What Does Muscle Activation Mean at CMAR?

When someone comes to me with discomfort or difficulty moving, I want to understand more than which area hurts. I want to understand how they move, what I find during their assessment, and how those findings can shape a programme that is specific to them.

At CMAR, muscle activation means assessing how your muscles participate in movement and using individualised hands-on work and Purposeful Motions to support movement control, coordination and everyday function.

This article explains how I apply that definition in a session. It describes my practice-based approach and decision-making, rather than a universal protocol or a promise that everyone will experience the same result.

In brief: Your individualised programme reflects the muscles identified during your session. I reassess your response to hands-on work and review the programme at subsequent visits, including what can be removed rather than continually adding more.

An assessment before a programme

I begin with a consistent assessment of movement. This includes active range of motion, where you move yourself, and passive range of motion, where I move a joint while you relax. I systematically perform muscle tests to identify differences between the muscles I compare.

When I describe a muscle as “weak” in this context, I am referring to what I find during those tests. The finding helps direct my work during the session; I do not present it here as proof of a particular neurological cause or a diagnosis of the source of your pain.

The distinction matters because your programme is not simply a list chosen for a painful body area. It reflects the findings of your own assessment.

Hands-on work, followed by reassessment

When testing identifies a muscle that responds less strongly than its partner, I use hands-on palpation as part of my muscle-activation approach. I then reassess the response.

My aim is to identify a meaningful change during the session, not simply complete a treatment sequence. At the beginning and end of the visit, I evaluate passive range of motion across the major joints and record measured angles alongside my observations in my session notes.

I also ask what you notice. Does standing feel different? Does rising from a chair seem easier? How does walking feel compared with the beginning of the session?

Those are different kinds of information. My measurements describe what I assessed, while your answers describe your experience. A change during a visit is worth recording, but I do not present it as a guarantee of lasting improvement or proof of a particular nervous-system mechanism.

What I mean by brain-body communication

In conversations with clients, I use “brain-body communication” to discuss their experience of movement alongside what I observe during assessment. My interest is practical: how movement feels to you, how you perform during testing, and whether either changes during the session.

For example, I sometimes ask a client resting on the treatment table to describe whether their legs feel the same length without looking or touching. I compare their perception with the ankle alignment I observe after positioning them, then repeat the comparison later.

This is an observation within my practice, not a measurement of the length of the bones or proof that a neurological “disconnect” has been corrected. The useful conversation is about what the client notices and how that relates to the other findings recorded during the visit.

How I select your Purposeful Motions

I select your Purposeful Motions after completing the hands-on muscle-activation work for that session. Each selected motion corresponds to a muscle identified as weaker during the assessment.

The sequence comes from my own investigation of nervous-system function and human movement through kinesiology. I use a walking-related sequence as my working reference, beginning with the earliest relevant muscle in that sequence and proceeding through the others identified during the session.

That describes how I organise my approach. It is not a claim that every person needs the same sequence, or that this article establishes its effectiveness through independent research.

The intended result is a manageable programme connected to your assessment, rather than a general collection of movements for anyone with similar symptoms.

Practice between sessions

I typically see clients one to two weeks apart. During that interval, I ask them to practise their selected Purposeful Motions in the order provided.

The goals are to develop confidence in movement and support mobility and everyday function. Reducing discomfort may also be a goal, but neither symptom relief nor immediate improvement is guaranteed.

The emphasis on individual goals has broader rehabilitation context. MedlinePlus describes rehabilitation as helping people maintain or regain abilities needed in daily life, with goals that depend on the individual’s circumstances.[1] That general information does not independently validate CMAR’s specific assessment or treatment methods.

A programme that can become shorter

At each subsequent visit, I assess again. Your programme should reflect where you are during that session, rather than preserve every motion you have ever been given.

My usual practice-based rule is to “graduate” a Purposeful Motion after two consecutive sessions in which I judge that its associated muscle no longer needs hands-on activation. I may retain a motion when I consider it important to the sequence connecting the other selected motions.

For example, I often retain the motion associated with the gluteus maximus because of the role I assign it within my walking-related framework. This is a description of my decision-making, not an instruction that every reader should add or keep that motion.

Individualisation includes deciding what to remove.

Reassessment also means knowing when to stop

A session does not always produce the improvement I hope to see. If the response is limited, I take the client through the programme developed during that visit so they can understand and practise the selected motions.

A worsening response calls for a different decision. If repeat testing indicates greater weakness, or the client experiences increased pain or discomfort following my intervention, I stop treatment and assess the appropriate next steps involving their primary care physician.

Continuing despite a worsening response is not the purpose of the programme. This article is educational and does not replace medical assessment or provide clearance to exercise.

Individualised care and a self-guided Less-ercise programme

An individualised programme follows a personal assessment and changes as I reassess the client. A general Less-ercise programme draws on patterns I have observed across years of working with clients, but it does not reproduce that individual testing process.

The current self-guided Less-ercise: Low Back Pain, 5 Purposeful Motions programme contains a fixed set of motions. It should not be confused with a programme selected for you during an individual session. Completing the website’s suitability quiz is not the same as receiving that assessment.

For the relationship between these names, read Purposeful Motions and Less-ercise: what the names mean.

A programme that reflects you

What I most want you to understand about muscle activation at CMAR is the depth of the process behind the programme: assessment, specific hands-on work, reassessment and a selection of Purposeful Motions connected to that session’s findings.

My aim is to help you notice meaningful change and leave with a clearer understanding of what you are practising and why. Your response determines what I reassess next; it is not a promise made in advance.

If you would like to discuss an individualised assessment, explore CMAR’s in-person sessions. You can also read what to bring to a muscle activation conversation before getting in touch.

Source and scope

[1] National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus. Rehabilitation. Reviewed for general daily-function and individual-goal context only. This source does not evaluate or endorse CMAR’s methods.

Descriptions of CMAR’s procedures, sequencing, appointment intervals and programme decisions come from Brent LaGrange’s interview. Client experiences are presented as his reported observations, not as an independently measured success rate or a clinical study. No private client case or identifying information is included.

Educational information only. This article does not assess your symptoms, prescribe movement, or promise an outcome. Read our editorial standards.