Neurokinetic Therapy

About Neurokinetic Therapy or "NKT"

Neurokinetic Therapy is an assessment and treatment protocol that focuses on assessing how you organize motor control.  Neuro means nervous system and kinetic means movement. 

With this approach we consider an uncomfortable or painful area to be dysfunctional and assess whether it is neurologically overactive (you use it too much) or neurologically underactive (you don' t use it when you should). Both situations will result in tension, discomfort and pain. About 80% of the time, the painful area is underactive, and will respond better to muscle activation, rather than muscle release.

NKT looks at the body in systems and assesses how those systems of movement are functioning together.  This approach is highly specific. We  often say it's like hunting with a sniper riffle, vs hunting with a shotgun. 
Kasey Thompson, RMT, is a level 3 (highest level) trained NKT Practitioner. For this type of treatment wear something comfortable that you can easily move is, as you will not disrobe during the treatment. 

Some examples of typical dysfunctional pairings include:

  • ​Antagonist muscles do opposite movements (bicep vs. tricep),
  • Agonist muscles much do the same movement (bicep vs. coracobrachialis),
  • Compression and Decompression (spine, hip, shoulder)
  • Diaphragm and breathing dysfunctions, 
  • Functional opposites (calves vs. neck flexors),
  • Scars and Ligaments (highly innervated)
  • TMJ (jaw is very commonly related to the Quadratus Lumborum in the lower back),
  • and More.

The Theory Behind Neurokinetic Therapy

Everything is connected....but how? Neurokinetic Therapy was co-developed by David Weinstock in the mid-1980s. It is an assessment and treatment protocol or technique that can be used to treat a wide variety of disorders.

"The NeuroKinetic Therapy™ corrective movement system protocol, employing a system of precise muscle tests, has the ability to change the programming of the Motor Control Center (MCC) in the cerebellum. The MCC coordinates all movement patterns in the body." -David Weinstock

The motor conrtol centre  is a system based on failure. When an Neurokinetic Therapy Practitioner tests the firing of a weak muscle and it fails, this provides an opportunity for re-programming. We use a combination of health history, previous injuries, surgeries, posture and screening tests to help us figure out where to start looking for a related muscle, ligament, scar, tendon, etc. 

Injuries and Motor Control
Injuries, even really old one's, are highly significant to how you're motor control center determines how you move. After an injury, the MCC adapts by setting up a compensation pattern and will keep this pattern in it's memory forever, unless it is changed with a reprogramming intervention.

For example, the relationship between the muscles will affect how the body moves, such as with hip extension. A common problem we find is that people develop  a reverse firing pattern of the hip which means the hamstring group is firing before the glute max with hip extension (which you do every time you take a step in a day). These people often have a really difficult time even turning on their glute max, let alone using it for activities like walking. Over time it can lead to osteoarthritis of the hip, due to the hamstring driving the head of the femur anteriorly into the acetabulum of the hip joint. With NKT, we can determine specifically what is causing the glute max to fail and use that to reprogram the MCC and get the glute max working again. To complete the re-programming process, it must be repeated so it can be committed to your long term memory and become permanent. We give patients very specific home-care exercises to work on at home.  Fortunately, if this pattern is corrected, you may have successfully prevented needing a hip replacement later in life. 

Subsystems and Functional Lines
Subsystems and Functional Lines are also a big part of NKT. These are functional groupings of muscles that fire in sequence for specific movements. For example, every time you take a step you should fire your glute max, compress your sacroiliac joint, tense your thoracolumbar fascia and fire your opposite latissimus dorsi.  This is called your Posterior Oblique Subsystem or POSS. 

For many reasons, this can go wrong and you end up with lower back pain. There are many subsystems that are related to all different kinds of movement patterns in the body. This is where an accurate health history and the other "tricks we have up our sleeves" help us to figure out where to start.