How does muscle testing work?

The human body is a complex organic machine in which every component affects every other component. Bones, for instance, only move when muscles pull on them, and those muscles only work according to the instructions from nerve impulses. To make matters even more complex, certain nerve reflexes and muscle responses may be tied to the functionality of other, seemingly unrelated parts of the body, such as internal organs. Dysfunction in any of these parts may then register as inconsistencies in muscle strength.

This is the principle behind muscle strength testing used in Applied Kinesiology. Applied Kinesiology is the evaluation of your functional health through observations of the body in action. While you may never have heard of this method before, the ideas were first set down by Dr. George Goodheart, Jr. back in 1964. (The larger notion that activities or symptoms in one body part might indicate the health of another body part go back thousands of years as a principle of Traditional Chinese Medicine.)

What Can You Expect During Your Visit?

After discussing your condition or symptoms, we will evaluate your musculoskeletal balance and function, stance, body symmetry, and gait. We will then ask you to hold various parts of your body as still as possible while we exert force against them. Ideally, each muscle will "lock" to provide a normal degree of resistance. A muscle that displays abnormal weakness may indicate a problem with whatever other area of the body is neurologically associated with that muscle. We can then provide chiropractic adjustments, nutritional counseling and other treatments as needed.