and like light drilling i was like let me drill on your light i was like look at this brace over my pant do not hit me there and they were like okay yeah fine you know so i see no you could do that you could do it like that that's my that's a way advice so focus on the more you

can focus on other body parts that are not hurt or injured. Yeah. And you can also focus more on the mental side of things, intellectual side of things. And if you want to train, there are some mitigation options for you to stay safe. Yeah.

And then the more engaged you are, right? Yeah. If you're hurt and you come to practice and I'm teaching something and you're sitting on the sidelines practice and i'm teaching something and you're sitting on the sidelines and watching it okay you're learning the lesson you're watching the

lesson and then you're watching everybody else do it some people are getting it some people aren't getting it why is this person not getting it why is that person doing it freaking amazing like what is the difference here who's getting it quick you can see who's a fast learner who's not a fast learner this person is doing something a little bit more different why is that working and because you're only learning through observation you can't do it right so you absorb from a different medium because usually it's like i show something they're trying it i'm trying it right okay and then it's like hey can you help me and depending on who your partner is that person's like no you're doing it wrong so like sometimes it's not

beneficial right right right so you get to learn from a whole new perspective and your mind is engaged with the activity the whole time so although you may not be able to hit that thing right away you know you take three weeks four weeks where you're just kind of absorbing it, absorbing it, absorbing it. And not only are you watching me do it once and learning it from the teacher, now you're watching everybody else do it over and over and over repetitively. And who's doing it good, who's looking bad, who is – especially if you're watching it from the third person and you see a brown belt that never actually did that technique before and is like mansplaining or coaching the other person who's one or two ranks below them. And it looks like they actually don't know what they're talking about. Like you could identify that pretty clearly if you're just sitting on the sidelines and watching. Right.

And then you could see who's getting it, who's not getting it. Therefore, it's like, like oh i'm marking that guy he listens he got it that's the training partner that i want so like you're sifting through all this information that would have been gone over your head because normally you're thinking about your body doing the actual move right now you're sort of vetting training partners and watching other people go through that learning process right right and your entire mode of learning is observation and then listening uh-huh right so that's a nice way and now you're engaged and now it's a whole different world and you get to go home and think about it and come back and then

you play these little mind games like how how can I incorporate this game into mine? And it's kind of a nice thing. I think it's actually a nice break from like, it's a mental break. It's like a mental reset. You know what I mean? You're supposed to come back sharper, I think. And you're supposed to come back benching heavier

or lifting heavier if you have a lower body injury. You know, I remember when I tore my pec and labrum on my shoulder, I ran a 10K. Then I ran a half marathon. Yeah. And I did body weight squats every day. My legs were really strong. You know? Nice.

I didn't know you ran a half. Don't look it up. It took me forever to do. I underestimated the half. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. I had to walk most of it. At least you did it though. It took like four hours.

I can't say that about myself. Then so. So that's. Yeah. So stay engaged. You can always stay engaged even when you're injured in different ways. Yeah. What if you can't even come to the dojo

like you're so like kind of uh homebound that's happened so that happens you know with like acl tear achilles heel tear yeah no more if there are people in the gym that been through it having those guys reach out or talk to them that's huge because we had an ACL tear recently within the last two months we had an ACL probably five or six months before and then we had a lot tears ACL completely separate from us so we had about three or four guys that have torn their ACL and like a one or two year span this guy Joe recently tore his ACL probably two months ago, he had a guy that went through it before who had a guy that's been through it probably eight months out,

and he also had Kevin Muhammad who's been out of an ACL thing probably about a year or two now. Oh, Kevin. I remember when he tore that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And his first time it was a partial ACL tear, and the second time it completely severed. Right.

Yeah, because he recovered but but not really and then he was kept going hard and then you know he took an osoto to the side of the knee and he was gone so he went through that um yeah seeking out people who have been it in it and if you're from a gyms you know your coach probably knows somebody that's been through a similar injury you know what helped me greatly when i had a concussion was reaching out to certain people who had big concussions right able to tell me like hey man it took me a while but you're gonna get back to normal i know those feelings or the ear ringing the ear ringing is the worst because it's like it drives you mad it's like at the middle of the night it's just freaking ringing it's like a phone

ringing in your head right and then i remember you had to like you have to keep your room so dark and like just by yourself was like a thing so it was like i had lights turned off and my ears were ringing and my head hurt and it was like when is this gonna go away when is this gonna go away right and every time i like turn on my phone to look it up like the lights would hurt my eyes uh-huh but like having a couple conversation who with guys who do mma who knocked out cold and who've taken you know concussions for a living oh gosh yeah those guys gave me good insight like hey man it's you're gonna get back to normal you know you probably won't be as smart or we from now on but you're gonna be fine and it gave me a lot of peace of mind and you, you know, like, they went through it. They're still training. I'm going to get through it.

