Manual Muscle Testing
My History
Manual muscle testing, or Applied Kinesiology, is a technique that I have used successfully since 1981. I have studied and learned variations of muscle testing with Michael Schmidt, DC, Terry Franks, DC, Dan Gleeson, DC, Dick Versendaal, DC, Savely Yurkovsky, MD, and Michael Lebowitz, DC. Then with Don Anderson, DC and Kitt Hyatt, DC, I helped develop a manual muscle testing technique called the Whole System Healthscan. After having used many different techniques, I have found the Lebowitz protocol to be the most effective and easiest to use.
So when do I use manual muscle testing? For 95% of my patients, NES provides the answers they are looking for. The remaining 5% may need a more comprehensive approach utilizing NES and also including medical treatment and/or manual muscle testing.
Dr. Michael Lebowitz has practiced the art and science of applied kinesiology for close to 30 years and has taught for approximately 19 years. Over these years, Dr. Lebowitz has developed many techniques that are presently used by well over a thousand physicians in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. His research and innovation have brought much in the way of testing techniques and academics to alternative medicine in the fields of dysbiosis, food sensitivities, toxic metals, chemical and electromagnetic field sensitivity as well as neurological desensitization techniques. He has also helped develop nutritional products that are used worldwide to treat these issues.
Dr. Lebowitz has been a prolific writer, authoring 2 books, over 60 articles, and a free monthly newsletter for over 17 years.
Dr. Lebowitz maintains a home office practice in Grand Junction, Colorado where he attracts patients from around the globe. He has treated many professional athletes (MLB, NHL, NFL, cyclists, runners, boxers, ballet, etc.) as well as many physicians. When treating and correcting dysbiosis (fungus, parasites, bacteria, virus, etc.), food sensitivities, toxic metals and chemicals, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, structural imbalances and more, he has found that a majority of chronic and acute symptoms often leave and the patient is restored to a better state of health.
Manual muscle testing, or Applied Kinesiology, is a technique that I have used successfully since 1981. I have studied and learned variations of muscle testing with Michael Schmidt, DC, Terry Franks, DC, Dan Gleeson, DC, Dick Versendaal, DC, Savely Yurkovsky, MD, and Michael Lebowitz, DC. Then with Don Anderson, DC and Kitt Hyatt, DC, I helped develop a manual muscle testing technique called the Whole System Healthscan. After having used many different techniques, I have found the Lebowitz protocol to be the most effective and easiest to use.
So when do I use manual muscle testing? For 95% of my patients, NES provides the answers they are looking for. The remaining 5% may need a more comprehensive approach utilizing NES and also including medical treatment and/or manual muscle testing.
Dr. Michael Lebowitz has practiced the art and science of applied kinesiology for close to 30 years and has taught for approximately 19 years. Over these years, Dr. Lebowitz has developed many techniques that are presently used by well over a thousand physicians in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. His research and innovation have brought much in the way of testing techniques and academics to alternative medicine in the fields of dysbiosis, food sensitivities, toxic metals, chemical and electromagnetic field sensitivity as well as neurological desensitization techniques. He has also helped develop nutritional products that are used worldwide to treat these issues.
Dr. Lebowitz has been a prolific writer, authoring 2 books, over 60 articles, and a free monthly newsletter for over 17 years.
Dr. Lebowitz maintains a home office practice in Grand Junction, Colorado where he attracts patients from around the globe. He has treated many professional athletes (MLB, NHL, NFL, cyclists, runners, boxers, ballet, etc.) as well as many physicians. When treating and correcting dysbiosis (fungus, parasites, bacteria, virus, etc.), food sensitivities, toxic metals and chemicals, nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, structural imbalances and more, he has found that a majority of chronic and acute symptoms often leave and the patient is restored to a better state of health.
How Does Manual Muscle Testing, or Applied Kinesiology, Work?
Applied Kinesiology often looks like magic and there are many skeptics. I believe that much of how kinesiology works can be explained and that is there is a reasonable scientific model. But there are aspects of applied kinesiology which I cannot completely explain.
One of the criticisms of Applied Kinesiology is that it's validity depends on the practitioner's skill and interaction with the patient. I agree with this and have found it to be the number one issue when teaching manual muscle testing to new doctors. One of the profound paradigm shifts in holistic health care is the understanding that the doctor is not some mechanical, isolated, outside observer but is in the circuit with the patient. We are all psychic in the sense that we pick up minimal cues both verbal and non-verbal, so that attitude of the doctor influences the patient and vice versa. Instead of denying this I suggest that we need to work with it. I believe that keeping an open mind is one of the critical skills of any good practitioner but especially important in the art of muscle testing.
