Pain sucks. Life shouldn't. 

Matt Hsu (pronounced “shoe”) specializes in work with professionals and business owners who need to give 100% to their work and play without having to worry about the pain, fatigue, frustration, and depression that come from deteriorating posture and declining physical performance. He has been helping people from all walks of life — including lawyers, doctors, dancers, dog walkers, yogis and yoginis, art teachers, students, mothers, fathers, and desk jockeys of all stripes — since 2007.

Drawing upon his dedicated studies of manual and movement therapies as well as over 10 years of experience fending off chronic pain all over his own body, Matt brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to every session to help his clients understand and master their pain so that they can get back to living their lives.

Egoscue Certified and Recommended Affiliate, Certified Rolfer, NASM CPT, CAMTC #3800

His own battle with chronic pain from the age of 16 in his feet, knees, hips, back, shoulders, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands, and head gives him a uniquely thorough understanding of musculoskeletal pain, the ways in which it can undermine an entire life, and the mental and physical hurdles that keep people from getting out of it.

Matt was trained in the Rolf Method of Structural Integration by the Rolf Institute in Boulder, CO and is an Egoscue certified Posture Alignment Specialist Level II. He is also certified as a personal trainer by the National Academy of Sports Medicine. By blending the manual therapy techniques of the Rolf Institute, the exercise therapy protocols of Egoscue, and the research based program design guidelines of NASM, Matt gets his clients back to a pain-free lifestyle as quickly as possible with the tools they need to stay pain-free.

Matt is a co-teacher of Seeing Made Easy, a course designed to help make Rolfers and other structural integrators more effective in their postural assessments and in their approaches to postural problems. He also takes part in weekly conference calls with Egoscue affiliate and Rolf Method practitioner Isaac Osborne (Santa Barbara, CA) and personal trainer and Egoscue affiliate Ann-Margaret Giovino (Ann Arbor, MI) to ensure constant connection with new developments and new ideas in dealing with posture and pain.

Matt is a founding member of RolfHub.com (your online source for information on Rolfing) and has been a technical consultant to the Ida P. Rolf Research Foundation’s Communication Committee and the Rolf Institute Membership Committee. He is certified by the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, is a California Massage Therapy Council Certified Massage Therapist, and holds a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Passionate about playing hockey, he is also the author of the Ultimate Guide to Hockey Goalie Gear. When not at the office, Matt can be found at one of San Diego’s local ice rinks being hit in the head by pucks or coaching young goalies to get hit in the head by pucks more often. He is the goalie coach for the La Jolla Jaguars Mite B and Squirt A travel ice hockey teams and runs the Friday evening Goalie Gauntlet Goalie Clinic at Ice Town UTC. He also guest lectures for fitness classes at San Diego State University.

Frequently Asked Personal Questions

1. How did you end up getting into this work?
2. Are you a chiropractor or medical doctor?
3. Do you really understand what it's like to get older and have your body slow down and get rickety? You look too young to know.

1. How did you end up getting into this work?

   I had bad posture from a young age, but it never really affected me beyond nagging from my parents. The real pain started with a back injury when I was 16. An ocean wave slammed me in the lower back and sent my back muscles into spasm for years. I was unable to bend or twist normally, and I noticed my right arm had lost some range of motion. My doctors gave me muscle relaxants and said everything would be fine.

   The next year, I pulled a groin muscle so badly I needed crutches to get to class for several days. The doctor said it would get better with time. He suggested ibuprofen to handle the swelling and sent me on my way. A few weeks later, the injury still not feeling right, I was skating around practicing hockey by myself, and I tweaked my lateral hamstring and hip abductor on the left. I developed some very interesting compensations around that double injury.

   At 20, my right shoulder went out. Over and over again. I was told to just rest and it would get better. So I sat at a computer and just rested. Eventually I was prescribed physical therapy exercises that did absolutely nothing.

   By 21, my forearms, wrists, and elbows were alight with nervy pain. I was told that I needed to not use a computer as much. So all I could really do was try to minimize my computer time while still not allowing myself to pursue hockey because my shoulder still wasn't right.

   By 22, my left knee was pinching so badly that I needed to get an MRI to figure out why I couldn't walk up and down stairs or jog comfortably. The MRI results were clean and the doctor told me that, despite years of rest (see above), I was using my knee too much.

   That was the last time I consulted a doctor about my musculoskeletal pain. I keep the MRIs on display in my office as a reminder of this moment.

   Over the next few years, pain developed in my feet and calves and finally got in to my hips. I woke up many mornings feeling 90 years old, wondering how I was going to survive another 20 years.

   When I found that restoring my body's muscle memory for good alignment made pain go away, I got excited and began learning everything I could to reclaim my life. I am now extremely grateful for the opportunity to share with you the things I've learned from my own struggles and with the various aches and pains I've helped others finally overcome.

2. Are you a chiropractor or medical doctor?

   No. I do not claim to have medicinal or herbal cures for pain or special skills that you must keep coming back to me for. I help you decode the clues your body is giving you so that you can recapture a pain free life.

   If you are sick or in need of life-saving attention (e.g. broke a bone, bleeding profusely, have an internal disease, etc.), I am NOT the one to see!

3. Do you really understand what it's like to get older and have your body slow down and get rickety? You look too young to know.

   See above. I have had the kind of pain, stiffness, and fatigue that would make you laugh or cry in disbelief. The issues I've had most commonly present themselves in people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. It's only because I was young when they struck that I even dared think they could be beaten. I've now seen people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s beat pain too often to think it's just unique to me!