What is Trigger Point Therapy?

Trigger point therapy is highly used in remedial massage and myotherapy.  It involves deactivating areas of hyper-irritable soft tissue structures that often present themselves as ‘knots’ or very tight bands of muscle fibre.  The pattern of how trigger points present themselves isn’t based on nerve pathways. They manifest through the following:

•  Poor posture
• Sitting at a desk for prolonged periods
• Strenuous use of the muscle
• Sustained or Repetitive use of the muscle involved
• Over stretching
• cold, damp weather, viral infections
• Stress
• Exposure to cold draft, especially when the muscle itself is already fatigued

Signs your experiencing trigger points could be as obvious as feeling that they’re there.  These are called active trigger points and cause pain, referred and/or local pain. However, there are also latent trigger points too, and these are not felt until they are pressed and you feel that ‘aaahhhh’ spot, or commonly referred to as ‘good pain’ during massage. Chief complaints that latent Trigger points affecting your body in your day to day are commonly presented with:

• Limited range of movement
• Weakness felt in the muscle
• Sleep disturbances

You can alleviate your own trigger points by applying heat, gentle stretching and rest.  Self massage is also great. Its when the pain that spreads and gains momentum, that more muscles and their respective trigger points become involved that it’s a good idea to see a remedial massage therapist to find the primary trigger point that perpetuated the others.  Trigger points will mostly have a referral pain zone.  Remedial Massage Therapists will deactivate trigger points by using heat, digital ischemic pressure, and gentle stretching.