Most chiropractors and health professionals check reflexes. We pull out the trusty percussion hammer and give the tendons a good wallop.

A bit like brushing your teeth after every meal and leaving your cutlery together on the plate after your meal, if you're anything like me, you know there are good reasons for doing it, you just don't always remember what they are.

So when you you tap a tendon, do you know exactly what you are testing?

The reflex arc - right? Great. What is a reflex arc? It is a feedback loop made of a sensory organ, a sensory nerve, sometimes an interneuron, a motor nerve and a muscle.

 

Tapping the tendon or stimulating the sensory organ causes contraction of the end organ, the muscle.

If the muscle contracts, you conclude that the reflex is in tact. Congratulations, no major pathology then. But have you missed a huge part of the equation? You know the reflex works, but do you know how well it is working?

Reflexes are not there just for the amusement of doctors and young children.

 In real life they serve a vital purpose. They are our INJURY PREVENTION MECHANISM.

The knee-jerk reflex protects your knee ligaments every time you jump, run or walk down stairs because the spindles inside the quadriceps are continuously sensing changes in the tension of the quadriceps and adjusting your muscle tone to suit. So when you land, whether from a somersault or from two inches, your quadriceps will prevent your knees from buckling.

The same thing happens in every muscle in your body, from your peroneal muscles that stop you spraining your ankles to your shoulder muscles that stop your arm leaving your trunk when you throw a ball. Muscle reflexes keep your joints safe.

Every reflex consists of a sensor, its afferent, an efferent and it's effector, in this case a muscle. It is the function of the muscle that prevents damage to the joint. 

When you check reflexes with a tendon hammer, you are checking the integrity of the reflex but you are not checking its quality. To determine the real capability of the reflex, you need to check the muscle's contraction.

If you know how to do it properly, you can tell the integrity of that patient's injury prevention mechanism instantly, and you can use any deficiency as a gauge to measure its improvement. 

Proprioceptive Medicine is a complete course dedicated to injury prevention through the assessment and treatment of muscle reflexes and muscle tone.

Watch what happens to the tone of the quadratus lumborum muscles with a belly piercing.

How is her low back supposed to protect itself from injury when the muscles are so weak?

It can't. 

In just 3 days, you can learn how to identify deficiencies in the reflexes of your patients and how to correct them.

Your patients will be healthier and happier and you save yourself bucketloads of stress and headaches. 

 If you would like to book, ring 01442 800900 or book online at www.proprioception.co.uk/dates.html.

Feel free to forward this email to any chiropractors or friends you think might be interested in getting their patients better, faster.

www.proprioception.co.uk