For members only. Golf Smarter number three hundred and ninety one, published on July to twenty thirteen.
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If you have all the muscles firing on all cylinders, it's amazing how your body will respond and things will feel a lot less of an effort for you. When everything's firing one hundred percent, like you doing a squad.
You feel like you have like super strength.
Actually, I've gone out and like whether it's playing golf or gone out and wakeboard it. After I've had sessions done, your body knows internally what is supposed to do. When you've practiced enough, And when I go out there and I've had maat done, it feels like it's effortless.
I don't have to think about it.
My body just does it because everything's fire.
In all cylinders.
And I'm sure you've had those days where you've gone out and it just seems like everything's an effort.
It's not effortless. It feels like you're struggling for every swing.
You're struggling for everything that you're doing, and you can't figure out why.
Muscle activation technique therapy for more consistency and distance. This is Golf Smarter. Laura Loreman, Welcome to Golf Smarter for members only.
Hi, friend, how are you?
I'm doing fine? Thank you so much for reaching out and wanting to come on to the podcast. How the heck did you find Golf Smarter.
Through my fiance. He actually turned me on to it.
And I'm a golfer myself, and I've also had a lot of joint issues and stuff, so it was kind of one of those things I work with golfers to try to make them feel better, and I just kind of thought it would be kind of a cool venture to get on a podcast and let people know how muscle activation techniques can help their golf game.
You know, it's something that a lot of people have never.
Heard of, right, and and we're talking about muscle activation techniques. Correct, Okay, for before I ask you what exactly that means. First of all, congratulations on being engaged. And you obviously a very smart guy. If he found golf smarter, good for him, Good for you, Thank you, thank you. So you have a date set, No.
We're not going to go there.
Okay, smart and so who's got the commitment folk? Okay, So let's talk about muscle that's.
A whole other podcast.
Yeah right, that's on the Mommy podcast. So let's let's talk about muscle activation technique or matt right, Yes.
Yep, yep. That's the easiest way to refer to it. We refer to it as m AT.
Okay, And what is it that you do and that got you to muscle activation technique? To make way?
So I started, I started out as a personal trainer. Prior to that, I actually competed wakeboarding professionally for eight years. And I don't know if you're familiar with wakeboarding some people may not be. It's basically like snowboarding behind a boat, but you know, lots of flips, a lot of impact. I had all kinds of joint issues myself, whether I've had two ACL surgeries, I've had hip problems and back problems and shoulder issues, and I.
Have many problems.
That's what I thought I was like, there's got to be an answer out there, and I was a massage junkie. I went to the chiropractor, I went for acupuncture, and not that there wasn't anything wrong with those. They helped me to a point, but I just felt like there had to be something.
More out there.
Sure, So that was kind of it's my quest to make myself feel better, is kind of how I came across it. When I quit competing, I went back to what I had gone to school for, which was exercise science. So I started doing some personal training and I got introduced to MT through my boss at the time, and he, you know, he used to give me a hard time because I was always trying to stretch and do yoga and trying to get rid of the tightness in my body, and all it.
Did was kept coming back.
And so he introduced me to the MT and he started working on me, and it was night and day difference the way my body started feeling. I was starting to get long term effects instead of it being every single day I had to go through and try to stretch out those same muscles over and over and over again, and my body just started turning around and moving forward.
And it was about a year after the work that I had, you know, I started getting I decided to get certified in the program myself and it's it's, you know, become a career path for me and I'm helping people and I feel like it's changed my life and I'm changing other people's lives.
Awesome, that's fabulous. Congratulations. It sounds interesting because I've been a long time. If you've listened to the show and you said that you have, I've been a longtime advocate of yoga yea and practitioner, and it's helped. But I still have lower back issues. I think I have siatica is basically my biggest issue is my sciatica. And like yesterday I was. I played eighteen holes yesterday on a course out here in northern California, very hilly course. It's
a tough walks. It's five and a half close to six mile walk and there are many hills, so much so one of the hills is so extreme that between number thirteen and number fourteen you have to take an elevator up the side of the hill.
Okay, yeah, that's a little extreme, right.
So I mean, like if you're in a golf cart lazy fools wide, so many people. If you're in a golf cart, you can drive up a path. But if you're walking like I was, they give you elevator up the side of a hill.
That's great.
And it's very cool. I took some pictures of going, all right, this is the most unique spot of most most unique golf spot in Marin County. But anyway, so after that, you know, walking those hills, my hips started hurting me again and like I had to stretch it out and it was like it affected my swing and you know, yep, so all those things. So I'm intrigued. I want to know some of the research that you send me talks about Peyton Manning.
