The Shintaro Higashi Show - Thank You and Updates From Shintaro

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

As many of you know, it's been a crazy few weeks for Shintaro, but thanks to your support, Shintaro is doing much better. In this episode, Shintaro gives his thanks to everyone and provides some updates on how his recovery from the stroke is going and what he's been up to lately. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello and welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today I'm just going to record a solo episode. Peter's away, I was away. It's been a kind of crazy couple weeks but things are going pretty good and I just want to say thank you to all the people that I've reached out. It has been a tremendous amount of support that I felt since I had the stroke. I know you guys listened to that stroke episode two weeks ago and it made its round on the internet with the reddit and all this stuff and you know the best part about the whole thing was that all my friends and training partners from the past, people I haven't spoken to in 10, 15 years, they all reached out and said something nice to me.

And it was just really nice to connect with everyone, you know. For instance, like this guy, Victor John Baptiste, he was like a six-time Haitian national champ. You know, we did judo together. We lived in New York City together. We trained. We competed. We even bounced at a nightclub together. So we had lots of good times. This is in my early twenties. And, you know, he reached out and it was really nice to speak to him. You know, outside of that, just like really all the outpouring of support and all this stuff,

people who had strokes, call me up and say, Hey, if you need something, bad boy medicine, Austin cook, you know, we competed in a couple tournaments together back in the day. He has a very present Instagram situation now. You know, he reached out. I didn't really, like, you know, get to talk to him on the phone or anything. I haven't called everyone back. But, like, you know, little things like this really, you know,

mean so much to me from the bottom of my heart. I can't get back to everyone on Instagram and the social media and the comments. You know, I'm limited on time. But thank you very much. You know, it means the world to me. In terms of recovery, I'm doing pretty good. I think I'm like 95% of the way back. Some deficits still.

Like, I get confused. Multitasking is difficult. You know what I mean? Like, sometimes, you know, you put your socks on, put your pants, text, turn the TV off, turn the lights on and whatnot and go about your day. But you know, it's like, I can't find my sock, that kind of thing. I put one thing on and then turn the TV off and I dropped the TV controller and then I can't find my sock. And then I forgot what I was doing. That kind of stuff happens every now and then. Uh, but it's getting better every day. You know, my attention is getting better you know coordination is good i was in the beginning man i was like bumping into

stuff you're bumping into people on the street you know all that stuff but uh i think i'm 95 percent of the way there you know even judo i uh worked out the other day i'm on a heart monitor now they think it's my heart but yeah judo was good. You know, all the guys at the dojo, they still came after me. That's the craziest part. You know, I do it on Rondori, right? I'm like, hey, I just had a stroke. It's my first day back. Take it easy.

And, you know, I'm going for an ombar or something, and this freaking guy kicks me in the head. You know what I mean? Like, there is no days off when you're a sensei and you're rolling with people. I got to tell you. Especially, like, the green belts. Those guys will come after you every time. You know, they just know enough and they're going to just come at you and they think you're indestructible. But it is what it is, you know.

So, recovering is going pretty good. Doing all my follow-up appointments, hematologist, cardiologist, physical therapy, all of it. And this week, I got the coronavirus for the third damn time. I cannot believe this. I'm like in quarantine on my upper studio, West Side Studio apartment, like by myself. I didn't want to give it to my family. So I'm like sitting here by myself with nothing to do. I'm recording this on my phone because I forgot all my recording equipment in the Westchester house. Yeah, I'm suffering through coronavirus for the third time. But it's going pretty good.

You know, I'm going out for a long walk. I'm watching judo. The World Championships just happened. So overall, things are very, very good. You know, if you guys have any, like, Netflix suggestions, throw it in my DMs or something. I won't get back to everybody. Like, honestly, like, I have so many freaking messages on my Instagram.

