Muscle Energy Technique (MET): Improving Joint Mobilization
Muscle Energy Technique (MET) is a type of manual therapy that uses the client’s own gentle muscle contractions to help improve range of motion, reduce pain and stiffness, and help to correct muscle imbalances due to injury or poor posture.
Osteopaths developed this very gentle yet highly effective technique in the 1940’s to assist in joint mobilization.
Because osteopathic joint mobilizations are known to be very gentle without the quick, snap and crack style that many chiropractic adjustments are today, METs were used to gently and painlessly decrease muscle tightness and restrictions around joints.
Today METs have been further developed to gently and quickly decrease myofascial pain and eliminate muscle trigger points, help increase the effectiveness of stretching and increase range of motion in restricted joints; and reeducate and reactivate inhibited (turned off or forgotten) muscles due to poor posture or from injuries.
MET’s effectiveness occurs so quickly and easily that many who are receiving METs during their manual therapy sessions have called it “magic.”
In using METs, the therapist will gently move the client’s joint to the point of resistance, and then ask the client to gently contract the muscle against the therapist’s resistance.
This isometric (no movement) contraction, uses the client’s own neuromuscular system to “recalibrate” itself allowing muscles to relax and range of motion to increase.
MET is so safe and effective in treating such a variety of conditions, including both acute and chronic issue, that it is often used in conjunction with other manual therapy techniques.
If you are experiencing pain or limited range of motion, MET are often a very safe and effective type of manual therapy.