Yes, yes, Greg, Greg rosstop. He's actually the founder of M A t H. He's based out in Denver and so hence you know Peyton Manning being out there. He works with the Denver Broncos and some of the other sports teams out there, and Peyton Manning has had the work done and you know that's how he came back from his his next surgery. That was a big, a big part of his recovery and you know he's back
playing professional football. I mean, that's a lot of impact and to be able to do that after next surgery, that's huge.
Yeah. I mean, for those who aren't familiar with Peyton Manning is he's one of the all time great quarterbacks in history in American football and he had next surgery. It affected his game tremendously and then he had to have the surgery and the team said, yeah, I don't think you're ever going to come back. You're too old for this, and so they let him go and he was picked up by another team and he came back and had a great year.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty impassive, and you know, when you're dealing with injuries at that level, it's something that you're gonna have to probably, you know, keep getting the muscle activation done because now you're dealing with a structural change in there. But it's it's something that also allows you to keep doing the things that you love to do. M hm.
And so now explain to me what is Matt.
Okay So muscle activation techniques, it's it's different from other modalities because our main focus is not on the tightness in the body.
A lot of.
Things such as yoga and massage and you know other modalities they're they're focusing on that tightness and trying to get rid of the tightness.
The whole philosophy, the whole philosophy behind.
Muscle activation techniques is that the tightness is there because it's the protective mechanism of the body. The body's trying to stabilize a joint that has instability in it, So that tightness always wants to come back because the stability, that instability is still there. So what we do is we use the tightness as a guide as to where
the instability is. But our focus is on figuring out which muscles aren't contracting the right way, which ones are basically like misfiring and they're not getting the communication from the nervous system properly. So what happens is then the body starts to compensate, it starts to tighten up, it starts to protect the joint because there's this imbalance going on.
So what we're what our goal is is to figure out which muscles aren't firing the right way, and then we actually do a hands on stimulation of the muscle where the muscle attaches. So we're going in with our with the hands so a lot of people would compare it to massage in that sense, but it's not really because we don't deal with the tightness or the body
of the muscle. We only go to where the muscle attaches and that actually sends a signal to the nervous system and we get that communication going and it actually you'll see that instant result on the table, which is pretty cool.
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, go let's move on to that one. You see instant results on the table.
You do so for instance, So we start with the range of motion exam and then from there we decide let's say it's your internal rotation or your hip is really is really limited compared to the other side. Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'll go through and I will actually do a muscle test for every single muscle that can take you into internal rotation with that hip. And if the muscle test's strong, we leave
it alone, we don't touch it. If it tests weak, then we go in and do this hands on stimulation. We go back and retest the muscle and that muscle will test solid.
Hmm.
Yeah, it's pretty fascinating. Like I see the most amazing things every day on the table and it just blows me away.
Wow. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
And as you get through all those muscles, you actually will start to see the range of motion open up as well, because the body stops it, lets go of that protective mechanism and says, okay, I'm sensing stability in here. Now I'll give you the range that you want. So it lets it, lets that joint actually open up and give you the range.
This is so interesting, I thought.
So that's why I got into it.
How can these explained to me? The muscle imbalance?
Okay, the muscle and balance.
So there's there's so many different things that can cause it, you know, there's Unfortunately we don't have the answers. Everybody asks, well, why does the why does the muscle lose the communication? Why does it lose that? It could be injury, It could be overuse. It could be repetitive motion with which we get in a lot of sports. It could be partly the aging process, you know, just our body's natural
aging process as we use it. And if you don't continue to get that maintenance done, it's kind of like as if we're like the muscle mechanics, we kind of tune up the muscular system, and it's like driving your car. If you never get it tuned up, that car is not going to last.
Did you just say that we can turn back the aging process? Is that what you're implying? Kind of Okay, you just got a lot of people signing up. I can guarantee that.
Well, you know, I'm telling you, I feel better than I did two years ago when I started getting this this work done. I look back and I'm like, I've come such a long way, and I've had a lot, Like I said, I've had a pile of issues, you know, Like I said, from two ACL surgeries, to hit problems, to shoulder problems and even back problems. And when I look at where I was, I still have work to go for myself. But when I look back, I am so much better than I than I was two three years ago.
Wow. Yeah, So when you say you have you still have work to do? This is an ongoing process. Or at some point can you be I'm done. I think it's all better.
Now, Well are you going to stop using your body?
Uh? At some point? Yeah, Well.
That's the terminal end.
But you know what happens is and this is what I tell people when I start working with them, I say, give me a give me a chance.
Let's let's go.