It's like, every time I open Instagram, I get excited. Like, oh, man, I got all these messages I didn't respond to. I'm sorry if I didn't get back to you. It's not because of anything personal against you. Honestly, really, I just can't stay focused long enough to go through all of it. I'll respond to, like, three messages, and I'll just be like, my attention span. Like my attention span was short before. You know what I mean?

It was like the length of half a TikTok video when the cute girls are dancing. But now it's like even a quarter of that, which is like insane, you know? But yeah, send me some messages. Send me some suggestions on Netflix. I just started watching The Watcher. It's kind of creepy. It's crazy. It's checking out Jeffrey Dahmer's thing.

It was all right. But yeah, I'm on the mend right now, and I cannot wait to be off this heart monitor they had me on for one month. Once that's off, I beat the corona. You know, I'm back in the gym, like, working out hard. You know what I mean? The cardiologist kind of gave me the blessing. You know, I've been working out hard this whole time. The next day,'m back in the gym, like working out hard. You know what I mean? The cardiologist kind of gave me the blessing. You know, I'm working out hard this whole time.

The next day I was in the gym after I got out of the hospital. You know what I mean? I was trying to do some curls to see. I started off with like the 15-pound curls and then I went up to like the 25s to see if my arms were able to get a nice pump. And they were. But now the cardiologist was like, you know what? Go ahead and work out as hard as you want. So I'm in the gym.

I'm doing sprints. I'm running. I'm actually even better in shape now, even before the stroke, which is kind of nuts. And I'm just not doing judo. And the one thing I do realize now that I'm not doing judo for like a month now, it's been about a month, is that my joints hurt less so I could push it harder in the gym more consistently, you know, which is kind of a funny thing. It's like I do judo and usually I work out, I lift like four days in the gym and I do three days of judo, right? So I do about seven workouts a week and I have like one or two cardio days. So it's about like eight to 10 workouts a

week generally. And like if I'm doing an upper body heavy day, and if I have judo the day before and someone cranks on my arm, I obviously can't go doing a heavy upper body day, right? I can't bench heavy. I can't do pull-ups because my elbow hurts or whatever it is. Or if I tweak my knee in judo, I'm not going to do heavy legs, right? So I'm going to have to like make some concessions there, not skip workouts. I'll never skip a workout, but I have to do something else in the gym. So now that X factor is gone, right? My knees don't hurt. My shoulders don't hurt. So I'm just in the gym every day, just cranking out stuff. You know, and of course my program has changed. I'm not going like crazy heavy just because they're like, you don't want to put this,

the salvo maneuver situation where pressure's the heart. So like I'm in there doing a little bit more of a cardio-esque, low volume, sprint, push-ups, sprint, pull-ups, do a little bit of jump rope, do some kettlebell swings, kettlebell presses, that kind of thing where I'm just kind of pumping the heart for an hour straight. So there's still resistance training, but it's a little bit more cardio-esque. And that's not the best way to progressively overload your body to gain strong muscles and get strong, but it's sort of my way of adapting to the certain situation. And I need to do more cardio. I need to bring my body weight down. That's across the consensus of all the doctors that I've seen so far. They were like, listen, man, you're not a tall guy. You're way bigger

than you actually should be. And, you know, according to BMI, I know BMI is a thing, but they're like, you're obese. I mean, like there's no, not a world where you should be 220 pounds. They're like, you should be like 170. That's a healthy weight for you. You got to lose 50 pounds. These guys are saying, you know, you got to watch your cholesterol, blood pressure. Don't lift any heavy weights. They said, if you can't lift the weight more than 20 times, it's like that weight's too heavy for you. And to that, I'm kind of like, you guys don't know what you're talking about because I will never trade my health to look like you and have your health. You actually look unhealthy to me. That's what I'm thinking in my head. But there's some truth in what they're saying, right? I really shouldn't be 220 pounds. And I knew this competing on the international circuit

