Find Yourself With the Same Injuries Over and Over? NeuroKinetic Therapy Can Help!
Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) is an innovative method of manual muscle testing that helps assess and correct dysfunctions of the brain’s coordination systems and locate muscle imbalances in your body. These dysfunctions and imbalances typically result in higher risks of traumatic injuries, overuse/underuse injuries, repetitive/postural stress injuries, etc.
We then often find ourselves chasing after pain or aches, but is that the root cause of your discomfort? Often if the source of the injury is not addressed, there is a higher risk of having a reoccurrence of that injury.
There are hundreds of muscles in our bodies, each having a primary task and supporting tasks. If a primary muscle cannot fire or is weak, other muscles will compensate and the motor control programs in our brains will begin to over rely on those supporting muscles to perform the task.
When a muscle overworks itself or is inhibited, it causes a few different issues in the body.
- It inhibits another muscle from firing properly, forcing us to compensate with other muscles
- The muscle fatigues and burns out quicker
- More prone to injuries
- Pain/Discomfort
- And many more
Benefits of Neurokinetic Therapy?
- Locate source of the dysfunction using muscle testing
- Reduce the effects of repetitive stress injuries
- Enhances athletic performance
- Eliminates enduring patterns of dysfunction from old injuries
- Quickly improves muscle coordination
- Increases range of motion, energy, strength and stamina throughout the body
- Keeps you moving and feeling your best
Neurokinetic Therapy In Action
I had a patient who presented with recurring tennis elbow pain. Every time they would see a therapist, have the issue resolved, the same pain would pop up again a few months later or on the other side. Despite resolving the issues they were coming in for, the source of their issues were never truly resolved because all their exercises were only directed at the elbow. Using the NKT protocol, I found a large muscle imbalance in their shoulder and scapular muscles. Their pectoralis muscles were inhibiting their scapular retractor muscles, so their wrist extensors began to compensate, to do more tasks than they are designed for.
For their treatment I released their pectoralis muscles, and strengthened their scapular muscle. Despite not working directly on their elbow, they felt immediate relief in their elbow. After relieving the source of their issue, I went and targeted treatment towards their tennis elbow as well. Their tennis elbow then stayed resolved.
If you have recurring pains, see how NKT can help you keep moving and feeling your best!
What Can You Expect During a Treatment?
After a careful history is taken, and a typical screening/physical exam will follow. Once other pathologies have been ruled out, the NKT protocol can begin. The therapist will apply very light pressures to find weakness or muscular imbalances in an area.
The therapist then challenges muscles against each other to exploit their relationships with one another. After identifying the muscular imbalance and determining which muscles are inhibited, the therapist can utilize specific treatments and corrective exercises techniques to restore proper movement patterns.
What are some other uses for NKT?
Athletes can greatly benefit from an NKT assessment. Often athletes or weight lifters will hit a plateau in their training program and have some difficulty getting over that hump. NKT can be used to locate which particular muscle is needing some extra attention so that you can improve your performance and minimize injuries/setbacks.
