Body Architecture Fitness

Competing at the highest level in sports takes its toll on the body. You can’t just keep pushing harder without spending more time maintaining the system. Tightness and pain are symptoms that the neuromuscular system has been impacted. Muscle inhibition will result in compensations and over time will put much more stress on passive structures, potentially affecting alignment and breakdown of those structures.
It’s not an age issue, it’s a tolerance issue. To keep tolerance levels high, one of the best things you can do is Muscle Activation Techniques. It allows me to identify and address neuromuscular inhibitions that contribute to tightness, pain and decreased performance levels in the clients I see.
There are no instant fixes for anything , but there definitely are smarter ways to keep the body functioning at optimal levels!

It’s important for everyone to get out of their comfort zone, especially as we age. My client Maggie is only 78, but wanted to tackle climbing up and down off the Isophit for her exercise, as she knows how important it is to be able to not only do it but be able to keep doing it in the future. Falls are a reality for most of us, as well as picking things up from the floor. Getting up from the ground is something most of us take for granted until we can’t do it. I saw that with my own mother when I last took her to the beach, and I had to literally pick her up off the sand. It’s never too late to get stronger, build muscle and gain more functionality. It does matter how you do it. Applause to Maggie for getting out of her comfort zone today! 🙌

When muscles aren’t contracting properly (because they aren’t getting optimal signaling from the brain) 🧠, the common symptoms are tightness and pain. My client came in with knee pain she has had for over a year and a half from an injury and unable to workout or go on long walks. At her first session yesterday, we assessed ranges of motion and also looked at some standing movements that created pain and she couldn’t functionally do.
Using Muscle activation Techniques, I addressed several neuromuscular dysfunctions. There isn’t any stretching involved, as tight muscles are usually the ones that are working the hardest due to resulting compensations and are merely a symptom. With MAT, we look at the root causes behind limitations in strength and movement. At the end of the session, you can see that just by getting her muscles contracting better her body gave her significantly more range of motion. More importantly, the standing movements no longer created shooting pain inside her knee and it didn’t hurt to bend her knee.
The MAT process is an incredibly powerful tool. We will see how her progress goes from here,and get her back to working out and living a full life 💪🏻.

Here are some of the many reasons people seek me out for MAT treatment:
-Tightness and/or pain that doesn’t seem to go away
-Athletes looking to improve performance or return to performance after an injury
-A limitation in range of motion that prevents them from activities
-Clients seeking to optimize activity and performance levels as they age
-Someone wanting to address any muscle vulnerabilities before they start a strength program
-Anyone looking to function at the highest level!

You must be intentional with your exercise in order to fully benefit from the true anti-aging effects of resistance training. To achieve long-term strength, resilience and integrity within the muscular system, you have to appropriately challenge muscles and address vulnerabilities in the system as they arise.
Most people say they can’t do heavy weights as they age, but that shouldn’t be the case. If you stop challenging the muscles, the body will start to break down. If you exercise with Control being #1, and strengthen at the level of your current abilities, there should be no reason to stop challenging the body and increasing tolerance levels to stresses in life!

One of the biggest fitness myths that continues on today is is that if you just “stretch” more that you will become as flexible as you want to be. Most people think they can “train” to do the splits. Not everyone can or should do the splits. To what end?
At the most basic level, not even considering tissues, age, and contractile abilities of an individual, you have to look at the structure they are born with. The structure you develop after puberty is what you have, it is a sort of permanent fence that you shouldn’t violate. Each person has wildly different ranges of motion available to them just from the bony structures alone. Respecting what your structure allows is key. Just contracting muscle tissues in ranges you currently can move through could be enough to give you more without trying to “break through a wall”. Attempting to force ranges that you don’t currently have or smashing on tissues has more potential to affect the nervous system negatively, create osteophytes, or create deficits in contractile abilities. Respect the structure you have. Your muscles are not rubber bands! Why would you want to affect the structural integrity and length of tissues in your body anyway?

Everything starts at the foot. The foot has 28 bones and 55 articulations. The foot, the ankle, the knee, the hip, and the occiput are all inter-related. This whole integrated system is only as good as the function of its isolated individual parts. If your foot is dysfunctional, you are starting in a bad position (almost like driving your car with bad alignment). How well are you strengthening your foot 🦶🏻 and addressing dysfunctions? Or are you hiding behind more “supportive” or “corrective” footwear and hoping for the best? The foot is supposed to provide a supportive base to the rest of your structure.
There are ways to strengthen the over 50 muscles in the lower leg, and Muscle Activation Techniques is a great way to ensure that each of these muscles are adequately firing prior to a strengthening program. The foot is one of the most overlooked areas in the body!

Isometrics are for anyone and everyone. I have used isometric exercises for professional athletes to the aging client looking to improve daily living activities. Today, my 90 year young client was using Isophit to build strength in her legs and improve balance.

Looks like it’s that time of year again….time to decorate 🎃👻🎃💀

After playing much more padel tennis 🎾 lately and general stresses in life, I was overdue for some MAT work myself. I pulled something in my hip to where I couldn’t sit cross legged very well and had pain when I tried. My abs have felt less engaged than normal and spine a little limited as well.

I drove to Louisville Friday for treatment from my fellow MAT RX peer Brad Bischoff since I can’t treat myself. As you can tell from pics, my hip rotation was pretty limited. It’s not 100%, but at least I have no pain and can sit cross legged again almost completely. I played some padel tennis this afternoon gently and it felt great! MAT is my “go to” for anything performance related and is a complete game changer! 💪🏻

Your body does not differentiate between types of stress! Mental, chemical, and physical stress is all just stress to your body and if you get too much it can present itself in the muscular system. I often hear, “I didn’t do anything to my body, so don’t know why the muscles are not firing 100%. It is all stresses in a cumulative manner that can make the difference. It’s hard for people to understand if they cannot point to one instance such as picking up a weight that is too heavy or falling off a chair, etc.
The good news is you can improve your tolerance levels to stress with MAT and resistance training with intention to where you can better tolerate the stresses in life.