The Shintaro Higashi Show - Snap, Crackle, Pop: Knees and Necks Edition | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

In this episode of The Shintaro Higashi Show, Shintaro sits down with co-host David Kim to share stories of their respective surgeries—Shintaro's recent knee operation and David’s disc replacement in his neck. They dive deep into the importance of medical self-advocacy, navigating conflicting diagnoses, and what recovery looks like for active martial artists.Join my Patreon for:✅ 1-on-1 video call coaching✅ Exclusive technique breakdowns✅ Direct Q&A access✅ Behind-the-scenes training footage🔗 Subscribe & Support Here: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/David Kim YT/Insta:  @midjitsu ​

You could have just put one finger on my knee and tapped me. They go into the front, you're not cutting through all that muscle that's in the back of your neck. The Shintaro Higashi Show is sponsored by Hakuin AI. Hakuin AI helps you measure, predict and solve customer churn. Visit Hakuin AI and start your free churn audit today. Higashi brand. Train hard, live strong, wear Higashi brand. Judo TV, your premier destination for live and on demand Judo coverage. Never miss a throw.

Hello and welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Davey Kim. How are you man? I'm doing great. How are you? Doing great. Very good. Very good. We are going to talk a little bit about injuries today and doing your own research. Yes. Yes. Doing your own medical research, which has a very special connotation. Don't you think? Absolutely. Given the train of meniscus surgeries that I've seen marching through my life lately. Yeah, you definitely got to do it. So it's a funny one. I went and saw four different doctors for four different opinions. Not because I was like, I don't believe this guy, but they kept referring

me to someone else, you know, who does something very specific. And I got very, very different opinions. They initially thought it was a meniscus tear. And the MRI showed a meniscus tear on the report. We had one doctor that stepped out and said, I don't think you have a root tear. Yeah. Yeah, for those of you who don't know, I just had knee surgery four weeks ago.

So I'm four weeks out, right? Can't even tell anymore. You're like jumping around like a baby. Yeah, I'm walking around. Yeah, good rehabs ahead of the game. And yeah, exciting times, you know? But tell me more about this, Yeah, I'm walking around. Yeah, good rehabs ahead of the game and Yeah, exciting times, you know But tell me more about this this this Odyssey you had with the doctors because I think you know Unless you've had this kind of experience before a lot of people feel like you just go to the doctor

They sort of tell you what's wrong with you and you fix it, right? But I think particularly if you're an athlete and you've got chronic injuries or you're sort of been in and out or if you had Multiple injuries, you know know this is not the case. Yes, absolutely. So I had this stabbing pain in my knee during certain positions where I have the knee bent. So like going for a butterfly sweep or anything of that kind of a bending motion, especially if my ankle was like rotated. So if my hip was externally rotated and my knee was bent,

forget it. It was like just someone stabbing a knife in through my knee. So it was excruciating. How long were you dealing with that? Probably about six months to a year. It just kind of like happened and I was suffering through it and I was like, it'll go away. It'll take care of itself. Maybe it's like a meniscus thing getting stuck.

I was kind of in the dark. I didn't know exactly what it was. And then I finally went to the doctor and he says, oh, you have osteoarthritis. We got the x-ray, we got the MRI. And the MRI report said, you have a full-blown root tear of the meniscus. Now, before we go get into the surgery,

is this something that became more painful over time or did you just suddenly get painful and you just sort of lived with it for a while? And then finally you're like, this is not getting better. I got to do something about it. Well, it came out and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And then it kind of like same level of worstness. I would never try to bend my knee.

I just keep walking around, you know, like trying to keep my leg extended. Yeah. No like dropping moves, no bending the knee. And I was able to do a lot of grappling, you know, without bending my knee, surprisingly. Right. Because it was pretty deep flexion, right? It was around 90 degrees. So like, you could bend it a little bit.

It was fine. Like kind of being like a stance, no problem. But it was kind of getting past that 90 degree mark that, and it was just so excruciating, you know? So the nawaise would have been worse for you. Yeah. If I was on bottom, but I could do like standing loose passing stuff, you know, with my knees kind of extended, I was able to do that.

