Biofeedback

For over thirty years, I have developed and used forms of biofeedback in clinical practice, including training athletes to build endurance, correcting common muscle imbalances, and treating patients with brain and spinal cord injuries. These specific biofeedback approaches include the use of a heart-rate monitor, manual muscle testing and electromyography (EMG) for the assessment and treatment of muscle imbalance, and electroencephalography (EEG) to help stimulate alpha brain waves.

The term biofeedback was coined in the 1960s by scientists who trained human subjects to consciously alter their body function through sensory input to the brain. However, long before mechanical biofeedback techniques emerged, natural biofeedback mechanisms were built into our brains—a key feature in our development, with early humans using it instinctively for survival. For example, sensing uncomfortable temperatures, humans sought ways to adapt through clothing, shelter, and fire; and walking on rough surfaces led to the development of minimal protective footwear.

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Because the human brain and body has this built-in capacity for biofeedback, developing various forms that were sensible and useful was relatively easy. This included biofeedback techniques that incorporated equipment, such as heart-rate monitoring, and those that could be done manually where reliance on equipment is not necessary, including EMG- and EEG-type procedures.

While the goal of manual muscle testing is widely varied, there is one common feature among all those professionals using it: Manual muscle testing is an important form of biofeedback used to help evaluate neuromuscular function, especially in helping to determine muscle imbalance, a common cause of physical injury.