Neurologic Inhibition

Neurologic Inhibition is a neural phenomena in which muscles that are compromised / injured will test weak when challenged through resistive testing.

This principle is invaluable to the practice of Precision Neuromuscular Therapy for two reasons:

Neurologic inhibition assists in identifying the source of the problem. The very first sign of the presence of injury to a muscle is the loss of its capacity to do work, to contract. This weakness happens long before there is pain that the client is aware of, also long before other muscles begin to overwork to compensate for the original injury. This is then invaluable for PNMT because it helps us identify the problem before it is more complex.
Neurologic inhibition explains why exercise and strengthening sometimes make the problem worse. Most therapists are well aware that often strengthening exercises have created more pain in many clients. This is often a source of frustration for the client and also for the physical therapist who gave them the exercises. The PT often feels that the client is not committed to the therapy (or perhaps to getting better) while the client feels that the exercises make a bad situation even worse. No one is happy. If the muscle is treated with PNMT first to eliminate the neurologic inhibition, the muscle has the capacity to absorb greater stress in the form of specific exercises. In this case, the exercises given originally will now be effective. PNMT can make the physical therapist's role truly effective. PNMT can be a great catalyst and a great friend to physical therapy.


How do we discover neurologic inhibition? Resistive testing of the agonist/primary muscle will reveal this weakness. The muscle will not be able to fully and precisely contract, nor will it be able to sustain that contraction. Sometimes, there will be pain in the muscle and occasionally it will spasm as the threshold has been passed.

How do we distinguish neurologic inhibition from true weakness? If the problem is neurologic inhibition, retesting after treatment will reveal approximately a thirty percent improvement in strength immediately. True weakness is not going to be improved with a few minutes of manual therapy. Those clients with true weakness would benefit greatly with strengthening exercises. Those clients with neurologic inhibition need PNMT first, followed by strengthening.

NMT MidWest, Inc • 407 West Windsor Rd. • Champaign, IL 61820 • 866-325-7668
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