But you know, when you go with someone good, you can't, No. You know, Well, it's certainly not passing for the knees. I mean, that probably would have been. You've got a knee cut knee shield kind of with this leg extended, you know, I was able to do a little bit of that. Yeah.

But you know, I needed help, so I finally seeked the help and I got an MRI and the MRI report turned out to be wrong. Yeah. So now you saw four people four different doctors. So the first guy was like, well, you know, I think you have a root tear. This is not what I do. I think you have terrible osteoarthritis. I'm gonna send you to a knee replacement guy. Right? Yeah. So he looks at the thing. He looks at the report. He's like, you need a new day. Yeah Yeah But you know, you're a little bit young

I'm willing to do like a partial knee replacement because your kneecaps so messed up I'm like, well that doesn't really fix a lot of the problems that I'm having now. He goes yes, but you know X Y & Z Why don't you get some injections first? So they send me to an injection lady who does you know cortisone gel shot then PRP? That's sort of the protocol, right? So I started on that track, and then the lady was like, you definitively have a root tear based on your MRI. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so then I'm looking around, I'm like, hey,

will anyone do an arthroscopy at least on my knee, like to scope it out, see what's wrong? And like, why don't you go see this guy, right, James Vlatsone? I was like, all right, I'll go see him. And I went to see him and he goes, you know, Shintaro, I looked at the images myself and I don't think you have a root there.

Like what? That's a good doctor. Yeah, that's a good doctor. He like sat there, looked through the images and he's like, you see right here, like, I don't think you do. Maybe we'll just go in there with a scope and it'll be like a discovery scope," he was saying.

Mm-hmm. All right, so we went in there and cleaned out the breeze. I did tell him ahead of time, once he agreed to the knee scope, he didn't want to do it because I'm on blood thinner from my stroke, right? Oh, right, yeah. Did you want to do it? Yeah. So that was the whole thing.

And then eventually I was like, oh, listen, if you find a root tear, don't fix it. Because I don't want to be off my feet for six months. It's like a nine month recovery period because after Joe through the bone. Just sounds terrible. And then he did also say like your patella is like skewed to the side, we could kind of cut the outside the lateral reticulum and then bring the kneecap back to the middle. So that was the thing that he said that he would do for me if you you know, saw that it was pretty bad and he was able to do it. So he goes into the knee. He's like, you know, he wakes me up after the

whole thing is done. He's like, Listen, man, no root tear your meniscus completely fine. But I did cut the whole side of your your reticulum to release the kneecap to the middle. And I found some of those bone spurs that was causing you all the pain. I see. So it was a bone spurs. It was bone spurs like that were like jagged that was rubbing on the inside of my

it's interesting how that just comes on suddenly though. You know, because the bone spurs don't grow suddenly. So it's sort of interesting. Yeah. So you say like repetitive stress dropping to your knees, you know, spend a lot of time. Yeah, so you say like repetitive stress dropping to your knees, you know, spending a lot of time. That's right. But he shaved it down, took out all the debris, you know, cut the

thing and then re centered it. And I'm like, wow, and not one root tear. Is it still is it still hard to tell whether it was successful? Given you're still re adding the definitely where the bone spur would grind on the inside of my whether it was successful, given you're still rehabbing. Definitely where the bone spur would grind on the inside of my knee, like that doesn't hurt that much there. I don't have full flexion yet,

and I'm still working myself back to like doing weighted exercises. So I'm not quite there yet, but I'm working myself back to it, you know? Right, so I guess it's hard for you to get into those positions that used to hurt, because you're still not, you know, you're not, you're not being loaded. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, this was a great example of like, all right, they're telling you one thing and then you had something like that too. Correct? Yes. Yeah. We mentioned it in my infamous, um, I made a promise to my wife episode, uh, not to compete. And I will just say for the record, but I did, local competition is okay, but I think the bigger, you know, national or regional events, he gets more nervous. You have to try out a Tomanagi that just learns from random guys. That's right. Well, those are the exceptions that are made, you know, when you have a goal in life, when you have a passion for something. So I've got a two level disc replacement and it was, you know, I had to go through the same thing,

