In sports medicine, clinicians and authors have emphasized the need to shift from an isolated evaluation of a painful structure to an assessment of multiple regions of the body. The purpose of this new approach is to identify painful areas, as well as areas of dysfunction that may be the cause, or a contributing factor, to the patient’s pain. In short, the site of pain may simply serve as a warning for other, more significant complications in the body. In chronic pain cases, it is common for the site of pain to be a structure that is overworked in response to other areas in the body not functioning properly. As a result, clinicians are challenged with finding efficient ways to look beyond the site of pain to determine the source of a patient’s complaint or dysfunction.
KEY POINTS
• The MyoKinesthetic System is a relatively new form of manual therapy used to identify posture asymmetries that result in pain and dysfunction.
• The uniqueness of the MyoKinesthetic System lies in the ability to match treatment to dysfunction identified in the global assessment.
• The MyoKinesthetic System can be used to treat a variety of musculoskeletal conditions.
Utilization of comprehensive (i.e., global) evaluation models, such as the regional interdependence (RI) approach, has aided clinicians in the identification of other contributing factors affecting pain and dysfunction. The MyoKinesthetic (MYK) System (Myokin, Inc., Shawnee Mission, KS) is another global model, which contains a broad assessment focused on classifying the body’s primary dysfunctions. The MYK System evaluation is used to detect compensations within the nervous system that are displayed by postural abnormalities and result in physical impairment. The concept was developed by Dr. Michael Uriarte as a means to balance the nervous system by treating the muscles versus applying the common chiropractic philosophy of treating bony positional faults with manipulation. Dr. Uriarte developed the theory of the MYK System through experimentation in his clinical practice.