About Patrick Douglas
Patrick's passion has been centered around fitness and the human body from an extremely young age, as fitness is a prerequisite for being competitive in sports. His last 12 years in fitness has been a constant obsessive search for the latest, most updated scientific information available. In high school, much to their chagrin sometimes, he was correcting his coaches when their practical application to exercise physiology was not in line with the latest studies. He even helped his father learn the anatomy of the human body when he sold medical supplies at the age of 13.
Patrick is one of only 10 practitioners in the state of Colorado who is designated as an MATRx Specialist, which is the highest certified level of Muscle Activation Techniques possible, and one of only 50 currently in the entire world. He has over 800 hours of hands-on continuing education courses in MAT and counting, as it requires lifelong dedication to keep up with the frenetic pace at which Greg Roskopf continues to develop the technique after founding it in 2001. The Denver Broncos and Nuggets both employ Roskopf as their Biomechanics Consultant, and he was the apparent bargaining chip that John Elway needed to convince Peyton Manning to come to Denver after his four neck surgeries rendered him questionable for continuing his career otherwise.
Patrick has worked with athletes from many backgrounds, including the Louisville (KY) Ballet, NFL and CFL players, Iron man Triathletes, professional cyclists, professional snowboarders, as well as high-risk populations including stroke victims and post-operative patients.
In his off time he can be found exploring the West with his dog, Rufus.
While Patrick was preparing for college football, a personal trainer ahead of his time had directed him toward a strength coach in the late '90's for the Chicago Bears who excluded static stretching from their warmup, noting around a 30% decrease in soft tissue injuries. He came to this conclusion after observing a decrease in performance after stretching, and seemed to see a relationship between stretching and injuries. Note that even today most professional teams still perform organized stretches before practices and games, which can decrease the capacity of muscles to contract. Only a few programs worldwide have caught up to this scientific data even today! Patrick went on to major in Exercise Science in college and continued pursuing fitness after football didn't work out.
Patrick's body was unable to stand the test of time as he played at higher levels, accumulating injuries until his last knee surgery left him lacking confidence in his ability to remain healthy enough to stay off the sidelines in college. Trusting one's body is key to performing well without second-guessing every move. This exists in everyday life as well as in athletics.
Everyone has aches and pains, and the future implications of these aches and pains can include larger, more serious structural issues later in life. We have to endure stress of all kinds, and improving force tolerance with MAT can allow us to at least account for physical stress- and that's a good start!