Athletes Are Using Muscle Activation Techniques & So Can You

Unless you are not familiar with the professional golf world you have probably heard of Bryson DeChambeau, yes? He won the 2020 U.S. Open and now the 2024 U.S Open as well. How about Wyndham Clark? He won the 2023 U.S. Open. And unless you are not into sports at all, you have probably heard of Peyton Manning (Football), John Stockton (Basketball), Hope Solo (Soccer), Nathan MacKinnon (Hockey) or James Paxton (Baseball). If not, look them up. I’ll wait. This is just the short list of athletes that have taken advantage of something called Muscle Activation Techniques over the last 20 years and this list continues to grow with both professional and amateur athletes around the globe.

I will preface this by admitting that I am a little biased, I have been a Muscle Activation Techniques Specialist since 2005, I am currently 1 of 150 people in the world with the distinction of MAT Rx Full Body Specialist and have worked in the health and fitness industry as a either a trainer or group exercise instructor since 1985. (Yep, a long time)

What I have witnessed from Bryson DeChambeau and Wyndham Clark in the last couple of years is remarkable. Not only have they been winning tournaments but they have added strength, speed and distance to their game. For me, the most important thing right now is that they continue to grow and improve, and they remain pain free.

We cannot do what most professional and amateur athletes do without feeling aches and pains or even possibly getting hurt. But getting the body prepared for what you want it to do and tolerating the forces you are putting on it is what MAT is all about.

How I look at the body.

The easiest way to describe what Muscle Activation Techniques is, is by telling you how I look at the body versus how most of us look at it. When we watch someone move, we are usually looking at an integrated system (The whole body move). We watch people walk, run, bike, swim, swing a golf club, baseball bat or tennis racquet, catch, or throw a ball. I look at all the isolated parts that make us do those things.

I think we can agree that the golf swing is one of the most integrated and complicated movements in all of sports from the foot all the way up to the cervical spine. I rely on the golf professionals at Smart Golf and Fitness Instruction to tell me what they see in our clients golf swing and then I look at each client by breaking them down into 40+ moving parts that have over 550+ muscles that I can test to make sure they are all working efficiently, for not only that golf swing they are doing over and over again but for all the movements they do throughout their life.

The way I look at you! 43 movement patterns and 550+ Muscles to Evaluate: A Music Analogy

Look at it another way. Let’s imagine an orchestra and all the musicians and instruments. You have groups of percussion, brass, strings, woodwinds, keyboards and if you are a modern orchestra, you may have electronic musical instruments as well. All working together to make a unique sound… A Symphony!

Now to the untrained ear, what if you are missing a violin or an oboe? Would you know it? To the untrained ear, you may not notice. But to the trained ear you notice right away that there is something missing. What if the whole string section was missing? Would you notice then?

We can get away with a few “missing“ parts for a little bit, and other part of the orchestra might step up to cover the sound we are missing (Compensation) but we cannot get away with entire sections. That‘s just not going to work.

So using the analogy of the orchestra, would you notice if a specific muscle were inhibited/weak? To the untrained individual, it may appear as muscle stiffness or tightness at first but then lead to potential aches, pains or injury.

It‘s possible that this would go in a vicious cycle of trying to get the tightness to go away without assessing why it is tight and just blaming the tightness on being the problem, when really it’s the weak or inhibited muscles that are the problem.

Analyzing a simple exercise.

So my suggestion is that all movement is an orchestration of muscles getting you from point A to point B so let’s pick apart even the simplest of exercises… Bicep curls or as we fitness professionals call it… Elbow Flexion. Who are all the players that need to be playing to make this happen? The long and short heads of the biceps brachii, the brachialis, and the brachioradialis need to concentrically contract to flex the elbow while on the other side of the joint the Triceps brachii need to eccentrically contract to allow elbow flexion. Oh, by the way, there are numerous players in the shoulder as well that need to isometrically contract to stabilize the shoulder, so it doesn’t move while you do this exercise. And let’s not forget trunk and spine muscles to keep you up right and then there’s all the leg, lower leg and foot muscles to keep you standing while your center of mass changes. So, if some or any of those parts are not working efficiently could some compensation happen? Could even the simplest of exercises become difficult to do? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say yes.

