#TBT: October 23-Ocotber 25, 2012

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Only a couple posts this week for #TBT.  Check them out below!

Stability of Your Feet

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The other day I had a really interesting conversation with someone as we were noticing how another individual was walking.  The person I was with commented that they believed the reason the other person was walking how they were is because their body was unstable and as such their motion throughout their gait was locked up to protect them.

Five Reasons to Consider MAT™

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Here are five reasons why you may want to include Muscle Activation Techniques™ into your long-term wellness plan:

Long-term Maintenance

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It was the coolest thing.  A few weeks back I met with a prospective client to figure out whether they would be a good fit for the Muscle Activation Techniques™ process.  This person didn't presently have any physical complaints but had experienced some issues in the recent past that allowed them to realize just how much they wanted to keep up their currently active lifestyle for as long as possible.

Muscle Tutoring

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When you exercise, you are going to be using the muscles that are already working well.  This is done in order to provide the most efficient means by which to accomplish the task at hand.  Whether you are lifting weights, running, playing a sport, participating in a group fitness class, or performing any other means of physical activity, you are programmed to do so as efficiently as possible.  This means if muscles that should have an ability to help perform the task are not able to be used, we will naturally compensate and use other muscles in its place to still achieved the desired outcome.

Weak Ankles

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When I was 14 I rolled both of my ankles within a couple weeks of each other during 8th grade basketball.  "You must have weak ankles," is what my coach told me.  The solution?  Bilateral ankle braces.

Update on "Running, and My Back, Feet, and Shoulders"

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About five and a half months ago I posted on an experience I had while running, titled, "Running, and My Back, Feet, and Shoulders".  As I was trying to think of a post to write for today, I was struggling immensely to come up with anything.  My mind has been all over the place recently trying to figure out a new daily routine that is efficient with the added workload of grad school and as such I have not been consistent with my posting.  But I decided I was going to write a post for today, so I sat down to do just that.

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And I sat.  And I sat.  And I sat.  And I started getting restless because I was struggling to come up with a single idea.  So I decided to go running.  And while I was running I noticed something, or the lack of something, that was different since I last wrote about my experience running.

I didn't have any shoulder discomfort.  Nor did I have any lower back discomfort.  Nor did my knees feel like they were about to explode.  In fact, overall, my body felt pretty good.  And that is the first time in a LONG time I can say that in relation to running.

And I am thoroughly convinced that Muscle Activation Techniques™ has played a huge role in my body feeling this way.

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Over the past six months I have my feet worked on many times with the MAT™ process.  While they are by no means perfect, they are a heck of a lot better than they were, and the rest of my definitely body notices.

So yeah, I guess that run accomplished the desired goal.  I returned home with a calmer mind, a plan for a blog post, and a new appreciation for my career and what I get to do to help others every day.
That's part of my MAT™ story.  What's yours?

Interested in finding out more about MAT™?  Check out the Muscle Activation Techniques™ page!

Interested in setting up an assessment or discussing this subject further?  Leave a comment below or e-mail Charlie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com!

Your body.  Your training.

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"But I Don't Have Any Pain..."

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During the Muscle Activation Techniques™ internship this past weekend a really great question was brought up regarding how to handle situations where somebody doesn't think they need MAT™ because they are not currently in pain.  As we discussed, these types of interactions highlight common misconceptions about MAT™.

MAT™ and the Detox Experiment

My girlfriend, Julie, and I have been on a detox protocol through her work (Life Time Fitness Schaumburg) since August 10.  No coffee.  No black tea.  No eggs.  No butter, cheese, or any other dairy.  No peanuts or peanut butter.  No soy.  And some other rules that include no sugar.

Patience With The Process

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I have been incredibly fortunate to have had some clients over the last few months who have completely bought into the MAT™ process.  They didn't come in looking for quick relief from their symptoms or for things to be "fixed".  They took MAT™ for what it was and didn't expect it to do more than what I was telling them it was designed to do--make muscles contract more efficiently.  Their mindset has been superb throughout and the way in which their body has responded has been really cool to see.

PIC or DFAMAT?

I remember when Jacques Henri Taylor presented in my internship in July 2011 he brought up the idea that there are very specific reasons why you might choose to utilize a PIC instead of a DFAMAT when addressing a position of inefficient contractile ability.  He cautioned us not to disown the PIC because we had been exposed to the DFAMAT, but rather to explore why we might employ one over the other.

Emeka Okafor on Muscle Activation Techniques™

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Check out this video featuring Emeka Okafor of the NBA's Washington Wizards as he discusses his experience with Muscle Activation Techniques™ provided by my friend and mastery level MAT™ specialist Jeremy Rucker!

How can MAT™ help you do what you love to do?

Interested in finding out more?  Check out the Muscle Activation Techniques™ page!

Interested in setting up an assessment or discussing this subject further?  Leave a comment below or e-mail Charlie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com!