Whether it's I might say, if you can, if you can do once a week to start, and let's get through the main issues that you have. Let's say it's a hit problem, or you're sciatica or whatever that is. We don't treat. We don't treat specific things such as saiatica. We look for that and balance. But let's say let's try to get through your major issue areas where you
really feel like you have that problem. Let's get you moving where you feel like you're making that progress, and then from there you can kind of tone it down where it becomes a maintenance thing for you. So if you know a lot of people, I get them initially because they have some kind of major issue, but you know they can definitely. I have people that come and see me once a month, they see me, you know, once every six weeks. But then I also have the people that just love it and they come see me
every week. So it's you know, it can be adjusted. You're going to get a benefit no matter how often you use it.
And this is not something like I can go do yoga by myself.
Yes you can every day.
This is not something I can do. I can learn and take care of myself. I need to have a mat therapist person, So.
Ideally is to have m AT specials to work with.
Now are isometric exercises that you can do on your own, which I have incorporated into a lot of my client's routines. So that helps them kind of maintain a lot of the things that they're doing.
And you'll see it.
Maintains the flexibility or the loosness of yep.
So the isometric contractions that you can do can actually help increase range emotion as well and can help strengthen the muscle. What you have to understand is what we're working on too, is we're working on the communication part of the muscle. So we're trying to make the muscle communicate properly so that it maintains the proper tension so when you apply force to it, it knows it responds immediately. So you can go through and you can strength train
and do all these other things. But sometimes you're reinforcing the compensation that's happening in your body already.
I know that for some sports that say you're doing weight training, you can go a little bit overboard and it prevents range of motion.
Correct correct because then again you're you're surpassing what the muscles can handle. It then has a tendency to cause you to tighten up, and it can it can limit your performance, you know, overperform. I mean overtraining could be your own worst enemy as well. You know, like you can have undertraining and overtraining and it's you got to find that happy balance. You need the rest time, you need the recovery time. And that's the nice thing about m A T as well. It's it's one of those
things that you can do on your off day. You can you can do it on your off day, you can do it prior to going out and performing. It's it doesn't have to be an after the fact thing because it's going to make you, uh, make improve your improve your performance basically, so it's.
Not necessarily reactive. You can be proactive on this correct correct And if you if you say you're let's go back to the weight training idea again and you're doing the weight training, you're pushing yourself. Can the muscle activation technique MATT, Can it help you like break through and even go farther in your your goals of whatever sport you're doing.
Absolutely absolutely, because if you have all the muscles firing on all cylinders, it's amazing how your body will respond and things will.
Feel a lot lot less of an effort for you.
Like when everything's firing one hundred percent, like you doing a squat, you feel like you have like super strength.
Actually, it's it's pretty crazy how.
I've gone out and like whether it's playing golf or gone out and wakeboarded, after I've had sessions done and your body knows internally what it's supposed to do when you've practiced enough, And when I go out there and I've had mat done, it's just it feels like it's effortless.
I don't have to think about it.
My body just does it because everything's fire in all cylinders. And if my body's out of line, and I'm sure you've had those days where you've gone out and it just seems like everything's an effort, like you cannot it's not effortless.
It feels like you're struggling for every swing.
You're struggling for everything that you're doing, and you can't figure out why.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've seen me play.
So but yeah.
So that's the cool thing about it is not only does it it improves the performance, but it uh, you know, it takes all your practice that you're that you're doing out there, whether it's on the course, whether it's in the gym, and it actually.
Just it it improves all of that. It makes it that much easier.
All right, Well, let's talk about golfers. Let's talk about matt and golfers, and let's what do you see as a golfer, but also working with golfers who have this and they come in, do you see something consistent that's going on in the imbalance that's happening in muscles?
Yeah, you know a lot of times one of the biggest things is you'll put people on the table and you'll see rotation issues in the trunk or hip and balance and those are both things. I mean, you need your hips to be able to open and you need to be able to rotate through through the trunk so that you can create the proper forces through and that's a lot of people's limitation.
If they cannot perform the motion that they're supposed to.
You you can go and get lessons every day and try to do that over and over again. But if your body doesn't want you to do the motion, it's not going to you know. So obviously you need to have the lessons, you need to have all of that because you have to have those proper skills, but then you also need your body to be able to perform those skills. So that's how that's how the muscle activation can come in into play with improving that improving your golf performance.
And so what things do you see specifically that are consistent with golfers that Matt helps the benefits.
Okay, so the big thing is opening up trunk rotation.
I actually work with a golf pro up in the Illinois area here and the first time I got him on the table, uh you know, we sat him down and his.
