My name is Brandon Higashi and yes I am a young guy just about to hit his thirties. But before you leave here’s a little bit more about myself. I was born in Honolulu and raised on the 9th island known as Las Vegas. I’ve spent my whole life here but I will always have the “Aloha” spirit at my core. I graduated from UNLV with my Bachelors in Kinesiology. I became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist(CSCS) through the NSCA, and became a PN level 1 coach through Precision Nutrition. I’m also a father of two beautiful kids that are currently 4 years old and 9 months old.
Fitness has been a part of my life ever since my childhood. My parents would always take us out to the park or play out front. We would play different sports or ride around on various modes of transportation. Early on in my life my dad was the one that would buy ridiculous amounts of weight lifting equipment and I would join him doing something ridiculous like bicep curls with 3 lbs dumbbells. This wave of fitness continued throughout my life. I played a variety of recreation sports and competed in track and field in high school (I wasn’t good).
Throughout my time dabbling in the fitness world two events sent me much deeper down the rabbit hole. First was my extended bad relationship with my friend shin splints during my time in track and field. I had no idea what they were or what could cause the injury. The trainers at Bonanza High School just put some ice on it and sent me on my way. I found out much later in my courses at UNLV that shoes could play a major factor in every aspect of your body. A bad pair of shoes can lead to a variety of injuries from terrible support. I used the same pair of running shoes for 3 years of track and field, and it would have been good to know that new shoes would have helped my problem. This made me question what else do I not know or believe to be true about the fitness world.
The second reason was my growing insecurities as a skinny guy. It did not matter what I ate or how I exercised I always had a difficult time picking up weight. I know you’re thinking “boohoo that life is so difficult” right? At the time the thick muscular look was something I chased after, because that was seen as attractive. Regardless of how much I ate I couldn’t put on weight, just as how little someone eats they can’t lose weight. This sent me down the rabbit hole of understanding metabolism and all the different complexities it has to offer.