you know, go through multiple doctors. Most guys are like, yeah, I'm probably just gonna give you a fusion, you know, and the issue with a fusion- That's the protocol. Yes, that is the protocol. It's the gold standard, you know, but I've learned since then that it's also the medical system gets paid more when you

go through that. So, which sort of makes sense, right? Because the recovery is longer, the hospital makes more money, the doctor makes more money, all that kind of stuff. But it is also the gold standard. So there's really no like, there's nothing shady going on, you know, if I mean, they put you through that kind of, you know, well, on paper, you know, it's hard to insurance, you know, American health care system. Should I get you started on that? What do you think

about that? Yeah, let's let's Yeah, let's stick to the judo and the injuries for now. Right. But, but yeah, I mean, it gets like I said, just on paper, right? Like, that's stick to the judo and the injuries for now, right? But, but yeah, I mean, I guess, like I said, just on paper, right? Like, that's the gold standard. So you're never be criticized for doing that. And they can call it, call that audible in the procedure, even if you're looking for the replacement, they can still audible to a fusion. Would you be able to look right and left completely like this if you had a fusion? I think so.

Yeah. I mean, you definitely be stiffer and you like what used to be two bars turns into just one. And I think you mentioned that you had a friend I think right who had like multiple fusions going down the spine almost. That's crazy to me. That's just insane. Because your body I mean, your spine obviously is not meant to be one bar. You know, that's, that's like, yeah, brutal. Yeah. But the reason is, is just physics, right? Just like anything when

you have leverage at the end, like the end of the lever, we talk about it all the time. In in grappling, right in judo or in jujitsu, like you're manipulating the end of that level lever, because you have a of, you can exert a lot of force on it. It's the same thing that what was two is now one. So now there's more force that can be applied to the end. So what made you seek alternative treatment? I'm sure you went to the guy and he was like, let's get your neck fused. And we were like, you know what, hold on one second. Let me do my own research. How did that even?

Yeah. So I think I'm not even, I can't even remember how I found out about disc replacement, to be honest with you. But I did know that fusion, you know, I would have had to really think about whether I wanted to keep doing Jiu-Jitsu. I mean, there are other people who've had fusion

that are still training, you know, instructors out there that are doing it. But, you know, it's still something you got to think about. But I had such terrible nerve pain in my right arm and in my back that I was like, I got to get surgery. But I know I don't really want to get a surgeon if I can help it. So I ended up going in the States. Yeah, in Westchester County. It was a friend of mine from college, Verney Hillard, Dr. Verony Hillard. So if any of you need a consultation because you're having neck problems, and I know you're out there because everybody gets their neck crunched at some point, you should go look her up. And

it was great because we were friends from college and she was able to sort of give me the because we were friends from college and she was able to sort of give me the no BS scoop on what I was facing and that kind of thing. You're totally better now, that's awesome. Yeah, no pain. And it's metal and plastic and there are teeth in the metal part and your bone grows into those teeth.

And I was back on the mat in 12 weeks. Wow. So would you say for the listeners who go seek out medical advice, don't listen to the doctor and do their own research? Is that what you're telling everybody? Well, it's a balance, right? I mean, at the end of the day, you're going to trust somebody, right? You got to trust somebody to cut you open. Listen to your sensei. Listen to your sensei. Listen to the bros. Listen to all your bros on Facebook. Recovery tough for that or not? It wasn't too bad.

I mean, given the pain relief and the effect of it, it was, I would definitely do it again. You know, I mean, it was great. And like I said, I was on the mat in 12 weeks. So really all you're waiting for is for the bone to grow into those teeth. And because they go in through the front, I have like a scar right here,

they go in through the front, you're not cutting scar right here, they go in through the front, you're not cutting through all that muscle that's in the back of your neck. Because that's really where most of the muscle is. So if you cut through that, now it's like a whole nother can of worms. So, I mean, you must have been bed-bidden or something for a few days, right?