Rotation to the right it's good. Yeah, his backswing was great.
His rotation to the left like about half half half of what his rotation to the right was.
And so I worked on him.
He actually went out and played that afternoon, and this was the first time I had worked on him. He he said it was unbelievable to him just how easy, how easy his motion was. He couldn't believe the range that he had and he said he actually had an amazing round, you know, and that was working on him that same morning. So it's definitely and that was his first session, first session.
That's a heck of a testimonial, it is. It is.
It's like he's he's absolutely blown away by it, you know. And yeah, and he's he was fit. You know, he works out on a regular basis. He does a lot of the TPI stuff and all that definitely helps you need you need to have all the aspects. But you know, it's it's pretty cool to see the range open. And then you're not only opening range, but you're you're increasing the strength and the contractile the contractability of the muscle
as well. So when you call on those they're they're doing what you wanted to do, and it gives you the range, it gives you that motion that you need.
So Matt is not instead of it's in addition to correct everything else that you're doing exactly.
You know, I mean, you're still you still need to be going to the gym and working out and you know, and making sure you're practicing all your skills on the golf course and all of that it's not like some magic fix that you're just gonna like, Oh, I'm gonna dom at and now I'm gonna.
Go shoot bar.
Really unfortunately, that's not quite I was so excited.
Now I'm bummed.
Sorry to disappoint.
Give me some ideas of obviously what he did. But what other benefits for golfers do we do we find with Matt Okay?
Uh, the hips hips are another big, big, big thing is getting the range of motion in your hips to open. And a lot of times you'll see, you know, you might have an external limitation on one side or internal limitation on the other that we could by balancing those out, you're going to get the hips to open. You're gonna be able to follow through and get the turn that
you need through that. Uh, that's you know, it's it's really the biggest benefit is just giving you the range and giving and the muscles working in the way that.
They're supposed to.
It's it's it's hard to explain, how you know, until you get on the table and you actually experience it.
You know. It's like I've talked.
To so many people and I was like, just just come and experience it for one time and It's really crazy what they.
Response that they get.
It's they're they're just they're like, are you sure you're pushing is hard? They're they're always questioning me, and I'm like, no, I'm telling you, it's you're getting stronger on the table.
I mean, it doesn't hurt when you're doing it. I mean because then I are you sure you're doing something over there? Because I don't feel a thing?
Right?
Is that what's going on? Well?
I wish it was. I wish it was that simple.
There are some some of them can be a little tender and stuff, but as far as like the muscle testing, they have a tendency to say, you're not pushing as hard. So the second time around they're saying, are you really testing that muscle? The same as for or I'm like, I'm telling you I'm pushing harder than I.
Was, Like do you want me to test harder? I will? You know, they're always questioning, I'm.
Like, no, I'm telling you it's the same force that I was applying for, if not more. You know, So I'm always I'm always getting accused of are you sure?
Are you sure?
But yeah, so it's uh, you know, it's it's also it's gonna make your swing more consistent.
That's the other thing it's going to give. It's going to give you.
It's going to give you a more consistent swing because your swing path, you're not going to have to adjust for the muscles that aren't firing properly, if that makes sense. You know, So you know the swing path your body needs to be in, and you're trying to keep that and if your body doesn't want you to go in that path, it's going to figure out ways to compensate.
The body's brilliant at that, so it might you might.
Have a tendency then to lift your head because you're trying to get into a position to turn all the way through. So then you're lifting your head and your shoulders to get that range where if the muscles are working the right way, you're able to swing through without having to lift up to get into the range that you're trying to get into.
You know, on all all the teachers that I've interviewed on this program, and I always ask what do people ask for when they come in? You know, like I want to It's always I want to be more consistent, I want more distance, right, you're telling me that you're going to get both of those from this.
Yeah, I really do.
My fiance says, if I work on him before, it's probably at least a four to five stroke difference in his game.
Oh man, and that's big. You know that's big because that's on the that's on the long end of the club, not the putting part. I'm sure, and I'm.
Going to tell you too. He's kind of a whip, so he does not like to get work done. So if he's asking me to work on him, he's you know, it makes a difference in his game.
I'm so happy for you, Laura, But you've been bad mouthing that guy all this entire program. Now now you're me. You're you called him a whim. I cannot wait, and of course you're not saying his name, but I can't wait till he hears this show and on his commute and he comes home and says, what were you saying about me? He's right, and we don't know who he is,
but we'll figure it out. So how does this differ than all the other kinds of therapies that we can do for ourselves, you know, from chiropractors to physical therapist. Why how does this differ?
How is it different?
