As part of the new web series, The Role Model In You — here is the most recent interview. The Role Model In You series discusses how individuals were influenced as a child to lead a healthy lifestyle. It covers who influenced these individuals, the changes they made in their life to be healthy, and the message they would like to convey to the youth of today. Our guests include doctors, soccer stars, Super Bowl champions, NBA players, Olympic gold medalist, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and just regular people looking to share their story. We hope you enjoy it!
1. Your name, title, and age? What do you do (or did you do) for a living?
My name is Matt Hsu. I’m a certified Rolfer™, Posture Alignment Specialist trained by Egoscue, and Corrective Exercise Specialist certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine. I help people with aching backs, numb toes, creaky knees, and sore shoulders learn how to get their bodies back to a healthy, happy state again.
2. Who was the person that inspired you as a child to eat healthy and stay fit? What was their relationship to you?
Early on in my recreational hockey career, I started getting little injuries that kept nagging and hampering me. My mom, who was born in China and raised in Taiwan, started taking me to various Chinese doctors to see what could be done to holistically get me healthy again.
3. What did they do to inspire you?
Besides making sure I was always eating enough vegetables (and meat!), she was the one who first started telling me that the painkillers I was relying on were not a good long term solution. She was also the one to tell me that sitting at the computer playing video games all day wasn’t good for me. At first I dismissed all this, but when the ibuprofen-induced stomach aches hit and my aches and pains mounted in my late teens, I couldn’t ignore her wisdom any longer. I started off on a quest to figure out how to really get my body working again.
4. How did their lesson change your life?
I started really paying attention to what pain really meant, and from that started thinking about how to really get my body back to a functional state. I realized that what I was being told by a lot of doctors and other professionals really didn’t make much sense and that I needed to really take on the challenge of rebuilding my body myself. I realized that nobody was going to be able to fix everything for me and that I needed to study up on the way the body works to really improve my quality of life as I got older. Now I consider exercise a high priority that keeps me feeling healthy and happy.
5. Do you convey their message to kids in your life presently?
I convey the message to kids, adults, and houseplants! For kids specifically, I coach young ice hockey goalies in San Diego and try to get them to push themselves physically. Goalies can be a lazy bunch (like anyone, certainly), but their unique position allows them to really hide out of most head coaches’ sight. I encourage my goalies to be active, stay active, and get fit so that they can be the best goalies they can be.
6. What would be your main message to children today to lead healthy lifestyles?
Put the iPad down, and go throw a real basketball at a real hoop. It’s way more fun, and if enough of you do it, you might start to see the resurgence of ice cream trucks (so you can be a little unhealthy while you’re out being fit!).
7. Do you have a web site you would like to promote….web address only?