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Original article here - http://www.bodyiq.com/ezine/VZ_0510A1.html
It is often brought to our attention that we don’t use our mind to a fraction of its potential. Well, the same applies to your body.
Imagine the possibilities if you could wake up your muscles and your mind ... the opportunities are infinite.
For anyone who works out in the gym or exercises for whatever reason, this is an astonishing thought. Learning how to teach yourself to reach new boundaries is an incredible realisation.
What exactly is Muscle Activation?
Douglas Heel describes it as “a system designed to teach you to raise your levels of performance on the field, in the gym, at the office and in your home. Muscle Activation uses a system of reflexes to help you ‘wake up’ your body’s muscles to allow them to function at their maximum potential in strength, power, endurance and flexibility”.
This is great for the sports person, but is equally rewarding for someone suffering from aches and pains due to tight structures.
Simply put, he compares the body to an electrical system - if your body is overloaded or pushed to its limit, it blows a fuse. Identifying and correcting the blown fuse allows your body to ‘rewire’ itself and work at its maximum potential; allowing you to reach your desired goals.
Getting Activated
Does it really work? This is a question you’ll probably ask and the answer is a definite “Yes!” After attending a talk Douglas gave to a group of local physios, bios and podiatrists recently, it was clear from the demonstrations that these techniques basically had an immediate effect.
Here’s an example:
One of the ladies in the audience was asked to be a guinea pig and demonstrate her abdominal strength. She performed a normal sit-up and Douglas instructed her to resist him as he pushed her upper body down towards the ground.
She was fairly strong, but he managed to push her down quite easily. To make sure she hadn’t misunderstood his instructions, they repeated the move.
Then he told her he was going to activate her abdominal muscles. In doing so, he simply ‘patted’ her on her inner thighs and then asked her to repeat the exercise.
This time there was no way he could get her to budge from her sit-up position when he applied resistance!
So what did he do?
He identified the ‘blown fuse’ AND ‘woke’ up the relevant reflex.
Can it really be so simple? This is what many of us thought, but it was demonstrated to us time and again with different muscle groups on numerous people.
Who can benefit from using Muscle Activation?
If you’ve forgotten what it feels like to be fast, strong or flexible or you haven’t ever really felt any of these abilities, then you should try Muscle Activation. If your Gran, Granddad, Mom, Dad or anyone elderly you know struggles to get up out of a chair, this will help. If you’re struggling with co-ordination or your ability to focus, this will help too… the list goes on and on.
Muscle Activation is basically for everyone:
- Athletes, coaches and fitness trainers
- Personal trainers, biokineticists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists – anyone in this type of field
- The young and the elderly
- Anyone with aches and pains
- The stressed-out
You can take what you need from it to help you improve your own quality of life. One of the principles Muscle Activation is based on states that “what’s in your body is in your mind; and what’s in your mind is in your body”. To reap the greatest rewards, it is vital that you understand how best to keep your body ‘awake’. To do this you need to be aware of what causes your body to ‘shut down’.
Have you been activated?
When it’s so easy to enhance your daily and sporting activities and performance, you’ll soon be asking why you haven’t jumped at the opportunity to get activated.
This only scratches the surface of what Muscle Activation can do for you.
Author’s acknowledgement: I would like to thank Douglas Heel for providing me with the information this article is based on.
by Stephanie Goedhals
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