What Is Muscle Testing & What Is It Used For?

what is kinesiology used for and does it

work is it valid I'm gonna give you just

enough information in detail so that you

can make an informed decision for

yourself coming right up

hey I'm dr. Ekberg with wellness for

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so that you don't miss anything so

kinesiology is simply the study of

emotion but what most people mean when

they say kinesiology is applied

kinesiology were a K or muscle testing

so that's what we're going to talk about

and that's what we use in our office

when we do a muscle test then we

typically start with a arm stretched out

we push on the bone the bone is held up

by a muscle and the muscle is controlled

by a signal from the brain so we're

really involving three different systems

the bone muscle and the brain one is

passive one is active but one is

regulating so the passive doesn't change

the active doesn't change

it's the regulating that changes it's

the brain processing the signaling that

changes so it's really the brain that

we're testing everything in your body is

regulated by the brain so here's the

process the body has receptors that send

input that send efferent information

incoming information to the brain and

then the brain processes that so the

combination of input and processing

results in perception so that incoming

information gives the brain enough data

to paint a picture of what the world

looks like the brain is never seen or

heard or touched or felt anything but

with enough information the brain can

create a picture of the world if that

information coming in is correct then

the brain can paint a true picture and

it can act properly

so then the brain processes and it

creates an output an efferent signal so

it can affect the body parts that need

to do things and then the body has

receptors that give the brain more

information and so this wheel keeps

spinning and perception were input can

come from three different big areas one

is chemical one is mechanical or

proprioception and one is emotional so

all of these things can change how the

brain processes and perceives things so

chemicals if you put in chemicals or

drugs or pesticides or if you get food

poisoning those are all chemical inputs

so our hormones and neurotransmitters

etc mechanical and proprioception that's

movement ninety percent of what your

brain processes has to do with

proprioception meaning where are the

body parts in relation to gravity and

the environment this is so important

that that is 90 percent of what the

brain does and things that don't move

don't have brains so the main purpose of

the brain is to process information and

proprioception so that you can figure

out where you are and you can interact

with your environment and emotional

obviously thoughts are real things you

can have a stressful thought and get

goosebumps or high blood pressure or an

ulcer and so forth and this is a lot of

information the incoming information is

somewhere around a billion bits of

information per second so that's a lot

of stuff for the brain to process and

now if we understand this model then the

brain is really just a hub it only does

things based on information it receives

so it's really the incoming information

that drives the system and any change in

the incoming information is going to

create a change in the outgoing

information so that's what muscle

testing is all about

we test we push we get a response and if

that response changes it's because we

changed the input if that input is

favorable then in our experience we get

a locked muscle if that input is

unfavorable we get an unlocked muscle

okay it's sort of intuitive we can't

prove that that's the case that locked

is good for the most part and unlocked

means that something is not helping the

body but from millions and millions of

muscle tests and interactions and people

getting better it is our experience that

that's the case we want to think of the

muscle test as a neurological reflex

because we have information coming in we

have brain processing and we have a

response and that response can be normal

or abnormal so in the case of muscle

testing the normal response is for that

arm to lock the abnormal is for it to

unlock the most part it depends on on

what we're looking at and if you do a

patellar tendon reflex if you have

someone kick hit your kneecap with a

little hammer then the foot is going to

kick out

that's a neurological reflex normally

that would only kick out once but if

there's something wrong with the brain

then it's going to result in

hyperreflexia and we get either an

exaggerated response or multiple

repeated responses so just like there

are abnormal neurological reflexes in

Neurology there are also normal and

abnormal findings in muscle testing so

the brain is what modulates and effect

those things so muscle testing is one of

the most controversial topics out there

and for the most part it's because

people don't understand it or because

they don't know how to do it properly or

they have unrealistic expectations

patience so let's look at a few things

here the proper way of doing a muscle

test is to first understand that you're

looking for a lock it's not a strong or

a weak muscle it is a lock or an unlock

it's a yes or a no it's not a gray scale

of strong or weak and that's a skill

that you have to develop it's an

understanding you probably have to push

on a few thousand or tens of thousands

of arms before you get really good where

you're sure that yes I know what a lock

feels like and in order to establish

that lock you need to have both the

tester and the person being tested

totally stable so you can either have

them standing or you can have them

sitting or laying down but it has to be

in a stable position and then you want

to use gradual pressure so you start

with an ounce of pressure over the

course of a few seconds you gradually

increase to a couple of pounds and

during that you sense if there is a

change where if there's a rigid end feel

to it so by practicing that you can tell

if you have a lock or not it is not

about a strong versus a weak muscle so

I'm sorry if you've been exposed to some

people who don't understand this and

I've seen some horrendous examples on

YouTube I don't know if I want to laugh

or cry because it misleads people and it

takes advantage of people like the

stability portion for example sometimes

I see people test like this and they say

oh stand on on one leg and then they

push way out here and the person goes

flying there's nothing to do with a

muscle test that has to do with balance

and vectors and what direction you apply

the pressure it's absolutely nothing to

do with what we're talking about and the

other thing is it has to be gradual and

very often I'll see testing where they

go oh look here and when they want to

make it strong they do a gradual

and when they want to show you how weak

you went then they do it's superfast and

you go flying again so realize that you

have to know what to do and be

consistent to get consistent findings

and as good as this is there are

limitations and we have to be aware of

how to establish consistency but we also

have to understand what the limitations

are so the first limitation is bias

because we are dealing with an

information system and thoughts and

emotions are part of this then it is

sometimes not entirely possible to

eliminate all bias that's why we don't

use this as the single test we use it as

an adjunct and we use it in cases where

our bias is not very influential so I'll

give some examples of that then it

