Massage
What Are Trigger Points?
Trigger points are very small tension areas in a muscle. They are usually between the size of a pin head and a pea though they can get much larger in the bigger muscles.
Cause of Trigger Points
They can be caused by many different factors like strenuous work, stress and emotions. They can also be caused by other trigger points, those caused by other trigger points are called satellite trigger points.
Trigger Points Effect Remote Areas
The area around a trigger point is not where the pain is usually felt. They have a connection with the connective tissue, the fascia, within the muscles. Fascia connections reach far, as a result they can transmit their pain to other muscles through the fascia. This is called myofascial pain syndrome.
How Trigger Points Form
It’s amazing that a small little area can cause so much pain. It’s how they are made that allows them to cause so much pain.
The tension they create is in a very small area, but it is such that segments of individual muscle fibers, which are very short, are pulled to their fullest length and held taught. The tension in just a few hundred individual muscle fibers can cause a lot of pain.
The Pain That Massage Couldn’t Help
Have you ever experienced a pain that just would not go away? Maybe you got a massage, or had friends work on it, or you worked the area yourself, but no mater how much the muscle was worked the pain just wouldn’t go away. The reason is that the pain is referred from a trigger point located far from the area that you had your friends rub so hard.
The good news is that there is consistency in where trigger points send their pain. And, they are easy to release. With a little knowledge a lot of pain can be eliminated with ease.
Finding Trigger Points
Finding them on yourself is incredibly easy. They are usually in the middle of the muscle though this is not always the case. What is always true is that they are incredibly sensitive to pressure. Once you know the general area to look all you need to do is press around until you find it by how sensitive and painful the area is. Also, it may cause a worsening of the pain, or a twitch in the referred area. It will feel like a tight little pea in the muscle when you rub over it.
How To Release Trigger Points
Once you find the right point work you press into it until it hurts a fair amount. About a 7 out of 10 on a pain scale where 10 is unbearable. All you need to do is rub across it 12 to 15 times with that level of pain. Doing this several times throughout the day will eventually eliminate the pressure point. Be careful though, it can quickly come back if you haven’t eliminated the root cause.
Take a little time and feel around on your body to see if you can find any trigger points. I can pretty much guarantee you have a few. You may be surprised to notice the remote area that reacts when you press into a particularly tender point.
Is This Of Interest To You?
Let me know if you’d like more information about trigger point therapy and I’ll see what I can do to bring you more information.
Hi Kalidasa,
I have found Trigger point therapy is interesting and effective. I have a big book by a Clair Davis but that book doesn’t make it too easy to go to one’s problem area and find the exact points that he delineates. As i learned in my Chinese Med. classes there are the AhShi points, points off the meridians that are so sore the sufferer exclaims, “Ah shi” which means, “Ahh yes, that’s it!” when it is palpated. Mebbe it is easier than trying to treat via charts and diagrams, although the books laying out the relationships of points to areas of referred pain are very interesting and helpful.
Please continue to write more on this. Thanks.
Of interest, already using Backnobber, a image or video of the trigger points would be helpful.
Tom, I love Chinese Medicine, right to the heart of the mater.
I am thinking of making some videos showing trigger point work. Hopefully that will make things more clear.