Sitting At The Table

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Often times as a Muscle Activation Techniques™ specialist when it comes to trying develop a deeper understanding of how and why MAT™ works like it does I am often confronted by others with the question or belief of, "Why do I need to know that?" or, "How is knowing that going to help improve me as a specialist, serve my clients better, or make more money?".

After attending the Upper Body Masters weekend this past weekend I believe I have finally developed a reasoning I feel confident in as to why it is important to have an expert level of understanding of more than just how I as a professional do things (the tools that I use, ie CAM, AMCS MMT, PIC, DFAMAT) but why what I do has the effect that it does.

I think a lot of MAT™ specialists have been in the situation at some point where they will have a client invalidate or overrule what the MAT™ specialist thinks or is trying to do because it seems contradictory to what their doctor or chiropractor or physical therapist or even acupuncturist have told them.  Essentially what the client is saying is because we as both professionals and as a community have not earned the professional respect and confidence of these other professionals, our judgement, and subsequently our modality, are seen as inferior to theirs.

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So how do we earn the right to sit at the same professional table as doctors, chiropractors, and physical therapists if that is something that we as individuals and as a community want in some regard?*

Even though we are aligning ourselves with the exercise industry, if we want to develop the reputation as experts in muscle, we must hold ourselves to higher educational standards than what is presently accepted by the fitness industry.  In fact, it is my belief that we must hold ourselves to the same standards of understanding of our modality and what it could affect as those who have met the rigorous requirements of the various health and medical fields.

This means that in addition to having an expert level of understanding of the tools we use (CAM, AMCS MMT, PIC, and DFAMAT), we must also develop an expert level of understanding of joints, force, physics, mechanics, physiology, biochemistry, neurophysiology, and any other field of study that may possibly help to explain why we make the decisions that we do.  We must go beyond understanding methods to understanding principles and making decisions based off of those instead of defaulting to, "I do this because this is what Greg Roskopf said to do."  I believe this to go for the MATRx process as well.  There has to be some scientific basis and defense for what is happening, one that we as a community must continue to research and develop.

And here's the thing:  I believe that the responsibility of educating ourselves to develop this level of understanding of what we do and why falls on each of us as individuals.  If we want to have our profession and our community as a whole garner the same level of respect when it comes to a client's neuromuscular system as other professions garner for the rest of the human body, we must each accept the responsibility of doing what it takes to get ourselves there.  We cannot simply rely on only the best in our profession to advance our community.

Each of us must accept the responsibility of earning the right to sit at the table.

Be great.

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*This is only part of the process of earning our seat, but a vital part nonetheless.