Activation exercises are extremely popular among fitness fanatics, sports performance specialists, and rehab professionals alike. Whether it is banded walks, glute bridges, bird dogs, clams, or some other oddly-named movement, many professionals stake the claim that these types of exercises are both useful and necessary to get your muscles firing. There’s one huge problem with these claims, though… These types of exercises only activate the muscles that are already activated. Yes, these popular exercises are Read more

Tight muscles are really annoying. Between limiting how well your body moves and feeling just plain uncomfortable, tight muscles rarely have anybody feeling happy. But, did you know that almost every way of dealing with tight muscles doesn’t actually address the real reason for the tightness? It’s true. Most ways of dealing with tight muscles just try to cover up the symptom of tightness and hope that will be enough to keep the tightness away. Read more

Whenever we start with a new client for Muscle Activation Techniques® (MAT), we always spend time upfront going over their expectations and what they want to accomplish with their sessions. Sometimes a client’s goals have to do with resolving a specific pain or symptom, such as tightness in the low back, pain in the shoulder, or achiness in the knees. Sometimes the goals are centered around performance, like being able to run a 5K or Read more

Muscle Activation Techniques® (MAT) is well-known to help with pain, tight muscles, achy joints, and overall feelings of weakness, but there are some less-common reasons that many people do MAT, too. Truth be told, MAT affects more than just your muscles and joints; it also affects your nervous system including the balance of your sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) systems as well as your brain. Because of MAT’s strong influence on Read more