MAT is a Process

Image courtesy of morethanmuscles.com

One of the biggest challenges I have faced so far as a Muscle Activation Techniques™ Specialist is getting the clients I work with to buy into the fact that MAT is a process.  I am certainly to blame for most of this difficulty as I think early on I may have been promoting it as something else.  So let me take this opportunity to say that MAT is not a quick fix, one and done type of modality.  It is not a form of treatment or therapy or healing intervention.  It is a form of exercise; an applied stimulus--force into tissue--attempting to create a response and adaptation--improved contractile efficiency and increased set point.*

Image courtesy of joeybergles.wordpress.com

Just like any other form of exercise, the adaptations that are created will not be maintained if an appropriate stimulus is not provided at appropriate time intervals.  Let's say you build your squat up so you can lift 4oo pounds.  After you hit that weight once, you get to keep those strength levels forever without lifting again, right?  Not likely.

Image courtesy of blogs.discovery.com

Or let's say you are a runner and you run a sub five minute mile.  After you do that once you don't ever have to exercise again and can continue to maintain that level of conditioning, right?  Improbable.

Image courtesy of nlm.nih.gov

Or what about in terms of weight loss?  After you work really hard to drop twenty pounds you don't ever have to exercise again in order to keep that weight off, correct?  Eh, not exactly.

The same holds true for MAT.  You expose yourself to a stimulus, which may create a response.  If you expose yourself to that stimulus frequently enough, an adaptation may occur.  If that initial response does not hold or last forever, does it mean MAT didn't work?  Well, if you lose the weight you want to but don't continue with the process and put the weight back on, does it mean exercise didn't work? (Idea courtesy of Matthew Bernier)

There may be some relief of discomfort that comes from participating in a Muscle Activation Techniques™ session.  If so, awesome, but that doesn't mean anything has been "fixed".  Fixing implies a level of permanency, which is not exactly the case when dealing with a tissue or material that is able to adapt.  Additionally, as explained by Jacques Taylor, there may be some adaptations that have occurred to the tissue in question over the period of time when it was not contracting as efficiently.  Despite any relief of discomfort or change in sensation, there is still a process that may have to occur of providing a greater and greater stimulus in order to condition the tissue to contract efficiently after being exposed to higher intensities and/or greater volumes of force.

If this process is not allowed to occur, potentially because somebody experiences initial relief of discomfort from MAT and then does not return to it, there may be a greater likelihood that the initial discomfort is experienced at a later point in time.  Just like the examples of more traditional forms of exercise given above, this does not mean that the stimulus was not effective at creating a response, but rather that continued exposure to that stimulus (or other stimuli) may be necessary in order to create an adaptation that lasts a bit longer.

MAT is a form of exercise that does not look like traditional exercise.  If you stopped exercising forever, would you be upset that exercise didn't work because all of the positive adaptations that were created started to diminish?

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.

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

*I'll expand on these ideas in future posts.

Prefences of Movement

 

You see it all the time--trainers and coaches inflicting their opinions and biases upon their athletes and clients with only a limited acknowledgement of the individual's abilities, limitations, or needs.  When it happens in the medial realm it is called malpractice but when it happens in the gym it is called working out.  Huh??  This is absurd.

Take the squat, for example.  Back squats, front squats, box squats, split squats, single-leg squats, goblet squats, assisted squats, wall squats, ball squats, squats with accommodating resistance, and I am sure I am forgetting some other type of variation.  All of these--based on the implements used, the placement of the resistance relative to the body and the specific joint in question, the direction of the resistance, how the person is applying force into the ground, tempo, intention, and how much movement occurs at each joint during the motion--will affect the body in profoundly different ways.  You can even take the same movement with the same weight, implements, and placement of resistance and get completely different adaptations and sensations both from a structural and neuromuscular perspective if the other variables are not controlled, as well.

The point of all of this is that to label an exercise as "good" or "bad" or to completely disregard one variation of an exercise and/or only using a single variation is not only ignorant, it is dangerous, because the question that is failing to be asked is, "Is this appropriate for this individual at this moment in time?".  Without first asking this question and then seeking the answer, you are simply guessing as to whether the stimulus you are applying to the body should, in fact, be applied while at the same time assuming it is appropriate to do so.

It is time to collectively give up our arrogant and ignorant preferences of movement and start developing a preference for appropriateness.

Get big or die tryin'.

Charlie Cates, CSCS
Self Made_®, Owner and Founder

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner and founder of Self Made_® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL.  He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s.  He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

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