Good morning all!

Bit of a tech focus this week, so hope you'll find it useful.

Obviously, we know "too much tech is bad for your neck". Smart phones, iPads, computers in general are massively disrupting proper posture and causing significant changes in young, developing spines… but it's not going away and is only likely to become more and more ingrained in our modern lives.

Here are a few recent finds I've been experimenting with and have found useful so far…

The new iPhone iOS is out and as always there's a bunch of new stuff - some of which is obvious, and a whole lot that isn't. Here's a great little article that digs into some new "hidden" features that can make our inevitable iPhone experience a little better. My favourite is the new voice control feature – it makes a hands-free life even easier.

Punkt. Great name. Great phone. Simple. And by simple I literally mean "simple". Punkt's MP01 phone does calls, messages, a basic calendar and alarm. That's it. I've set up my office - I mean, iPhone - to divert all calls to this little beauty. Then in the evenings I can turn off my iPhone and still receive important calls on the simple phone. It also means that I'm less likely to be mindlessly scrolling through Insta (or worse) when I'm out and about, and who knows, I may actually interact with someone!?

Of course, you could use any "simple" phone (they're super cheap these days) and get a basic £5/month plan for it. I'm calling it a game changer.

Foam rolling. Ouch. But good. Vibrating? Interesting… Put the two together and you have a Vyper (I'm digging the Vyper 2.0 Blue Camo). They reckon it helps you warm-up and recover faster - sweet.

Google in your ear. Yep, it's happening. Google are about to release their new ear buds that will pretty much take you into the future. They'll even translate a foreign language in your ear in real time!! Apparently, they'll also play music and podcasts and be sweat proof for when you’re crushing it in the gym or walking the dogs in the rain.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV). This is pretty much a fancy way of measuring how adaptable you heart rate is to the forever varying stressors both in and out of your body. The more adaptable your heart is, the higher the coherence with your nervous system (and we're all about nervous systems!).

There are a few different devices you can use to measure your HRV and I've found the HRV Tracker App on the Apple Watch really easy and useful. I've been using it to get a gauge on when and how hard I should train. Some days I've felt "fine" but seen that my system is a little bit too stressed for a big workout, which is useful to help avoid over-training and/or injury.

That's pretty much it for me this week! But I will say that I've had a few people reach out for tips about moving towards a plant-based diet after watching The Game Changers doco on Netflix recently. It's a great reminder that we can have all the best technology but if we continue to fuel our bodies with challenging foods, we're going to suffer either now or in the future. I highly recommend it.

Peace,

Luke x