Shift Bodywork & Performance Care is the HOME of NKT CANADA. Shift hosts all of the southern Ontario courses and our practitioners are often found assisting teaching these courses.  Dr. Brock, Shift Co-Owner, is the lead Canadian NKT instructor.  

NKT is an innovative manual muscle testing technique that allows the practitioner to trace muscle compensation patterns throughout the body. The goal of NKT is to eliminate these compensation patterns thereby improving pain and reducing future injury recurrence. Previous traumas, pain, and repetitive strain can alter our movement preferences over time leading to compensatory movement strategies.  When these strategies become fatigued, tissues become over strained and often pain or injury can be the result.  

Although NKT involves muscle testing, it is not all about measuring strength. NKT focuses on proprioceptive availability. Proprioception refers to our bodies ability to know where we are in space. When we injure ourselves or incur even small traumas, our nervous system reorganizes to protect the injury and keep us functioning - keeping our eyes level and helping us feel safe and stable.  When these compensations stick around certain muscles overwork and compensate for underworking muscles in a pair that can be assessed and corrected using NKT. 

To change a poor movement pattern we must create a new one. NKT helps our therapists understand which muscles should be released or stretched, and which areas should be activated or strengthened. Through simple, bite-sized homework ie. 30 seconds of stretching/release, followed by a few seconds of activation we can create efficient movement patterns to replace the old muscle compensation patterns. 

If these patterns are left unaddressed, the likelihood of future injury and recurrence is much higher. Sometimes going straight into a “strengthening routine” can reinforce these compensation patterns, making them harder to shake. Improving these patterns not only reduces pain and tension, but can lead to improvements in range of motion, stability and performance. It’s like a nervous system tune-up for your body. NKT also creates efficient and lasting solutions, meaning that our clients often walk out of the clinic feeling differently; with more access to stability and mobility.  

The majority of our practitioners across disciplines are NKT trained up to level 3 (the highest level), which aside from their own clinical skills, means that our clinic can truly operate as a collaborative practice.