#62 - Dealing with sport-related aches and pains

Hans Chan -

What I’m Watching

Shiva Baby is my favourite small-budget independent film. It’s about a college-aged girl who attends a family funeral service who gets a lot of pressure from her family about what she’s doing with her life. Amidst all of this, she runs into her sugar daddy who turns out to be a family friend and unknown to her, is actually married. It’s very intense and funny and the acting is so good. I always try to discover these smaller less well-known productions. It’s a breath of fresh air from the rehashed stuff at the top of the box office all the time.

Resource of the week

For those of you looking to lose weight or find an exercise to help with stiff shoulders or the correct squat form or just anything fitness related, I highly recommend Jeremy Ethier’s YouTube channel. There is so much bro-science when it comes to fitness and this is a breath of fresh air.

I have been watching Jeremy’s videos for years, they’ve helped me immensely from how much weight I need to lose before bulking, to what stretches I need to do because I was squatting unevenly.

His channel is the perfect blend of scientific-based research to applicable practical advice explained in a way that intuitively makes sense and the production value is very high. It’s one of those channels that make you say ‘I can’t believe this is free’.

Quote

“Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.”

Austin Kleon - Steal Like an Artist

  • I feel like there’s a new piece of AI-related news every week. TikTok has announced that they are testing an AI chatbot called Tako which is designed to help with search and discovery. Could be interesting as it’s currently a weak point for TikTok at the moment.
  • Labour have said they will abolish leasehold if they get into power. It’s quite an interesting topic as regardless of whether Labour gets voted in, it seems there are changes coming to this sector anyway, with Michael Gove set to announce measures to protect leaseholders next month.
  • Meta gets fined $1.3 billion by the EU who also ordered it to stop transferring users’ personal info across the Atlantic for targeted ads. I’m always sceptical about these fines for big companies, how is it enforced? I don’t imagine it will just get paid off in one big lump. I imagine the army of accountants will just see it as a negotiating chip and amortise it or some other trickery.
  • The AI hype is real. Stocks like Nvidia are skyrocketing. Really seems like we are in the AI gold rush at the moment.

Thoughts

While I am enjoying the ramped-up rowing training, it is taking a toll on my body through aches and pains. To cap it all off I woke up with a stiff neck one day this week, so I decided to call a sports massage therapist for the first time.

I have to say, I’m glad I did. My therapist did an inspection and instantly said my scapula was uneven which I never noticed before. The sports massage itself was quite painful but oddly relieving. She basically described every muscle group, she pressed a pressure point on my palm which was insanely painful and said that’s a symptom of tennis elbow.

It was actually an insightful experience because, in addition to feeling relief after, she was able to identify where I was working too hard, what was weak and what muscle groups I should strengthen after. For me, it’s my glutes and using my left arm more.

So if you’ve been having a niggling aches and pains, it wouldn’t hurt to find a good sports massage therapist.

Hans