Kinesiology

By Ann Holdway

The aim of this book is to introduce the general public to Kinesiology, and includes the background to Kinesiology and Touch for Health.

The book describes the way in which this unique system of healing has developed, the different branches of kinesiology, what it can help, what happens in a treatment session and case histories. It will increase the reader’s knowledge and awareness of how their body works.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jan 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781911163015

Book preview

Introduction

IFIRST SAW kinesiology demonstrated back in 1977. What stopped me in my tracks was how immediate it was. The demonstrator, through a process I came to know as muscle testing, communicated with his volunteer’s body, found out what was needed, and then, by massaging or just touching different parts of her body, he brought about a change there and then. Being a health and beauty therapist I was au fait with bringing about changes that took time and effort, often with the help of creams and lotions, machines, diet or exercise. But to just make contact with another and let their body give you information that could then be used to bring about an immediate change was a totally new concept to me. This was my introduction to kinesiology, and I needed to know more.

I went on to study Touch for Health and work alongside the most active instructor at that time, Brian Butler. Most of our weekends were spent teaching and sharing this information with others. When I first started integrating the techniques I had learned into my work some of my clients declared that I must be a ‘witch’! How else could they explain how aches and pains disappeared at a touch, that after one session they could move freely when joints had been stiff for years, or how a muscle suddenly became rock solid when they held a specific food in their mouths? Since those early days kinesiology has developed and grown in a wide diversity of ways and new information is unfolding all the time. For me the magic is still there and every now and then I’ll catch myself thinking, ‘Hey this stuff really works.’

So what is the magic of kinesiology? Simply that you work with the body’s own innate intelligence and its ability to heal itself. The latter is something you experience every time you cut your finger and it starts to heal right away, without you giving it a second thought. Every day we create the life we live. More and more the initiative for finding solutions to problems – be they related to health, relationships or self-development – comes from the individual. Each of us is unique, with a genetic blueprint unlike that of anyone else in the world. The most valid source of information about you, is you. When it comes to issues that involve you, no other ‘authority’, no matter how well-informed or educated, knows your individual inner truth. Your body holds all the answers as to what works for you. Kinesiology gives you the key to unlock this knowledge. Awareness is the essence. The more you learn about your mind and body, how they work and what is beneficial to you, the easier it becomes to create the life you want. Each person’s needs are different. You only have one body to last you a lifetime, you are its protector and its friend, you play the leading role in this never-to-be-repeated living of your life, so find out what works for you. Life is for living, loving and learning and the learning goes on throughout our lives.

Kinesiology is a product of the twentieth century: continuing to break new ground all the time, it is the fastest growing natural health care system in the world. People from office workers to athletes use it in their everyday lives to upgrade their well-being, keep aches and pains at bay, reduce stress, improve their performance and help themselves to better health. It is utilized by doctors, dentists, teachers, sports trainers, chiropractors, herbalists, osteopaths, nutritionists, counsellors and many other natural health care practitioners in their work. This book will introduce you to the world of kinesiology, answer most of your questions, advise you where to go for more information, give you some insight into what kinesiology can help with, explain what to expect from a ‘treatment’, provide you with an overview of the different branches of kinesiology, and give direction to those of you who want to learn more.

1

What is Kinesiology?

TRADITIONALLY KINESIOLOGY (pronounced kin-easy-ology) refers to the study of muscles and movement in the body and is widely used in this context by physical educators, coaches, physiotherapists and fitness specialists. Now, through worldwide use for over thirty years, a new meaning has evolved for the word, which is to describe a natural health system used by therapists based on manual muscle testing. The latter is what this book is all about.

One of the hardest tasks for kinesiologists over the years has been to find a simple and concise answer to the question, ‘What is kinesiology?’ This is not surprising as kinesiology is very much a ‘hands on’ therapy and it is far more tangible for the person to feel for themselves what a muscle test is, experience the difference when a change happens, learn how their body is responding to the daily stresses and strains, than it is to provide a string of words to impart the same information. Nevertheless, I will offer you a few descriptions which may answer the question for you:

Kinesiology is a system which links traditional (Chinese) Oriental ideas of energy flow found in acupuncture and acupressure with Western style muscle testing. The idea is to bring about balance within the body by removing toxins, relieving energy blockages, reducing tension and enhancing the body’s natural healing ability.

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The synthesis of techniques involves skills from modern chiropractic, naturopathy, osteopathy and ancient Chinese acupuncture.

