Trigger Point Therapy
This week I’m going to introduce Trigger Point Therapy. Trigger Point Therapy is a manual therapy to relieve pain. Trigger points are muscle fibers that are stuck in contraction to keep the muscles short and stiff. Short and stiff muscles limit the range of motion and other muscles start to compensate. Eventually pain appears in remote areas called referred pain.
For example, trigger points in the front neck muscle called sternocleidomastoid can cause headache on the top of the head, back of the head, above the eye, in front of the ear, and on the chin. The trigger points in the upper back can cause pain in the shoulder, elbow, and even hand and fingers.
If you are suffering limited range of motion, or any kind of pain in your body – headache, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, wrist pain, leg pain, give Trigger Point Therapy a try before you have a surgery. Look for a massage therapist who has been trained in Trigger Point Therapy or you can do it on your own.
If you want to fix yourself, these are great books. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook and The Frozen Shoulder Workbook. I have the links below. There are clear illustrations on which trigger points cause what kind of referred pain. You will then find the trigger points and work on releasing it using your hands, lacrosse ball, or Thera Cane.
The author Clair Davies used to be a renowned piano tuner who suffered a frozen shoulder. He studied the trigger point therapy from medical books and fixed his frozen shoulder himself in about a month. He then became a massage therapist and wrote these books to make it more user-friendly. Major career change at age 60 but what a great contribution he made to all the pain sufferers in the world before his passing.
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook
The Frozen Shoulder Workbook
Happy Massaging!
2-24-14 Trigger Point Therapy http://bit.ly/mm-022414
