Kinesiology:
A Historical Perspective
The development of Kinesiology
was pioneered in the 1940s by the American Physiotherapists
Henry and Florence Kendall, a husband and wife team who
introduced a clinical procedure to ascertain the strength
of a muscle. They incorporated sophisticated postural
procedures to isolate specific muscles in order to test
them individually without recruitment (the use of other
surrounding muscles to support a muscle under stress). This
model of kinesiology has been taught to physical
therapists, physicians, osteopaths and other health
practitioners. It allows for the clinician to 'challenge'
the integrity of a muscle - its apparent strength or
integrity, or lack thereof. This is very useful in
localizing particular muscle dysfunction, tears, origin and
insertion problems.
APPLIED
KINESIOLOGY
In the early 1970s, a Detroit Chiropractor named George
Goodheart serendipitously discovered that altered
structures produced reflex neural loops back into the
muscle reflex arc, which then altered a particular muscle
(at the same cord level) in its ability to sustain
contraction on opposing pressure. This challenged the then
currently held Kendall model, for it supported the idea
that the muscle itself could be switched 'off' (a loss of
integrity) and give the impression of some local
pathophysiology. Dysfunction was indicated when a muscle
was unable to withstand a continuous load upon it and
consequently gave
way.
The "load" in this case was the clinician exerting a
sustained counter pressure against the muscle as the
patient initiated a contractual phase. Dr. Goodheart's
research expanded the Kendall model adding what he and
other's termed "physician-mediated testing" - this means
that the physician prompted the person to initiate
contraction with the physician then applying a counter
pressure. A consequent change told the physician that some
structural component was aberrant and that errant reflexes
were mixing up the signals.
In the years since Goodheart's initial discovery,
Chiropractors have developed a very sophisticated manual
muscle testing process known as Applied Kinesiology. They
use touch or a challenge (pushing on, or gently
manipulating a structure) to elicit change in the muscle
that they use to give them feedback. This means that
touching the area on "display" - i.e. a tissue signalling
its distress - actually changes the muscle strength from
strong to weak or vice versa. This piece of information
tells the clinician that something is 'up' but does not
define the structural disorganization or the
pathophysiology. An aberrant structure will elicit a change
in an intact muscle. They then look for some other
structure which will 'correct' that display. They will
gently manipulate another joint, muscle, lymphatic or
neurovascular reflex, a meridian point, a tooth, foot, or
cranial bone elicits a reflex signal that will alter the
structure that initially illustrated some thing 'wrong'.
TOUCH
FOR HEALTH
A chiropractor, John Thie, in the early 70's took the
complexity of Applied Kinesiology [AK] and made it easier
for others to learn it. He simplified the model by
introducing a series of individual muscle challenges or
tests, to indicate the gravitas
of the state of the
client. A weak muscle would infer some element (read
force)
that was affecting that muscle. Each muscle was associated
with certain organ systems, meridians and reflex arcs or
points. These points, when held, or rubbed, helped to re
integrate the feed back loop system, rectify the muscle
weakness, and help change the noise
from the organ.
This balancing procedure was very affective in facilitating
changes in many people. Huge numbers of therapists, and lay
people have learnt this simple system.
CLINICAL
KINESIOLOGY
Applied Kinesiology has been refined over the past thirty
years, both in Europe and in the United States, and is used
as a feedback tool to assist in confirming and gathering
information. Used in conjunction with hand
modes, it is
part of a new language that helps us to access information
about the nature of a person's dysfunction.
Hand modes were first "rediscovered" and used in this
therapeutic form in the late 1970s by the late Alan
Beardall, DC. Using kinesiology with a patient one day,
Beardall noticed that he got differing responses in muscle
testing despite touching the same aberrant vertebra. He
then observed that the patient was intermittently and
unconsciously placing the fingers of one hand into a
particular position. In fact, each time the patient's hand
was placed into this position, it altered the muscle test.
