How Kevin Hart Recovered From His Devastating Car Accident

I say this man, it's like that it's the story. You're just putting that story together. And I don't think, you know, without the stories, what do you talk about? What do you talk about? You know, what is the interesting side of conversation about your growth or your journey? If it's just the easiest, I just took the highway and got off of the exit and right there the exit, I found the gold. Everybody else did. It's no... Right. What is it? My dad was rich and I have a trust fund and I never have to work ever. What is the interesting side to that? Like, I don't... There's no... There is no bonus in that. Like, I just fucking broke my goddamn back, right? The dopest thing for me about doing that was not being able to walk, but then being told that if I'm patient, I can recover fully. I can get back to myself and me instantly thinking in my head, I can actually be better than what I was. If he's telling me I can get back to 100%, I'm gonna be better. So the game instantly clicked on. All right, tomorrow we start, we play. New level. I can't fucking walk. Goddamn, here we go. Can't wipe my ass. I'm not fucking getting this. I can't get in the gym. PT is some weird shit. I'm just taking two steps on a fucking booster ball and I'm... All right, this is a little discouraging, but I know they said I'm supposed to do it three days. I'm gonna listen to them, but on those other... On those other four days, is there anything else that I can do to be working on? Kevin, you can strengthen your lungs up, working on your breathing. Here's a breathing machine. Okay. What about my hands? Or anyway, my sense is tennis ball. Can I be squeezing? Should I be doing anything? No, we don't have anything like that. We don't recommend it. So if I found something in our research, if it's just motor skills and working on... Is that fine? Yeah, that's fine. But, you know, it's okay if that's what you want to do. Okay. I saw that, yeah, I'm not getting the same. The doctors are just telling me the stuff that I need to know. Stay within those lines. I'm gonna find other things that I can do because I'm playing the game now. I'm never gonna overexert myself. But the game is to be better. How do I be better than what I was? Because if I do that, ooh, fuck. For me, I just beat me. Yeah. This ain't about nobody else. I don't get fucked about nobody else. I just beat me. If I can keep beating myself, Pauls, if I can keep doing that, then that means that I'm in a battle with the only person that fucking makes sense. I'm in a battle with the only person that I really want to fucking beat, and that's me. I don't care about anybody else. I have no worry or gripe about the next man or woman's journey or their level of success. That's not what I'm up against. If I can continue to outdo me from the day before, then I'm ahead. That's the newfound energy that I got out of life now. I'm on this amazing Rocky story with myself. It's in my head. Nobody else is watching this movie but me. It's in my head. This is Rocky. This is the comeback. This is exactly what I saw in the movie. I'm a comeback better than ever. I'm gonna be 41. My body's gonna be ripped up. I'm gonna be about 8% body fat. Then I'm ready. Ready for what, Kevin? I don't fucking know. Ready to be better than you were before? I don't know, but that's what I want. I want that day to be like, yeah. Now what? Then I figure out what. I figure out what that what is then. When you got injured, you were explaining it to me before the podcast, but I didn't want to talk too much about it because I wanted to hear it now so everybody could hear it. What exactly was the injury? I fractured my spine. It's either from my T10 to my L1 or from my L1 to my T10, whatever order that goes in. How many fractures is that? I mean, that's fucking, that's your spine. That's about- So you fractured basically everything? Everything. I mean, you got like this much space in my back. So you gotta think, first of all, I'm already small. So this is practically my whole back if you look at this right here. If you look at this, this is practically my whole back. So all of this fractured and what happens is they had to fuse my spine. So they have to remove the discs in between? They basically had to fix. So the bones where it's fractured, basically your spine is now out of whack. The things that keep your spine connected and that allow you the flexibility are out of whack. So these pieces of those bone fragments that are out of place out. So they gotta fuse that shit back together. So I got eight screws. Do they take the disc material out and compress it and then screw them all? So is the bone all one piece now? I think I'm one. I don't know about the disc. I don't have that answer. That's a little too technical for me and I should know that because it was my body. But