Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2009

Photo Courtesy of Fundamental Movement Solutions

“Massage therapy talks of muscle tightness and tries to release this tightness,” says Kazutaka Ara, a Muscle Activation Technique (MAT) therapist. “We think that the tight muscle is simply doing its job, as a protective measure. If one muscle is weak, another will compensate by being tight. This is a paradigm shift from massage therapy.”

If this comes as news to you, it might be because Kazutaka and his Norwegian wife Kristine are two of only three certified MAT practitioners in Japan. Both athletes and graduates of an American university program in Exercise Science, the Aras run the Fundamental Movement Solutions center in a studio overlooking Yoyogi Park.

Photo Courtesy of Fundamental Movement Solutions

MAT is a relatively new discipline on the bodywork scene, focusing on “jumpstarting” lax muscles that are straining the whole system. It was developed over the last decade by American strength coach Greg Roskopf, who, after working with a variety of professional athletes, came to the conclusion that muscle imbalances unique to each individual played a role in creating injuries.

Roskopf breaks down the whole biomechanics of his theory on the official MAT website, but Kazutaka’s explanation is easier to comprehend. “There are 26 letters in the alphabet,” he says. “Imagine you had a car accident and could only remember 20 letters. You’d have to work on getting your memory back to use all 26 letters again. The same thing happens in the body. There are 650 muscles in the body but, through stress or injury, some of them can stop working efficiently. What we do is try to find out which ones aren’t working and switch that memory back on.”

Treatment starts with a check of the body’s range of motion at different points. Comparing movement on both sides of the body, practitioners look for discrepancies in mobility—for example, if the right leg stretches further to the side than the left. According to MAT theory, the areas with the largest discrepancies are of greatest concern, as they’re responsible for a trickle-down effect throughout the whole body. Gentle resistance testing comes next, to isolate those individual muscles not functioning as part of the group.

Photo Courtesy of Fundamental Movement Solutions

If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. “Your body tells you everything you need to know about itself,” says Kazutaka, who in addition to treating athletes, dancers and CEOs, also practices competitive judo and jiu-jitsu.

The next step is to activate the muscle, which is done by massaging not the muscle itself but its attachment site. “This sends a message back to the nervous system to alert the brain that the muscle exists, to turn the connection back on,” Kazutaka says. Tightening the loose muscles takes the stress off the tight muscles, and that’s when the pain goes away and the muscles start cooperating together. “[It’s] like holding a mikoshi shrine. The more muscles working, the easier it is for the body to support itself.”

The number of sessions required depends on the condition of the individual. “The effect is very clear and noticeable,” says Travis Johnson, who received three MAT sessions at Fundamental Movement Solutions following an accident that dislocated his knee. “You can feel right away that your function and performance is improved. I noticed that movements that had been painful no longer hurt.” As an exercise kinesiologist himself, Johnson is no stranger to rehabilitative therapy. “[MAT] is extremely useful in accelerating the results with rehabilitation and corrective exercise,” he adds.

While MAT was originally created with injury-prone athletes in mind, the Aras note that it can also help improve bad posture and muscle stiffness acquired through less-than-athletic lifestyle habits.

5F, 1-10-2 Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku. Call for appointments (home visits also possible). Tel: 090-6010-9218 (Kristine), 090-9821-4019 (Kazutaka). Nearest stn: Yoyogi Koen. www.fundamentalmovementsolutions.com