History

History of Kinesiology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brief History on Kinesiology

Kinesiology comes from the Greek word kinesis, which means motion.  In the medical sciences it is the name given to the study of muscles and the movement of the body, the mechanics of body movements.

Dr George Goodheart, an American chiropractor, the acknowledged founder of kinesiology in 1964, used the model of muscle testing to evaluate what he was doing chiropractically. The model of muscle testing he used was developed in the 1930s by the husband and wife team of Kendal and Kendal.

In neurology textbooks muscle testing is defined as “a means of testing the motor function of limbs”. Therefore muscle testing was already accepted as a valid technique and used extensively in orthopaedic medicine by physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths.

As interest grew in utilising this technique Dr Goodheart drew together a group of doctors who were also interested in developing this further and the International College of Applied Kinesiology (ICAK) was formed. As part of the foundation of expanding the application of muscle testing the team took on board work done by Bennet and Chapman with regard to the lymphatic system. They also looked at the subtle energy system as used within acupuncture.

This then was the basis of muscle testing that was to develop and become known as Applied Kinesiology (AK).