Stress, trauma, and overuse and the resultant inflammation can alter the communication between the nervous system and the muscle system. This altered communication is what creates neurological weaknesses. In these situations, muscles lose their ability to contract efficiently, where they can no longer contract on demand, in order to stabilize joints and protect the body from injury. From an MAT perspective we would consider these muscles to be “inhibited”.
The goal of MAT is to “activate” the inhibited muscles through muscle specific isometric contractions or manual stimulation at the origin and insertion of the associated muscle(s).
Once the inhibited muscles are activated, they are able to contract more efficiently, enabling the muscles to withstand greater amounts of external force which allows the muscles to protect the body from pain or injury.
From a MAT perspective, when we see these neurological weaknesses, MAT looks at it as a communication issue rather than a strength issue. The goal of the MAT assessment is to identify positions where a muscle cannot contract on demand and/or sustain a contraction for a specific amount of time.
Therefore, the muscle testing involved in the MAT assessment process are not designed to evaluate the strength of the muscle. The MAT muscle tests are unique in that they are designed to determine whether muscles can contract on demand and sustain the contraction.
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