A Kinesiologist’s main ‘tool of trade’ is muscle testing, but many people have difficultly understanding and explaining what it is and how it works, so I am going to try and clarify it here. Basically a  kinesiologist uses muscle testing to find what and where the imbalances causing ill health are occuring in your body, and from there how to bring it back into balance to acheive your ideal health and wellbeing.  So what is muscle testing and how does it work?

There are three different types of muscle testing.  The first two are the muscle tests most frequently used in kinesiology sessions.

Indicator muscle testing is used by a kinesiologist as a tool to communicate with your body.  It tests the quality of the messages going back and forth between the muscle and the brain.  When the muscle loses power or goes weak it gives an indication of of a stress.

To explain how this works…

When you experience extreme stress your brain shuts down for a split second causing your muscles to go weak. This is why when police are about to deliver bad news they will suggest you sit down first. While testing the muscle, the kinesiologist will ask a question.  If that question causes stress, the brain will “shut down” for a split second causing the muscle being tested to go weak for that same split second.  This question may be via verbal questioning, vocalised stress statements, or by touching a specific reflex point, or by indentifying physical, emotional or chemical stressors.  The muscle responds by either staying strong or going weak and then the kinesiologist interprets that response.

Meridian muscle testing is used to assess the interaction between the muscles, meridians and organs.

Meridians are channels of energy in your body through which the body’s energy or life force flows to feed the organs, muscles and other systems. Accupuncturists place their needles in points along meridians to stimulate or calm the energy flow. When the energy flow is out of balance, symptoms such as pain or ill health appear, therefore keeping meridian energy flow in balance is important for maintaining good health.

There are 26 major meridians and many minor ones.  The energy of these meridians can be measured with finely calibrated multimeters similar to those used by electricians.  Chinese medicine practitioners know and work with the knowledge each organ receives energy primarily from it’s associated meridian e.g. the liver receives energy from the liver meridian, the kidney from the kidney meridian.  Over 50 years ago, Dr George Goodheart an American Chiropractor, and founder of Applied Kinesiology, recognised the link between muscles and meridians and their associated organs.  Stimulation of certain reflex points will affect the muscle, meridian and organ. These reflex points not only relate to the muscle, meridian and organ but also to the vertebrae, lymphatic system, vascular system and emotions.

This meridian-organ-reflex relationship affects and supports each other.

Strength testing is usually used to assess the strength and mobility of the muscle (or integrity of the muscle function). A ranking of 1-5 is often used