Manual Muscle Testing - Common Misconception

manual muscle testing is a manual technique used to determine the power and strength of muscles. many of the students and some professional practitioners describe this technique wrongly. this test is more to determine the power and strength of the muscles motion. for example, for elbow flexion, we determine the strength for elbow flexor, not the biceps strength. this is because the body movement is not succeeded by individual muscle but as a group. According to Hislop and Montgomery (2007) in their book entitled Muscle Testing, Techniques of Manual Examination, the techniques is actually based on test of motions rather than of individual muscle. the grades of the strength is represents the performance of all muscles as a group in that motion. the grading for manual muscle testing are as follows:

Score                                                    Description
5                                                           with maximal resistance by therapist/normal
4                                                           with minimal resistance by therapist/good
3                                                           against gravity, without extra resistance by therapist/fair
2                                                           with gravity minimised/poor
1                                                           only muscles contraction visible, no movement/trace
0                                                           no contraction/very week/zero

for more details about this technique, i have uploaded a good book as mentioned above. below is the link. suitable for students and professionals. Happy studying... =D
Manual Muscle Testing - Hotfile