This extraordinary occurrence prompted Beardall to realize
that he was being shown a specific key for a particular
consequence. The hand mode "read" the body, and told him
(in relation to this particular mode) that a vertebra was
subluxed - out of position. This was the beginning of the
modern day use of hand modes in conjunction with
kinesiology. Over the next few years, Beardall added many
more hand modes to his work. He told us that he would begin
to realize that he needed another mode to help him in his
work with clients. He related that over a few days the
"shape" of a mode would appear to him, until he was able to
'see' it. He would then use it clinically to verify its
nature and use.
Beardall developed these modes into a formidable model of
work called Clinical Kinesiology (CK). His modes
encompassed the physical, chemical and to a lesser degree
the emotional self or body. CK was a process that enabled
the Chiropractic physician to find the precise sequence or
protocol that the body required to bring itself back into
balance and well being. For the first time, a system had
been introduced in which the client had more information
than the practitioner. This revolutionary process enabled
the body to tell its 'story' and direct the practitioner to
the therapy, process, or internal change that was needed.
It was Beardall's work that provided the impetus for
Solihin
Thom to
expand kinesiology into the realm of human consciousness
through the development of Ontological
Kinesiology.
Please
note:
There are many other forms of kinesiology other then the
physical therapy model of active muscle challenge.
Physicians may be taught this standard model, but may not
apply it, osteopaths and chiropractors certainly learn this
approach in basic training and often use it in their
assessment. This normal kinetic challenge in a strictly
diagnostic milieu, merely looks at the integrity of an
individual muscle.
Many others have used the phenomena of the muscle being a
feedback loop. As a consequence there is a plethora of
differing models applying the basic premise:
aberrant
input momentarily
upsets the local muscle reflex arc and causes a
change
of muscle
integrity. Differing approaches use different 'maps'. Some
muscle testing uses very light input from the practitioner,
sensing the 'give' or 'break' of the muscle spindles. This
uses an entirely different set of muscle fibres and neural
feedback and reflexes. Other peoples' approach may appear
to be different, not only in style but in content. Some
approaches use muscle testing to indicate whether meridians
or 'circuits' need balancing. Some help to 'clear' trauma
and related input held in the neurology and tissue matrix,
again using the muscle feedback loop as an indicator for
change. Others are diagnostic in approach. Most are
therapeutic in that they apply some sort of input to change
the circuitry. These are in essence balancing protocols,
allowing for the client to be in a more balanced and
harmonious state, enabling them to make the right action to
change.
There are sites on the web under the general search
criteria of kinesiology,
that may help to illustrate the wide and varying
applications of this remarkable tool.
NB
There is
considerable professional scorn applied to the term
'kinesiology' when applied to muscle testing. Professional
therapists who work with kinesiology do not subscribe, on
the whole, to muscle testing. The protocols which would
allow them to understand the difference are not taught at
professional schools, and they note that many people using
muscle testing do not have the anatomical or neurological
base of understanding nor know the many hundreds of muscles
and the appropriate methods of challenge (the understanding
of the correct position - against the origin and insertion
of each muscle - and the application of force to challenge
muscle integrity). Hence 'muscle testing' is viewed fairly
poorly by many in the health care profession.
Muscle testing or kinesiology is a benign science. It is,
however, open to abuse. As a distant reflex arc can effect
a muscle and induce change, then muscle testing may be
viewed as suspect as the cause of a change of integrity may
not be apparent. Further more, two practitioners may get
dissimilar results when challenging a particular structure
or situation, prompting the query as to what may be going
on. Further research also illustrates that our own muscle
testing can be suspect, for minute changes in our own
protocol can elicit changes that give us information but
which may illustrate our own bias and map. In short
kinesiology is a fantastic tool, but unless we understand
all the neurological pitfalls, then our own procedures and
our own dynamics as practitioners can subtly alter the
results towards our own models and understanding rather
than the client's own story.
Who's doing the
talking - an
article on neurological bias.