when everybody who I'm competing against who is 220 are like 6'3", 6'4", coming down from 250. You know what I mean? And of course, I'm not saying like I should squeeze down, cut weight, and get to a much lower weight class or anything like that. I should just like really restrict my diet, cut the body fat, and then just kind of get over this obsession of being a big person. You know, lifting heavy weights, benching this, progressive overload that, you know, taking 150 to 200 grams of protein a day. You know, there's a real complex that drives this kind of behavior in me. But I feel like I need to sort of outgrow, you know, now that I'm 37 years old. I'm pushing 40 and I've had heart issues that I, you know, always push I'm 37 years old. You know, I'm pushing 40 and I've had heart issues

that I, you know, always push through, right? This is the thing, right? I realized, you know, some of the monitoring stuff now, they're like, the cardiologist is like, you probably always had this. Like, you never felt this? Like, when you were pushing yourself in the gym? I was like, yes.

Every time I felt this, you know, and I would tell somebody, they were like, yo, push through, quit being a little bitch, was essentially what every coach has told me. And, you know, now it's to a point where I'm like, oh shoot, maybe there was something wrong. Right. So between that and having had the stroke and then my cholesterol is always a little bit high, my blood pressure is always through the roof. You know, I'm eating meat like crazy. You know, they say like, if you want to get a hundred grams of protein, you should eat a pound of meat. And I took that shit to heart. I would eat two pounds of meat.

Like literally, I'd be like, how many ounces of steak? 16 ounces. I'll take two of them and I eat one for morning. I eat one at night and then I eat whatever I want in between. And you know, not only that, I was going out and drinking every now and then, having a good time. I got to cut all this stuff out. You know, I have to really make some of these lifestyle changes and, you know, knowing myself, I can go in and out of these phases of like being super healthy, super lean, super clean to go on these benders like this summer. Oh man, 2022 was like the first time that I felt like after having the kid and all, well, my kid's four now, you know, and things are settling down with my, you know, ex baby mama situation. Right. And then I, you know, that ended, you know, to, for the record, it wasn't Lara who left me after

the stroke. Me and Lara broke up, you know, eight, nine months ago, whatever it was. And at the beginning of the summer, I was like, you know what, I'm going to start dating again. You know, I used to be very good at it. I used to go out all the time and hang out. And during the time that I was with Lara for five years, I didn't do any of that stuff. I had no extracurricular activities happening. And I was like, all right, it's time for me to go out there and do my thing, really, right? So I go out there and I'm like, oh, we're doing it. Because it's so fun going out there, making your date laugh, you're drinking with them, you're staying out all night. You know, of course I'm still doing my fatherly duties. You know, I'm only dedicating days that I'm already at the dojo. So it'd be like judo after judo, 9pm. All right. So I'll tell these girls that I meet

or whatever it was like, Hey, I get out of work at nine and I'll come meet you after that at 930 and I'll sprint out of the dojo and hang out with them. So I'm not missing any time with my daughter because she's already at home sleeping anyway. You know what I mean? So I'll go out, stay out late, do whatever, come home. And then I have to get up, take her to the school the next day. Of course that taxes me. Sleep is deprived. Obviously I don't feel great because I'm hungover. And then I would give myself one night a week where it's like Saturday night, I'm going out, you know, whatever. So that was kind of a thing that I was doing all summer. I think the young kids call it hot boy summer, right? I don't know if they still call it that. Maybe I'm dating myself by saying this, but you know, that's kind of the summer that I had.

And then, you know, that stuff caught up to me a little bit, you know, and it's kind of like one of those things I'm like, you know what, I can't be doing these, you know, sprinting on and sprinting off, going out all the time, not going out all the time. It's really just got to be a healthy, steady thing. Everything's got to be done in moderation. Yeah, that kind of a thing, you know. But for the record, it wasn't Lara who left me after the show. It was my new girlfriend that I had this summer. Okay. I don't know. Everyone's hitting me like how after all these years, five years, I can't believe your baby mama left you after you had a stroke. That's not what happened. And you know, the baby mama was kind of upset too. She's like, Oh, you know, I can't

believe everyone thinks that I'm this scumbag of a person. Our separation was very amicable. She went off to medical school. I gave her my blessing. I was like, listen, go to medical school, pursue your dream. I watched a kid. Go do your thing. You're young. You can still change your dream.

