From: jft@lonex.rl.af.mil (James F. Tims)
Subject: Re: Kinesiology - how I heard about it
Organization: RL
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 05:22:12 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.145724.12468@colorado.edu> gordon@tramp.Colorado.EDU (GORDON ALLEN R) writes:
>zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd) writes:
>
>>I came across the term kinesiology in a Mensa magazine article.  The version 
>>of kinesiology they were talking about involved strengthening and weakening 
>>somebody's muscles without touching them - theoretically without them being 
>>aware you'd done it.  As pointed out on this group, that's basically an old 
>>trick used by loads of people.  I'm quite prepared to believe there is a 
>>REAL science of kinesiology, I just don't know anything about it.
>
I find no reference to kinesiology in any of my books. I do, however, find
kin(a)esthiology, which seems somewhat like the subject at hand.  I studied
kinesthetics in college as part of my (chagrin) B.S. in Psych.  
Perhaps because chiropracty fails to evoke much enthusiasm from me,
I have not read about it other than in the Skeptical Inquirer or in
unflattering footnotes to scientific articles and studies.  Can someone
assure me that this term arose as a necessary adjunct to the language
to distinguish it from the more ordinary and pre-existing term
"applied kinesthetics?"  Can it have arisen in chiropractic 
literature as the direct consequence of a spelling error?

>

>
>What the Mensa magazine was referring to was "applied kinesiology" or AK.  
>Kinesiology is an academic disipline and refers to body mechanics.  One of the
>things that was developed by kinesiologists and used by physical therapists
>is a means of testing muscle strength by a series of muscle tests.  This has 
>been applied by chiropractors in conjunction with certain reflexes and massage
>techniques to strengthen muscles and balance opposing muscles.  It has also 
>been used by the Touch for Health Foundation to teach lay persons these 
>techniques.  Some sports medicine people and trainers use it as well.

I also see baseball players make the sign of the cross when they 
come to bat.  Common sense leads most people to exercise symmetrically,
and alert trainers can make suggestions for exercise that do not
require a magical laying on of hands. Some sports, such as golf
and jai-lai, produce severe assymetries, whereas running and yoga
do not. (ASIDE: Yoga can be seen as very like a sport.)

>
>My experience with AK goes back about 13 or 14 years.  While I cannot ascribe
>specific mechanisms/reasons for how some of the balancing techniques work, 
>when done by well trained, reliable practitioners, it does work.  BTW, physi-
>cians can't tell you ultimately how aspirin works either.  The key, as in 

Of course it works.  Exercise works.  Strength exercises for the left
hand must be persued more rigorously than those for the right to attain
equivalence or anything near it (assuming one is RHed).   

>any healing modality, be it allopathy, chiropractic, oriental medicine or 
>whatnot, is a reliable practitioner.  There are lots of flakes who claim lots
>of things with AK.  There are also lots of remarkable things that it can and 
>has been used for.  Muscle tests can be biased by the practitioner in very
>subtle ways.  However, once again, the same can be said for MD's.  BTW, I've
>done the above experiment, somewhat modified, in a double blind manner.
>
>-- 
>Allen Gordon 		         *If the folly of but one of us was changed to*
>Research Associate         	 *intelligence, and divided amongst a thousand*
>gordon@tramp.colorado.edu   	 *toads, each would be more intelligent than  *
>				 *Aristotle				      *
Now, you're talkin'!  Unluckily, not even an MD guarrantees that
that you will not become a medical accident statistic. Yoga provides
systematic approaches to exercise in a kinaesthetic manner that
requires no mysterious forces to explain its efficacy on
the body and thereby the mind.  (No chanting, please. There is no
doubt in my mind that if you just keep saying the same thing,
over and over, until it doesn't make any sense any more, you can
reach a state of mental oblivion.  Some find this enjoyable.  Some
find the mellow haze of bourbon a religious experience.)  De gustibus
non disputandem, or something like that. mhden agon. Nothing to
excess.  (QUICK: A fool admires -- men of sense approve. Correct the
punctuation! But do it in another newsgroup.)

C'mon, now.  You guys tryin' to tell me you don't mean kinesthesia?  
Kinesiology almost looks like...well...some sort of Latin neologism.  
8^(

-- 
jft
"And if you're a miner, when you're too tired and old and sick and stupid
to do your job properly, you have to go, whereas just the opposite applies
with the judges."  Beyond the Fringe
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