Tongue Position & Knee Strength
- Dr. Melissa Adams
- Jul 11, 2024
- 2 min read
I know, I know ... seems kind of ridiculous that someone would even study such things but good news! Someone DID study it and it's pretty awesome to read the results!!
We often think of your tongue as helping you to swallow, drink, eat, and taste things but we don't often think of it as an organ that may help with much of anything else!
In this pilot study, individuals did knee testing with their tongue in different positions.
One position for their tongue was their tongue laying low on the floor of their mouth. Another was their tongue in the middle, so the tip of their tongue was touching the back of their upper and lower front teeth. The final position was their tongue up, so it was immediately behind the upper front teeth touching the roof of their mouth.
Their dominant knee was tested in both flexion (bending) and extension (straightening) positions.
This study found that the participants experienced significant improvements in their knee strength, both in flexion and extension, when their tongue was in the up position!
Even more impressive is that holding their tongue in that up position resulted in a 30% increase in the strength of their knee in flexion.
What does this mean? It means tongue posture is likely more important than most of us know or understand just yet.
We talk about tongue posture in our office with many of our patients (with other blogs on the topic as well), because we have seen tongue posture impact balance with many patients!
**This is not medical advice, please speak with your chiropractor if you have questions about chiropractic care, or your PCP before making dietary or lifestyle changes**
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