Perhaps you’ve seen it. Someone holding a bottle while another person pushes on their extended arm. And you wonder… “What the heck is that all about?”
Perhaps you’ve experienced it. “Here, hold this.” And someone pushes on your arm. And you wonder… “What the heck is that all about?”
Perhaps you’re even an experienced practitioner of it, and you tell others to “hold.” And then someone asks you… “What the heck is that all about?”
And that’s where things get tough. Whether you’re the explainer or the person being explained to, there’s likely a lot of ambiguity involved.
I’d like to clear that up so that you have a clear understanding about Muscle Response Feedback (MRF). If you’re the explainer, this will help you tell your family, friends and clients what you’re really doing. And if you’re a person who either knows little or nothing about MRF, or you’ve had it explained to you but still don’t really “get it,” at the end of this, you’ll have a much better understanding about why MRF is such a critical tool for helping with health and wellness.
MRF Defined
Let’s begin with just a straight definition…
Musce Response Feedback is the response a practitioner receives from another person when applying gradual pressure to (usually) an arm or a leg in a specific position. That position is based on a particular muscle’s action – in other words, what that muscle does to make the arm or leg move.
For example, the Anterior Deltoid muscle, located at the top of the arms and crossing the shoulder joint, swings the arm forward. So if you place the arm forward about 30 degrees with a straight elbow, and the practitioner tries to push it straight backwards, you are “testing” the anterior deltoid’s ability to “hold,” or maintain, that position.
When a person pushes on your arm or leg being held in a specific position, there are two possible responses. The muscle “holds,” meaning that with gradual pressure, the muscle responds and the arm or leg maintains its position. Or the muscle doesn’t hold, and it becomes more difficult to hold the arm or leg in place.
What Does The Feedback Mean?
While there are some intricacies to the interpretation of a “hold” vs. a “not hold,” these are the two basic responses that a practitioner gauges to follow the story the body has to tell. In this manner, the body now is communicating.
Therefore, Muscle Response Feedback is a means of communicating with the body via muscle response. This gives the body the opportunity to:
- Indicate where blockages to healing exist
- Why they exist (so you work with cause, not just symptoms)
- What the body wants to unblock the blockages.
Where, why and what.
When blockages to healing are removed, the body has the opportunity to access its own innate healing ability. (see post… The Basic Philosophy of Healing)
And how exactly does MRF do this?
My Journey Through The Confusion
Like anyone first learning MRF, also commonly referred to as muscle testing or some sort of Kinesiology (Energy-, Specialized-, Applied-, etc.), I struggled to figure out how to tell people what MRF is. Part of the problem is that no-one ever really clearly explained it to me! The focus was much more on the how to do MRF, and not so much on the how or why it works.
Now, with 30 years of both using and teaching others how to use this amazing tool, I’ve developed a clear understanding of the philosophy and models of muscle feedback and healing. This has led to a means of communicating what MRF is in a way that people better understand.
When I was first learning, I was often asked… “What exactly is Energy Kinesiology/muscle testing?” (or whichever other name comes up). Or, more commonly, something to the effect of… “What the heck is it that you do???”
I would stumble along…and then they’d ask… “Is it like massage? Reiki? Acupressure?”
The answer is that MRF is not like any of those things. And this is where the fundamental misunderstandings arises. Massage, Reiki, acupressure and more… those are all healing modalities. Things that a person does to someone to affect a change – in their body, their biochemistry, their emotions, their energy…whatever.
Pushing on an arm or leg as a means of getting muscle feedback is not a healing modality. This is the core principle that helps people begin to really understand muscle feedback.
And it’s something you’ve likely never heard someone say so clearly…
Muscle feedback is a communication tool…plain and simple.
You push on an arm or leg as a means of getting information from the body. That’s it!
So, simply put, muscle feedback/testing/Energy Kinesiology is a means of “talking” to the body to get information about the body wants to heal.
And while seemingly so simple, it’s actually extraordinarily profound. As such, when using an individual specific muscle to communicate with the body in this way – often referred to as an Indicator Muscle – I refer to MRF as “the Voice of Innate Intelligence.”
Muscle feedback doesn’t balance, heal or fix anything. It’s just information. And, as with any information, it comes down to interpretation. This is where the skilled facilitator comes into play.
Ok…So Now What?
Distinguishing between a healing modality and a communication tool may not seem like a big deal. But it is! It provides an initial foundation for people to understand what to expect from using or experiencing Muscle Response Feedback.
And while using MRF doesn’t “do” anything to a person – after all, it’s “just” feedback – its importance cannot be overstated. In fact, its importance is emphasized.
While there are many methods based on muscle feedback – various forms of Energy Kinesiology or Specialized Kinesiology (blanket terms often used for these methods) – it’s the healing modalities contained within them that ultimately affects change in the person being practice upon. The healing modalities are much of what you learn when you attend workshops and seminars based on the use of muscle feedback.
The key to this is now the body has the opportunity to pick exactly which healing modalities it wants in order to achieve the goal of accessing its innate healing ability. This is incredibly powerful.
And therein lies the power of using this important communication tool.
Questions or comments? Start or join the discussion below.
Now that you have a better idea of what MRF is, the next post goes deeper into the 3 main advantages to be gained from using MRF. Click here to be taken directly there…
To learn more about what the key advantages are of using MRF, continue on to the next post here.