All muscles need to be working efficiently for movement to happen

So in short, Muscle Activation Techniques is your checks and balance process to make sure all the parts working so this orchestration of movement can happen efficiently.

If you are struggling with tightness, pain or even injury, Muscle Activation Techniques my be the solution for you. As we say in the MAT world, Life is going to beat you up… you just need someone to put you back together.

For more information on Muscle Activation Techniques at SMART Golf & Fitness, click here.

Or you can learn more by visiting the Muscle Activation Techniques website by clicking here.

Here is what some SMART Golf & Fitness Clients are saying about Bill and Muscle Activation Techniques:

“Both MAT And the iso process gave me the ability to better understand my body and reduce almost all my pain” – Cy M.

“The biggest muscle change I’ve seen is in my lower back. When I began MAT with Bill I could barely lift my upper body off his table. Now not only can I raise myself up, but I can withstand different pressures and stresses while doing it. This has honestly been a huge change and it’s great progress for a guy with long standing back issues.” – Dave R.

“Bill has taught me the tools and relentlessly supported me through the journey of becoming the best version of myself. The impact Bill’s mentoring has had on my life is profound and a few words cannot do it justice. Not only has Bill established himself as a center of knowledge through years of education but he also has mastered the art of working with students that seek to better their condition. With respect to my golf game, MAT has enabled us to target every muscle group (in particular my thoracic spine mobility) so that I can learn to play golf to my fullest potential.” – Usman M.

“From my initial assessment, Bill was able to identify weakness and lack of stability and showing me how the compensations I had been making were leading to pain and injury. Through ISOs and MAT, he woke the muscles I didn’t know I had. Bill’s program has led me to increasing strength, power and stability which enabled me to improve golf mechanics and enjoy more activities with less soreness and/or injury.” – Adam K.

“Not sure there is enough space to describe how Bill and MAT improved my overall fitness…..In under one year, my oft injured and too frequently surgically repaired body feels better than it has in decades. The work with Bill has been tested in golf, cycling and skiing. Every single late season ache and pain I used to get from these activities is no longer a problem. Performance in all of those areas has also improved. Additionally, Bill worked with my daughter as she was coming back from ACL replacement surgery and he got her ready to ski in less than a year since the injury. She too is now aLl about doing her ISO’s regularly. I would recommend Bill and MAT to anyone who is interested in improving their overall health and looking to improve at their chosen passion.” – Michael B.

“Bill has improved my overall strength and flexibility but even more so in golf related areas. He’s been great at identify problem areas, treating them, and then strengthening them in the gym. Also, he gets input from my golf instructor to determine where we need to focus.” – Rich K.

“Bill is an expert trainer with a deep understanding of all of the various muscle pattern movements. He has helped me significantly increase my overall strength and flexibility via the application of Muscle Activation Technique (MAT). The additional strength that I have acquired through our full body workouts has been invaluable in my pursuit of playing better golf without the various aches and pains that I experienced prior to working with Bill. I’m hitting the ball further than ever in my late 40’s. Additionally, Bill has been able to quickly diagnose and help resolve any muscle related injuries that I have experienced as a result of activities outside of our training sessions. He is incredibly dedicated and passionate when it comes to helping his clients achieve their fitness goals. There is no one I trust more when it comes to building strength, treating muscle related injuries and maintaining overall physical fitness.” – Owen M.

“Bill has been fantastic to work with! Through MAT and Isometrics, he has helped me feel better every time due to my chronic back pain. Without him, I’d be in worse shape and suffering worse pain. He is so knowledgable and can even help tweak isometric exercises to cater to each person’s comfort/injury limitations.” – Omar D.

Bill Busch is a SMART Golf Fitness Instructor and a Muscle Activation Full Body Specialist who has worked in the health and fitness industry for over 30 years. He uses Muscle Activation Techniques to evaluate and determine the course of action your muscle system needs and create more stability and mobility without stretching or lifting a weight!

To make an appointment, please contact Bill at bill.busch@smartgolffitness.com.