Recently I recieved a series of questions and I thought the answers  may be of interest to some so I’ve decided to post them for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy!

 

Q:  I read your section of the TMuscle article “Mythbusters 7” by Nate Green and thought that your section was quite informative. However, it brings up a lot of questions for me.

How do you know if a muscle is weak? You bring up the example of one shoulder being weaker than the other. Usually the non-dominant side will be weaker than the dominant side, but at which point do we consider it “weak”? 
 

A:  I personally use manual muscle testing to assess all of my clients at our first meeting and I try to determine as many imbalances as possible prior to even touching a weight.  If a muscle fails my manual test (such as the one in the article) then I make a note of it and try to address it before we get started or at least work around it until we can sort it out.
 

If there is just a good old fashioned strength imbalance, such as the one you described, I would then just do more work on that group to bring it up to speed.  However, I’d rule out other causes of weakness first.

 

Q:  You say “weakness isn’t always weakness”. How do you know when weakness is weakness, and when it is NOT weakness?

 

A:  I’m probably really oversimplifying here, but here goes.  When I’m testing a weak muscle the process essentially goes like this:
 

Test -> Try Treatment -> Retest 
 

If there is improvement we’re done and we’ve figured out the cause.  If not, we repeat the process by trying a progression of treatments until we do.
 

For example, I might do a muscle test on the suspected weak muscle.  If it fails my test I do an exercise for that muscle first.  Then I wait about one minute and retest.
 

Since a brief bout of exercise can increase the strength of a properly functioning muscle to perform better on subsequent sets (called post activation potentiation) this provides a lot of information.
 

If the muscle passes the test or seems stronger after this treatment I know it is most likely due to plain old weakness and the muscle just needs to be strengthened.  If the muscle still fails, I’ll proceed to identify other possible causes.
 

Often the improvement is immediate and sometimes dramatic so this provides a perfect negative feedback loop to tell you if the treatment has worked.

 

Q:  You say that weakness can be caused by tightness of the opposing muscle, trapped nerve, or unstable joint. So how do you identify the weakness? After you’ve identified the weakness, how do you identify the cause of the weakness?
 

A:  As I mentioned above, I do my test and then proceed through a series of different exercises, stretches, and drills to see which one causes an improvement in the strength of the muscle.  Sometimes one thing causes a moderate improvement and it turns out that two factors are causing the weakness.
 

For example, when a glute tests weak I often find that the piriformis on that side is tight (compression the gluteal nerves) AND that there is lumbar spine compression on that side (compressing nerves higher up).

 

Usually the lumbar spine compression is improved with moderate spinal traction, but sometimes the lat on that side is tight and is causing the compression so no amount of traction will work by itself.  In that case the person has to stretch the piriformis and lat on the weak side and do some daily traction drills afterwards.

 

Q:   How do you rule out other weaknesses?

 

That’s a big question as weakness can come from so many sources (many of which I’m still learning to this day).  Generally speaking, I just try to account for any source of weakness that I can when doing testing.  For example, dehydration, having the head flexed downwards, opposing muscle tightness, nerve entrapment (by a muscle or at the spine), joint instability, muscle strain, or just plain old weakness can cause a failed test.   I’m sure there are more that I am forgetting.

 

For the most part, I know what the common causes of failure are at each joint and I test those first.  That solves the problem 90% of the time.  Otherwise I just use logic to help me figure it out.
 

I always do a postural assessment first and often I can tell just from that what is going to test weak.  For example, a high hip on one side likely means that adductor is tight.  When the adductor is tight, it is probable that the abductors (i.e., the glute medius) will test weak.

 

Q:  You say you usually do manual muscle testing. How long does this usually take?
 

My whole testing protocol can take minutes to hours depending on the person.  Sometimes I test someone and almost everything passes so the process is short.  On the other hand, some people have several issues that present during testing and we have to attempt different treatments and retests until we get it all done for the whole body.  The more injuries and imbalances the more time it takes.  Mind you, the results are almost instant in a lot of cases so it is worth it to take the time.
 

It is important to keep in mind that my testing protocol can also include body composition testing, body measurements, postural assessments, flexibility/mobility assessments, and so on.  Everything is dependent on the client.

 

However, if I’m just doing a test on the fly (i.e., the client has a problem during a workout) it’ll take less than a minute or two to sort it out.

 

Q:  Where can I start learning more about this stuff?  Are there any good resources out there?

 

A:  Unfortunately, there isn’t much else out there on how to use muscle testing for fitness.  There is a lot of stuff on the Applied Kinesiology uses for muscle testing, but some of them can get pretty “out there” and are not based on physiological or biomechanical principles.

 

My colleague Brendan Fox and I are aiming to put out a muscle testing product in late 2009 that will be exclusively geared towards muscle testing for fitness so I’m anxious for that to come out. 

 

In the meantime, I’d suggest starting with Kendall’s book called Muscles: Testing and Function with Posture and Pain so you can learn how to test various muscles.

 

Otherwise, products can be pretty limited and it can take a long time to learn this stuff because you’ll always be tracking people down to learn it.  We hope to change all that with out product and make testing and treatment for fitness more widespread.

 

More importantly, once you know this stuff you can individualize routines beyond belief to bring about results and prevent injuries along the way!