00:11
How was your English level when you went back to the States?
Because at that point, you've lived in Japan for like 10 years.
Yeah, 10. Yeah, 10 plus, I guess.
I was 25 when I came to the US.
You're probably good at like pronunciation and like daily conversation.
You're probably fine with it, right?
But like technical, scientific discussions, like that's hard, right?
To do that in Japanese.
Oh, sorry, English.
So I think the most like, I think I struggle with Q&A the most.
Like during like, I can give presentations, fine, because I can practice, right?
Yeah.
But like, I really struggled.
Like during Q&As, like during my first and second year of my PhD,
like during conferences, like Q&A was like, oh my god.
It's like, you know, like, it's like so new, you can't...
It's so nuanced.
It's not like right or wrong.
I was going to say, it's still difficult to me, because...
Yeah, I don't know.
It's, it seems really...
It's hard to predict what they're going to say.
And it's hard to...
Like sometimes, you're like so tenpattete,
nanka omotte mo nai koto ichi chattari suru jan.
And then I'm like, shit, what did I just say?
Mitai nanka kono no ga ippai aru shi, imada ni shitsugyou to wa amari narenai kamo.
Dakara dekiru dake prezen no structure wo, kou iu Q&A shika dete konai you ni tsukuteku.
Yes, 100%.
Dakara mou kono, sou da yo ne, ana wo wazato agetokun da yo ne.
Koko kikareru you ni, prezen no naka de, kore tte doui koto na no ka na?
Tte kikareru you na prezen wo tsukuru to koto da yo ne.
Sore wa ore mo yaru wa.
Thanks for asking!
That's such a great question!
Because I have prepared the answers!
03:22
Extended Q&A!
Yeah, yeah, like interview, like bodybuilding kind of like podcasts.
Sou, sou, sou!
So, sou, sou!
Sou, sou, sou!
Saayansu podcastu de nakute.
Ah, saayansu, mou bodybuilding no podcasts wo.
Like, how do you like grow, what's like the optimal volume to like get a big chest or...
What's your slit these days, mitai nanka.
Right, right, exactly!
Like, sou iu no wo nanka kikimakuttetara, nanka sugoku, nandarona, ikita eigo janai kedo,
sou iu Q&A toka discussion de sa, anmari kyoukashou ni notteru eigo de tsukawanai jan.
Sou ne.
Dakara sou iu nanka...
Shunkatsuryoku ga daijinakute.
Sou, sou!
Nanka sou iu nanka ikita eigo wo, sou iu nanka bodybuilding no podcasts de mechakucha manande,
nanka kekko jousatsu shita ka na to omoun da kedo na.
Now that we're talking about bodybuilding and such, so you've been training for a while now.
Maybe talk, like walk us through about like sort of your brief history of kintore and like,
you know, what you've been doing during grad school maybe.
This is gonna be like a five-hour podcast though, is it okay?
Can we cut that to like five, ten minutes, is that all right?
Like just, I did say brief.
Brief, sou ne.
Like I started, so I played rugby when I was in high school.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so like the first time I touched the bar, the barbell,
was like when I was like 15.
And I like felt...
That's pretty early.
It is early.
Go juugosai da ne.
Juugosai no toki ni hajimete, baa wo nigitta shunkan wo ima oboeteru.
Donna, donna gentaikin...
Ano mikasa tte wakaru, Asami-san?
Mikasa Ackerman to shite...
Mikasa?
Un.
Shinkeki no Kyojin no?
Sou.
Mikasa Ackerman ga hajimete Ackerman no chikara wo yadorasu ta toki ni,
Eren wo mamoritai tte itte,
houchou wo motte, biri biri tte Ackerman no chikara wo yadorasu tanda yo ne.
Sono shunkan ni sugoi niten no.
Baa wo nigitta shunkan.
It was like a lightning struck.
Wow.
Biri to kite...
That's like way more inspirational story than your PhD story, right?
Sou, sou, sou.
De, ano ne, rugby yattete juugosai kara kintori yatteta nda kedo,
sono toki wa tekitou demo split toka mo kangaenai shi, intensity toka...
Bukatsu de yarimashou.
Sou, sou, just fucking lift bro, mitai na, just fucking eat, am I allowed to swear? Sorry.
De, nanka, tonikaku omotai no wo agete, mitai na, tte iu kanji de,
nan mo kangaete nakatta no dakedo,
bodybuilding no hanashi da ne, sou, sou, sou.
De, high school kara yattete, daigaku mo rugby yatteta kara, zutto yatteta nda kedo,
hontou ni nani mo kangaete nai de, structure toka program toka mo toki ni nakute,
06:01
tonikaku omotai no wo, ne, onna no ko, impress the girls ja nai kedo,
nanka tori aizu omotai no wo nanka ageru tte iu no ga mokuteki datta no ne.
