When you’re just starting out in the world of energy healing, muscle testing may be an unfamiliar concept for you. If you’re not sure what it is or how it works, we’re here to help! Read on to learn more about this helpful tool, and how it’s used in the Emotion Code® and the Body Code™

What is Muscle Testing?

Muscle testing is essentially a way to ask our subconscious questions and to receive answers about what the body indicates. Muscle testing was derived from kinesiology, in which muscles are observed for a response to stimuli. It is used as a biofeedback mechanism and can identify stressors in and around the body. 

The main premise of the practice when used in energy healing is that the body will experience changes in energy associated with various ideas. We believe the body will express that energy in measurably different ways if the answer to a question is affirmative or negative. Muscle testing allows us to gain important information about our wellness needs based on these energetic changes and reactions.

Your subconscious mind stores knowledge about your previous experiences, memories, beliefs, and so much more. We believe that it knows exactly what is going on physically and emotionally, and by accessing that information, you can learn a lot about what you need for optimum wellness. 

How Do Muscle Testing Methods Work?

The basic steps of muscle testing are as follows:

  1. Take time to focus, center yourself, and set a positive intention for your results.
  2. Ask your higher power for help and support.
  3. Determine who you will be testing:
    • Yourself: Self-testing means that you will ask questions about your own body and mind, and perform the muscle test on yourself. 
    • On someone else who is present: In this format, you’ll ask a question about someone else’s needs, and test their muscle response. 
    • By proxy: Testing by proxy indicates that you’ll ask questions about someone else, but test on yourself. After first getting permission, you’ll need to confirm that you are able to test as that person. To assess this, say “I am (the other person’s name)” and determine whether you get a positive muscle response. Then, simply ask questions while holding the intention to determine answers for that person, while performing the tests on yourself. This means that you can perform energy work on someone at a distance or if they aren’t comfortable being tested themselves for any reason. 
  4. Decide what information you want to gain.
  5. Be sure to frame your question in a way that allows for a yes/no, or a true/false answer.
  6. Choose the muscle testing method you’ll be using. For example:
    • Sway Test: Stand or sit without your back resting against anything. Ask the question, then observe if you move forward or backward.
    • Ring-in-Ring Test: Make two closed rings with your fingers, looping through one another. Gently pull the loops against one another. In this test, your answer will come from either a loop breaking or resisting the pull. 
    • Elbow Test: To perform this test the arm is held bent at 90 degrees, with the elbow near your body and your forearm parallel to the floor. Gently press down on the extended wrist. Your answer will come from either resistance and the hand staying in the same position, or the hand moving down toward the ground.
  7. Ask the question, and observe the body’s response. In order to determine which movement is associated with which answer, it’s important to test a few questions to which you already know the answer. For example, you might ask, “Is my name John?” and notice the response you receive.
  8. Feel free to test multiple times, and format your question multiple ways, as you get comfortable with your muscle testing abilities. 
  9. Try implementing the information that you’ve received, and see how you feel! 

Learn more: Try our Intro Course to Muscle Testing 

By following these steps, you’ll begin to experience the difference between a strong (positive) response and a weak (negative) response. Therefore, when accessing your subconscious by asking various ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions, your muscles will respond by either remaining strong for questions that ring true or with weakness when answers are false. You’ll learn to read these responses quickly and effectively. 

Muscle testing can be used on its own to answer everyday questions about things your body and mind need or should avoid. However, for even deeper discovery, you can also go further by combining muscle testing with powerful techniques such as the Emotion Code and the Body Code. These natural healing tools help release deeply held emotions and imbalances that may be related to physical discomfort, difficulties connecting to others, sadness, and so much more. 

How To Learn Muscle Testing

Anyone can use muscle testing, and it’s easy to learn how to implement this tool. The most important aspects of mastering muscle testing are practice and trust. Practicing over and over again, on yourself and others, is the fastest way to pick up this ability. Trusting yourself, your best intentions, and your higher power will help you to achieve success when muscle testing. It’s very common to doubt your answers, but as you continue to gain experience and become a proficient muscle testing practitioner you’ll begin to find confidence in your abilities. 