what I do know is that this thing that's my spine has eight screws and these eight screws now hold it together. So through this time of healing, because I now have metal in my back, it was about getting your back to be comfortable with the metal, but also back to a normal level of flexibility. So where people fuck up, when you get this type of energy and you stay still, you allow that metal to get stiff. You're not moving it. So now your movements become robotic with it. So because as soon as I got out the hospital, I started. I didn't have days off. As soon as I got out, I started physical therapy. I did not wait. I got off medication. I said, I'm not taking on meds. My dad was on drugs. I was like, I'm not fucking around with that. So I dealt with the pain, but I said, I gotta start now. Because every day that I wait makes it harder to go. So because I was back and forth, side to side, doing all of those things, I got my body to get accustomed to it and I got flexibility. So now when you see me working out, it looks as if I'm back and I'm probably 98% back to myself right now. But the work that I put into my core and my upper body over the years are what saved me outside of God, of course, in that situation. Because I want to tell those people just for you to know, this health and wellness shit is so much bigger than what you may think it is. Taking care of your body, you don't know when all of that stuff comes into play and adds up correctly. The human body is amazing. Recovery, the ability to snap back and go back to what it once was, the body muscle memory, all of that stuff plays a major factor. So my healing was a lot faster because of the years of work that I put into it before. Now if I had enough and I didn't have that core, well, I'd be paralyzed. I'd be fucking paralyzed. I mean, they said, you're literally talking about this much. Doctor, look me in the eyes, you're lucky to be walking. You're this much. If your core wasn't in the shape that it was, and if you didn't have the strength to take whatever that impact was and stay, you would have been snapped and you would never be walking again. So that instantly, thank God I go, you know what? Thank God for my trainer who jumped into my life at a certain time and changed my way of thinking. I'm a boss, round and boss, everline. We've been rocking for seven years and the consistency of four years before of every day, every day. So now I'm like, you're not wasting your time ever. So when those people say, what are you working out for? What are you getting in shape for? Why are you going every day? You don't know when you're going to need to fucking tap into all of the work that you've done. You don't know. If you ever need it, but to just know that you've taken care of yourself, to know that you've given yourself a chance to fucking not only survive, but perform. You've given yourself a chance to perform at a high level on a day to day by taking care of your engine. This is my machine. So I'm taking care of the engine, just like any car, oil changes, just like, you know, your fucking, your brakes, your tires, the rotors, all of that shit, you taking care of that. So that's a great ride every time. You got to do the same with your body. Don't ignore that shit, people. You know, we dropping like flies right now. Heart attack, strokes, you know, kidney failure. You got people with diabetes. You got people getting legs or arms cut off from bad eating, from bad eating over the course of years. Take that shit serious. Don't wait till the end. That's serious. That's not, that's not a joke. So when I look at people dying around me, we have no control over when the day is going to come, but I'm going to try to help amplify my time here as much as I can. That's the big one, right? Amplify your time. You have energy, you have a different kind of energy than someone who's unhealthy. You have the ability to push forward. You have the ability to get you done. You have more enthusiasm because your body feels good. So you're recovering from your back injury. How long ago was the injury? How long ago was the crash now? September. So what is that? September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, what's this, May? Yeah, so only eight months. Almost, it was about to be June, so about to be nine. I'm going to get into nine. And you said you're like 98% percent. 