Ever wonder what can be done to help headaches, neck stiffness, carpal tunnel type symptoms, tennis elbow, bursitis, frozen shoulder, back pain, low back stiffness, sciatica?  Find a massage therapist that is skilled with finding and treating trigger points and you just might find immediate relief.

What are Trigger Points?

Trigger points are accumulations of waste products around a nerve receptor. Often times they feel like nodules or taut bands of fibers within the soft tissues. Trigger points form in muscles which have been overused or injured due to an accident or surgery. Common characteristics are increased muscle tension and muscle shortening. Increased muscle tension is the primary side-effect of trigger points and pain is the most common secondary effect. Trigger points can present themselves as referred patterns of sensation such as sharp pain, dull ache, tingling, pins and needles, hot or cold, as well as can create symptoms such as nausea, ear ache, equilibrium disturbance, or blurred vision.

What is Trigger Point Therapy?
Trigger point myotherapy is the most commonly used, non-invasive therapeutic modality for the relief and control of myofascial pain and dysfunction. The goal of treatment is the client's recovery from or a significant reduction in myofascial pain. The treatment goal is achieved through a systematized approach. Treatment consists of trigger point compression, myomassage, passive stretching and a regime of corrective exercises. Success may be measured subjectively by the level of pain reduction experienced by the client and objectively through increased range of motion, strength, endurance and other measures of improved function. Trigger point myotherapy relies heavily on client-therapist interaction, including verbal and non-verbal elements. The myotherapist encourages the client to be personally responsible for their improvement, with attention to such factors as nutritional intake, stress, proper exercises, mechanical abnormalities and other physical components. These elements protect the client from delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment or contraindicated treatment that is the concerns of first order. Trigger point myotherapy is an integrating approach to myofascial pain and dysfunction.

What You Should Know About Trigger Point Therapy

A trigger point is a hyperirritable spot that is painful. It is called a trigger point because it "triggers" a painful response. But a trigger point is more than a tender nodule. It affects not only the muscle where the trigger point is located, but also causes "referred pain" in tissues supplied by nerves. Trigger points are located in a taut band of muscles fibers. The trigger point is the most tender point in the band.