What You Should Know About Extremity Adjusting

By: Kevin G. Hearon, D.C., C.C.S.P.

See pages xx, Parts #T-137 for information on how to order

Not so long ago I had the pleasure of going to my first practice improvement seminar. For years I tended to paint just about all the practice seminars with the same brush. They were all charlatans out to grab the doctors' money, while teaching them unethical methods to grab patients in any diabolical way possible.

That was then. Now, after going to a seminar with an open mind, I found that there were many things that I could learn, both in technique and business. Things that I had never availed myself of through ignorance borne upon prejudice.

The experience was a chiropractic feast. At the very beginning I was told that there were things that I might not care for but just to ignore them and "shop" for only those elements I felt I could use. The result was an experience that I recommend for every chiropractor who loves his profession.

The seminar was a veritable showcase for all kinds of equipment and techniques. A friend came up to me and said that I must go to this class being conducted on extremity adjusting. Rather condescendingly, I informed him that I was more interested in spinal adjusting and that I was pretty well-versed in extremity adjusting anyway -- thank you. He seemed so insistent that I could learn from the class that I finally agreed to look in for a few minutes.

The class was being conducted by Dr. Kevin Hearon. Needless to say, I found it impossible to leave. I was completely fascinated with the presentation and the articulation of Dr. Hearon's instruction. Before I left, I had garnered several new techniques that I planned to apply on the following Monday.

Towards the end of the class I began wishing that there might be a manual or a tape on what I had been watching, for there were techniques I had never seen demonstrated before, based on anatomical and physiological common sense.

It has been my good fortune to recently receive a manual on just that class I found so interesting. Both the text and illustrations are clear and concise -- it's all meat and no fat.

The introduction succinctly introduces the reader to the preparations for the adjustments and the therapeutic rules that follow. After that, the reader is presented the Laws of Extremity Adjusting, which are worth repeating.

1. Segments misalign to the proximal segment.

2. The proximal segment is the base for the distal segment's alignment.

3. Segments are adjusted at their proximal end (exception -- acromioclavicular articulation.

4. In cases of multiple misalignments in the same extremity, progressively adjust from proximal misalignment to distal misalignment.

The axial skeleton is covered in the first chapter, which is devoted to the TMJ and the ribs. Chapters two, three, and four cover the shoulder girdle, shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand; while chapters five and six cover the hip, knee, ankle, and foot, respectively.

The anatomical renderings of the areas being adjusted and illustrations of the adjustive procedures are distinctive for their clarity.

Often, I've wondered what drives an individual to a point of expertise in specific enterprises, what calls an individual to a consumation of understanding and application. While I may never have the answers, you and I can still benefit from such presentations as this wonderful manual on the adjustment of extremities.

The only thing better than this book might be witnessing Hearon himself in action. This is next best -- and pretty close at that.

RHT