Deeper Understanding of Trigger Points

WELCOME TO TRIGGER POINT BODYWORK

Are you suffering from chronic pain?

Are your symptoms getting worse with exercise?

Is nothing seem to be working?

Find out what many people are discovering...

Trigger Points are often the

TRUE cause of many unnecessary symptoms

Learn about self-therapy that can stop the pain! 

In 2002, I went to the bookstore looking for something to do with self-massage techniques. My main purpose was to figure out more about why my hands were sore following giving treatments to others. That's when I came across this Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davis. 
This had changed my life direction and passion.

Read me

TRIGGER POINTS

 Trigger points (TrPs) are messages from the body that there is a muscle caught in contraction. The benefits of their release tend to be immediate, but they may only last for a few days. 

As defined by Travell and Simon, a trigger point (TrP) is a collection of muscle cells that are in a continuous state of full contraction, also known as a "muscle knot". With the simple direction of the self-care workbook the goal is to eliminate these "knots" that are found in tight muscles and even fascia (the layer that encompasses the group of muscles).

Many physical symptoms arise from these trigger points, and they must be removed in order for the muscle to fully function, hence freedom of movement, without pain that is! This will occur quickly, if you are serious about making the appropriate changes needed to allow for this transition, and then healing the body will be possible. 

What causes a trigger point? A huge list may include: injury or trauma, repetitive strain, over-exercising, spinal misalignment, poor diet, emotional stress, or even sedentary lifestyle can be more than enough to create these unnecessary, yet annoying trigger points.  

What does a trigger point feel like? Sometimes, and most of the time, they are undetectable. They can be as small as granule of sugar, or a large as a chick pea, or even larger! 

Do trigger points hurt? Not always, however, if they do hurt the key is to know whether they are latent or active. 

The ‘latent’ TrPs are mainly sore when they are pushed on with compression. These trigger points are difficult for someone to release them when they are very small, hard to find, and especially without any training or understanding of the anatomy involved. Any massage will help, especially when there is good communication between the giver and the receiver. If a spot is tender to touch don’t shy away from the massage, just make note and to have the person giving pay close attention to the tenderness without releasing, because running away from the pain will only aggravate the situation, and perhaps make it worse. Often, the latent TrP will illicit fatigue and even weakness in the muscle and rarely cause nagging symptoms.

It is the ‘active’ TrPs that are notorious for what is commonly known as 'referred pain' in muscles; issues that are away from the true cause of pain. This is where it becomes tricky for others to diagnose, such as symptoms like; sinus issues, headaches, migraines, toothache, earache, tinnitus, dizziness, vertigo, heart pain or irregularities, TMJD, knees issues, stomach issues, back and neck pain, hip pain, incontinence, women issues, carpal tunnel syndrome, as well as many other unexplained diagnoses.

Trigger point bodywork requires a greater understanding of how TrPs will refer pain to other areas of the body. To waste your time and money when there is a specific problem means that it is up to you to find the ‘right’ person  to help you. 

REFERRED PAIN PATTERNS

Pain is a complex symptom experienced differently and individually. However, referred pain is the defining symptom of a myofascial trigger point. 

You may be used to the idea of referred pain of visceral origin: an example of this is heart pain. A myocardial infarct (heart attack) is often not experienced as crushing chest pain, but as pain in the left arm and hand, and in the left jaw. This type of pain is well documented. 

Referred pain from a myofascial trigger point is somewhat different. It is a distinct and discrete pattern or map of pain. This map is consistent and has no racial or gender differences because stimulating an active trigger point generates the pain. 

Hip flexors (psoas and ilicacus)

Gluteals (medius and minimus)

Deep hips extensor (piriformis)

Patients describe referred pain in this map as having a deep and aching quality; movement may sometimes exacerbate symptoms, making the pain sharper. An example of this might back, or buttock pain. The patient often describes a pattern of pain, or ache, which can sometimes be aggravated and made sharper by moving the leg or hip. The intensity of pain will vary according to the following factors:

- Location (attachment points are more sensitive)

- Degree of trigger point irritability

- Active or latent trigger points

- Site of trigger point (some areas are more sensitive)

- Associated tissue damage

- Location tissue stiffness or flexibility 

- Ageing

- Chronicity of trigger point 

Pictures of a Trigger Point

 

Finding these TrP nodules is simple, it hurts when you squeeze and fire off symptoms! This particular trigger point (sternocleidomastoid - SCM) above right, would cause a headache over your left eye and sometimes at the very top of your head. Letter A is a muscle fiber in a normal resting state, neither stretched nor contracted Letter B is a knot in a muscle fiber consisting of a mass of sarcomeres (a basic unit of a muscle) in the state of maximum continuous contraction that characterizes a trigger point. The bulbous appearance of the contraction knot indicates how that segment of the muscle fiber has drawn up and become shorter and wider.  Letter C is the part of the muscle fiber that extends from the contraction knot to the muscle’s attachment (to the breastbone in this case). These overstretched segments of muscle fiber are what cause shortness and tightness in a muscle. Normally, when a muscle is working, its sarcomeres act like tiny pumps, contracting and relaxing to circulate blood through the capillaries that supply their metabolic needs. When sarcomeres in a trigger point hold their contraction, blood flow essentially stops in the immediate area. The resulting oxygen starvation and accumulation of the waste products of metabolism irritates the trigger point. The trigger point responds to this emergency by sending out pain signals. (reference: http://www.triggerpointbook.com/triggerp.htm)

Finding these TrP nodules is simple, it hurts when you squeeze and fire off symptoms! This particular trigger point (sternocleidomastoid - SCM) above right, would cause a headache over your left eye and sometimes at the very top of your head.

Letter A is a muscle fiber in a normal resting state, neither stretched nor contracted

Letter B is a knot in a muscle fiber consisting of a mass of sarcomeres (a basic unit of a muscle) in the state of maximum continuous contraction that characterizes a trigger point. The bulbous appearance of the contraction knot indicates how that segment of the muscle fiber has drawn up and become shorter and wider. 

Letter C is the part of the muscle fiber that extends from the contraction knot to the muscle’s attachment (to the breastbone in this case). These overstretched segments of muscle fiber are what cause shortness and tightness in a muscle.

Normally, when a muscle is working, its sarcomeres act like tiny pumps, contracting and relaxing to circulate blood through the capillaries that supply their metabolic needs. When sarcomeres in a trigger point hold their contraction, blood flow essentially stops in the immediate area.

The resulting oxygen starvation and accumulation of the waste products of metabolism irritates the trigger point. The trigger point responds to this emergency by sending out pain signals.

(reference: http://www.triggerpointbook.com/triggerp.htm)