Whole-body task or performance ability based on a patient's, client's or athlete's goals

 

One of my favourite catchphrases in the manual therapy industries is "If you're not assessing, you're just guessing."

 

Assessment can be carried out in several different ways, such as range of motion (passive and assisted), special tests, patient histories, video analysis.

 

While this information can add value to any therapist assessing an injury or condition, unfortunately, there are three critical downfalls to relying solely on this information alone:

 

1. While we evaluate the range of motion (ROM) for, let's say a knee, how often do you carry out any activity that only involves bending your knee without any movement in the hip or ankle?

 

2. Most often, these assessments are carried out unloaded. By this, I mean and using the previous example, we have you lay on a table and test the knee without a bodyweight loading it to create a ground force. 

 

3. These tests are all subjective, and three different therapists may interpret the results in 3 different ways.  

 

Using the MAT method, we can quantify results by measuring a loaded movement. 

 

This method allows us to collect objective movement data, which in turn leads to improved ability to identify movement dysfunction and implement an individualised evidence-based treatment and rehabilitation plan.