Trigger Point Therapy When Done Right Feels So Good On Your Muscles Because It Gets To The Heart Of The Pain Problem!

You may be affected by trigger points and not even know it until it is stimulated or stressed. Trigger points are painful upon palpation not necessary by movement alone, they are localized tender points of dysfunction.

TrP’s are hyper-irritable taut bands of muscle within the muscle belly usually but TrP’s can also affect the attachment of the muscle tendon where it attaches to bone, where it can often mimic “tendinitis”.

Dysfunctional muscle tissue feels different than healthy muscle tissue. As massage therapists when we are massaging you, we feel a definite hardness, a taut nodule within the muscle tissue that healthy muscle tissue does not have. Your muscles are made of many bundles of long muscle fibers when healthy these muscle fibers squeeze or contract during physical movement or activity and return to their normal resting length afterwards.

But when these muscle fiber become riddle with TrP’s your muscle fibers stop moving and become “stuck”, you lose elasticity and proper muscle function. They tend to have a decreased threshold to stimulation and activate first in the movement chain even if the muscle is less efficient in that movement pattern. This is how you get “overuse syndromes!”

Trigger Point Characteristics:

• Muscles that are affected by trigger points will often be associated with deep pain when they are called upon to work or palpated. This is also why problems travel to other areas of the body because we stop using these muscles altogether, forcing other muscles to make up this load.
• A trigger point will twitch the taut band of muscle from, which it is located on the muscle when, you run your finger across it. The taut band of muscle is tight due to it being oxygen and nutrient deprived but it is not quite fibrotic. And usually will soften and return to its relaxed state once proper treatment is applied.
• Stretching the muscles that are affected by trigger points, achieves the desired results associated with releasing trigger points. This is due to the fact that when you stretch a muscle, you are increasing circulation and as well addressing the shortness of that muscle making it easier for that muscle to hold its normal resting length. But this is NOT always the case in some situations stretching a muscle with active trigger points can actually make it worse.
• Muscles affected by trigger points cannot reach a state of relaxation or return to their resting length. Trigger points cause muscles to hold their contraction over long periods of time.
• Because TrP’s cause muscles to be oxygen deprived, these muscles are often prone to increased activity and fatigue much faster than normal.
• Active primary trigger points in the body can cause muscle dysfunction in other muscles that are either close by, in the same movement pattern or at a distance, these TrP’s are known as satellite trigger points. Eventually these satellite trigger points will cause their own referred pain symptoms making the problem of deactivating trigger point more complicated.
• Accordingly to Professor Melzack, nearly 80% of all trigger points are in the same location as acupuncture points in Chinese medicine.
• Trigger points that are treated become “latent trigger points” and will only reactivate when they are stressed or called upon to do extra work of nearby muscles that are affected with active trigger points.

Get Trigger Point Therapy:

We have all heard that, “you are only as strong as your weakest link” right? This is very true when it comes to muscle dysfunction caused by painful trigger points. Muscles are not only defined by its action or function but also by its ability to stabilize properly. Trigger Points inhibit or stop proper muscle function or stabilization.

A trigger point for instance on the IT band insertion point where it crosses the lateral aspect of the knee can inhibit proper quad function. This in turn will excite the hamstrings into contraction making them tight or stiff.

Now take this person and put them under a load of groceries with weak glutes from sitting all day and tight hamstrings and have that person walk up a flight of stairs, what do you think might happen one unsuspecting day with this individual? Their knee joint could “cave in” or feel unstable putting this individual at risk for a severe fall.

At Roman Paradigm Massage & Therapy we specialize in trigger point therapy and you will know it and feel it as soon as your massage session begins. Unlike a “spa massage” where you get oil rubbed on you, we get to the root cause of your pain. Guaranteed!

Massage Rates:

• 60 min session = $90
• 75 min. session = $105 (recommended length)
• 90 min. session = $130 (recommended length)
• 120 min. session = $180

click here to book online…

References:

• “Assessment and Treatment of Muscle Imbalance, The Janda Approach” Phil Page
• “Trigger Point Therapy for Low Back Pain” Sharon Sauer & Mary Blancalana
• “Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, The Trigger Point Manual” Janet G. Travell, M.D. & David G. Simons, M.D.