Applied Kinesiology
Muscle testing, also known as applied kinesiology (AK) or manual muscle testing (MMT), is an alternative medicine practice that helps to effectively identify structural, muscular, chemical, and mental ailments.
Applied kinesiology is a method of diagnosis and treatment based on the belief that various muscles are linked to particular organs and glands, and that specific muscle weakness can signal distant internal problems such as nerve damage, reduced blood supply, chemical imbalances or other organ or gland problems. Practitioners contend that by correcting this muscle weakness through different modalities such as herbs, supplements, and adjustment, you can help heal a problem in the associated internal organ.
The basic idea behind AK is similar to one of Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion, which states, “for every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Applied kinesiology takes this concept and applies it to the human body. This means that any internal issues you may be experiencing would be accompanied by a related muscle weakness. Following this thought process, one should be able to perform a muscle test to help identify underlying medical conditions.
What is applied kinesiology used for?
Applied kinesiology can be used to identify and treat nervous system problems, nutritional deficiencies or excesses, imbalances in the body’s “energy pathways” (known in Traditional Chinese Medicine as meridians), and many other health concerns.
The theory of AK was developed by George Goodheart, Jr., a Michigan chiropractor who began to write and lecture about his ideas in 1964. Before AK, the results of muscle strength testing were thought to be static like seeing a fracture on an x-ray. Dr George Goodheart’s breakthrough discovery was that muscle ‘weakness’ was not necessarily a pathological problem, but could be a functional one. Applied kinesiology practitioners are often chiropractors, but may also be osteopathic physicians, dentists, or even conventional physicians.
The combined terms “applied” and “kinesiology” describe the basis of this system, which is the use of manual muscle testing to evaluate body function through the dynamics of the musculoskeletal system. Treatments may involve specific joint manipulation or mobilization, various myofascial therapies, cranial techniques, meridian and acupuncture skills, clinical nutrition, dietary management, counseling skills, evaluating environmental irritants and various reflex procedures.
Not only can muscle testing indicate the proper therapy to treat a specific musculoskeletal condition, but Applied Kinesiologists eventually found it could be a predicator of overall health.
AK muscle testing helps magnify what is happening deep in your physiology. This is why AK manual muscle testing can help find health issues that many other less refined diagnostic tests may miss.
When you experience your first examination and treatment with a doctor who specializes in Applied Kinesiology (AK) it seems impossible that your muscles will test at apparently different strengths in a matter of seconds. The reason this is possible is that Applied Kinesiologists are not measuring your muscle’s strength — they are measuring your muscle’s function. This reading of your muscle function can change just like your blood pressure measurement can change depending on current stimuli. (i.e. White Coat Syndrome). Not knowing that a muscle test performed by a trained Applied Kinesiologist is NOT a strength test and actually represents a reading of your nervous system and therefore can change immediately is where much of the misunderstanding of AK stems from.