Learn more: Overcoming Common Muscle Testing Challenges

Top 10 Tips to Mastering Muscle Testing Techniques

We’ve asked our Facebook group for those who practice the Emotion Code to give us their top 10 tips for mastering muscle testing techniques. Some of Dr. Brad’s team members have even chimed in with their top tips, which we have also shared below. Read on for their insights!

Top 10 Tips:

  1. Ask God/higher power for help.
  2. Practice, practice, practice.
  3. When getting an answer it’s important to learn what strong and weak, yes and no feel like in your body.
  4. Make sure the practitioner and client are well-hydrated.
  5. Learn to trust yourself.
  6. Always test for yes/no to gain a baseline before moving ahead.
  7. Try a range of techniques; the one you least expect may be the right one for you once you understand it.
  8. Use the power of intention.
  9. Don’t be attached to an outcome.
  10. Use your practice sessions to find out the least amount of effort you need to use to get a result you trust.

Tips from Dr. Brad’s team:

  • Your attitude is super important. A lot of people get frustrated with muscle testing if they don’t get really clear answers, especially at the beginning. Allowing yourself to feel hopeless or frustrated about muscle testing will almost surely create failure! When you are getting ready to use muscle testing, get into a peaceful, meditative state as much as possible. Make sure your mind is focused and there are no distractions. If you don’t get a clear answer, refocus and try again!
  • Choose the self-test method that you want to become proficient in. 
    • Find the perfect amount of pressure! Starting with high pressure, bring the pressure down until it gives you a weak response. Find that perfect balance where you are right at the spot where if you dial up the pressure just a tiny bit it will give you a strong response. This is the pressure you want to use. If you are using the ring-in-ring method. You would start with the rings not breaking through each other and dialing down the pressure until you find the spot where the rings break each time. But you are also at the spot if you brought the pressure up just a bit, they would not break. This is the perfect spot.
    • Once you have dialed in the perfect amount of pressure, you can start asking your body congruent and incongruent statements. For example, if your name is Sarah, you could say, “My name is Sarah.” Now test that at the perfect pressure. “My name is Jill.” Test at the perfect pressure. Again if you are using the ring-in-ring method, when you state your name, the rings should NOT break (congruent statement). When you state another name that is not yours (incongruent statement), the rings should break. Practice congruent and incongruent statements for about a week or two.
    • Try other muscle testing techniques. Once you have discovered your perfect pressure and can sense the difference between congruent and incongruent statements, you’ll be ready now to do the same with other muscle testing methods. You will find that as you practice other methods you will become better and better at sensing the answers. Then you will have muscle testing down!
  • If you feel stuck trying to perfect your first muscle testing technique, then move on and try another technique! Don’t give up! Find a technique that you resonate with and stick with it until you are comfortable using it for hours at a time and in any situation.
  • It’s always good to have a backup technique. Your go-to-technique could become tired from too much testing, or you might injure the body part you usually use injured, or you might need to be more discreet at times.
  • You may also want to ask your energy healing friends what techniques work for them and try those out. You could always get together and have a muscle testing party.

And a special tip from Dr. Brad:

“Try using almost no force at all when you are self-testing. Remember, you are trying to sense the subtle change that takes place in the body when a true or false statement is made. Using more force doesn’t help! My fingers hurt for seven years from self-testing, because I didn’t understand that I was using too much force. Now, I use almost no force at all. Try it!”

~ Dr. Bradley Nelson

Muscle testing can become a simple method for measuring your body’s response to anything related to your physical and mental wellness. You don’t need any equipment, it doesn’t cost anything, and you can do it anytime, anywhere! If you want to gain in-depth muscle testing training our energy healing courses offer just that. Enroll and learn this powerful technique. 

Learn more about certification!