Their mental support is critical, I think. It's a big one. It's huge. My most recent major injury was the Achilles tear. And I don't think anyone from the dojo actually had the same injury as I did. Achilles tear usually comes from, like, running sports, like, sprinting sports like soccer and basketball but anyways but still people reached out to me i know uh i remember when sam sam reached out and then like we were you know he's another doctor at the gym and we would just

chit chat and he'll give me he'll give me some encouraging words and that actually helped a lot because oh yeah keep your spirits up you know you can't wait for you to come back that kind of stuff is kind of nice you know and yeah important stuff yeah that's right so how was your recovery looking seems like it's going smoothly you're benching hard and yeah i knew you know mcl six to eight weeks they say now i always take two weeks off from whatever they tell me so i i think four to six weeks i'm already at the two and a half week mark so i know a week and a half from now i'm gonna be fine first week was tough obviously the first few days are tough because it's like oh man and you you get this overwhelming feeling like oh you know i can't

train oh man i yeah you can't really walk. And it's annoying and it's so annoying. But a little bit, then you have to refocus that energy to like, yo, you know what? I'm going to bench heavy now. I was able to bench 225 for 10 easily the other day. And I was like, all right, that felt good. And I'm focused on my upper body. I've not lost a beat from my upper body training at all.

So that's good. That's good. I'm capable of walking now, so I can do low intensity, steady state. I haven't really been grappling, but I did a couple of drills this morning. That was fine. Another week and a half, I think I'll be

good to not live grapple, but drill consistently, do more cardio and then you know five weeks out i'm gonna be fine i'm gonna be grappling again you know i won't start off with stand-up i'll start off with ground stuff you know and i'll protect it in a way but you know and then comes sort of the mental side of not favoring that leg or being afraid of that in actually using it so that's a whole other battle that's you know coming down the pipeline that people forget to you know address all the

time it's like oh you know you you're fine now your shoulder's good you know it's 80 90 the pt will tell you but now you're out there and it's like okay use it it's on your mind it's like oh man i gotta protect it yeah you know i'm gonna try to defend it or not use it or whatever it is now you're not thinking like tactics or strategy or moving or recognizing patterns and doing this and flying and you know automating this or gripping you're thinking about oh shit my knee is it gonna hold is it okay like can i pivot on it like how does it feel like you're thinking that so now your focus is shifted internally to your body part that's recovering or recovered even. So it takes a little while to mentally recover from that and then to gain confidence to be able to use it effectively again. So that's a whole other time period.

I would say like a good couple weeks. So don't expect to come back and be flying into stuff. Especially if you already aren't at the top of the game in the gym. If you're not the top dog in the gym. If you're already better than everyone at the gym, even if you're banged up and you come back three weeks later and you're still semi-injured, you can protect it and get away with just like good gripping, good position, blocking stuff, only countering bad moves. And then you could kind of get away with that but if you're in the middle of the pack you know don't expect to come back

yeah beat the guys who you know that you've been kind of head to head with yeah yeah but this is the thing if you have rivals in the gym and you take one month off from an injury and you go every practice you're gonna learn what they do you're gonna see exactly how they grip how they attack what their patterns are you could develop a catalog like a of a person's attack systems you know what i mean and you can call with your plan like when you come back yeah yeah that's what you're gonna do It's like I've been watching this guy Greg at the gym lately, and it's like hard Ippon Senagi, kochi. Ippon Senagi, ochi. Kochi, ochi.

Ippon Senagi. Fake Ippon Senagi, kochi, right? Ippon Senagi, like overspin and catch that back kochi, you know? And then attacking De Ashi, attacking De Ashi. Lots of gripping, one-handed judo. It's like I've never really just watched him him for right because it's like i'll watch i'll work out i'll watch i'll work out do this now i'm just like watching you know and he's actually you know very good and he's one of my favorites so it's like i'm much more in tuned now i have

like a real mental like i could close my eyes and see him doing judo with anybody. Nice. He actually did judo with Glick today. Yeah? Yeah, it was awesome. Nice. He gave him, had a good match with Brian Glick. Brian Glick is good

at judo, man. Oh, shit. I gotta, I gotta go with him. People associate him with Nwaza,

dude. He doesn't even need to rely on his jiu-jitsu if he's doing judo with you. Oh, dang. He won't.

He can walk out with you and do judo, just straight judo with you. I love that. You would be like, this guy's a legit judo black belt. I love that. I love that. Yeah. And then you get to the ground and you're like, what? I know.

He'll probably smoke me. I probably wouldn't be able to do anything. But this is the thing about him. If he works out with you, he won't even do like hard Nawazza. He'll like stay standing because that's where he'll get the most out of it, right? He was like, oh, he was a legitimate judo black belt.

I'll work out when I'm standing. And he'll give you a run for your money. And you guys have a great stand-up round. And he'll get a lot out of it. You'll get a lot out of it. And then you wouldn't, if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't even know that he was amazing amazing amazing on the ground you know what i mean uh-huh yeah yeah i well i'm visiting new york city in june and yeah he'll be around yeah i i hope so yeah so there'll be the best yeah yeah well i think we covered a lot about how to deal with injuries

um wishing for i didn't cover like ice and rehab and all that stuff like that's talk to your physical therapist talk to your doctor that's not what i'm here for just giving you sort of my account just right generalized broad strokes that's right it's kind of like the the support system here for you guys so wishing for your speedy recovery thank you thank you and now that's it for today's episode and stay tuned for the next episode guys