Trigger Points

By Cheryl Pace, Licensed Massage Therapist

Change Your Pace Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork

. http://www.massagebook.com/biz/changeyourpace

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Trigger Points

A marathon runner with undiagnosed back pain; an office worker who had carpal tunnel surgery only to find that was not the cause of her pain; the mother of five who experienced debilitating migraines weekly; a cyclist with sciatica-like pain. All these cases, while seemingly very different, are actually more similar than you might think. The thing they all have in common is that the pain they were experiencing was caused by knots in the muscles called trigger points.

Trigger points are hyperirritable spots within a muscle that hurt when pressed on and can send pain to other parts of the body. Not to be confused with a muscle spasm, which is a sudden contraction of an entire muscle, a trigger point is a contracture of a small area within a muscle that often happens over time due to repetitive motions, poor posture, or an underlying medical condition such as arthritis.

Trigger points are either active or latent. Active trigger points cause spontaneous pain while latent trigger points, more common, do not. Latent trigger points do however contribute to dysfunction because muscles are shortened, tight, and weak.

Trigger points are also defined as either primary or secondary (also known as satellite trigger points). A primary trigger point is one that refers pain, in a defined pattern, elsewhere in the body and generates the secondary or satellite trigger point. Secondary trigger points cause pain only in the area of the trigger point.

Symptoms of trigger points can be diverse and not limited to pain sensations. Symptoms may include numbness, tingling, hypersensitivity, or sense of burning. They may also present as muscle weakness, lack of coordination, stiffness, or reduced range of motion.

Trigger point therapy with a qualified therapist has been shown to be an effective treatment through application of ischemic pressure, whereby the therapist presses and holds a trigger point for a specified period of time to allow for improved blood flow and oxygen to the muscles, and myofascial release to stretch and lengthen the muscles, will allow the trigger point to be deactivated.

Very often one session of trigger point therapy will be enough to relieve pain, though sometimes it may take three or four sessions before the trigger points are completely alleviated.