MBLEx Practice Test

Antagonist is the correct answer. The antagonist works to counter the torque of the agonist, often used in slowing down a motion. Occurring in pairs, the agonist and the antagonist often balance each other, one contracts and the other relaxes. 

Abductor is a movement away from the midline. Bipennate is a type of muscle fiber, where two rows of opposite diagonal fibers come together at a single tendon creating more strength but less shortening. Sarcomere is the smallest and most basic building block of a muscle fiber.

Petrissage is the correct answer, and is defined by massage techniques performed with the pads of the hands including kneading, rolling and wringing in an effort to reach deeper layers of muscles.

Tapotement, a rhythmic patting or striking percussion, is typically applied with the edge of the hand, loose fists or hands in a relaxed cupped position. Vibration can be manually applied with the hands, forearms, elbows or an electronic massage device as a rigorous shake or a rocking of specific muscles or body segments. Friction, created by quickly rubbing the hands together while against the skin, can be used to create heat in order to help soften superficial layers of muscles.

The power differential in massage arises out of the authority a client grants to the massage therapist and the client's perception of the massage therapist as skilled in their profession. Professionalism is not the best answer in this question. Transference relates to when a client displaces feelings for another person on the therapist. Countertransference is when the displacement of feelings for another goes from the therapist to the client.

Rotation is the correct answer.

Circumduction is a combination of abduction and adduction as well as flexion and extension, a conical movement usually originating at a ball and socket joint. Gliding is a planar joint (where two bones meet at a majorly flat articular surface) allowing bones to move along the joint's plane in any direction. Angular movements are defined by the fixed point from which they move, like a pendulum.
 

Kinesis is not a type of massage. Rather it refers to non-directional stimulus motivated movement or activity, usually in conjunction with another word part (i.e. photokinesis).

Swedish massage employs long gliding strokes toward the heart to help circulation and to bring overall relaxation to the body. Deep tissue massage is similar to Swedish massage but focuses on the deeper layers of muscle and fascia helping relieve chronic tensions, pains and contractions. Trigger point focuses on points in sensitive taut muscle bands that are painful and may even refer pain by using isolated pressure to help melt and release the tension and introduce fresh blood flow and oxygen.

Frontal is the correct answer.

Transverse refers to the plane dividing the upper trunk from the lower body horizontally. Lateral plane or sagittal plane divides the body into left and right sides vertically. Midsagittal plane is just like the lateral or sagittal, only it specifies the direct center of the body as the division line.

A massage therapist's drape serves the purpose of maintaining professional boundaries to help the client feel comfortable and safe. While draping may serve to keep the client warm, this is not its primary purpose. Draping's main purpose is not to help protect the therapist.

A tendon connects a muscle to a bone.  It is typically a flexible but inelastic cord of strong collagen fiber tissue.

Ligaments connect bone to bone. Epidermis refers to the skin. Joints are the articulating parts of our body like the elbows and the knees.

Hyperkyphosis is present when the thoracic spine has an excessive forward curve. A person with hyperkyphosis will have rounded shoulders with the head and neck forward of the trunk. Answer option A describes lordosis. Flat back means the back has little to no natural curve of the spine and scoliosis creates more of a lateral 'S' shape of the spine.

Dermis is the correct answer. The order from superficial to deep goes stratum corneum (mostly dead, non-nucleated skin), epidermis, dermis, hypodermis, and stratum germinativum (the 5th layer and the basal layer).

 

Massage actually increases or heightens proprioceptive response. The other answer options are benefits of massage.

Transverse (horizontal) is the correct answer.  The lateral (sagittal) plane divides the body into two sides vertically. The frontal (coronal) plane divides the body into a front and back halves. The midsagittal (median) plane is a vertical division along the midline, with two equal sides.

According to American Massage Therapy Association and Tappan's Handbook of Massage Therapy, a 6 month wait period is common across the country after the termination of the therapist/client relationship.

True. The bones of the head and trunk make up the axial skeleton.

Epiphysis is the correct answer. Usually growing separate from the shaft at the start, the epiphysis makes up the ends of the long bones.

Endosteum is the thin layer of connective tissue which makes up the medullary cavity. Diaphysis is the shaft of the long bone. Periosteum is a sheath of connective tissue enveloping the bone except at articulation.