Muscle Response

[kfson]

After a foot injury 6 years ago, I went to a chiropractor/applied kinesiologist. I only saw the doctor 3 times as he relocated to another city. But during the last appointment, he described how he practiced tai chi and sparred often with his BJJ friends. He also described something very interesting. One of his patients was in the "special forces", Green Beret I'm guessing, who was a specialist in hand to hand combat. The doctor said when he applied pressure to this patient's muscles, they, the muscles, would rebound only directly under the applied pressure.

Can anyone explain this?

It seems to be like a Tai Chi response at the cell or muscle fiber level.

[taai gihk yahn]

After a foot injury 6 years ago, I went to a chiropractor/applied kinesiologist. I only saw the doctor 3 times as he relocated to another city. But during the last appointment, he described how he practiced tai chi and sparred often with his BJJ friends. He also described something very interesting. One of his patients was in the "special forces", Green Beret I'm guessing, who was a specialist in hand to hand combat. The doctor said when he applied pressure to this patient's muscles, they, the muscles, would rebound only directly under the applied pressure.

Can anyone explain this?

It seems to be like a Tai Chi response at the cell or muscle fiber level.

I don't even know what he is talking about, but you are mixing metaphor ("tai chi response") with biology (cells and muscle fibers);

as for the quality of what he felt under his fingers, the only way for someone to speak top it would to palpate the same person;

in general, AK guys tend to have very strange ideas in general, so that may have something to do with it as well...

[jdhowland]

...One of his patients was in the "special forces", Green Beret I'm guessing, who was a specialist in hand to hand combat. The doctor said when he applied pressure to this patient's muscles, they, the muscles, would rebound only directly under the applied pressure.

Can anyone explain this?

As TGY noted, we can't know what the doc felt from this description, but it is possibly a very common occurance. When a muscle is hypertonic (I'm guessing this was the case since the subject was a patient) pressure can be applied to the muscle belly causing a gradual lenthening of the tissues under pressure. This produces a palpable "dent" in the area. If the area is ischemic, the dent may last for some time before "rebounding." I'm jumping to conclusions here, but the h2h "special forces" guy sounds as if he was a strong man who was proud of his muscular abilities and walked around with a higher muscle tone than most people. Why this should have been remarkable to a DC is my question. Although I have known a couple of chiropractors who never did soft tissue manipulation, themselves, preferring to hire massage therapists for that kind of work.

Having said that, I'll relate a bit of hearsay that I can't explain away and which may be related to this type of situation. My si-hing told me about our teacher showing him some of the results of "internal" training by inviting him to touch him anywhere on his arms or legs. Wherever my brother touched, Sifu's limb would swell suddenly and a small, hard bump would appear. This was supposedly an "iron body" protective device. I have never seen it, myself. But I have heard it mentioned in karate circles as ocurring with some master or other.

Maybe Taai Gihk Yahn has some thoughts on this?...

jd