Your body.  Your training.

Like this post?  Drop a comment below and “Like” Self Made® on Facebook!

Want to use this article on your blog, in your newsletter, or on any other platform?  You may, but be sure to include all of the biographical info found in the yellow box below!

Checking Gauges and Displays

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Driving back to the airport yesterday, I know I would be cutting it close on gas.  However, I thought it would be so great to get to and from my destination without having to fill up at all.

I started with under half a tank for my return trip, but I was taking a shorter route this time so I thought I could make it.  Throughout the drive I would compare my remaining driving miles on my phone to how many miles the dashboard display told me I had left in my tank.

About 40 miles out it looked like I was going to be golden, until the remaining gas miles started to rapidly drop.  Clearly there had been some type of miscalculation earlier as the miles left in my tank looked like they'd hit zero in a matter of minutes.

So what did I do?  I pulled over and got gas, duh.

But here's the thing--having those gauges and displays to both help me calculate if making the trip without filling up was initially possible as well as to alert me that I needed to stop ASAP saved me from some serious hassle.  Without those, I certainly would have run out of gas and may have missed my flight home.

It was an easy decision to listen to what those displays were telling me.  I didn't think I knew better and just needed to suck it up and drive through it.  I saw there was a potential issue and I addressed it before anything came of it.

How often do we listen to the gauges and displays of our body?  How often do we check to see if what we are trying to do is presently too much for us?  How often are we proactive about ensuring our own well being instead of waiting until we are metaphorically stuck on the side of the road without any gas?

Muscle Activation Techniques™ is a process by which it can be determined if what you are trying to do is too much for you right now.  It can also be that proactive means to ensuring you can continue to do what you want.

If you find it necessary to at least glance at the dashboard display from time to time while you drive your car, why would you not find it necessary to at least glance from time to time at the display board of your body to help you do whatever it is you want to do?

Be proactive about ensuring your own well being.  Don't get caught stuck on the side of the road without any gas.

Interested in finding out more?  Check out the Muscle Activation Techniques™ page!

Interested in setting up an assessment or discussing this subject further?  Leave a comment below or e-mail Charlie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com!

Your body.  Your training.

Like this post?  Drop a comment below and “Like” Self Made® on Facebook!

Want to use this article on your blog, in your newsletter, or on any other platform?  You may, but be sure to include all of the biographical info found in the yellow box below!

Exercise For Tomorrow

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Injuries are not fun.  There's just no way around that.  And rarely will you ever find someone who says they exercise with the goal of getting injured.  In fact, many people will say the exact opposite, that part of their goal in exercising is to become less prone to injuries.

There are a lot of injuries that are unavoidable such as those that are caused by a single traumatic event.  But there are also a lot of injuries that are avoidable--ones that unknowingly occur over many years until all of a sudden the discomfort doesn't go away anymore.  These injuries may be brought on by doing the same things over and over and over every day for years as well as by exercising inappropriately for your abilities.

The good news is that by understanding how to appropriately manage your exercise these chronic injuries may be less likely to occur or avoided altogether.

One form of exercise that may help in the prevention of these chronic injuries is Muscle Activation Techniques™.  Muscle Activation Techniques™ assesses how well your muscles can contract and then improves upon that ability.  By improving the ability of your muscles to contract efficiently, you will have more muscles that are working at a higher level.

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This means any activity you enjoy doing, you'll have more muscles working better to do that activity with.  Additionally, by bringing more muscles to work with you, you will have better control over your joints, which may lead to healthier joints down the road.

The goal of MAT™ is not to relieve your discomfort today, but by getting your muscles to contract better you may have a greater chance of not experiencing chronic discomfort down the road.

Are the choices you make today going to leave you better or worse off tomorrow?

Interested in finding out more?  Check out the Muscle Activation Techniques™ page!

Interested in setting up an assessment or discussing this subject further?  Leave a comment below or e-mail Charlie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com!

Your body.  Your training.

Like this post?  Drop a comment below and “Like” Self Made® on Facebook!

Want to use this article on your blog, in your newsletter, or on any other platform?  You may, but be sure to include all of the biographical info found in the yellow box below!

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.

It Really Is This Simple

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It really is this simple.

1. What is one activity that you like to do?
2. Do you want to be able to do that activity for as long as you live?
3. What are you currently doing to give yourself the best chance possible of being able to do so?

Ask yourself these three questions and then ask me how Muscle Activation Techniques™ fits into the picture.

Interested in finding out more?  Check out the Muscle Activation Techniques™ page!

Interested in setting up an assessment or discussing this subject further?  Leave a comment below or e-mail Charlie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com!

Your body.  Your training.

Like this post?  Drop a comment below and “Like” Self Made® on Facebook!

Want to use this article in your blog, newsletter, or other platform?  You may, but be sure to include all of the biographical info found in the yellow box below!