Well, technically it can be outpatient. So I could have gotten the surgery and come home, but I stayed overnight and I'm glad I did because I was so high after I woke up. I woke up and I was like, I'm hungry. I'm so hungry. I picked the nurse. I don't know why she told me this, but she said, yeah, if you're hungry, you should eat. So I just picked out, but what they didn't remind me of was that when you're under anesthetic, you can get constipation. So sorry to go that far for our listeners, but yeah, you don't wanna do that

when you're in the hospital. So take it easy guys, when you come out of the anesthesia, take it easy, you don't have to eat everything. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I probably get like once every two or three weeks, somebody reaches out and says, hey, I had knee surgery, ACL surgery, or I'm about to have it, you know, so. Yeah.

It's such a common thing, and I know your neck is not that, my knee is not that, definitely like, you know, the spectrum of like terrible surgeries, and then easy surgeries, mine was like a little bit in the middle, right? But yeah, man, you have any good advice for these people who are undergoing such a thing right now?

I wouldn't just ask the entire internet, you know, what you should do. I think you should definitely talk to a doctor first. I think where it can be helpful is where, if you have a sense of what kind of procedure you're gonna have, you may wanna seek out people who have had the same procedure. Just to sort of set your mind, like it may not even be really for advice because you still have to ultimately trust your

medical provider, but it can tell you sort of what you're in for in terms of recovery. And if they are five years out and they had a successful procedure, then, you know, you sort of know what you're in for. I think that's one of the biggest things. I think that's one of the biggest things seeking out people who've had the surgery. ACL surgery is so common, you know, and I know tons of guys who've been through it and then there's students who, you know, actually have two students who actually tore their ACLs playing basketball, completely unrelated to judo of all things.

And they felt so alone on this journey. I'm like, you know, they're telling me about it. I'm like, Joe had one, Jonathan had one, this guy had one, that guy had one. Talk to those guys and I connected them. And you know, even Nick right now, you know Nick from my daughter, he's going through, he's like three weeks out from an ACL reconstruction. So there's tons of people who go through it and grappling and then you talk about it and about the recovery. And some people are way more informed than others.

You talk to some people like, oh, I had a bucket tear or whatever this tear, that, that, root tear, meniscus. It's like talking to a doctor or something. You wanna talk to those guys really. Just so you could kind of get their opinion on it. And when just you're able to talk that world, that speak, then when you have a conversation with a doctor too,

like they don't treat you like a dummy. They give you a little bit more. I was able to literally say like, hey, this is the surgery that I'm willing to accept. This is what I'm not willing to accept. Can you go in there and check in this, this, and then this is the localized pain that I have in these positions.

Can you definitely make that a priority to seek that out when you're inside my knee? You know, and he was like, yes, I can. Yeah, sure. Because I'm a professional. Now does this did your doctor deal with a lot of athletes? Yeah. So he was like, because that's another thing. Because sometimes you deal with doctors that have that don't really their clientele isn't really, they're not really athletes, and so every doctor will tell you, okay, yeah, we can do this, but never grapple again. Never do Judo. And it's sort of like a non-answer. You know what I mean? Yeah, everybody is. You know?

Because they don't, that's, they don't know, you know, and I always feel like if you can get advice from a doctor who is a judo guy, or, you know, at least somebody who deals with repetitive stress or, you know, with athletes, I think you get a better context, you know, like better perspective from those guys, because they're like, Well, I could do it. Yeah. But you know, these are going to be the trade-offs. Even those guys too, it's like every doctor you've ever gone to who's a surgeon is like, yes, I worked with the New York Knicks.

