23/10/2025
What does muscle testing have to do with preventing pain and injury? It's all to do with muscle reflexes:
Most people think that their brain is controlling their body, but conscious thought is relatively slow. Imagine trying to catch a falling glass; you don’t rationally calculate its speed and trajectory—you react. This rapid protection and coordination are entirely managed by your reflexes, particularly the myotatic reflex (the stretch reflex) which constantly governs muscle tone and strength.
This reflex is the nervous system’s way of ensuring continuous, instant feedback. Muscles are the primary sensory organs of the musculoskeletal system; they constantly send streams of afferent input to the spinal cord and brain about their length, tension, and position. The nervous system then processes this input to instantly adjust muscle tone (the motor output) for stability, posture, and movement.
Read more in my latest blog:
Why it is important for an afferentologist to test the myotatic reflex (the stretch reflex) which constantly governs muscle tone.