My dream's already dead. So that was the arrangement that we had, and it had nothing to do with the stroke and all that. Just a little clarification out there. All right, so what did I learn from all this stuff? You know, going down on the stroke, I really, you know, the scariest thing about being in the hospital as a stroke ICU patient is seeing all the people around me and all the beds around me in the ICU that aren't going to make that recovery. You know what I mean? They're all old. Their families are there visiting them. They could barely talk. They could barely do anything. People screaming for help in the middle of the night. Oh, nurse, nurse, whatever it is. It was like the most grim

thing. You know what I mean? I was just surrounded by death. These people, five to 10 years max, if they're lucky, you know, and they're disabled, a lot of these guys. And I was just lying there like, wow, you know, I'm sitting over here being insecure about my body fat or whatever it is, and I want to be leaner and whatnot. These people just want to freaking walk, get up and hug their kids. So I put a lot of that stuff into perspective. And after I got out, I'll be really counting my blessings every day. They talk about this gratuity thing, right?

It's like every day I do my gratification or something like this. I wake up, I count my blessings every day. Like, you know, they talk about this gratuity thing, right? It's like every day I do my, you know, what is it? Gratification, something like this. I wake up, I count my blessings. And I kind of started doing that. You know, I got up. I'm so happy. I love my kid. Yumi, I love you so much. Give her a hug, give her a kiss, drop her off at school. You know, all that stuff. Like I really started being a little bit more mindful as opposed to like dropping her off and thinking about, I gotta get to the gym, know so that was really a nice thing you know that I took away and you know after a little while you know so busy with my doctor's appointment and taking these tests and whatnot and I had to do another MRI I had to do another CT scan and those came back really really good but after the things really settled

down, probably about two weeks after all of it and everybody reached out and all this stuff, and all of a sudden, right, I'm like dropping my kid off at school and I go home and it's quiet because I'm not doing my day job anymore, right? I'm not working for Fuji right now. It's just quiet. You know, my phone's not blowing up. I have really nothing pressing to do. Dojo's kind of on autopilot because my cousin's running and he's back from vacation and whatnot. And then I'm just sitting there like struggling a little bit, like, oh man, I'm a little bit down right now. You know what I mean? So I go work out and I'll feel a little bit better, you know? And I had one or two days like that, you know, and I addressed it. I was very aware of it. And,

I don't want to say like pulled myself out of it, right? But, you know, I kind of felt a lot more empathy for the people who, you know, have issues, have health stuff. And they go down and they feel down, you know, because I don't usually get down. I get angry. That's usually my go-to response to a lot of things that don't go my way. I don't usually ever get sad. I get angry. Even though I don't seem like an angry person, I go to a day.

But yeah, I was a little bit more empathetic. And all the dudes who reached out to me, especially, like I said, Victor reached out to me. And I haven't spoken to the guy. And he's like 50-something. He's 10 years older than me. And then they told me about their life and stuff that's kind of happened in their recent life that didn't really go their way. And, man, I just really felt for them, and I appreciated that. And, you know, I hope if you're listening to this and you're having a hard time somewhere, you know, God bless you, man, seriously.

And I feel for you. Not to make myself look like a hero in this story, but we recently had a guy from the UK, you know, visiting from the dojo, a judo guy. He came, he's a black belt, he's like, hey, sensei, I watch your YouTube, you know, blah, blah, blah, can I work out with you at the dojo? I was like, yeah, of course, come work out with me, you know? So he comes in, you know, works out, signs a waiver, does all this stuff, takes pictures. He's happy. At the end of the class, he goes, sensei, can I talk to you for two seconds? I'm like, yeah, sure. What is it? He goes, I have a friend that's having a really hard time. He's been my

best friend for 20 years. He's going through a really hard time, but he's one of those tough masculine dudes that just don't, always everything's fine, but he's grinding through something in his life and he's just not sharing it with anybody. And know, and that, and, you know, we all know he's having a hard time and we're all trying to help him, but he's not reaching out to anybody. And, you know, he's your biggest fan. He listens to all your stuff. He watches all your videos. He's just a great, great dude. And he'd be like, it would probably mean a lot to him. The reason why I came here to your dojo to work out with you is so I can meet you. And maybe you could give him like a memento or something so you could cheer him. It'll cheer him up so much.

