Pain Relief with Trigger Point Therapy
Trigger Point Therapy is the practice of using pressure on specific points (trigger points) on the body to relieve muscle spasms, pain, and tenderness. Trigger points are palpable, tender spots of tightly contracted muscle or fascia, an isolated spasm like knot, occurring usually in overloaded on injured muscles. That small patch of knotted muscle cuts off its own blood supply, creating a dysfunctional cycle where blood flow has been reduced and metabolic wastes are not being exchanged for oxygen and nutrients.
Trigger points are found by palpation of the problem area and potential problem source areas in other muscles.
They are treated with a variety of techniques to open the tight spots of the muscles, which allows blood flow to bring oxygen, glucose, and co-factors to the muscle cells. These are used to make ATP energy in the cell, leading to normalization of the muscle.
Most of our common aches and pains — and many other puzzling physical complaints — are actually caused by trigger points.
Trigger points affect muscle range of motion.
Range of motion is affected when there is enough contraction of the muscle that it will not fully lengthen. Unless trigger points in the affected muscle are inactivated, strengthening (conditioning) exercises will likely encourage the substitution of other muscles, further weakening and de-conditioning the muscle with the trigger points.
The muscle is tight, not weak, and trying to strengthen it with exercise or stretches may damage the muscle further, or cause pulling on the tendon at the end of the muscle where it attaches to a bone. This can lead to tendonitis of the muscles tendon. Sometimes there is a tendon sprain/strain first, which causes the muscle to tighten around an unstable joint, to help stabilize the joint and to keep the joint from being overused.
Trigger points may cause “Referred Pain”. In addition to minor aches and pains, muscle pain often causes unusual symptoms in strange locations. This odd phenomenon of pain spreading from a trigger point to another location is called “referred pain.” For instance, many people diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome are actually experiencing pain caused by a muscle in their armpit (subscapularis) or forearm muscles.
Trigger points are found by palpation of the problem area and potential problem source areas in other muscles.
They are treated with a variety of techniques to open the tight spots of the muscles, which allows blood flow to bring oxygen, glucose, and co-factors to the muscle cells. These are used to make ATP energy in the cell, leading to normalization of the muscle.
Most of our common aches and pains — and many other puzzling physical complaints — are actually caused by trigger points.
Trigger points affect muscle range of motion.
Range of motion is affected when there is enough contraction of the muscle that it will not fully lengthen. Unless trigger points in the affected muscle are inactivated, strengthening (conditioning) exercises will likely encourage the substitution of other muscles, further weakening and de-conditioning the muscle with the trigger points.
The muscle is tight, not weak, and trying to strengthen it with exercise or stretches may damage the muscle further, or cause pulling on the tendon at the end of the muscle where it attaches to a bone. This can lead to tendonitis of the muscles tendon. Sometimes there is a tendon sprain/strain first, which causes the muscle to tighten around an unstable joint, to help stabilize the joint and to keep the joint from being overused.
Trigger points may cause “Referred Pain”. In addition to minor aches and pains, muscle pain often causes unusual symptoms in strange locations. This odd phenomenon of pain spreading from a trigger point to another location is called “referred pain.” For instance, many people diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome are actually experiencing pain caused by a muscle in their armpit (subscapularis) or forearm muscles.
Red shows referred muscle pain areas.
1. Scalenes
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2. Trapezius
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3. Gluteus Minimus
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