Charlie Cates

Charlie Cates is the leading consultant to high-level professional, college, & high school basketball players in the Chicagoland area for injury prevention, recovery, & muscle performance. As a certified Muscle Activation Techniques® MATRx practitioner & former college basketball player, he uses his personal experience & understanding of the game & player demands to create customized exercise options for his clients to recover faster & perform their best. He is certified in the highest levels of MAT®, including MATRx, MATRx Stim, and MAT® Athlete. Follow him on Instagram @CharlieCates!

Looking to optimize your health and function? MAT® may be the answer.

At Muscle Activation Schaumburg, we generally have three categories of clients that come to see us for Muscle Activation Techniques® (MAT®).  The first category we call progressors.  These are people who have a health, function, or fitness goal that they are trying to reach and we help progress their body to being able to do so.  The second category is called the maintainers.  These clients are happy with their current health, function, and fitness and just want to maintain where they are at.  They may come in less frequently than the progressor group (every 4-6 weeks) but are very consistent with their muscle system tune-ups.

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

3 Ways MAT® Helps Maintain Your Health and Function

When clients come to us for Muscle Activation Techniques®, they typically fall into one of three categories.  The first group is what we call the Progressors, which is made up of clients who have a health, function, or fitness goal that we get to help progress them towards. Another group is call the Optimizers.  These are clients whose body is already working pretty well but they are wanting to optimize their health and function for that last little edge.  The third group is called the Maintainers.  This group is made up of clients who are able to do the things they want to do and they want to make sure they are able to continue to do those activities for the foreseeable future.

Which group would you fall into?  You can take this short quiz here to find out.

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

3 Ways MAT® Helps to Boost Your Performance

Oftentimes, when we think of performance we think of athletes, musicians, actors and actresses, or anybody else that we may see on stage or on screen.  But, the truth of the matter is that each of us has to perform every single day.  We have to wake up and perform the various roles and responsibilities of our daily life.  We need to exercise, take care of our family, attend to our tasks at work, and fulfill social obligations.  From the boardroom to the ballfield, we all need to be able to perform, but we may often feel as if we are only surviving instead of thriving.  Fortunately, Muscle Activation Techniques® (MAT®) can help us boost our physical performance so we can do the things we love to do as well as we would like to do them for the foreseeable future.  Here’s how.

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

How muscles saved me from blowing out my knee

When I was 24 years old, I thought I had blown out my knee.  I was playing in a basketball game in a rec league at DePaul University.  During one play, I went up to dunk the ball and got hit in the chest by a defender.  I reached to grab the rib to regain my balance, but the hit knocked me hard enough that I couldn’t hang on.  I slipped, fell backwards, and stuck my leg out to land.  The problem was that I stuck my leg out completely straight and my body was falling overtop of it at a weird angle.

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

Joint Injuries and Your Internal Suspension System

Joint injuries and injuries to passive tissues such as ligaments and discs are ever-present in our society today.  Whether it is rupturing a meniscus or an ACL or herniating a disc, it seems as if both competitive athletes and weekend warriors alike are commonly plagued by injuries to the passive tissues of their body.  With these types of injuries only becoming more commonplace from high school athletes to middle-aged rec-leaguers, the question of, “What can be done to help prevent these types of injuries?” naturally comes up.  Fortunately, there is something that can be done, and the answer lies in the active tissues of the body – the skeletal muscles.

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

Mom, Retired IFBB Bikini Pro, Personal Trainer – Nicole Moneer – MAT® Testimonial

Check out this awesome MATRx® testimonial from retired IFBB Bikini Pro, NASM certified personal trainer, author, and mom Nicole Moneer!  Nicole describes her experience at Muscle Activation Schaumburg while going through the MATRx® process with Charlie.  She talks about the changes she has noticed in her hips and knees as well as how her body feels while she is working out.  Read about everything Nicole has to say about Muscle Activation Techniques® below!

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

Pro Basketball Player – Quinton Chievous – MAT® Testimonial

Check out this awesome testimonial from pro basketball player Quinton Chievous!  Quinton did Muscle Activation Techniques® with Charlie in preparation for his second professional season.  After playing in the NBA’s development league with Memphis last year, Quinton is taking his talents overseas to play basketball professionally in Europe.  Quinton was a standout basketball player at Nile’s Notre Dame College Prep before heading to the University of Tennessee.  After graduating early from Tennessee, Quinton finished his collegiate basketball career while also earning his masters degree at Hamptom University.  Check out his testimonial below on his experience at Muscle Activation Schaumburg!

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago

Compensation – How Your Feet Can Be Creating Back Issues

Compensation often gets a bad rap.  It is portrayed in a negative light as the demise of your orthopedic health and something that needs to be eviscerated by any means necessary.  However, compensation is actually a brilliant way for your body to remain highly functioning from one moment to the next.  Without compensation, we would likely have far more physical issues throughout our entire body.  The caveat, though, is that we may not want to compensate in the same manner for an extended period of time.  Not only can this put excess stress on certain muscles, it can also stress your joints.

(more…)

By Charlie Cates, ago