depends on skill and like I said you

might have to do this a few thousand

times before you get reasonably good and

skill also understanding what we are

looking for so that you put the patient

in the consistent place so that you know

to look for a lock that you don't change

things up that you understand that this

is one test and this is another test and

this is another test so you have to be

consistent to get consistent results and

then you want to know that there can be

other interference like I said we're

dealing with information and we are

changing with the muscle test we are

working through a system of mechanics

and proprioception but the body can also

be influenced by chemicals and thoughts

so if they have an interference with

some chemical or metal or pathogen in

their body in addition to what we might

be testing then that can throw off the

results and if we don't know how to

eliminate

an account for that then we may not get

Vallee

readings but if we do know how to

account for those then we can get very

very consistent and get very valid

reading so very often people who don't

understand this they'll say oh that

stuff doesn't work

this is pseudoscience or we haven't done

any double-blind placebo-controlled

trials or something like that and that's

their opinion of the validity so well

we'll get to that next but so far

everything that I have discussed is

physiology it is science you can read

about this stuff in books you can verify

this for yourself you can educate

yourself and understand that everything

that I've said so far is simply about

neurophysiology it's about signals it's

about how the brain processes things

it's about the brain turning things on

and off so if you disagree with

something so far then you're just

uninformed the rest of it however gets

into opinion and experience so when

people question the validity then this

is where they have a right to their

opinion and we also want to understand

how can we use this so that it it's

consistent and when I use this I cues it

to test for toxicity and sensitivity for

deficiencies and for subluxations and

some people also use it to test for

emotional states and beliefs and so

forth I don't get into that because I

think there are too many variables I

think there's too much emotional bias I

think there might have some validity for

some people but I think you want to be

very very careful and I just stay away

from that now when we do when we test

for toxicity sensitivity I am NOT

diagnosing I'm not saying that you have

metals or chemicals in your body

I'm saying it appears your body has a

reaction to something let's see if we

can find something that makes it work

better

and this is completely different a blood

test will test and see how much

pesticide how much metal how much

pathogen is in your bloodstream it's an

absolute measure we don't do that we

don't diagnose we're asking about the

body's reaction and then we're using

that reaction to see if we can find

something to reverse that finding so

that's very very important to understand

that some people say oh this isn't valid

because you can't diagnose they believe

that we use this for diagnosing and we

don't we absolutely don't and we don't

want to so let me give you some examples

of ways that I is this so for example

the infraspinatus is a muscle in the

rotator cuff so if you push down here

while you stabilize here then you're

testing the external rotator of the

shoulder and that's the most common weak

muscle that ever found more than half

the people coming through the office

probably have that one weak and then

what we have found is that through a K

through people collaborating they have

found that there are certain reflex

points and there's certain organ

relations and that muscle most commonly

relates to the immune system so again we

don't diagnose we're not saying you have

an immune deficiency we don't say that

you have a disease but we pick an immune

support product and we see if it

reverses that finding and we don't care

if you have an immune deficiency or not

we just found something that isn't

working and the finding gives us a

reason to pick a particular product and

now if that reverses the finding we

believe that's a good solution so we can

test in real time and we can bypass a

lot of steps and we can get quicker

results more specifically and it saves

the patient money another muscle we can

test is the subscapularis

which is the opposite it's an internal

rotator so if we push this way instead

then we're testing the subscapularis

which is related to heart and if we give

the person something that typically

supports the heart then that muscle

tends to be stronger or get a lock so

again we're not diagnosing the heart

we're not telling anyone that you have a

disease or you have a heart problem

we're using the body's responses to tell

us a likely product that will reverse

this non function if we go to the

latissimus which is if we test the

straight arm into the body we pull

straight out that's testing the

latissimus and if that's not working

there's usually a relationship to the

pancreas and if we support the pancreas

through a digestive enzyme then we

typically can strengthen that muscle a

lot of low back pain is due to a

dysfunctional soaz which in turn can be

due to a stressed adrenal and if we

support that adrenal a little bit not

calling it a disease but checking does

an adrenal supplement does an adrenal

support supplement strengthen that so as

and then we give them some adrenal

support and they come back and their

back is better then we think that that

was a good idea so when people say it

doesn't work they're questioning the

validity in terms of a diagnostic

function again we're not diagnosing

we're using this to ask the body we're

changing the receptor input and we're

asking the body what does it take to

reverse this finding we never diagnosed

anything we never said that you have any

of these things but we're just looking

for what does the body need to improve

the function so I hope that was helpful

in clearing up some confusion because

there's a lot of it out there and a lot

of it is based on lack

of physiology knowledge and jumping to

conclusion about the interpretation

about the validity so let me know what

your experiences are let me know if

you've had good or bad experiences and

if so let me know what happened so we

can maybe figure out if they were

following these steps or not if you want

to have some fun with this I encourage

you to start playing with it test each

other push on some arms hold different

things and see what changes just be

careful until you have some really good

skill don't read too much into what you

find and be careful with the questions

you ask and this is especially true if

you go into the emotional stuff which I

don't recommend once you start asking

mental questions there's a whole lot

more variables and complexity and

confusion and chances for for false

readings so if you want to have some fun

just start playing with this I encourage

you to do this on your own because it

can be very helpful to figure out what

you have if there's some foods that your

body would rather not have or even in

the grocery store if there's something

that you're questioning whether you

should buy or not once you get good at

this it can be very helpful until you

get good though I would encourage you to

practice and be very very careful with

how you interpret what you find until

next time thanks for watching

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you

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