My second article was published on the CrossFit Games site. Entitled Adriana Grassi Mosley Achieves a Dream, this one is about the serious injuries Adriana overcame to get back to the Games. Adriana competed as an individual in 2008, qualified in 2009 but dropped out due to an impending surgery, and finally made it back in 2011 with her CrossFit Hardcore affiliate team. The Hardcore crew, which also features Games veterans Lance Mosley (Adriana’s husband) and Omar Torres, are prepping for another run this year.
Adriana was having serious issues with her neck and both shoulders, to the point where her doctor suggested she quit competition altogether because of a paralysis risk. She tried a multitude of therapies and techniques to help manage her pain and keep her training, including ART and acupuncture. One therapy that was effective was Muscle Activation Technique, also called MAT.
MAT is a relatively new and cutting-edge therapy that focuses on identifying neurological weakness in muscles and restoring alignment to muscles and joints. This happens through a series of checks and isometric strengthening exercises to various regions of the body.
The official MAT website uses the metaphor of a car battery hooked up to an engine, where the battery cables are loose, causing the engine to fire incorrectly. With MAT, the process re-aligns the cables and allows the engine (i.e. muscles) to function properly.
Adriana’s MAT specialist, Todd Collura, was able to identify several areas of weakness and increase Adriana’s mobility almost immediately. She credits his therapy as keeping her healthy and helping her muscles to fire correctly, which in turn kept her training. Todd’s company is called Advanced Muscle Dynamics and his office is located in Boca Raton, Florida.
MAT was so successful for Adriana that several of her teammates tried MAT and they even flew Todd out to California for the Games to help the team recover between WODs. I tried MAT myself and loved it. If you’ve recovering from injuries or looking for an uptick in performance, you might want to look into this technique.
Check out my article here. Want a closer look at MAT to see how it works? Check out the video below of Adriana and Todd.
[vimeo width=”500″ height=”400″]http://www.vimeo.com/36092574[/vimeo]