Muscle testing is an art. It takes a fine touch and quite a bit of training to do it well. But the same thing is true of many diagnostic techniques such as listening to heart sounds. In one study it was found that medical residents were only 32% correct in identification of heart sounds (Fam Med 2001;33(1):39-44.)
On autopsy, medical errors are found in 20% to 40% of cases, so even in a modern hospital setting, diagnosis is still an art. (Curr Surg. 2004 Mar-Apr;61(2):151-5., J Am Coll Surg. 2002 Apr;194(4):401-6). What these statistics do not reveal is the level of missed diagnosis in daily medical practice where we are dealing with conditions that are much more difficult to diagnose, such as headache, back pain, fatigue, or menstrual disorders. Three patients with back pain may have three completely different causes, and frequently there are multiple causes contributing to these problems. Applied kinesiology can quickly sort through multiple possibilities and come up with a good working diagnosis.
How does it work? Muscle testing starts with a specific position designed to isolate a particular muscle as much as possible. The patient is asked to hold the position while I apply a gentle but steady pressure to test the muscle. I am looking for the muscle to "lock." As I apply pressure, I feel a clear, sharp contraction in response. This is a normal reflex, much like the knee jerk reflex when the doctor hits your knee with a the rubber hammer.
About 10% of muscle fibers sense stretch in the muscle. When I apply pressure to the muscle as the patient holds, these fibers send a message to the spinal cord where there is an automatic firing of neurons which send the message back to the muscle to contract. This reflex is hard wired in the nervous system.
But this simple reflex, which happens in the spinal cord, can be over ridden by nerve fibers coming from the brain. So if you are feeling tense, the knee jerk reflex may not work and the doctor may have you squeeze your hands or clench your teeth to change make the reflex work properly.
Anything that causes an alarm reaction, anywhere in the body, can temporarily shut down the muscle stretch reflex, causing a muscle to test "weak." Actually the muscle is not weak at all. There is nothing wrong with the muscle itself. Something in the autonomic nervous system is causing the nerve to be inhibited, temporarily shutting down.
Muscle testing provides a window into the whole of the autonomic reflex system. For this reason it is sometimes called Autonomic Reflex Testing. The Applied Kinesiologist can activate various reflexes in the body and see what will "turn on" a weak muscle or "turn off" a strong muscle.
Many things can cause a strong muscle to go weak. If I find a weak muscle, I think of structural causes such as an injury to the muscle itself, or an injury to a functionally related muscle, or to a nearby joint, or a related spinal joint. There may also be irritation in the nervous system due to a distortion in the internal organs causing a muscle weakness. The pioneers of Applied Kinesiology found and charted many correlations between internal organ functions, acupuncture meridians, nutritional imbalances or deficiencies, and specific muscles. Higher level neurological functions such as complex movement reflexes or visual reflexes all involved in standing, walking and holding body position can affect specific muscles. Injuries and the memory of injuries can "turn off" muscles. Finally, emotional and mental issues can cause either too much or too little muscle tone.
Using Applied Kinesiology has been compared to accessing a computer, the "human biocomputer." In this way I "ask the body," specific questions. Like using a computer, there is both a science and an art. The more I know about the human body, about nutrition and biochemistry and physiology, about acupuncture and body energy, about disease, toxins, allergies, about emotions and energy psychology the better are my "computer searches." The more specific the questions I ask, the more specific will be the answers.
For example, if I find a weak biceps muscle, I would first check to see that the muscle is "switched on" normally. If it isn't, there is often an injury or a "pinched nerve" involved. If the muscle responds normally, I check to find if stimulating reflex points on the body wall will "turn on" the muscle. I will also check for relations to internal organ functioning, acupuncture meridians, and emotional issues associated with the organ or meridian. And then I will look for possible treatments which will correct the weak muscle. In this way I can scan through multiple body systems in a manner of minutes.
No other diagnostic technique can put the pieces together and follow the causal chains between different body systems. What I arrive at is a hypothesis which must be tested. The tests can include traditional lab tests and I always welcome this kind of independent confirmation. They certainly include correlation with the patent's complaints and history. But in the end, the only result that counts is whether the patent's health improves, whether the pain goes away or the body starts to function at a higher level.