Uh? The bottom line is we're we're trying to strengthen versus and physical therapy. They do a combination of strengthening and stretching and stuff like that. Chiropractor they adjust the skeletal system. We focus on the muscles. We're one hundred percent muscle. That's the only thing.
We work on. So that's how that different differs.
There massage, they're going after the tightness. Typically they're trying to get rid of the tightness. But like we spoke earlier, that tightness wants to keep coming back because it's trying to protect for the weakness. So if that weakness still exists and you're not getting that communication, it's going to that tightness keeps coming back, keeps coming back, keeps coming back.
So on on something like I have with the sciatica, which is nerve based right yep from the spine. With this verse versus you're saying chiropractor skeletal your muscle. Would this be actually better for me than then seeing a chiropractor?
Well, it's a combination of things.
And I work with people that i'll see that I'll see a chiropractor and also see me which it can work together. These modalities can work great together sometimes too. The chiropractor gets you in a ligne. We get the muscles working that are probably pulling your skeletal system back out of line. Oh so, it's just it's one of those things if you get if you're put into alignment, those muscles aren't firing the right way, it's going to start pulling you back out on a regular basis, you know.
So what we're trying to do is get the muscles to work the right way so they don't start pulling you back out of that alignment.
Okay, And what kind of exercises would complement this or should we avoid? Uh, if we're doing that, I wouldn't.
Say that you should avoid any exercises unless there's a real specific issue that you're having, and that would be then your ma at specialists would probably tell you, you know what, let's stray away from this.
But in general, our goal is to have you being.
Able to go out there and do all these activities, increasing what your body can handle, so your body will be able to tolerate more and more force. The one thing maybe is taking any stretches to the extreme. I always tell people when they're going through their stretching routines,
make sure you're actively going through those stretching routines. Try not to use a lot of excess outside force because it's me So, if you're stretching and you're using let's say a yoga strap or you're using a wall to stretch out your shoulder, if you're pushing excessively on that, now you're trying to push yourself way past where your body wants you to get, and that can create more
instability in that joint. Granted, it's given you that temp rary relief where it feels better, but it can actually you can actually lose the contractile ability of the muscle. So, because what happens is you create you stretch that muscle too far, you can create slack in the muscle, and that's not necessarily a good thing. It might temporarily feel like you're a little bit more open, but you might not have the control, you might not have the stability
of that joint. So now you might be giving yourself more range, but the question is are you stable in that range that you're giving yourself?
I got it, now, Okay, that makes sense. So you said you're in the Chicago area.
I am.
And we've got this global audience of golf smarter listeners that are going to be showing up on your doorstep now because they want more length and more consistency. I hope it may not be practical, but hopefully. I know we have obviously have some listeners in Chicago and they'll become knocking on your door too. But how long has this been going on? When when did this get started?
M AT has been around I think about twelve.
Years, Okay, so it's relatively new.
Yep, yep.
And I'll tell you the story of most most people I know, Greg tells the story is he had back problems. He had serious back problems from playing football and everything else, and he just wasn't he wasn't happy with the results he was getting from all the modalities out there. So he kept looking for more and started working with biomechanics specialists and you know, neurospecialists and trying to sort out how can what component are we missing? And what he
sorted out it was that muscular component. We're not getting those muscles to work the right way, and that's where the problem's coming from. So a lot of the m AT specialists out there have my story where we've we've been there, we've had the issues, we've we've this was our quest to fix ourselves and you know, and now we're able to help other people as well.
And how can we obviously here, I am in California, in Chicago, I'm not I'm sorry, but I'm not coming to have you do this work. How do we find somebody locally?
You can go to muscle activation dot com.
Okay, that is the main website, and there is a part that you can click on it says find a specialist in your area.
Oh perfect, and they'll.
Have a list listed by state and then you know, obviously Campine a city that's close to you. They have you know, emails and phone number contacts for all the specialists out there. And the cool thing is is like they're still Greg is not stopping on this ma AT he's made. He's finding ways to make it so that the muscles hold longer. You know that we're getting longer lasting results. The guy's amazing when it comes to research. He just he he's never happy with what he has.
And so we're constantly going back and learning more and learning more and ways to make it all better.
Wow. Yeah, And what about your website? Where do we find more information? Forum from you? About you?
You can find me at the body tech dot com and it's t h E b O d y t e K dot com.
Awesome, Laura, thank you so much. Congratulations on being engaged to a whimp.
He's gotta love that.
And hate me and uh, and thank you again for reaching out and for sharing this information. This is really valuable stuff. I truly appreciate it, and best of luck to you, and I hope you find a date.
We'll work on it. We'll work on it.