Neurokinetic Therapy is an assessment protocol that provides the missing link between rehabilitative exercise and manual therapy. This sophisticated form of manual muscle testing allows the practitioner to test the strength and/or responsiveness of certain muscles that may be involved in movement dysfunctions or pain.
“Assess Don’t Guess.”
Manual therapy is often applied to a given muscle without first evaluating how it is linked to a particular movement pattern. Your hip flexors, for example, may be chronically tight. Stretching or “releasing” the hip-flexors in some cases may be inappropriate because they may be weak or inhibited despite feeling tight. Releasing an already inhibited muscle can further weaken this muscle and lead to greater instability.
Treatment is greatly enhanced by first assessing the state of a muscle and its relationship to other muscles before applying an intervention – whether it is a stretch or a corrective exercise. This provides the practitioner with a greater picture of how the nervous system is functioning and what role a given muscle is playing in a particular dysfunction.
Benefits of Muscle Testing
- Ensures more appropriate treatment
- Quicker reduction in pain
- Recognizes the impact of the nervous system
- Allows for complex dysfunctions to be understood
- Integrates muscle function into movement patterns
- Retrains the brain in producing quality movement
- Eliminates ineffective and unnecessary soft-tissue work
- Prevents overstretching
- Ensures that corrective exercises are appropriate
The Science of Muscle Testing
NeuroKinetic Therapy® works by communicating with the motor control center of the brain. Most musculoskeletal pain is caused by imbalances of neurological origins wherein some muscles are overactive, while others are inaccessible by the brain. Using manual muscle testing, the neuromuscular patterns governing these movements are accessed in the brain’s motor-control center and can be “edited” for greater efficiency. This process allows NKT® to yield faster and longer-lasting results than many other techniques.
“NeuroKinetic Therapy is a sophisticated form of manual therapy that combines motor control theory and manual muscle testing. The science of motor control theory states that the motor control center in the cerebellum stores all the coordination patterns of the body. It is directed by the limbic system and the cerebral cortex to not only create movement patterns (such as when a baby learns to stand), but also to create substitute movement patterns when we are injured.”
Chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy manipulations, and massage techniques all provide inputs to your nervous system. Muscle testing is a way of auditing the input that someone is providing to your brain and nervous system to ensure that it is in fact the right stimulus.
This allows for drastically more effective treatment and provides an explanation as to why your movement is dysfunctional. Your treatment plan should include an understanding of why you are in pain or why your movement is dysfunctional. When someone treats your pain or problem without this understanding they are often guessing and will be unable to explain why you get re-injured or why your pain or problem returns a few days/weeks later.