Chotto jibun no jikoreppu, one rep max motchau mitai na.
Sou, sou, sou, sonna kanji, sonna kanji.
Tada, tada ne, daigakuin ni kimasu.
So, I came to the US in 2018, so that was like, I've been lifting for what, like,
seven or six years by then?
But, de, I was alone.
I didn't have like any friends, because it was like, it was rural,
Maryland, where I went to school.
It was like, the country, right?
Dare mo shiranai shi, tomodachi mo inai, ato,
Goraku mo nai.
Sou, goraku mo nai, ato, Asia-kei no population mo sugoi sukunai tokoro datta nda yo ne.
Chugoku-jin toka, kankoku-jin toka, Nihon-jin mo mochiro inai shi,
dakara tomodachi mo inakatta kara, mou,
gym ni iku shika nakatta nda yo ne.
Sou, hontou ni, gym ni iku shika nakute, hima na toki wa.
De sa, tabun, Asami-san mo tabun, kore, aguri shite kureru to omou kedo,
nanka, Ph.D. tte sa,
ano,
kenkyuu igai no shumi wo hitotsu motsu koto tte,
meccha daiji janai?
Ah, zettai daiji mo!
Kore, must!
Must!
Chou daiji!
Chou daiji janai?
Nanka, ma, sa, nante iun daro,
kenkyuu tte, ma, umaku ikanai koto ga,
mou, hobo,
kyu-juu-par-sen-to janai,
nanka, tatoeba,
Default de umaku ikanai mono dakara, kenkyuu wa.
Anything worth doing research on,
it's gotta be hard,
it's gotta be not working,
the first time.
Right, like, I don't know,
ne, your R-code's not working,
like, shikensu ga umaku ikanai,
toka, ma, sonna no, ma,
nichijou hasa hanji da to omou kara,
nanka, hitotsu kenkyuu igai no shumi wo zettai mottoku no ga daiji da to omotte,
sore ga kintore dattanda yo ne,
daigakuin no toki no.
Sou.
Dakara, hima,
ma, hima dewa nai kedo,
tomodachi mo inai kara,
jikan ga atta kara,
Then I got to like,
um,
what,
like, science-based fitness?
So I like, read a lot of, like, books,
like, the Scientific Pyramid,
and stuff like that.
I probably like, read more journals
than like, the fisheries journals.
I read like, like,
like, science,
exercise science journals.
Kitto sa, P.I. wa sa,
wa, koma,
mecha ronbun yonderu na,
nante issho de omotte kedo,
jitsu wa, nanka,
ano, journal of fishery janakute,
nanka, journal of physiology toka yonde te.
Sou, sou, sou,
exercise and science,
toka no,
nanka, journal toka mo,
mecha yonda shi,
nanka, sugoi tanoshikattan da yo ne,
sore ga,
nanka,
kenkyuu de umaku itte nai toki ni,
betsu ni,
kinou one rep max agatta kara ii kana,
mitai na koto toka mo,
sugoi atta shi.
Ato, ato,
kintore wa hikakuteki sa,
nandaro,
kakujitsu ni progress ga mieru
shumi ja.
Souda ne.
Sore wa aru ne.
Nanka,
art toka yattetari shitara,
moshikashitara,
sotchi wa sotchi de nami ga aru,
nanka, umakutteri ikanakattari
suru kamo shienai kedo.
Ma,
kintore wa kyonteki ni,
konstant ni jimu ni ittereba,
mainichi chotto zutsu wa umaku naru tte iu ka,
chotto zutsu,
09:00
kou,
ne,
tekniku ga yoku nattari da toka,
omoi mono mochi agerareru you ni nattari toka suru kara ne.
Sou, progress ga miyasui yo ne,
hontou ni ne,
suuchi ka dekiru kara ne.
Sou,
dakara,
souda ne,
dakara,
son daigakuin,
Amerika ni kite,
hajimetsu,
chotto,
nanka,
science based no,
nanka,
program no kumikata dattari toka,
ato,
dou iu ne,
split de yattara ii no ka? toka,
uwa,
meccha benkyou shita kamo,
YouTube toka,
podcast toka,
kikimakutte,
soko de hajimete,
ippana gym rat ni natta to?
Souda,
I sleep in the gym.
You know?
Kami,
kami.
Sou,
sou,
sou,
mou,
gym rat da yo ne,
hontou ni mou,
iba de wa.
Da,
sukutte moratta mitai no mon da ne,
hontou ni,
gym,
sono kodoku datta kara sa,
zutto,
daigakuin jidai wo.