Can you, you know, I don't know, give him a note or something or a t-shirt or something. You know, sign something. And, you know, I felt really like honored. You know, because I'm not like a LeBron James or a Michael Jordan. You know, I'm not an Olympic gold medalist or anything like this, right? So I was like, oh, wow, that's really kind of cool that I could, you know, do something for this guy. So I go into the back of the dojo and there's this gi that I fought in the world championships

with. It's got Higashi, all this stuff, the USA branding and whatever, you know, on the back patch and whatnot. I don't fit in it anymore because, you know, I'm much bigger. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to give this to this guy. And I give it to him and I wrap it around with my black belt that I've had since, you know what? I'm going to give this to this guy. And I give it to him, and I wrap it around with my black belt that I've had since, you know, whenever.

And I gave it to the guy, and then he was like, oh, my God, thank you so much, blah, blah, blah. He flies back, and then the guy messaged me, and he was like, hey, thank you so much, you know? And, yeah, I don't even know why I'm telling this story aside from, you know, obviously it makes me look really good, like a good person, right? But boy, you know, I had that day when I was down. I had about two days when I had been down, you know, since the stroke thing with the recovery like I already mentioned.

And that day I felt that, that there's this guy out in the UK. He has my gi now. He has my belt now. felt that that there's this guy out in the uk he has my gi now he has my belt now and i felt it where you know it's like we were in the same fucking struggle you know what i mean and i felt really connected to this guy and when he reached out by instagram i said hey man you're very welcome i forgot what i wrote but like god bless you hope you have a great day or something but yeah man i hear you i hear you it's tough for guys out. It's tough for guys out here. It's tough for males out here. We're expected to be tough.

No one cries. No one bitches. No one moans or nothing. But I hear you, man. And I've had those days too. Just two, even after a stroke. I probably have more of that in my life. But yeah, it's one of those things that I'm very grateful, empathetic.

Know that you're not alone if you're going through a hard time. You know, and it's okay to reach out sometimes, you know, when you're having a hard time. And I want you guys to know, you know, if you're struggling with something, you know, reach out to a friend. Sometimes reach out to, you know, me. You know, I mean, I can't always get back to you, right? It's a funny thing with the instagram like so many messages get caught in my spam filter you know and every now and then i scroll through all the spam and nine times out of ten it's like a pakistani ghee company trying to get me to sell

you know um or some crypto scam or whatever it is uh and i won't always respond. I just don't have that time or the attention to spend now, but know that I'm in it here too, struggling alongside everybody, and know that I'm getting better every day, and I'm going to be back. I'm already back. I just can't really do judo with this heart monitor now because I have to take it off, take it on. I got two more weeks on this stupid thing. this heart monitor now because I have to take it off, take it on. I got two more weeks on the stupid thing. Once it's off, man, I'm back in the dojo, full-time, doing Rondori, working out, lifting weights, getting strong, getting jacked, trying to get down to 180. Those are my everyday affirmations. You know, I have to be healthy for my kid, for my students. I want to be there for you guys. Keep doing this kind of thing. You know, Peter's getting super annoyed because he's doing all of it literally by himself.

You know, he can't even get me to record sometimes on time. You know, I'm so bad with the stuff. And if I was bad before, I'm even worse now because I have this excuse of a stroke. You know what I mean? And I'm leaning on that a little bit too much actually. You know, yeah. So, but yeah, know that I'm going on that a little bit too much, actually. You know, yeah. So, but yeah, know that I'm going to come back. And, you know, this really was just an update podcast.

