What can I expect from a MAT session?

 

 

• The first session will consist of an extensive discussion about your health history in order to evaluate how your body has been operating. All of the information in the health history form will help in the process of understanding what your body has gone through and its current state. In subsequent sessions, we’ll begin with a discussion about how your body responded to the previous session and what you’ve done since that session.

 

• Your range of motion will be assessed and compared side-to-side. This points me in a direction of where there might be some potential problems.

 

• Once a range of motion discrepancy has been found on one side, we will begin testing the contractile ability of all the muscles that move you into that position. The test consists of a manual muscle test in a specific position and direction of force in order to emphasize certain muscle tissue.

 

• If the muscle test is strong, then we’ll move on to the next muscle. If the muscle does not immediately contract and continue to sustain it, we’ll move to the next step.

 

• There are two ways that we go about trying to increase the muscle’s contractile capabilities. The first is through a palpation at the attachment site of the muscle tissue. The second is through a low-level isometric. Both are extremely effective and will be used throughout the session.

 

• One of the most unique parts of the MAT process is the retest. This is important because it is at this point that we figure out the effectiveness of the palpation/isometric. Whether it gets better, worse, or stays the same, this is great information!

 

• After checking the status of that muscle tissue, the process continues by checking the rest of the muscles related to that range of motion. All of the muscles involved will be repeatedly checked, because there is a possibility that getting one muscle working better can cause another to become inhibited. The ultimate goal is to get every muscle related to that specific position and range of motion to test strong.

 

**One thing to keep in mind while we go through this process is that I may not work in the specific area of pain or concern. It is very possible that your shoulder pain is a result of dysfunction occurring at your feet. Therefore, I may spend a whole session or numerous sessions trying to get the muscles in your foot working better even though it is far away from the area of concern. The human body is amazingly complex and often times very difficult to figure out. The MAT process is designed to take the guess work out of the session and simply follow what the body is showing us.