Did you,
did you acknowledge
the gym people
at the end of your PhD?
Of course!
Thank you,
I gotta,
thank you to all my gym bros,
to my committee members
and the gym bros,
and,
you know,
for hyping me up
when my experiment didn't go well.
Yeah.
Your shoulder's looking
fine, man!
I do feel the benefit of it now,
now that I've been doing it
fairly constantly.
And,
like,
when you're working out,
you feel like you're better
than everybody
for waking up early
and going to the gym.
So like,
already your day starts,
like,
I'm such an achiever already!
It's like,
it's not even 8am
12:00
and I've already done my workout!
I need to sleep for my muscles!
I feel like there are a lot of
nerdy people
in the gym community.
Yeah,
yeah.
Oh, damn!
Okay,
elaborate, please!
They have like,
they have like,
like a lot of things
are in common,
I think?
So like,
It's like a PhD is not a sprint,
it's like a marathon, right?
It's like,
You need to take time
to really get results,
right?
It takes time.
In terms of research,
and also in terms of muscles.
So like,
you can't get results in two weeks,
and with muscles,
you need to do a lot of things
every year.
So like,
you need to be able to hold it.
So I think it's very similar.
Like, research and bodybuilding
are like,
you need to think about
long-term, long-term things
to get results,
it's similar.
And also,
like,
like plans.
Plans?
You need to have a short-term and long-term plan for both.
For research, you need to have a long-term plan like,
you need to do this for today's experiment,
and you need to have a long-term plan like writing a paper.
For bodybuilding, you need to have a long-term plan like,
this is the only macronutrient for today.
And for long-term planning, you need to have a plan like,
in order to lose 10kg in 6 months, you need to eat this much calories.
Like, you need to start walking from now on, right?
Yes, yes, yes!
So you need to have a long-term plan and a short-term plan for both, right?
Oh, and I thought of something while listening to that.
Isn't it similar to saying that you just need to work hard?
Like, you work really hard,
15:01
well, that's possible, right? You'll go somewhere.
But it's not like that,
you need to have a guide for the direction of your efforts,
or you need to have someone to think for you.
You need to know where you're heading and what kind of effort you're putting towards
for it to be actually a success in the end.
Because otherwise, you'll just work hard and get injured.
Yeah, that's true.
You don't take breaks at all, you work out a lot, and in the end you don't get that big.
Yeah, that's true.
Oh, that's similar to research, right?
Yeah, it's similar.
If it's a research job, it's like a good advisor, right?
Yeah, that's right.
You're the one who does it,
but if you're about to lose your way, you're the advisor who corrects you.
Or if you're in the middle of a discussion with someone in the same lab,
you're the one who refines the questions.
I think you'll get to the point where you can do it on your own pretty quickly,
with research and working out.
Oh, I see.
What do you think, Asami-san?
I'm curious to hear what you think.
Well, for me, as a PhD student,
I think this is similar to working out.
Life is working out, right?
I'm sorry, but I feel like I have no choice but to do it on my own.
It's not like someone's going to lift the weights for you when you're working out.
And I'm sure there are advisors and other people who support you,
but in the end, no one's going to do it for you.
I think that's the hard part about being a PhD student.
It's not something you can get if you take the time to do it.
You have to do it yourself.
That's why I think there are a lot of people who can't get a PhD.
There are people who can't get a PhD even after all these years, right?
So in the end, I think you have to do something on your own.
That's true. I don't know.
My default way of thinking is that I tend to overdo it on my own.
I don't have much experience of having someone else do it for me.
But when I look around me, I have to write my own thesis.
I have to write my own thesis.
It's never going to write itself, you know?
So I'm talking to myself, like I really should be writing this one thesis
that I've been doing for a while now.
No one's going to lift heavy weights for you.
Yeah, exactly. No one's going to lift heavy weights for you.
In the end, if it's your muscle, your PhD, you have to put the work in it, right?
So a PhD is bodybuilding then, right?
18:01
Life is bodybuilding.
Oh, life is bodybuilding. Yes, yes.
You are the one that needs to live, you know?
Well, thanks for coming.
I think we had a lot to talk about,
but I think the takeaway point from this conversation is basically,
everybody should lift, and life is bodybuilding.
Life is bodybuilding. 100%.
All right. Where can we find you and your podcast?
You can find us on Twitter.
X. We are pretty active on X.
We'll put the link there in the description notes.
That's great.
Thanks, Thomas, for coming.
Thanks for having me.
Bye-bye.
That's it for the show today.
Thanks for listening and find us on X at Eigo de Science.
That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.
See you next time.
