CorrectiveKinextions

           Manual Muscle Testing 

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Manual Muscle Testing  is a system designed to evaluate and treat muscular imbalances. MMT has taken basic components of physiology and biomechanics and transferred them into a systematic approach for evaluating and treating the biomechanical relationships related to chronic pain or injury. MTT is based on specific divisions of muscle testing. Whereas other forms of therapy diagnose and treat muscle tightness, MAT evaluates and treats each division of muscle weakness. The philosophy works off of the concepts related to the Law of Reciprocal Inhibition. This law states that when a muscle contracts, it sends an inhibition response to the antagonist muscle in order to allow for normal joint motion. When a muscle is in its shortened position, actin and myosin are overlapped excessively, making cross-bridging opportunity much less than maximal or with less overlap, the muscle cannot generate as much force.  This situation is known simply as ‘active insufficiency’.  When we overlap these factors, we can understand that a muscles shortest position will be a weak position. When a muscle has had altered feedback from the nervous system, its capability to contract efficiently becomes altered, therefore, mobility and stability are both negatively affected.

For a more simplistic approach to understanding muscle function, compare the body to a car. The initiation of a muscle contraction occurs similarly to the way a battery initiates the starting of a car. Both rely on connections that transfer electrical energy to produce a reaction. Our nerves that run from the spinal cord to the muscle are just like the cables that run from the ignition and connect to the battery. When the key is turned in the ignition, the impulses transfer through the cables to the battery allowing the car to start. Similarly, in the body, when a message is sent from the brain, the input is transferred through the nerves to the muscles creating muscle contraction. Each muscle is independently innervated; therefore it can be seen as having many batteries, and each connected by its own independent cables. When the body is functioning properly, with all batteries connected, each muscle will contract on demand and the body will function very efficiently.

Many times, due to factors such as stress, trauma or overuse, the neurological connections may become altered creating a reaction in the body, similar to that of loose battery cables in your car. When the brain sends a message for a muscle to contract, the muscle does not respond immediately, creating increased demand on other muscles to perform the desired movement. The result becomes what we know as compensation. Over time, these compensation patterns create altered alignment in the joint, leading to joint instability and abnormal wear on the joint surfaces. The end result becomes pain and eventually Osteoarthritis. This progressive degeneration has been correlated with aging. If identified and properly addressed, it does not have to occur.

MMT can slow down or even reverse the aging process. If it is recognized that muscles are designed to stabilize and support the joints naturally; it must be understood that arthritic conditions and joint instability can be helped or prevented when muscles are prepared to function properly. All that is needed is to create proper connections between the brain and the muscles. Manual Muscle Testing does this. It provides the ability for the body to function the way it was designed to function. Just like with a dead battery, the muscles must be jumpstarted and the cables must be tightened before the muscle will function properly. In simplistic terms, through Manual Muscle Testing, muscles that have improper neurological connections are identified, then jumpstarted; creating the ability for the muscles to stabilize the joints and reduce the joint stresses that lead to arthritic conditions. That is when the body becomes efficient and the related aches and pains are deterred.