What are Trigger Points?

Trigger Points develop when an area of the body is injured or over-worked. For instance, a single event can initiate a trigger point, such as a car accident or a sports or work-related accident. Trigger points can also develop over time through muscle strain from repetitive movements at work or play, postural strain from standing or sitting improperly for long periods at the computer or in your car, emotional stress, anxiety, allergies, nutritional deficiencies, inflammation, and toxins in the environment. As much as 85% of all pain in the body is a result of trigger points.

The Trouble Trigger Points Cause

Trigger points cause muscles and tissues to tighten and shorten. These hyper-irritated hardened masses cause so much pain and tenderness that you alter the way you move, sit or stand to instinctively protect yourself. By limiting the use of the painful muscle, the muscle begins to weaken.Your altered patterns of movement put abnormal stress on your muscles, ligaments and joints. This leads to strength and flexibility imbalances in your muscles as well as postural dysfunctions throughout your body.This "use-abuse-disuse" scenario creates more trigger points in other areas and a vicious cycle begins. Before you know it, you’ve developed clusters of active and latent trigger points. You’ve also given up doing the things you love to do because it simply hurts too much.

Even though trigger points have been written about in medical journals for over 60 years, their treatment is sometimes associated with acupressure (an ancient Chinese medical process some doctors consider it a type of "quack" medicine).Yet, trigger points have actually been photographed in muscle tissue with the aid of electron microscopes. (Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual, Travell & Simons, 1999). Many doctors are still not aware of this.

To complicate matters further, a hallmark of trigger points is something called "referred pain." This means that trigger points typically send their pain to some other place in the body. This explains why so many conventional treatments fail. Many health care professionals assume the problem is where the pain is. They never address the root cause of the problem - the actual trigger point that needs to be deactivated. So, you could be feeling pain in your buttocks, hip or even down your leg but the actual trigger point needing to be released is located in your lower back.


How Do I Know I Have Trigger Points?

Everyone has trigger points; the question is to what degree. If you have lingering pain, tightness, or restriction of certain movements, you’re experiencing the effects of a trigger point.

Trigger points can be the root cause of any of these symptoms: 
• dizziness                                              • earaches 
• sinusitis                                               • heartburn 
• neck and jaw pain                                 • heart arrhythmia 
• genital pain                                          • numbness in hands or feet
• headaches                                            • restless leg
• low-back pain                                       • tennis elbow
• carpal tunnel                                        • joint pain

How are Trigger Points Treated?

Direct treatment of the trigger point, as opposed to treating the whole problem of which the trigger point is just a part, is relatively straightforward, and relies mostly on having good 'hands' that can feel what is happening to the muscle. A muscle that has been released from a trigger point will feel softer, more malleable and 'loose' to the touch. In this respect trigger point treatment is more an art than a science, in that it relies more on the instinct and sensitivity of the therapist as she works with the patient, than on any amount of science or theory.  It takes persistence and patience (and strong hands!) to stick at it until the trigger points are released enough to stop causing pain.

Essentially it involves applying sustained pressure to the trigger point with sufficient force and for long enough to slow down the blood supply and force the tension out of the muscle . The patient must be comfortable and relaxed, and the compression gradually applied with the finger, thumb, or elbow. The pressure is gradually applied, maintained for about 10 seconds, and then gradually released. Blood is allowed to briefly return to the area and then  pressure is reapplied three or four more times, perhaps moving to another part of the muscle if the treated area feels 'looser' or softer to the touch.

Most trigger points will need a number of treatments to deactivate them in addition to addressing the underlying cause of trigger points. As the trigger point settles, there will be an accompanying decrease in referred pain, and an improvement in other related issues such as weakness, muscle spasm, joint impingement, etc. The trigger point itself should become less sensitive, and it will become harder to find a painful spot.

The overall treatment of a tight or sore muscle and its trigger points can include this pressure technique, as well as more standard massage techniques such as deep tissue (strong longitudinal strokes designed to promote length of tissue) or effleurage (wide sweeping movements that clear the tissue of excess lymphatic fluid).

In unison they provide a rich variety of effects that combine to firstly treat trigger points, then loosen muscle fibres bound by scar tissue, improve overall muscle flexibility, clear any oedema (fluid) collected and restore good nutrition to the muscle via an improved blood supply. A regular massage is a superb way to overhaul the muscular system and gain many of the above effects.

How can Ahh Massage Help?

Trigger Point Therapy is my specialty at Ahh Massage. Extensive research and reference materials ensure that I'll be able to find and treat your trigger points and help to ease your pain. I'll also educate you about trigger points and their causes...and, most importantly, show you things you can do at home to relieve your own pain.