Is this all subjective? I don't think so. I can tell innumerable stories in which I have found problems which I could not have otherwise found and which were later verified by objective medical tests. On the other hand, I always maintain a certain amount of skepticism about muscle testing. I do not regard it is as 100% accurate and I always check my finding for plausibility. Good kinesiology requires a certain kind of skepticism. Long time Applied Kinesiology expert Walter Schmidt, DC, says, "If you're not surprised when you're doing muscle testing, you're not doing it right." In other words I always have to be careful not to get the response I expect, but to remain open.
Is it science? There is no doubt that Applied Kinesiology is not well understood or accepted by mainstream science or medicine. Contrary to the assertions of several critical websites there are good research studies supporting Applied Kinesiology. Here is a quote from a review article in a peer reviewed journal:
"More than 100 studies related to Manual Muscle Testing (MMT) and the applied kinesiology chiropractic technique (AK) that employs MMT in its methodology were reviewed, including studies on the clinical efficacy of MMT in the diagnosis of patients with symptomatology.
With regard to analysis there is evidence for good reliability and validity in the use of MMT for patients with neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction. The observational cohort studies demonstrated good external and internal validity, and the 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were reviewed show that MMT findings were not dependent upon examiner bias." On the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing: a literature review. To view a copy of this article CLICK HERE.
Applied Kinesiology is a young science. Because it has been largely practiced by chiropractors there has been little research funding and little interest in understanding or applying the fine points of kinesiology to studies. For example, precise application of the correct techniques can have an large effect on accuracy and in one study practitioners varied considerably in their techniques. Nevertheless
there is good reason to believe that Applied Kinesiology can be clinically valuable in skilled hands.
A complete review of research in Applied Kinesiology is available from the International College of Applied Kinesiology.
Applied Kinesiology often looks like magic and there are many skeptics. I believe that much of how kinesiology works can be explained and that is there is a reasonable scientific model. But there are aspects of applied kinesiology which I cannot completely explain.
One of the criticisms of Applied Kinesiology is that it's validity depends on the practitioner's skill and interaction with the patient. I agree with this and have found it to be the number one issue when teaching manual muscle testing to new doctors. One of the profound paradigm shifts in holistic health care is the understanding that the doctor is not some mechanical, isolated, outside observer but is in the circuit with the patient. We are all psychic in the sense that we pick up minimal cues both verbal and non-verbal, so that attitude of the doctor influences the patient and vice versa. Instead of denying this I suggest that we need to work with it. I believe that keeping an open mind is one of the critical skills of any good practitioner but especially important in the art of muscle testing.
Muscle testing is an art. It takes a fine touch and quite a bit of training to do it well. But the same thing is true of many diagnostic techniques such as listening to heart sounds. In one study it was found that medical residents were only 32% correct in identification of heart sounds (Fam Med 2001;33(1):39-44.)
On autopsy, medical errors are found in 20% to 40% of cases, so even in a modern hospital setting, diagnosis is still an art. (Curr Surg. 2004 Mar-Apr;61(2):151-5., J Am Coll Surg. 2002 Apr;194(4):401-6). What these statistics do not reveal is the level of missed diagnosis in daily medical practice where we are dealing with conditions that are much more difficult to diagnose, such as headache, back pain, fatigue, or menstrual disorders. Three patients with back pain may have three completely different causes, and frequently there are multiple causes contributing to these problems. Applied kinesiology can quickly sort through multiple possibilities and come up with a good working diagnosis.
How does it work? Muscle testing starts with a specific position designed to isolate a particular muscle as much as possible. The patient is asked to hold the position while I apply a gentle but steady pressure to test the muscle. I am looking for the muscle to "lock." As I apply pressure, I feel a clear, sharp contraction in response. This is a normal reflex, much like the knee jerk reflex when the doctor hits your knee with a the rubber hammer.
About 10% of muscle fibers sense stretch in the muscle. When I apply pressure to the muscle as the patient holds, these fibers send a message to the spinal cord where there is an automatic firing of neurons which send the message back to the muscle to contract. This reflex is hard wired in the nervous system.
But this simple reflex, which happens in the spinal cord, can be over ridden by nerve fibers coming from the brain. So if you are feeling tense, the knee jerk reflex may not work and the doctor may have you squeeze your hands or clench your teeth to change make the reflex work properly.