98%. I'm down to probably 10% body fat right now. And as far as movement, you can basically do everything? I'm doing everything. Wow. I'm doing everything. I'm up to running again. I'm probably at three, I can go three and a half miles straight before I'm like, oh. The back starts to bother you? Yeah, before I get tight. And what are you doing for the back? Are you doing yoga? Are you doing, what kind of exercise are you doing? I got physical therapy. That's random. Shout out to Dr. Pat. I make sure that getting the massages, getting the work done, because I'm doing so much with it. But then working out, I don't want to not take care of that as well. So from heating it, from treatment, just literally doing things to make sure that I'm constantly working on those muscles and not forgetting them. I'm getting older. I don't want to act like that's not the case or that's not a reality. I'm 40 now. So how do I take care of this machine? So at 50, I'm not moving as if I'm 70. I'll say that's been a great adjustment, but one that's really made me feel better. Stretching. I didn't understand the importance of stretching, of actually resting. I was, I got to get it. Let's go. Let's go, Tom. Wait. Hit it. Clanging and banging, baby. Clanging and banging. But now make sure you get your rest time so that you can come back and give the energy. The cardio changes, roll machines. I'm on a bike. I'm pelotoning. I'm hydroing. I'm running. So the workouts change and you become more consistent with your system, with my new system. So I think by July, July, my goal is for my 41st birthday, that's July 6th, to be around 8.5% body fat at the age 41. So it's all about looking good with the body fat? For me, the body fat means that I've just been super focused. I eat. I don't want people to think that I don't eat. I'm not a foodie though, so it doesn't really count, but I'm not on some strict crazy diet. You're not a foodie like you don't enjoy. I'm not a foodie, man. I don't eat red meat. Really? Red meat, no fish, no seafood. I'm a plant-based eater. Everything's plant. I'll go chicken every once in a while. I'll dabble into my chicken. That's what people don't understand. I don't think people really get that or understand that. Just because you make the decision to go and try plant-based doesn't mean that you have to engulf in that world. Learn it, understand it, and see if there's benefits that work for you. You got to be open to making adjustments too. Do you know C.T. Fletcher? I do know of him. I don't know him, but I know of him. Love that guy to death. Hulk. He's as motivational as anybody that's ever lived. He had a heart attack. He had his heart replaced. Got a new heart. I don't think he's confirmed it, but he believes it's an Asian woman. I don't know if that's how he feels or he's had some weird feelings about having this other person's heart inside of his body. He went 100% plant-based. Just changed everything. Changed his entire diet and puts all these videos up about it. He thinks his heart came from an Asian woman. He believes his heart came from an Asian woman. I don't think he's confirmed that because I don't think they tell you, but I think he's just- Would you want to know? Do you want to know? Yeah, I'd kind of want to know. Maybe he knows now. I don't believe he knew last time I saw him in here, but the first time I met him, he's a powerful guy. He's still your motherfucking set. He's that guy. He's just always this booming voice and just gigantic muscles. He's all drive and go. When his heart failed and then he had to have his heart replaced, I saw him about a year later and he had this remarkable calm that had come over him. He was just this different person, very loving and embracing and had all this happiness and all this joy and all this appreciation. Now all he needs is plants. He swears by it. That light. For him, that's the way to go. No, I'm talking about that light. I saw that light. When you come close to that light and that light that I'm talking about is death. If you come close to that light, when you do and if you are fortunate enough to come back from that light, you value life differently. There are no bad days for me. My biggest cry in life came from the first day that I came home from the hospital because I never had to see that house again. There was an option of me never seeing that home again. There was an option of me never walking on that driveway again. There was an option of me never seeing my wife and my kids again. It wasn't like a build up cry. It was pull up, get out, feet touch the ground. What the fuck just came over me? Boo hoo. What the fuck? What just happened? By the way, a painful cry because my back was fucked up. I'm crying hard and I'm in pain, but the realization of none of this has to be. You're not in control. Hey Kevin, you're not in control buddy. You thought you were. You moved for a minute. Like, no, I got this. I'm going to do that. Don't worry about it. I got it. We'll be good. I'm going to make sure it happens. You were in control. That's what it is. It's literally that. At any decision, at any given time, it can be over. It's not until you get close to that light that you truly respect that. I respect that. There are no bad days. Hey man, miss me with any bullshit. I'm smiling because I have no reason to be angry because I don't have to be here. You appreciate