Although I have been quiet recently, I have been creative.

In my quest to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of my muscle testing, I have developed an almost completely new system of routine examination.

This new protocol uses the principles of muscle activation and turbo-charges them to make a system that is more elegant, specific and sensitive than I would have dreamed possible.

Before I release it, I would like to know if others find it as useful as I do. I am after 10 volunteers to test the system and report back. I only want people who are prepared to really give it a try and leave honest comments, suggestions and criticisms here and on the Expert Muscle Testing Facebook page within the next 7 days.

If you have gold membership access or have done my seminars and would like to try the new protocol (it's easy to learn and will only take about 2 minutes per patient to follow - yes that's right, a complete muscle testing examination in 2 minutes or less), then please leave your name and email and I will send you the link.

Leave your name below or send an email to me at info@proprioception.org.uk

Talk soon

Simon King

How often do you find a weak gastrocnemius? If you had asked me 6 months ago, I would probably have said never. Now I would say, in about 15% of patients (until it's fixed). The reason, as usual, is that I was using the wrong test. I think you'll like this new version of the gastrocnemius test.

When this test is weak, the patient will be inherently unstable and adjustments won't hold because any time they activate their gastrocnemius, every other muscle will go weak (see muscle activation technique). They are also likely to present with knee, hip and low back problems.

Check it out and be sure to leave any comments or questions below.

Gastrocnemius

There are many ways to create raving fans in your practice.

One of my favourites is a rolled up piece of tissue .....

Bad hip joint

If this doesn't make you sign up to proprioceptive muscle testing seminars and email all your friends, I don't know what will.

So simple, yet so powerful.

After years and years of doctors and physiotherapy, this guy finally gets the answer he needs.

I hope you make muscle testing part of your practice soon.

You're not going to believe this video.

A 15 year old boy presents with more X-rays, scans and tests than he can carry and I figure out what is wrong with him by pushing on a very diagnostic point.

The Alarm point technique is one of my most powerful strategies. I teach it on the Nutrition Metabolism and Toxicity seminar.

It works because it allows you to find the reason for any bilateral weakness (often caused by organ stress or malfunction). When you push on the primary alarm point and every weakness is abolished, you know you have found something very important for that patient's recovery.

This boy had been investigated for "restless legs syndrome" for 2 years and then for unexplained bouts of vomiting for the last 5 months.

Watch as the diagnosis is confirmed...

Gall bladder alarm point

In July 2008, the British Medical Journal published a landmark study which established an association between muscle strength and mortality unrelated to fitness or exercise levels. You can see the study here: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/337/jul01_2/a439

As I was setting up a new practice a year later, I decided to replicate their protocols to measure muscle strength.

What they did to measure muscle strength was to measure muscle mass and then get people to do a one rep maximum lift with bench press and leg press. By adding the two lifts together and dividing my muscle mass, they could compare the maximum lift capacity of men of different sizes and weights.

So that is exactly what I did, using a Bioscan 916 from Maltron, I can measure muscle mass accurately, and then I measure a one rep maximum bench press.  I found, however that the leg press was difficult because so much depended on the angle of the knee at the start of the test, so I used a deadlift instead. I figure with those two tests, I am using most of the body's muscle mass.

Here is how it works:

Measuring muscle strength

The results have been fascinating

For men I get a range of between 1 and 6. To be competitive, athletes need to be above 5. Anyone below 3.3 is in the lowest quarter of my population and is usually well below par healthwise.

For women the lowest quarter is below 2.

I am pleased that every patient in the lowest quarter I have been able to lift out of the danger zone. The average increase in strength for those in the lowest quarter is 64%.

The average increase for those in the middle range is 17% and the average for the top range is 10%.  These increases are an average for everyone who I have re-tested, which is not a majority but neither are they selected.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Many people think reflexology is to do with energies or body maps. Whenever pressure or stretch is introduced, the body will react by changing muscle tone. This in itself is therapeutic.
In this patient, I choose a random point first (as a placebo intervention) and then I press the Heart alarm point. There is obviously a difference in the body's reaction to properly placed pressure and the abductors are now facilitated.

How Reflexology really works

Chapter 11 - Muscle Receptors.

Forget about the immune system. When it comes to making it safely through the day, nothing comes close to the myotatic reflex.

Imagine that a muscle is able to constantly monitor it's own length and tension no matter what it's length, and is able to respond the instant it's length or tension changes. Without the myotatic reflex, controlled movement would be impossible.

The myotatic reflex starts in the muscle spindle which constantly and spontaneously produces an afferent impulse to the spine and therefore the brain - at a rate of at least 5 - 50 times per second.

Any little change in tension or stretch in the muscle will increase this feedback to spine and produce an rapid increase in muscle tone.

The Myotatic Reflex

We know this as the knee-jerk reflex. A sudden increase in quadriceps length induces a quick firing at the anterior motor neuron.

Watch this animation to see it in action

The significance of the myotatic reflex is how it prevents damage to joints. When it is working properly, joints are protected from excessive movement or strain.

If the reflex is inhibited, joint will be damaged - causing pain initially, and osteoarthritis in the long term.

Assessing the patency of the myotatic reflex is the key to proprioceptive muscle testing and faster patient recovery.

Dedicated to strengthening your practice,

Simon King B.App.Sc(Chiro) DIBAK
www.expertmuscletesting.com

In the last blog I showed how the myotatic reflex works to prevent our body being damaged by an outside force.

The withdrawal reflex (also known as the flexor withdrawal reflex) also exists to keep us safe.

Whenever our skin is stimulated, our muscles respond appropriately to remove us from harm's way.

This reflex can be stimulated by a wide variety of factors.

• Heat (touching a hotplate)
• Sharp (standing on a tack or a thorn)
• Deep pressure (a pebble in your shoe)
• Light pressure (tickling your foot)

When this reflex is activated, certain muscles contract to pull us away from the source of the irritation.  Naturally, (according to the Law of Reciprocal Inhibition) when any muscle contracts, it's antagonist must be at least partially inhibited.

In other words, our skin is almost hard-wired into our muscle system (via sensory reflexes and the nervous system).

Most of the time, this sensory stimulus is transient and our muscles return to normal as soon as the threat is lifted.

But sometimes the threat stays. Sometimes the stimulus becomes permanent.

If I were to poke you in the stomach, you would flinch. No matter how much you exercised or how fit you were, your abdominal muscles would contract and your back muscles (the antagonists) would be inhibited.

If I then made that reaction permanent by leaving the irritation in place in the form of a belly piercing, then it would only be a matter of time before the back gave way in the form of a strain, sprain, pain, sciatica or disc bulge.

You can see the unsafe results of this safety mechanism in the following videos.

The first shows a young lady with 2 years of low back pain. As she stimulates the piercing, her low back inhibition vanishes (our body is more sensitive to changes in stimulation, than stimulation itself)

Belly piercing

In the second video a young dancer tells us what happened the day after she took her piercing out

Belly stud in a dancer

Whether or not a piercing induces inhibition is largely a matter of luck. It depends on which nerve endings are stimulated. It would appear that metal of all kinds is the worst nerve ending stimulator. Often if the piercing is replaced with nylon, teflon or wood, the inhibitory effect of the piercing is lost.