You know, Peter's hanging out somewhere. He went to a wedding. He's hanging out doing bougie stuff with his dermatologist wife. He's just out there living his life. You know, as and by. we're both doing the thing. And, you know, sometimes our schedules don't match up. But he definitely sent me about nine messages this week. Listen, guy, do that thank you response podcast

that you said you were going to do. And here it is, Peter, I'm doing it. But yes, thank you guys all for listening, being there for me. Those warm welcome things that you guys are all online doing for me and really I won't let you guys down part of the reason why I do the

YouTube stuff and the Instagram stuff is because I could have a much bigger reach to people I could teach to it's not just referring to the four walls of the dojo and think man if I could teach to. You know, it's not just refining to the four walls of the dojo. And you don't think, man, if I could want to teach my judo to 10,000 people, it's like I have to visit 100 dojos with 100 people. Is that math right? Yeah, that's right. 100 times 100 is 10,000. Right. And, you know, who has time to do that? You know, visit 100 dojos. You know, I certainly don't.

But, you know, with one video, I could reach that. I have 100,000 people watch and see this technique and I can make judo better as a whole. And if I could tell some jokes and they laugh when they see my face, it's making someone's life a little bit better. It's just such a good feeling that I have when I do it. There's really no monetary reward. Maybe there's like $600 at the end of the month from Google partner or whatever it is, AdSense. It's really not that much money. I'm not really doing it for the money. You know what I mean? I'm doing a lot of it for obviously the validation of me, my true skill set. It feels good when people say, oh, this is so clear. It's something that I've dedicated my life to.

And I could actually make these connections through the internet, you know, with people who genuinely care, you know, people who have said, hey, I had a stroke, I've recovered. Hey, you know, if you need something, reach out to me. You know, I briefly mentioned Austin Cook, you know, we had a couple of run-ins back in the day, you know, on the circuit, but we never really, you know, he actually retired early. He was 22 years old or something. He was good at judo. He just made the international circuit and boom, the next year he got into medical school and left. He just dropped off the circuit. So I only knew him for like a year, you know, but I've seen him go through his grappling transformation online. Then he became a doctor. He came back to the

martial arts, you know, and he's doing it and his technique looks better and better. He's doing geezer and jiu-jitsu doing all this stuff. We're actually gonna do a collaboration last year Together he was like I'm gonna come in and work out with you and try to kick the shit out of you on YouTube and I was like bring it my friend, you know that kind of a thing He didn't really say any of that I just assumed that that's what he's trying to do because yeah, that's what people do on the internet I'm gonna come by and work out with you Anyway, but yeah, he reached out multiple times and he offered his advice and whatnot. I'm grateful for you, man.

I'm grateful for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. I really can't say thank you any more times. Once I get better, come to the dojo and visit me and throw it out on me, man. That's really all I want, you know. Not right now, though. I don't really want too many guys coming in and kicking the shit out of my guys.

I can't protect them. They're not ready yet. They're not ready. You know, there's some guys that are pretty good. You know, you can work out with George. But, yeah, I need a little bit of time, but I am for sure getting there and sorry for this rambling type podcast. Thank you. Update whatnot. Uh, that I'm just rambling into my phone. Uh, but it's a nice day outside and,

you know, I'm about to go for a run Sunday. I have the coronavirus, like I told you for the third goddamn time. Uh, but you know, I'm going to go for a run Sunday. I have the Corona virus. Like I told you for the third goddamn time. Uh, but you know, I'm going to go out there outdoors. Okay. I'm gonna go for a run and, you know,

have a great day. So you too, man, go out there, run, lift, work out while you can, while you have your health and,

you know, God bless you. I'm not religious, but God bless you or, you know, whatever you believe in, bless you. And, uh, yeah whatever you believe in, bless you. And, yeah.

Thank you very much for listening, guys. Talk to you soon.