Doctor for the jet. It's like, no, you worked on one guy that was a jet shrouded in this mysterious thing. Like, my doctor worked on the Knicks. He worked on patched viewing. He must be really good. Or you get a referral from a friend. He did my arthroscopy. Now I'm walking therefore. He was he's the best doctor

It's like what do you know about doctors? How many surgeries have you had? You know, what is your size is like my always go to it's like my accountants the best accountant ever How many accountants have you had before? Yeah, right exactly How would you know and this is not qualified to know what you know, what are the good doctors, you know? So it's like you can't you got to take all the stuff out of a grain of salt you know always yeah it's like I hear guys all the time I had the best judo teacher ever you know and then they come into the dojo it's their first time in my gym like wow this guy's not who is your teacher you know and I've never heard of the guy it's like you know

everyone thinks their sensei is great yeah yeah well I you know that does bring up an important point because if you do talk to someone you trust, they will give you the advice that you want to look at how many procedures have they done and where are they in their career. So a lot of times it's almost like 25 is your sweet spot in terms of physical attributes, right? Well, when you're a surgeon, your sweet spot is probably mid late 40s, right? Because they've, they've been a lie. 50 I was gonna say. Yeah, because they're young enough to still be like on it, right? But they're old enough

that they've seen enough situations, they've have enough procedures under their belt where they've sort of seen it all, you know, like they've seen. And if they specialize in like disc replacement, if they're like a neurosurgeon and they sort of specialize in this real estate in your neck, you know, you're probably going to be better off with someone who's done more of them than less, right? I mean, just on paper. Yes, and if they're too old, they're stuck in their own ways, maybe they're going to read the new research, who knows, you know? They're stuck in their thing, like, oh, that thing is like a...

Like the patellar lateral release that I did used to be way more common. It's like your kneecap tracks outside a little bit. Let's just cut the outside and make it recent. This is like super common, much more, not as much anymore. Cause the research is like, Oh, well, you know, maybe it helps. Maybe it doesn't. Yeah. All right. So we cover the age of what ethnicity should the doctor be? Well, clearly Asian. I mean, that goes without saying. I mean, look at this panel of speakers. Oh, my God.

No, but you definitely have to do a little bit of your own research. I hate that term. You know, people are like, oh, do your research, right? But you kind of have to, you know, and if you're listening and if you're a grappler going through it, you're not alone, you know, seek out people. And I think that's majority in the beginning, it's mental. A lot of this stuff is psychological. Well, because yeah, it's unknown, right? Like to you, to you, it's all unknown, right? Like

you have no idea, like, am I am I about to do something stupid? Am I doing the right thing? And it's hard to know, like who to trust. And so at some point, you gotta sort of model your way to a point of comfort. For a lot of people, it's the pain. It's just like, I gotta do something. So just a decision to have surgery, usually you're kind of pushed into it because you're between a rock and a hard place.

Like I can't lift my daughter. I can't do things. My quality of life has deteriorated so much that I am willing to go under the knife. Once you make that decision, now it's very concrete. So what are you doing for rehab? So even when I first got out, when I first got out, like day one, day two, I was already trying to do pull-ups, you know? Going over a wall, limping over the thing, I had the crutches. You could do pull-ups. You can't land on your knee, obviously, but you know the doorway pull-ups, you can reach up and grab knee obviously but you know the doorway pull-ups you can reach up to grab and then you did like 10 pull-ups to set

or whatever it was and then gradually you know the nerve block stuff comes out and then you know you start doing ankle pumps and leg raises and beyond that now i'm in with the bike so i'm riding the bike you know flexion is getting better every day you know swelling is minimal but i still you know have a little bit of pain when i put my knee on the floor and stuff, so I'm not ready to fully grapple yet, but I'm coming back, you know, so if you guys are listening to this, you know, set me up with a seminar coming up, maybe late June, July, that will be my timeline, you know, I took a little bit of a time off during this time period. So this is, you're telling me this is my chance. This is my window to take Shintaro Higashi down. This is my chance. Four weeks ago, you, oh man, you could've. I'm just gonna push you over. Yeah.

