The link between muscles and hormones – How Kinesiology can transform our work with clients.
We are in the middle of a global health crisis. According to the National Council of Ageing, 80% of adults over the age of 65 have at least one chronic condition and 68% have two or more.
Whilst as complementary therapists we don’t work with these conditions, the issues that people face due to these conditions or side effects from their medications, do, of course show up in the body in ways such as elevated stress, congested lymph, digestive dysfunction, and structural imbalances and these are the areas that we excel at working with. This makes what we do essential as a front-line support for clients navigating these issues.
The problem for many of us is that we can feel ill-equipped and fearful of working on more complex cases, or we feel like we aren’t really getting anywhere with a client.
This is often because, as controversial as it sounds, the holistic approach is still commonly symptom led. If someone is presenting with a pain in their knee, we will be looking at doing what we can to support them to alleviate the pain in their knee. Whilst we understand the ‘mind-body-spirit’ connection, ultimately, we are still working on what is presented. We can also be missing key foundational information that stops us from seeing the bigger picture.
Most conditions presenting today stem from inflammation, and this is something that as complementary therapists we can address, when we understand where it comes from, leaving the medical profession to work on the condition itself.
This inflammation is caused by a variety of sources such as:
- Intestinal permeability (leaky gut)
- Food intolerances
- Blood sugar instability
- Stress and high adrenaline
- Unresolved infections such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
- High oestrogen / low progesterone
- Injury
- Nutritional deficiencies such as vitamins A,D, E and zinc
- Heavy metal or toxin overload
- Poor body evacuation through large intestine, kidneys, and lungs
These issues are showing up in the body because our whole body must compensate in the presence of an imbalance or inflammation. One of the reasons for where it shows up can be attributed to The Muscle – Organ-Meridian Connection which is taught in Traditional Chinese Medicine and was also adopted by Applied Kinesiology.
This theory states that there is a connection between the organ, its associated meridian and the muscles it is linked to, and this forms the basis of kinesiology muscle testing.
In Applied Kinesiology there are fifty muscles in the body connected in this way and when we know about these muscles, we can develop a deeper understanding of what is causing a client to have symptoms. We can ascertain huge amounts of information by postural assessment and of course, muscle testing.
Some examples of connected muscles, meridians and organs would be:
- Neck, chest, wrist, elbow, and shoulder muscles- Stomach
- Lats, triceps, and traps– Spleen
- Subscapularis- Heart
- Abs and quads – Small Intestine
- Ankles and sacrospinalis – Bladder
- Psoas – Kidney
- Adductors, piriformis, and glutes -Sex Hormones
- Sartorius, gracilis and the lower leg -Stress Hormones
- Anterior deltoid- Gall Bladder
- Chest -Liver
- Fascia lata and hamstrings -Large Intestine
- Upper arm-Lung
By understanding what the meridian and organ connection is with a muscle, we can develop curiosity to find out ‘why’ the issue is manifesting.
For example: if a client is presenting constantly with a painful neck and we are repeatedly offering bodywork, if we know that the muscles are linked to the stomach, we can start to explore what causes the stomach to be imbalanced. This might lead to deepening our understanding of nutritional supplementation that can support the stomach (such as digestive aid) or dietary factors that aggravate the stomach such as food intolerances or foods sprayed with enzyme inhibitors. We might also delve into the emotional aspects of stomach imbalances commonly explored with Traditional Chinese Medicine and Kinesiology.
What is Kinesiology?
Applied Kinesiology was developed in the 1960’s by Dr George Goodheart, a Chiropractor who delved into research after realising that his patients would return repeatedly with the same issues. He wanted to find out how to correct imbalances at the root cause level and not the symptom level.
At its core kinesiology uses the theory of muscle testing to create a dialogue with the body. Being able to monitor the fifty muscles linked to organs via meridians and gather valuable information to find out what can be contributing to an issue and how to correct an issue.
Muscle testing is incredibly easy to learn but, like all new languages it takes time to master. Once we find the priority area to work, we can utilise a large toolkit of tried and tested techniques to correct imbalances pulling on all of the ‘realms’ in which they can come from, the biochemical, the emotional, the electrical and structural, this makes kinesiology a truly radical ‘holistic’ therapy where no stone is left unturned in pursuing root causality.
Functional Kinesiology was created in 2019 to build on the phenomenal work already developed in Applied Kinesiology but to focus deeply on the hormonal imbalances at the root of much of the sources of inflammation we are seeing in clients today.
How are hormones connected to all of this?
The organs linked to our muscles are often responsible for making our hormones and muscle imbalances can often be a sign of hormone imbalances. For example:
- Issues with the lats, triceps and wrists connect to the spleen/pancreas meridian. Of course, any of us with basic anatomy and physiology knowledge will know that 95% of the work undertaken by the pancreas is digestive, however, we are seeing more and more that with the increasing levels of sugar and carbs in our diet, the pancreas is having to work harder in its insulin production capacity, and this is not what it evolved to do. This increased workload causes a huge knock on with symptoms.
- The teres minor and therefore shoulder issues are often related to the thyroid.
- The sartorius, gracilis, and calves are closely connected to the adrenal glands and cortisol production.
- The piriformis, glutes and adductors are implicated in sex hormone production and therefore impacted at times of major hormone fluctuation such as the peri to post menopause transition or if someone is experiencing conditions such as PCOS or fertility issues.
Having this information in our toolkit can deepen and transform our practice and ensure clients see real lasting benefit from working with us.
A Foundation Functional Kinesiology course is completed within 6 months (1 weekend a month) and is suitable for therapy novices or advanced practitioners of any other modality and anyone in-between. These courses are run in a variety of locations around the country.
All our courses are accredited by The Kinesiology Federation and insured by Balens.