that sunshine because you've been in the pouring rain. Man, hey, hey, that's a fuck yes. So when you talk about C.T. Fletcher and you talk about his calm, you know what man? I've been on the other side. He's been, yeah, let's go. And that's great. That doesn't mean that he doesn't still have that, but now there's a different energy and a different level of relaxation that can come because I know how fortunate I am to be taking these steps. Yeah. It's a theory. Every day really truly is a gift. Sheesh. Yeah. And you take it for granted. It's real. You take it for fucking granted, man. I'm going to tell you, not being able to wipe my ass changed everything. You got one of them bidets in your house. You press the button and it shoots the water every day. I couldn't even do that. Really? I couldn't do that. I'm talking, you take it for granted. You take it for granted, man. All of this, all this conversation is clapping. This easy, yo. Hey, come here. All this shit here. All the movement. You just think it's okay. You go through a situation where it's compromised. How long did it take before you could start walking again, normal or semi-normal? I lied in a hospital because I didn't want them to know that I was having pain because I thought that they were going to stop me from letting me continue to try my walks. It was like day seven in the hospital and I had the walker and it was slow walks, but I was dragging. It was upper body. And I was masking it as if I was feet, right? Because I didn't want to stop trying. That was my fucking, my go get, my drive for anything was those, that half hour or 40 where I could get up and go walk because I was just laying in the bed all day. And God bless me and my wife and my kids. There's times like if this is the remote control and I'm in the bed and I just want to get to the control, well, I can't get to it. If you didn't position the control down here by my hands so I could get it, this here throws my whole fucking eye. So now I can't press the button to call nerves and every second is, babe, can you grab the control for me? Have, do. And there was a time where my son, my son was like, fuck it. My son just slept in the bed with me. My son, he was like, I'm here, dad, I'm up. My son didn't want to go to school. My daughter didn't want to go to school. They didn't want to leave my side. They stayed there and middle of the night if they heard, if they heard me, you all right, dad, what you want? They were up. My son doubled as nurse. My daughter doubled as nurse. Nico doubled as it, you know, they, they were there. Our brother came and that's when the, that's when the care about what was important really changed the shit that I thought was important. The things that you think are important. You get to looking around at a hospital room with four walls. None of that shit that you think is important is in there. It's one of these people. None of the other shit was in there. None of it. None of it was fucking in there. It's also gotta make you feel great that there's that much love, you know, that they cared about you. That's what got, that's what gets you. That's what gets you through it. Yeah. So those little steps that I was taking, you know, the, the discomfort of not being able to do the love and energy made me go, it's going to be all right. I'm gonna get there because you definitely feel defeated for a little bit. And so how long before you were walking without a Walker? Um, I was stubborn man. So probably two and a half weeks to two, two and a half weeks. I should've had the Walker though. Wow. I should've had the Walker, but it was, I'm, I'm giving the perception that it's, that it's better than what it is. And I had the back brace on. You faked it till you make it. It was, I definitely, I definitely, I definitely was, was, hey, smiling. What's up y'all? Right. Good morning everybody. Given this perception of Bill Burr told me he went to visit you. Yeah. And he said, and he said, he goes, he was a fucking guy's already walking around. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. Given the perception, cause you don't, I don't want you to, to, to worry. Yeah. I got, it's me. Yeah. Let me, I'm going through it and I'm gonna figure it out. I don't want that worry placed on anybody else. I told you I stopped fucking taking meds. Yeah. So every night was a, was a horrible night. That's so much better for you though. Just accept that pain. Every night. I did that with my knee surgery and it's obviously a much less painful thing. But I was like, I took that shit once for one of my knee surgeries one day and I was like this, I feel so fucking stupid. Fuck this. I slobbered on myself. That's when I said no, no. I was talking to a piece of slobber. Yeah. I was by myself alone in my apartment and I was thinking, this was, you know, back when I lived in New York and I was like, I