Touch for Health foreword by Bruce A. J. Dewe MD.

Kinesiology literally means the study of body movement, it is an holistic approach to balancing the movement and interaction of a person’s energy systems. Gentle assessment of muscle response monitors [those areas] where blocks and imbalances are impairing physical, emotional or energetic well-being. The same method can identify factors which may be contributing to such imbalances. The body’s natural healing responses are stimulated by attention to reflex and acupressure points and by use of specific body movements and nutritional support. These can lead to increased physical and mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Kinesiology Federation (Great Britain)

If that hasn’t made it any clearer, read on and the mystery will unfold.

WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?

Kinesiology evolved from the innovative and inquiring mind of an American chiropractor, George Goodheart DC. In 1964 Goodheart started to use muscle testing to evaluate the effectiveness of his treatments. He would test a series of muscles before and after a spinal adjustment which gave him valuable feedback on how effective a manipulation was for the condition that he was treating. This also led him to look further into the nature of muscle spasm. One of the recurring problems Goodheart encountered was that when some patients returned to their normal life style their muscle spasm would also return along with the stiffness and pain.

His first insight into the revelation that there were other ways of relieving pain and restoring muscle balance came when he was working on a patient who was suffering from severe pain, whose outer thigh muscle (tensor fascia lata) consistently ‘unlocked’ (described on here) when tested. Out of frustration, whilst thinking what to do next, Goodheart massaged firmly all along the outside of the thigh. Much to his surprise the muscle held its position when retested and the pain disappeared. Excited by this initial success, Goodheart started massaging other ‘weak’ muscles but was unable to produce the same result. It wasn’t until much later on in his research that Goodheart learned that he had rediscovered a strengthening technique (Chapman’s reflexes, here) associated with the lymphatic system.

The first real breakthrough came when he was testing a shoulder muscle (anterior serratus) of a young man who was having problems keeping his job as a manual worker because his shoulder blade kept ‘popping out’. Goodheart found tender spots along the area where the muscle attaches itself to the bones, which he proceeded to massage. What he felt under his fingers were nodules (tiny lumps) which seemed to disappear as he pressed firmly. When he retested, strength had returned to the muscle and it remained firm. Goodheart shared this information with other chiropractors and this method of strengthening muscles became known as origin and insertion massage.

Goodheart continued experimenting. He noticed that when muscles became weak, the corresponding muscle (muscle on the opposite side of the body) would be tight and when the weakness was corrected, the other muscles that were tight or in spasm relaxed even though they had not been worked on directly. From this he concluded that it wasn’t the muscle in spasm that caused the problem but the ‘weak’ muscle which caused other muscles to become over-tight or strained. One analogy for this is to think of a swing door held in place by two springs; as long as there is equal tension everything works well. When you push the door open, one spring gives as the other compacts and then the door swings back to its normal position. If, however, one spring becomes loose, the opposing spring tightens, tangles up and the door no longer swings freely. Oiling or working on the knotted spring will not rebalance the system. You will have to replace or strengthen the weak spring to restore balance.

And so it is with muscles. For each movement a muscle makes there is another muscle or group of muscles which is involved with that movement, one muscle contracting and the other relaxing. If you rest your hand on the table and tap your fingers you will be able to observe clearly the muscles on either side of the forearm relaxing and contracting in sequence to bring about the movement of your fingers.

This simple finding – that one needed to work on the opposing weak muscle and not the tight muscle to restore balance – was revolutionary. At the time it was common practice to work only on the over-tight painful muscle, using massage to relax the muscle and manipulation if necessary to realign bones; treatment was then considered complete. This temporarily relieved the pain and relaxed the muscle, but the spasm would return because the underlying problem of the weak muscle had not been addressed. As a tent needs all the guy ropes to be working equally to sustain a firm structure, so the body needs all the muscles to be performing well to maintain balance. Goodheart had presented us with a new way of working with muscles to relieve pain and tension but as yet he was still unaware of what caused the muscle to weaken in the first place.

Figure 1. Normal muscle tone

Figure 2. Weak muscle tone causing tension in the opposing muscle

Using this premise of working on the ‘weak’ muscles, Good-heart continued to look for other techniques to restore balance to the body. In 1965 he observed that muscles would strengthen dramatically when seemingly unrelated areas of the body were massaged firmly. These areas were often tender and the tenderness would disappear after the massage. He discovered that these points were part of a wider collection of reflex points (known as Chapman’s