Health. What is kinesiology? And does it work?

At the request of the Ministry of Health, Inserm examined the practice of kinesiology in 2017. Title of the report: "Evaluation of applied kinesiology and energy kinesiologies: reliability and validity of manual muscle testing, effectiveness and safety of practices" . Because there are several types of kinesiology, applied kinesiology and energy kinesiology.

These practices have differences, but also commonalities. They all share a common founding father, the American chiropractor George Goodheart, who began developing the discipline in the United States in the 1960s.

And the same main “diagnostic tool”: muscle testing, which consists of evaluating the capacity of a muscle to respond adequately to a specific muscle test, according to a precise procedure.

Applied Kinesiology

And then? This is where the approaches diverge. Because it is important to know that kinesiology, in its applied version, is reserved for health professionals "qualified with a minimum of 3,500 hours of training*, authorized to diagnose in their field of competence, such as doctors, chiropractors , dentists and osteopaths" , details the Inserm report.

These practitioners – a few dozen in France, mainly chiropractors – therefore use muscle testing, but also other techniques which allow them to intervene on “disturbances of the neuro-musculoskeletal system, but also certain functional disorders, food allergies and intolerances, certain hormonal disorders, emotional shocks, etc.” .

And what about energy kinesiologists? The National Kinesiology Union (SNK), one of the profession's representative bodies, sets the record straight: "Kinesiology is neither a medicine nor a therapy and has no desire to be. It leaves the treatment of patients and their illnesses to doctors and specialists. Kinesiology works upstream, on the health and well-being of the individual and is seen as an educational and preventative approach."

Its fields of application are broad, as are the methods used: in its energetic version, kinesiology "offers so-called balancing interventions, drawing on manual techniques, energetic techniques from Chinese medicine, stress and emotion management techniques, etc."

Even though it is trying to structure itself, the profession and training in kinesiology are not recognized by the State. Often considered as pseudo-therapies, they are regularly suspected of "various excesses such as control, sometimes sectarian," recalls Inserm.

What does science say?

The Inserm report mentions several studies which have examined the reproducibility, validity, effectiveness and safety of these practices, whether they relate to applied kinesiology or energy kinesiology.

Conclusion: "neither professional applied kinesiology nor energetic kinesiology have proven their effectiveness to date and the manual muscle test on which they are based has not proven its reproducibility or its diagnostic validity."

But if practitioners in applied kinesiology work within the frameworks defined by their professions, "such a framework is not present in the field of energy kinesiology, and the greatest caution is required when using these practices, which are also very heterogeneous" , concludes Inserm.

Which calls for the establishment of a monitoring system and means for the prevention of risks of deviations, both for kinesiology and for "other unconventional practices falling within the field of the helping relationship" .