am not doing this again. This is one day. I'd rather, I'd rather be in searing pain and have my senses than to be stupid. I felt so dumb. Just dumb. I felt dumb. I was like, yeah. I'm like, this is not me. I'm not into, I'm not into escape. I don't want to escape. I want to dig deep. Not that bad. Yeah. I'd rather just feel the pain. I'm not looking for it that bad. It's a sensation. It's a terrible sensation, but I know what it is. It's just letting me know that there's a problem and we'll fix that problem. I don't like the look that comes with being high. Yeah. Like when I see what people look like that, I don't like that look. Like. The pill high? This is sweet. High. No, that's that's that's I'm talking about this. Oh yeah. That when you don't know which way this here, you, you don't know what's going on with your hands. I don't like that. I don't want to look. I don't want to look like that. Is there a struggle to find time like to manage the time between work and family relationships? Not after that accident. No, not after that fucking accident. It was the best eye opening experience ever. You know what I mean? It's I was married to my career and dating my family. Mm. Right. Like I'm right. I'm all about this work and all about this hustle. Granted, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a good thing. But after a certain point, you got to prioritize accordingly. Yeah, when you get to a certain point where the decisions that can be made are a little more controlled and you have the ability to maneuver differently because of the success that you've obtained. Make those adjustments. I didn't make those adjustments. I was still hustle, hustle, hustle. Granted, great dad. We're doing stuff. I'm home. I'm getting back home. But my in and outs three days I'm out two days, three days. I'm out. I got to go from the movie. Y'all come down for the weekends. All right. I see you guys will eat dinner. We'll do stuff. And it's great. Crammed it all in. All right. Y'all got to go. I'm working and it's not bad. But now. All right. I'll film a movie after I'm done filming a movie. Why I got I need to take 30 days off. I need to take 40 days off. That's just with me and the fam. Now. Hey, you go tour. It was just bow year and a half. We out four days out the fucking week. I'm out year and a half. I got to get it. Well now let's go a month and a half. Let's stop for three weeks. I'm with the fam. So I still have my three days a week that I was here. But then I'm gonna stop for three weeks. This is dedicated to fam time. Don't nobody do anything with me or talk to me. I'm home. Now my office. I was in that office when we fucking open. Office open at nine. I'm there at eight. You know there's a chance that I may be in that office till fucking six. Now. Yo no matter what guys that day in the office has to end at like three. I got to be home for dinner. I got dinner with the fam. My priorities have changed. But it brings me back to the decisions that you're now able to make based off of life's circumstances. Life's lessons. So because of all of the shit that I went through. Because of the things that I now got to see. Because of that hospital room and those four walls and me seeing my family and what that love did for me and to me. Well I'd be damned if I fucking looked past that. I'd be damned if I not do what I'm supposed to do and give that the same amount of attention in return. Because my eyes got open. Fuck is that why that happened? What are you saying to me? Was I supposed to? What? Okay. I'm going to assume. I'm going to assume and I'm going to look at the signs that are clearly being given. And I'm going to try my best to do my part. I'm going to try my best to grow. So my time now is so valuable. But the priority within my time are making sure that the people that I love and that love me have some time. When it's all said and done I want to know that I made those adjustments. I want to know that I did my part. You achieved that balance. Absolutely. But it was learned. It was learned. Now this is information. Yes. It's fucking information. And there's one side of information that I had which was go get it. I'm out. I'm out. I got to go get it. I don't got time to be fucking standing there man. It's shit to do. Which I still do do. I don't want to make it seem like that isn't in me. But there's a balance. There's now a balance. That's the trickiest shit in life. Yeah. It's to find that balance. Find a balance. Not just be a fucking savage out there grinding and attacking all day. But to have that balance and appreciate. Especially appreciate family right? It's something that I've had to learn. And that I'm still learning. It's not something that I've knocked out the park completely yet because it's a growing fucking... Yeah. You just you got to just keep being a sponge and being willing to fucking grow.