Muscle Activation Techniques™

  • Muscle Activation Techniques™

    • Now that you’ve met the concept of muscular imbalances, you’re ready to understand how the technique of activating muscles has probably been the most important breakthrough in treating muscular dysfunction over the past 50 years.

    Up till now, the traditional approach has been to try to release tight muscles (including those in spasm) with massage and stretching.

    But then Greg Roskopf, who has a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology, and was working with performance athletes, realized that the nervous system tightens muscles as a protective response in order to maintain joint stability. Although symptoms of muscle tightness can feel painful or uncomfortable, the increased tension in a tight muscle is there for a good reason – to compensate for the reduction of tension in an inhibited muscle.

    Greg Roskopf’s intuition turned conventional practice upside down. Instead of treating the tight muscles, Roskopf focused on the weak muscles that the tight muscles are compensating for.

    Thus he was able to get to the root of pain or injury by addressing muscle weakness rather than muscle tightness, in turn restoring normal body alignment and thereby decreasing pain and reducing the risk of injury.

    The technique he developed is appropriately called Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT)™, and is recognized as a revolutionary new rehabilitative treatment to evaluate and restore muscular imbalances.

    Compared to the classic approach of physiotherapy, MAT™ has three main advantages.

  • Firstly, MAT™ has developed an unparalleled joint motion evaluation that uses muscle tightness (which causes limitations to joint motion) to identify potential areas of the body where muscles may be inhibited.

  • Secondly, MAT™ uses a comprehensive neuromuscular testing process to systematically check for inhibited muscle responses. When tested, an inhibited muscle will not produce proper tension, and will show up as weak. Unlike other therapies, this unique process allows MAT™ to identify exactly which muscles need treatment.

    Then the neuromuscular testing process is used to create a strategic rehabilitative treatment plan. The specificity of neuromuscular testing also eliminates the subjectivity of traditional physiotherapy, providing the opportunity for optimal exercise prescription.

  • Finally, MAT™ uses a precise manual therapy to stimulate inhibited muscles – restoring the neurological imbalances (the loss of communication between muscles and the brain). Quite the opposite to muscle release techniques like massage, stretching and manipulation. MAT™ will help your body to balance muscle tension – eliminating the need for muscle tightness and restoring proper biomechanics which can help to:

    • MAT™ was developed to assist high performance athletes in their training as well as rehabilitating them quickly when injured. This technique is now available to you, and in Roskopf’s own words, “enables everyday people to be treated like million dollar athletes”.

    For more information on MAT™ go to www.muscleactivation.com or contact us today for further advice on how MAT™ can be used to help your problem.

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