Anything that causes an alarm reaction, anywhere in the body, can temporarily shut down the muscle stretch reflex, causing a muscle to test "weak." Actually the muscle is not weak at all. There is nothing wrong with the muscle itself. Something in the autonomic nervous system is causing the nerve to be inhibited, temporarily shutting down.
Muscle testing provides a window into the whole of the autonomic reflex system. For this reason it is sometimes called Autonomic Reflex Testing. The Applied Kinesiologist can activate various reflexes in the body and see what will "turn on" a weak muscle or "turn off" a strong muscle.
Many things can cause a strong muscle to go weak. If I find a weak muscle, I think of structural causes such as an injury to the muscle itself, or an injury to a functionally related muscle, or to a nearby joint, or a related spinal joint. There may also be irritation in the nervous system due to a distortion in the internal organs causing a muscle weakness. The pioneers of Applied Kinesiology found and charted many correlations between internal organ functions, acupuncture meridians, nutritional imbalances or deficiencies, and specific muscles. Higher level neurological functions such as complex movement reflexes or visual reflexes all involved in standing, walking and holding body position can affect specific muscles. Injuries and the memory of injuries can "turn off" muscles. Finally, emotional and mental issues can cause either too much or too little muscle tone.
Using Applied Kinesiology has been compared to accessing a computer, the "human biocomputer." In this way I "ask the body," specific questions. Like using a computer, there is both a science and an art. The more I know about the human body, about nutrition and biochemistry and physiology, about acupuncture and body energy, about disease, toxins, allergies, about emotions and energy psychology the better are my "computer searches." The more specific the questions I ask, the more specific will be the answers.
For example, if I find a weak biceps muscle, I would first check to see that the muscle is "switched on" normally. If it isn't, there is often an injury or a "pinched nerve" involved. If the muscle responds normally, I check to find if stimulating reflex points on the body wall will "turn on" the muscle. I will also check for relations to internal organ functioning, acupuncture meridians, and emotional issues associated with the organ or meridian. And then I will look for possible treatments which will correct the weak muscle. In this way I can scan through multiple body systems in a manner of minutes.
No other diagnostic technique can put the pieces together and follow the causal chains between different body systems. What I arrive at is a hypothesis which must be tested. The tests can include traditional lab tests and I always welcome this kind of independent confirmation. They certainly include correlation with the patent's complaints and history. But in the end, the only result that counts is whether the patent's health improves, whether the pain goes away or the body starts to function at a higher level.
Is this all subjective? I don't think so. I can tell innumerable stories in which I have found problems which I could not have otherwise found and which were later verified by objective medical tests. On the other hand, I always maintain a certain amount of skepticism about muscle testing. I do not regard it is as 100% accurate and I always check my finding for plausibility. Good kinesiology requires a certain kind of skepticism. Long time Applied Kinesiology expert Walter Schmidt, DC, says, "If you're not surprised when you're doing muscle testing, you're not doing it right." In other words I always have to be careful not to get the response I expect, but to remain open.
Is it science? There is no doubt that Applied Kinesiology is not well understood or accepted by mainstream science or medicine. Contrary to the assertions of several critical websites there are good research studies supporting Applied Kinesiology. Here is a quote from a review article in a peer reviewed journal:
"More than 100 studies related to Manual Muscle Testing (MMT) and the applied kinesiology chiropractic technique (AK) that employs MMT in its methodology were reviewed, including studies on the clinical efficacy of MMT in the diagnosis of patients with symptomatology.
With regard to analysis there is evidence for good reliability and validity in the use of MMT for patients with neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction. The observational cohort studies demonstrated good external and internal validity, and the 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were reviewed show that MMT findings were not dependent upon examiner bias." On the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing: a literature review. To view a copy of this article CLICK HERE.
Applied Kinesiology is a young science. Because it has been largely practiced by chiropractors there has been little research funding and little interest in understanding or applying the fine points of kinesiology to studies. For example, precise application of the correct techniques can have an large effect on accuracy and in one study practitioners varied considerably in their techniques. Nevertheless
there is good reason to believe that Applied Kinesiology can be clinically valuable in skilled hands.
A complete review of research in Applied Kinesiology is available from the International College of Applied Kinesiology.
If you have any questions please feel free to EMAIL me.
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