The Importance of Timing

Image courtesy of musclegeeks.com

People's understanding of what MAT provides the opportunity for tends to lend itself towards improving the ability of muscle fibers to contract and generate tension.  While this is often true, I think it is important to point out that it is not just the ability to generate more tension that is improved, but also the ability to generate that tension the moment an external stimulus is imposed.


It does not matter how much tension can be generated by the muscles that control the knee.  If they are unable to generate the exact amount of tension you need them to at the exact moment in time you need it to be generated, that could be the difference between rupturing your ACL and walking away injury-free.

A great example of this happened to me this past Spring.  I was playing in a city league basketball game and went up for a dunk along the baseline.  An opposing player put his body into my chest when I was in mid-air and I had to grab onto the rim to protect myself.  The problem was, because of the contact I didn't get up as high as I had expected and I slipped off of the rim.  I fell backwards and landed straight-legged on my right leg with that hip externally rotated.  I felt my body continue to travel backwards and laterally over that leg as my foot stayed planted to the ground, and then I felt an immense pressure on the medial aspect of my knee.

It was right at that moment that I caught myself with my left leg and hopped up.  I was a little shaken because I thought I was on the verge of seriously injuring myself, but I didn't have any pain at all.

Two weeks prior I began scheduling regular MAT sessions.  I am thoroughly convinced that had I not begun those sessions when I did, I would not have walked off that court that day and the entire course of events between then and now would have been dramatically altered.

The next day I went back in for another MAT session and had my hips worked on.  I have not experienced any pain, swelling, or sign of injury in general from that incident, and I have MAT to thank because of that.

Even a genetically superior being like Derrick Rose had issues with the timing of tension generation. Do you really think you aren't susceptible?
Image courtesy of fansaloon.com

 

You may be strong and healthy and lift a lot of weight and feel great and that's awesome, but understand if the timing of your muscles' ability to generate tension isn't there, if that orchestration of joint management is off in any way, you are leaving yourself very susceptible to injury.

And quite frankly there isn't any faster way to not get to where you want to go than to be out of the game completely because of some preventable injury.

Weight lifting can't guarantee that timing.  Neither can plyometrics.  Or yoga.  Or Pilates.  Or running.  Or swimming.  All of these other things will simply improve the ability of the guys that are already working well, but it is the guys who aren't doing their job that will be your downfall.

With all of the time and energy you are investing in building a bigger, stronger, more powerful, or more efficient and well-running body, what are you doing to make sure that investment is insured?

Inter­ested in find­ing out more? Check out the “Mus­cle Acti­va­tion Tech­niques™” page.

Inter­ested in set­ting up an assess­ment time or dis­cussing this sub­ject fur­ther? E-mail Char­lie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

Your body.  Your training.

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