Chiropractic techniques fit into three basic models based on the three body systems primarily addressed by Chiropractors. It intimately involves itself with the skeletal, muscle, and nervous systems. Therefore, while all Chiropractic techniques involve all three systems, the techniques themselves can be differentiated from one another by the methods of assessment and correction.
Segmental (skeletal system-centered) Chiropractic techniques adjust vertebrae that are not in an optimum position back to a more nearly normal position and, in so doing, affect the skeletal system first, then the muscle system, and finally the nervous system.
Postural (muscle system-centered) Chiropractic techniques involve first putting tension or relaxation within the muscle system in order to allow an easier structural adjustment to take place. By doing this, the muscle system is involved first, which then a ects the skeletal system and then, finally, the nervous system.
Tonal (nervous system-centered) Chiropractic techniques are not muscle or bone-based, but instead focus on the nervous system and the related changes to a person’s physiology. As such, they look at the nervous system first, and the doctor’s input into the nervous system then affects the muscle system which in turn affects the skeletal system.
Why a Tonal Approach?
Since all three models work and produce good results, why would you prefer a tonal approach? The answer comes in understanding
how interference with your nervous system happens. Did the bone move out of place, thus affecting the nerve, which then affects the muscle? Bones cannot move by themselves, so there must have been a muscle imbalance first. Did the muscle imbalance occur first, thereby causing the bone to move out of its normal position?
Muscles don’t think or act on their own, so a muscular imbalance can only be the result of an unbalanced electrical nerve supply to the muscles. The bone can only move if a muscle moves it, and a muscle will only move when the nervous system tells it to. Doesn’t it make more sense to address the nervous system first?
As a tonal Chiropractor, I know the results I get in my practice come because I correct nervous system interference first. You don’t need to seek out other therapeutic methods for an adjustment to take place. Ultrasound, muscle stimulation, or “magic gel number 12” (there is no such thing, of course) do not correct subluxation and are not necessary when a tonal approach is used to care for you.
