As always with Applied Kinesiology we are looking to find what is not functioning in the body and through directed therapy get it working again. In the wrist the most overlooked dysfunction occurs with the pronator quadratus muscle. This is a little muscle that connects the radius and ulna (the two long bones of the wrist) right before the base of the hand. The motion the pronator quadratus helps with is pronation of the wrist and hand. To feel this motion put your hand on the desk facing the ceiling and then turn it so that the palm is facing the desk top. The motion of putting your palm down on the desk is pronation. Another major function of the pronator quadratus is Continue reading
Category Archives: Applied Kinesiology
Knee pain from nowhere: Mini case study
A patient came in recently having been treated for neck pain that was resolving after 3-4 visits. She said, “My neck is feeling much better but yesterday I started having pain in the right knee with every step I take. It just started from nowhere.”
When joint pain starts for no particular reason the cause is often some internal stress. In Applied Kinesiology when there is an internal stress on a particular organ there is often a weakening or dysfunction in associated muscle. This is not usually painful but, when a joint starts to be used with dysfunctioning muscles, joint pain is not far behind.
When I tested the muscles around the patient’s knee and found the only weakness to be in the quadriceps. This is the big muscle on the front of the thigh that connects to the kneecap. The quadriceps is also associated with the small intestines in Applied Kinesiology. When testing the quad against various reflexes for the small intestines it functioned much better. I asked the patient about any changes in the diet, intestinal distress, travel…all of which she denied. After asking about increased fiber, more raw vegetables, nuts…she admitted to eating loads of trail mix in the past week. A rapid increase in fiber can be stressful for the intestines. I call this “over-nuting-yourself.” I treated the reflexes, acupuncture points, and spine associated with the small intestines without ever touching her knee. I had her walk afterward and the pain that was there was reduced by 90%! At he follow up visit for her neck the patient said the knee did much better and the remaining pain resolved over the next couple of days. This was the little bit of tendonitis that had built up in the short time she had been stressing her small intestines.
Not all knee pain is this simple but it illustrates the idea that pain that comes from nowhere it usually has a cause. Without using the tool of muscle testing and Applied Kinesiology we would never known where the pain was coming from. Likely, the simple therapy of “less fiber” would never have been used and she would have only gotten better by accident when her diet happened to have less fiber.
Why ART or Graston did not work for you arch pain, plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis….
Almost every endurance athlete knows about the soft tissue techniques of Active Release Technique and Graston. These are great techniques to help free the body of adhesions that have developed through repeated micro traumas to muscles, ligaments, and tendons. ART and Graston are used by thousands of practitioners worldwide because they work really well, but what happens when ART and Graston do not work? The answer is found by looking for the inhibited or weak muscle rather than the tight muscle. A basic tenant of Applied Kinesiology is that when a muscle is weak any opposing muscle will become tight. If this muscle imbalance continues to exist, exercise or even normal daily movements will result in tendonitis of the tight muscle.
Using Applied Kinesiology’s idea of looking for the weak muscle that is creating the dysfunction Continue reading