You could've just put one finger on my knee and tapped me. I swear. Yeah. It's just so painful. Oh man, I'm so jealous. I'll be back soon. I'll be back soon. Maybe two or three more weeks. I'll test my knee get back on the mat with you guys Yeah, everybody be happy to see you. Everybody's you know, uh always asking me where's Shintaro and then I always tell them You know, he's very busy. He's got a bad knee bad head bad, you know, I have shoulder bad everything

So, you know miraculously my shoulder bad everything so you know miraculously my shoulder 100% recovered seriously. My shoulder has never hasn't been this good in two years I mean I have a torn the Abraham this and that yeah, but what did you do anything separate or is it just the time off? That the time off. Yeah Nobody did this? No. Put their hands on you? Did it myself. No, but I mean, I was thinking to myself, I was like, you know, when my knees done, I might get this guy to do my shoulder. And then throughout the recovery of my knee, not being able to grapple, my body healed the shoulder itself. I mean, of course there's still issues, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Like the ton labrum just doesn't magically go away No, but zero pain in my shoulder

Yeah, it's amazing. What happens when you don't train? That is the perverse cranking out, you know pull-ups now again, you know, I did 50 today 50 total total total total. Okay. Not a one-go. It's like you're a freaking machine You're getting wings man. You're gonna be you're gonna be flapping away. Oh, yeah wings Today was one of those days like I couldn't get to the gym in the morning So it was like all right every time I walk past his doorway. I'm gonna do five pull-ups, you know, oh I see yeah, and then I gotta do that. I can't do any more. It's good It's kind of like it keeps you kind of

You know strong even when you don't commit to going to the gym. Right. Yeah. It's either that or push ups for me. Yeah, you don't need a bigger chest, man. Push ups, you have to do more though. So it's like, you got to do every time I feel like I'm going to do 20 sets of 25. You're so good. I try to be, I try to be, I don't want to you know lose all this muscle that I worked so hard for my whole life. Yeah, this is the totally the wrong time because you're trying to lean out for the summer you're gonna lose all that definition. I'm not doing

what you're gonna do that. I've been eating ice cream non stop. You're not you're not looking by the window that the mirror when you walk by checking yourself out checking out the progress. I'm so bad these days, man. Ice cream and I took my kit to the pool today and it was like there's the pizza thing and the ice cream truck and I was like... I told you, man. I told you.

You're injured, you're recovering. Don't dive into the ice cream tub and you did it. Bad. Bad. Today, listen to this. I had a pizza burger at the pool and an ice cream soft serve and I came home and I had a half a pint that was left over. Oh my god.

Terrible. I know. I'm like really disappointed in myself today. Well I think there is some research to show that dairy helps the knee recovery. You know, encapsulating it in soft tissue, you know, some fatty tissue, it helps with the recovery. If you do your own research. Yeah, yes, deep, deep research. I think we've gone through your knee, my neck, some of the challenges that you have. It's all I mean, it's hard to go too deep because everybody's unique, you know, you're gonna have to make your own decisions. We are obviously not medical professionals, and

we would never pretend to, you know, to be them. But there are a lot of people on the other hand, have a lot of experience with these injuries, right? Like Shintaro was saying, there's a bunch of people out there that have broken ACLs or busted meniscuses, or, you know, bad necks. And I think you don't necessarily need to ask them for medical advice but you can ask them how their recovery has been, what their experience was, how they were treated and get that kind of data so that you have a little

bit better intuition as to what the distribution of outcomes is and you can go to your doctor ask them how many procedures they've done, how old are you? But, and then, you know, try and find someone you trust. And I, you know, my doctor was my college friend, so I trusted her and it made all the difference. Awesome. So with that guys, we'll leave you to wherever you are,

driving in your car, in the bathroom. I'm not sure what you're doing, but thank you very much. Thank you, Shintaro for coming on. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you for coming on the Shintaro Higashi show. Yeah. Thank you for having me, David, thank you. Hey, no problem, anytime, anytime. Thank you for having me, David. Thank you. Hey, no problem. Anytime.

Anytime. Thank you, everybody.