What Is Muscle Testing?

Muscle testing comes in many variations... Applied Kinesiology, Contact Reflex Analysis, the Chapman System, Autonomic Response Testing. All of these are systems designed to evaluate the energy and health of your body’s organs, glands and structures. But how does it work? The chemistry of your body and the nutrition that provides the elements of that chemistry is the foundation of health. Many of us don’t realize that every illness, every disease we experience occurs because of our body chemistry. Even physical injury will take the form that it does because of our personal chemistry at the time. But if we are going to change things, if we are going to make our bodies healthier, where do we begin?

Muscle testing is a way to get some direction. It is a simple, safe, natural method of analyzing the body’s structural, physical, and nutritional needs. A deficiency in any of these areas could cause or contribute to various acute or chronic health problems. It is a means by which a therapist uses the body’s reflexes to determine the root cause of a health problem. It is also an effective preventive technique, used to find a problem before it becomes a full-blown health issue. It is very precise and scientific, and is a modern version of a very old technique.

In the 1920’s physicians developed a method for insurance companies to test people making claims for injury. This method enabled them to see if they were in fact experiencing an imbalance and if so, how it could be treated best. This method was based on the research of Dr. Frank Chapman, who was one of the pioneering physicians to declare the importance of the Lymphatic System and to promote the idea that lymphatic fluid touched every body cell, cleansed every tissue of debris and toxins and was an identifying factor in the strength of our immunity. This fluid is filtered by lymphatic nodes throughout our body, and each node array provides filtration for a particular area of organic tissue. When an area of tissue or an organ is imbalanced, the fluid removed from that area will cause irritation in the filtration nodes, and that will be slightly uncomfortable to pressure. These nodal arrays are mappable throughout the body and charts of these points were developed to guide physicians in understanding which areas were experiencing imbalances and required attention, simply by gently touching the affected area.

The original Chapman chart then developed over the decades to include approximately 75 known reflex areas on the skin which correspond to each of the nodal arrays in the body. It is believed that when the body becomes ill there is an interruption of nerve energy to these reflexes. This is a similar concept to the ancient Chinese system of acupuncture. The acupuncture system is thousands of years old and is a study of how the different reflex points on the surface of the body relate to the state of health and the flow of energy in each and every function and part of the body.

Interestingly, not one acupuncture point has ever been changed over hundreds or thousands of years due to their accuracy being demonstrated with every treatment. Think about it: each reflex point or acupuncture point represents a specific function, organ, or tissue, and indicates the energy or lack of energy and the effect this is having on the body.

As we know, the brain can only monitor one stimulus consciously at a time. So if the therapist touches the appropriate point to be tested, it will draw the brain’s attention to that point and its corresponding organs, glands and tissues. At the same time, the therapist will press down on the patient’s arm. If the area being tested is healthy, the brain can quickly switch its conscious attention to the arm and provide immediate muscle resistance for the arm. However, if the area being tested is imbalanced, the brain remains attuned to the area of imbalance, and disregards the pressure to the arm, leaving the arm to weaken instantly under the pressure of the therapist’s hand.

By testing these points, we are mapping your body in a way that is historically accurate and helps to identify exactly what the body needs noninvasively. This style of "muscle-testing" became the cornerstone of the work of Dr. Goodheart and his systematic method known as Applied Kinesiology and later a related system known as Contact Reflex Analysis developed by Dr. Versendaal.

Many times the symptoms of a health problem are treated while the actual source of the problem continues to go undetected. For example, headaches are often treated with aspirin, coughs are treated with cough medicine. If these symptoms persist, expensive tests are run and stronger medications are prescribed. But the question still remains. What’s causing the headache? What’s causing the cough?

Muscle testing can provide the answer by evaluating the strength or weakness of each body system and also providing a way to measure the effectiveness of potential remedies. It works through hundreds of miles of nerves which carry electrical energy and connect with every organ, gland, muscle and tissue getting to the root of the problem.

In this way you can find a problem early and correct it, without pain, without drugs and without the serious complications that can occur when an imbalance is undetected for months or even years.